The Black Sabbath Pedal: Sabbra Cadabra
Tony Iommi’s tone is a holy grail for many doom/stoner guitarists. While it’s one of the first metal tones ever devised, it’s still one of the most memorable. Unfortunately, the equipment Iommi used in the early Sabbath days, a cranked Laney Supergroup paired with a Dallas Rangemaster treble boost, is expensive and prohibitively loud to recreate. Only through pedal maker Catalinbread can you easily come by the most iconic sounds of Black Sabbath in their heyday — that time right before Ozzy Osbourne went crazy and started hiring legions of shred guitarists.
What Makes Something Sabbathy?
As “dark” as Black Sabbath was, the most sonically dark sounds of the band come almost exclusively from the rhythm section, while the guitars were relegated to the higher end of the mix. Why? Because this was how distortion used to work. From the late ‘60s to the mid-’70s, a lot of rock musicians relied on treble boosters to further overdrive already overdriven amps. This resulted in a nicer tone than boosting lows or mids, and it fit perfectly with the times.
When you think about early Sabbath sounds, it’s easy to misremember. Because modern amps come with their overdrive channels capable of producing excessive distortion, you might try to max out your own amp while attempting to copy songs like “Black Sabbath,” or “N.I.B.” In all likelihood, you’re overdoing it. These tracks aren’t as distorted as many think, and some of Iommi’s signature sounds come more from his vibrato and hammer-on/pull-off style than his amp’s overdrive.
“But doom bands use tons of fuzz and distortion,” you may argue, “so shouldn’t I use as much distortion as possible?” Of course, it’s totally up to you to choose how much you want to distort your signal, but many stoner/doom artists, like Electric Wizard and Monolord, have relied heavily on octave fuzz pedals.
These pedals provide an extra octave up, which, in a way, mimics the original treble boost adopted by Iommi and other influential metal pioneers. You may find that these effects work well for your style of playing, but you may also find that they make your sound too muddy or nonspecific. This is where a pedal designed specifically to emulate the old days can come in handy.
Sabbra Cadabra
Catalinbread’s Sabbra Cadabra is a four-knob pedal designed to emulate the major parameters of Iommi’s sound. It feature’s an actual Supergroup preamp and the following controls:
Presence (post-gain)
Range (tone control from original Rangemaster)
Gain
Volume
Together, these settings offer quite a range of sounds. Gain and volume operate pretty much as you would expect. The other two take a little longer to figure out. “Presence” is perhaps the best way to describe the presence knob, as it seems to dictate how much the pedal cuts above the normal signal. The range setting tells the pedal what frequency to boost. Having it set low limits the boost to treble only, while higher settings push a much higher range — see?
At first, the range knob confused me, as it seemed to make everything sound like an overexposed neck pickup. Once I understood that the most useful settings were from around 7 o’clock to 1 o'clock, things made more sense. Low settings limited the boost, whereas high settings past 3 or so resulted in a fuzz-like quality, especially with the presence knob cranked.
Thoughts
I ran into a couple of issues early in my time with the pedal, but they seemed to come mostly from my lack of familiarity with it. For a time, I was running my amp with the overdrive right at the edge of clean. This, I found, the Sabbra Cadabra does not like.
Any time I raised the volume levels to a reasonable loudness, an infernal buzz began, which would mysteriously disappear when I began strumming. Songs with long silences, like “War Pigs,” were unplayable. Worse, at high volumes, my amp was screeched horrifically. It took a little research before I realized that the amp needed to be totally clean. Once I changed my settings, I heard absolutely no buzzing or screeching.
My second issue was that I found it hard to accurately emulate Black Sabbath tones in a recording. In the room. To my ears, the range sounded perfectly acceptable when dialed very low. Whenever I recorded, however, it seemed like the treble was uncomfortably prominent. The reason for this, I discovered, was that my pickups on the new guitar I was using were terrible and muddy. Boosting the treble made them seem less so, but was harder to lie on a recording.
Eventually, I found a compromise setting that made my crappy pickups sound good in person and on record. Boost pedals never appealed to me before, but I suddenly understood them. If you have less than 200 dollars to spend on new gear, and you aren’t willing to solder your own pickups, you might consider buying a boost pedal like this one until you save up some cash.
Once I had time to experiment a little, I found the Sabbra Cadabra to be great at replicating Tony Iommi’s tones but also for creating new ones that I couldn’t otherwise pull from my amp or pedalboard. I use an orange amp, for example, and the top-end boost can produce a sound more reminiscent of a Marshall.
I intended to buy the Sabra Cadabra and return it later, but I think I’m going to keep it. I play a lot of low-tuned sludge, and my lead parts sometimes get washed out. This helps them stand out and occupy a distinct place in the mix.
Positives
Excellent simulation of early Black Sabbath
Versatile, plenty of gain to work with
Helps add top-end to muddy pickups
Downsides
It may not stack well on amp overdrive
Can be hard to dial in all four knobs
Comparable Devices
Catalinbread RAH
Catalinbread Naga Viper
Electro-Harmonix Screaming Bird Treble Booster Pedal
Laney TI Boost
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