9 of the Best Chase Bliss Audio Pedals - A Full House at last!

I was caught in two minds between this one and the at least somewhat superficially similar Strymon Sunset Dual Drive. On that occasion I acquired the Sunset first - and it occupies a semi permanent slot in my chain, but I actually use the Brothers more as one of my principal Fuzz pedals - always running with at least one dominant fuzz-side on the two channels. The Brothers is one of four Fuzz slots in my pedal-chain - and it is usually accompanied by the other permanent fuzz - the Frazz Dazzler, as well as the most likely principals - the Abracadabra Ayahuasca and Spaceman Sputnik I. It's another pedal that requires something of a dedicated shift in the discovery process - experimenting with serial and parallel stacking to find your preferred tones - but if you persevere here you'll find a whole lot to like - several players use this as their sole dirt pedal - while I prefer a little more variety in my chain.

I actually still have and like the White MKII version which has the top centre dial as a Volume control rather than the Sag of the latest version. The latest version also has a somewhat refined circuit for even more high end frequency response - while I really like what my MKII delivers and don't currently have any inclination to swap. This pedal initially started as black as a MKI, then changed to white for the MKII, then a metallic orangey copper for the HiFi or MKIII - which alas led to too many blemished versions through uneven paint finish - so Joel switched it back to the original black again. The MKII was sweetened somewhat over the original, and I'm not sure I require any more sweetener per the MKIII - I really like the chorus and vibrato effects that I get out of this pedal. I do though intend to get one of the new Boss Dimension C Waza Craft editions for sometime rotation - otherwise this pedal is pretty safe in the chain and will likely retain its place long-term.

It's a real shame that this warbly whale-sounding wonder has been discontinued - I still really rather like it - even in the face of much stiffer competition from something like the recent EQD Pyramids Stereo Flanger. I had already made a determination that I would be getting the Pyramids pedal for some time rotation - possibly even for that one to assume primary pedal slot position. But the Spectre is still hanging on in there. It's somewhat ironic too that there was quite a number of new Flangers launched this year while Joel thought it necessary to retire this one - I guess its low sales numbers did not justify its continued existence in the range - for me though this is still one of the best flangers at this size.

Another really cool pedal of its type and still ahead of most of the chasing pack at this enclosure size. Even thought the recent Vibrophase from Zvex offers some degree of competition - it still does not have quite the feature set of the Wombtone - in fact only the Red House Midnight Phaser has a separate tap-tempo footswitch too at this size. I still feel that overall though the Wombtone is still the most usable and versatile phaser for its enclosure size, and although there is a lot of competition at the medium enclosure level - I feel this one is still my preferred option.

This was my very first Chase Bliss Audio pedal - and I'm still very much a fan of the tremolo effect category - with the Gravitas actually my joint favourite with Stone Deaf's Tremotron. The Gravitas still retains its principal slot status though even in the face of increased competition. There are now a quite a few compact tremolos which have a second tap-tempo footswitch and a couple even with Harmonic Tremolo options. None though have the full feature set - with the Ramp and Bounce etc. to get you into that really interesting Gravitas territory - although the dual simultaneous tremolos of the Tremotron offer a very decent alternative. I had also been considering the Swindler Effects Red Mountain - with is the only tremolo to offer stereo ins and outs at this size.

The rare Bucket Brigade Device chips in this pedal - also the RKM (Red Knob Mod) version of the Tonal Recall are what cause the price to be quite so high here. This one has been on my wishlist for a while though as the Tonal Recall can't really compete with my Empress EchoSystem, but the Thermae offers a whole other kind of effect which is not easily replicated by other means. I initially thought that this might be too fiddly as the octave knobs aren't notched as such - and I figured they would be tricky to dial in accurately - but this does not appear to be the case. It retains much of the same functionality as the Tonal Recall Delay - but with an entirely new pitch-shifting algorithm on top for all manner of satisfyingly odd cascading tonal effects. I would likely sill defer to the Empress EchoSystem for core delay use and utilise this for somewhat different effects - a really cool pedal all-round, and genuinely something pretty unique.

The key difference between this and the Blue Knob original is that this has twice the number of MN3005 BBD chips (4) for 1100 milliseconds of delay. Otherwise you get all the usual Chase Bliss goodies - separate tap-tempo footswitch, options for Short, Long and Both delay modes - with divisions and the usual trio of wave shapes. Obviously the dip-switches, Ramp and Bounce features give you a whole load extra beyond a typical analog style delay pedal. Really impressive for its type, but as reported - it cannot compete overall with the Empress EchoSystem which has a lot more on offer overall - albeit in a digital format.

And so really to saving the best til last in many ways. This first all-round digital pedal from Chase Bliss Audio is a 3-way collaboration between Joel, Tom Majeski of Cooper FX, and Robert Keeley of Keeley Engineering. Tom is famously the author of the really cool warbly video-tape style effect that is the 'Generation Loss' pedal, and there's a version of that effect on his 'Dark'-side 'Mod' effect. He further contributes the other 2 Dark-side flavours - 'Shim' : a sort of infinite decay freeze sample loop octave reverb or a very otherworldly icy shimmer; while with the final 'Black' Mode you get a slightly different lower register sample freeze which sort of sounds like a phantom following cellist. On the 'World' site Robert Keeley delivers three really sparkly classic modes - Hall, Plate and Spring. The magic of this pedal is really the interplay between the two channel sites of the pedal and the various stacking options - serial and parallel. You also have all the usual Ramp and Bounce dip-switch options as usual to play with. The high concept of interplay between separate classic and otherworldly reverb effects channels makes for a pretty innovative pedal design, and although the Mooer Ocean Machine sort of does something similar - this is still very much a game-changer for this pedal type, and particularly this enclosure size. Both sides of the pedal are exceptional, but its really the Tom Majeski algorithms that make this one extra special. This is easily the most accessible of the Chase Bliss Audio pedals - and even though users will still need to get used to the usual Chase Bliss Audio quirks - the rapid sell-out of the first batch shows just how popular this pedal will be - I fully expect it to become Chase Bliss's best selling pedal by some margin - it pretty much knocks all those other slightly unusual reverbs out of the ballpark!

Albeit not associated with the main range, this pedal collaboration is still very much a Chase Bliss Audio product - and arrives suitably in one of those classic Chase Bliss Audio wooden boxes etc. This kind of starts off as a Gravitas Tremolo pedal, but adds a very unique and pretty fierce actually Fuzz Face style silicon fuzz on top. Specifically a variation of the 70's Os Mutantes style fuzz - for some brilliantly raw sounding fuzz modulation. This is one of a quarted of my all-time favourite fuzzes alongside the Chase Bliss Audio Brothers, Dr Scientist Frazz Dazzler, and Spaceman Effects Sputnik I. It's quite hard to get hold of, and was only fairly recently opened up for international orders - which is how I got mine. These are very small-batch productions and are invite-only. You need to sign up on the Abracadabra Audio site and be officially approved before you are invited to buy one - noting that production batches are very few and far between.