All You Need to Know about the Chase Bliss Audio Automatone Preamp MKII courtesy of 5 key YouTube Demos

There’s not much more that really needs to be said about the Chase Bliss Audio Automatone Preamp MKII (Boost + EQ + Overdrive + Fuzz + Preamp) that hasn’t been said already - it’s every bit as good as everyone says it is. I though still felt that I had to touch on one of the best executed and innovative gain pedals of all time as it would be unforgivable for me not to do my own take on the subject. Obviously it’s a pricey proposition, a little large, and a little fragile and porous around the sliders - but those are very minor niggles within the scale and scope of everything this device delivers. A product engineer is already hard at work on a transparent latched lid add-on - which I will most definitely be getting when it’s finally released as a third party accessory.

I still get the occasional reader query/inquiry about this pedal - asking me if I think it’s worth it - and the short simple answer is if you can afford it then yes this should be top of your gain pedals acquisition list! And while very much based on Chris Benson’s Preamp Pedal - a transistorised version of his 30W Chimera Tube Amp - this is not exactly the same thing. It’s output frequency profile has been slightly tweaked as Joel decided to shelve some of the sub-bass frequencies to prevent unwanted sag and low-end muffle. So the original Benson Preamp Pedal is capable of a little more low-end depth. The Preamp MKII is often defined as the Benson Preamp Pedal + CBA Condor + CBA Faves + Fuzz - which of course fuels the above visual.

In terms of core voicing - I’ve described this before as sitting somewhere between a Fender Tweed Deluxe and Vox AC30 - while it doesn’t necessarily actually capture either of those tonalities exactly - but sits somewhere in-between, depending on how you apply the Bass control - i.e. more Bass equals more towards Tweed, and less Bass equals more towards Vox. I’ve used the True North Tweed Drive and Bearfoot FX Emerald Green Distortion Machine to indicate the two natural voicing tent-poles of the pedal, as the Preamp MKII definitely gets within touching distance of those.

The 5 pedals in the top right corner are directly from Dan and Mick’s That Pedal Show episode - as featured below, I’ve added the Dunlop Germanium Fuzz Face, EHX Linear Power Boost, Fulltone OCD, Paul Cochrane Timmy and the Buffalo FX Carrera to the reference selection too, as I feel all those are very indicative of the Low-to-Mid range gain overdrive territory that this pedal mostly inhabits / represents. In fact the only pedal this sort of kicked directly off my then pedal-chain/board was the Buffalo FX Carrera - as the first profile I coincidentally set up on the Preamp MKII sounded almost exactly like how I had set up the Carrera! Generally it handles that classic overdrive territory really well and would / could be an excellent alternative / stand-in for all those pedals featured and more. It doesn’t quite do my preferred Dumble voicing, and there are certain nuances in its breakup and harmonics which don’t quite match the preferred character of some of my other favourite drive pedals say like my Keeley Modded Blues Driver - but by and large it sounds consistently amazing - with superb dynamics, harmonics and definition - and an always appealing breakup texture / character.

Note that the Diode settings aren’t particularly distinct or apparent lower down the gain range - while with more Gain applied and particularly on the Fuzz voicings they add significant texture and character - also in combination with post-gain Mids - with Q adjustments. When applied lower down the gain scale the differences are so slight that they may be nigh impossible for many to distinguish.

What really makes this pedal so worth it is not just how great it sounds and how versatile it is - but also the overall usage experience - including the visual aspect of the sliders - and just how easy it is to save and recall presets. There really is no other pedal which operates quite as beautifully elegantly as this - it’s just an unrivalled joy to deploy in every way.

People ask me about the Fuzz voicings quite a lot, and I feel in general that the Fuzz Face comparison is the most apt - while with clever application of the EQ you can get into Tone Bender style voicings and even somewhat adjacent to a sort of Muff style tonality - while that’s not necessarily the Preamp MKII’s forte.

In terms of max gain, the pedal can touch on Plexi style tones when cranked - while the mids character is not exactly the same as your typical Marshall - so the OCD association here I feel is pretty suitable - in fact all those pedals pictured around the periphery of the Preamp MKII in the above visual really best indicate for me the ballpark that this pedal most comfortably operates within. It can of course touch on several more varieties - but those pedals pictured were very carefully selected to provide as accurate a guidance as possible - to pin-point where the Preamp II’s strengths align.

The way you can hook up the different control parameters for expression control - as demonstrated in several of the videos below is also genius, and if you’re into MIDI - then you have an even greater number of functions to access - where you can turn the pedal into a pseudo-wah or oscillator even based on judicious deployment of the Mid Frequency and Q. Obviously Joel has announced the imminent retirement of his Condor EQ/Preamp/Filter pedal - which in most ways the Preamp MKII is a more full-featured replacement for.

I have this pedal actually as one of my several favourite drive flavours - this is the second most full-range pedal in the chain next to the Boss OD-200 - while there is some degree of overlap with several of my other favourites - where they deliver some slight and unique nuances not covered by the Preamp MKII.