Because I read somewhere that no one did a review on the Catalinbread Echorec, here are my findings that incidentally have been delayed since January 2013 when mine arrived, because it co-incided with me being diagnosed with cancer at the same time and had to go on the back burner for three and a half years.
Since I bought mine I have had great fun with the eTap2 hw, the Zoom G3x before finally purchasing the Hall & Collins last year. Because of that my Catalinbread Echorec was put in a cupboard and unused until today when I dug it out.
Bear in mind that I worked on the Zoom G3x and shared my patches with many on here and it is a great sounding machine and the only reason for my not using it in my stage rig is that I don't like the noises coming through my amp when scrolling through patches. Other than that it's a great piece of kit for the money.
I also spent a lot of time with my eTap2hw and the Hall and Collins, so I know by now what the amp settings need to be to achieve our goal - the early Hank sound of Apache, Man Of Mystery, Frightened City, Kon Tiki et al.
I plugged the Catalinbread into my home practice amp, a Vox Valvetronix VT-30, which is set up on one channel to sound like a 1960 AC-15, with the second channel set up as a 1963/4 Vox AC-30 TB which is reminiscent of the Atlantis/Flingel Bunt, so I have the two main sounds at my fingertips. Now I know that the Binson Echorec (on which the Catalinbread is based) doesn't allow variable head levels, so a little compromise is neccessary for certain tunes, but that isn't a problem for me, as I know where to tweak for optimum performance. Tunes like Apache, FBI, Man Of Mystery, Mustang and all those which feature head pattern 1 / 3 & 4 are easily replicated with perfection as you have control over the speed as well as echo volume and repeat intensity (regen).
However, for Wonderful Land, Atlantis, Dance On and all those tunes that use heads 1/2/3/4 on the Meazzi, the Echorec doesn't allow you to set head four slightly louder as is the way of the Meazzi. I therefore find that number one head sounds too loud, so what I do to compensate is just use heads 2/3/4 and set the speed accordingly, which is quite a bit faster than Apache and the others I mentioned. This works fine and I'd defy anyone to notice in a live gig situation.
Also, there is a fabulous vintage 'halo' going on at the same time, which I don't hear on some of the other machines. It adds something magical to the sound and actually sounds like a real Binson, with that 'ethreal' aura surrounding the sound
I also use several other settings other than the common Shadows ones and if there was no other choice of machines I can honestly say that I'd be delighted to use this to make my living, knowing that it sounds amazing.
The only down side for working live is the slight awkwardness of the controls with it being a pedal. I would want to set it up at a height where I could easily reach it with my hands, rather than use it on the floor as you'd be bending down to change settings, which doesn't look good. Everything with the Catalinbread is controled by the player in real time, there are no stored patches like on the old Q20/Q2 etc. It's just like the old days where you set the machine as you go through the st list.
So there you have it, it stands it's ground with everything I've owned and still own, those machines include the ESE Echomatic, the TVS3, Hall & Collins, eTap2hw, Alesis Q20, Q2, Quad GT, all the Zoom machines and even a real Binson Echorec. It's a bargain for under £200.