Caline CP-15 Guitar Metal Distortion Pedal with 3 Band EQ and Low-Mid-High Gain Boost Effect Bypass Design

I`ve tried a few different distortion pedals over the past few months. I just couldn`t find one that gave me the sound I was looking for. I saw youtube videos showcasing a seymore duncan palladium and an Empress heavy. Both 300 dollar pedals! I knew there had to be a pedal that gave me what I wanted for cheaper, I just had to find it. I wanted something with good crunch but yet still had an aggressive lead tone with the sustain to go with it. Then I found a video showcasing a number of pedals and this was one of them. It sounded pretty good and the price was perfect!Upon getting the pedal, I found that this thing is capable of incredible tones! I tried the knobs in all different positions until I finally found a tone that brought tears to my eyes. Like seriously. treble set to max, mid just less then half and bass just over half. It had an evil eerie tone. The crunch was perfect and turned out to be better than I had hoped for. Hitting the boost switch on just gave an already evil aggressive tone, an almost ethereal feel to it. I am very happy with the end result so far and haven`t changed the settings since I tuned it in to my current tone. I play it every day and have had zero issues.I`m very glad I found this pedal. I have never heard of this brand before but I`m happy that I took the chance. I doubt one would be able to find a better sounding pedal for equal money.

This is one of those pedals that can sound really good and versatile but only when you know what each knob is capable of adjusting and how to use them in conjunction with one another. Each of the control knobs can affect each other depending on how you set them. The controls can take the parameters too far and make everything sound subjectively bad. Though I do prefer when pedals allows you to take the sound too far rather than not far enough. This means that I have enough room to really fine tune the settings and make the pedal sound really good and works well with the rest of my signal chain.While this pedal is not a copy of the Marshall Shredmaster (which I own), it does provide a very similar distortion tone that you can really dial in that “Jonny Greenwood/Radiohead” distortion guitar tone. I’m attaching a picture of the setting that makes the pedal sound very much like the signature Radiohead tone. I will upload a video once I’m done with the recording so you can hear how close it is. In the meantime, here are some pros and cons of this pedal that I’ve discovered so far.Pros:- As mentioned above, I like that each knob is capable of taking the sound a bit too far. For example, the “boost” knob can make the pedal sound subjectively bad when cranked all the way up, making the distortion sound splattery but it also fine tunes the mid range response where the “mid” knob can’t do. The boost circuit of this pedal really does a lot to the tonal response and I find that it makes the pedal come alive when it’s set correctly.- I like that volume knob doesn’t take the volume up too far unlike other knobs. There’s some increase in headroom when you turn up the volume knob but the distortion keeps the signal fairly compressed. This means that you won’t blow your amp when you crank the volume knob of the pedal. You can still use it to drive a dirty amp harder for a nice and complex distortion tone.- The gain knob at the lowest setting still gives you a very usable distortion tone. This is not the case with many “metal” distortion pedal. While you won’t get the “Klon” overdrive tone at this setting, you can still use it to color the dirty channel of your amp without making your sound be out of control.- The pedal is not as noisy as some of the similar high gain distortion pedals which I greatly appreciate. Though I tend to not turn the distortion knob beyond noon given that there’s PLENTY of gain from 9 o’clock position onward. This is, of course, depend on the power supply that you use and other things in your signal chain. I find that using the pedal with a 9V battery seem to give the least amount of noise while using an un-isolated power adapter gives the pedal the most amount of noise and buzz.Cons:- The pedal’s circuitboard is designed in a way that there’s no room to have a 9V battery inside the pedal. As someone who designs and build guitar pedals, I can say that there’s a better way to design the circuitboard and it’s entirely possible to have the 9V battery inside the pedal.- The construction quality of the pedal is a bit questionable but not so egregious that it affects the functionality. The evidence of the carelessness can be seen with how the hardware like switches are knobs are installed. I ended up having to tighten and straighten things out. Not a big deal.- The “mid” knob doesn’t quite have the mid range control that is very useful for a distortion pedal. In fact, when I sweep the “mid” knob from one end to another, it just sounds like I have a wah pedal on the whole time.- The pedal without the boost just sounds ok with nothing really exciting about it. When boost is on, it bumps up the mid range around 1k depending where the knob is. I usually don’t push the knob beyond 9 o’clock position which is where I find it to sound the best.In conclusion, this pedal has a lot to offer as far as distortion tone is concerned. The mid range is a complex beast on this pedal and it might be hard to find a position that sounds subjectively good with your set up. For example, the mid range response can change depending on where the distortion knob is. My suggestion for finding a good tone with this pedal is first, set the volume knob to where you want the pedal volume to be. Second, set the amount of distortion you want. Third, preset the treble knob to 9 o’clock, mid at noon, bass at noon. Then start to adjust the knobs according to how you want the sound to be. If you feel like it’s lacking high end, turn up the treble knob slightly. If you feel like the tone is too muddy, turn down the bass knob. If you feel like the tone needs more bite and needing it to cut through the mix, add the boost section with the knob starting at 9 o’clock position. Play around the with boost knob and hear how it changes the mid range and find the position that works the best for you.Personally, I think I would only use this pedal for one tone, aka the “Jonny Greenwood” tone setting in the picture I attached to this review. If you’re looking for a “metal” sounding pedal, I feel like there are other pedals that sound way better than this one. I’ll have to mess around with this pedal more and see what other types of noises I can make when I push certain parameters too far. As of now, I’m having a lot of fun with the pedal and it’s working great for what I need. I’ll update this review with a video so you can hear what this pedal sounds like.

I've always used modeling amps like the line 6 spider or my current vox vt40x, as I've never really had a pedal to try. However this is fun as heck to tinker with and get the perfect sound you want from it, which sometimes is just a bit of a pain from the modeling amps. This definitely makes me want to finally trade up to an AC-30 and try our a few more pedals.None of the knobs blew my amps volume through the roof like my amp does when I barely change the volume or gain knobs. The battery flopping around is a little weird. I'm not sure if the boards for pedals have a spot for them or not, but I don't remember seeing batteries on any of my friends set-ups. Though that is not a big enough blow to how I feel about it to knock off any stars.

I have an incredible collection of fuzz boxes and distortion pedals.....Foxx Tone Machine (original), Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face (original), Electro Harmonix Big Muff pi (original), Electro Harmonix Graphic Fuzz (original),Electro Harmonix Satisfaction fuzz, Teisco Fuzz, and the SharkChili fuzz ( my favorite fuzz ).But I was looking for a pedal to give me that "chugging" sound on the low E string. I researched all over the web. Some were crazy expensive and some didn't product the chug until........ I ran across the Caline Tantrum Pedal. This is the s***! Low, mid and treble tone controls (most pedals have 1 or 2 at the most) + Boost + Volume + Distortion. And it comes with 2 footswitches. 1 to turn it on and off and the 2nd for Boost. I hooked up my Mitchell Solid Body (Humbuckers), ran it thru my Fender Blues Junior IV tube amp, and after playing with the knobs on the Tantrum, I entered chugging heaven. This pedal is all you need. From subtle blues overdrive to balls to the walls nuclear detonation. It is my #1 distortion pedal. My #1 fuzz pedal is the SharkChili.