Formula No. 5 (Reissue)

The Catalinbread Formula No. 5 Reissue is the original Formula design, predating the more accurate Formula 55. Rather than a part-for-part 5E3 recreation, it uses cascaded JFET gain stages chosen specifically for their softer clipping characteristics over MOSFETs.

Three controls keep it simple: Gain, Tone, and Volume. The Gain and Tone circuit borrows its interactive topology from the Fender Harvard 5F10, where adjusting one affects the behavior of the other. The result is an overdrive that never quite reaches fully clean, always retaining some compression and harmonic content even at low gain settings.

More compressed and saturated than the later Formula 55, the No. 5 has its own personality. Where the 55 chases 5E3 accuracy, the No. 5 is its own thing. Runs on 9-18V DC.