NPD: Ground-Breaking, Game-Changing - THE Best Pedal Made Thus Far ???

Wazmeister

A New Way Of Thinking, Playing & Creating ?

Every so often in all forms of life, creativity, culture and technology, something comes along which changes how we think and act that is unique. It’s often not always brand new in origination (think the iPod) but a combination of existing ideas made into a new way of function…

This in turn leads to a new way of thinking and new levels of creativity.

Chase Bliss, led by the adventurous and boundary-pushing Joel Korte, is a pioneer in such concepts. They took the pedal world by storm with the introduction of small footprint pedals, that are literally packed with options.

Still, the technological growth doesn’t end there; the real genius has been combining the realms of ‘analog’ and ‘digital’ together. The strap line of “digital brain, analog heart” sums up the design ethos completely.

You see, for me, part of the disparity of modern living is the fact that we use our senses in an analog sense… and yet modern technology that we use (and have to use) daily is digital. This affects how we think, operate, relate, communicate, create way more than we understand. Have you ever tried to swipe a book, magazine or screen ?

Enter the Preamp Automatone

Incredibly, there have been relatively few overdrive pedals that have had presets. Even less have combined analog, digital, presets and eq. Which is why, I guess, we tend to have more OD pedals than anything else on our boards...

The Preamp Automatone solves this problem instantly. I'll label it as the Chase Bliss Preamp Automatone (CBPA) at times form hereon in.

The Preamp Automatone is a collaboration between Joel of Chase Bliss and Chris of Benson Amps.

It offers incredible overdrive, boost, eq, preamp and fuzz options. The jump feature is worth the admission alone, imho. And the expression option looks superb, and Im really keen to try it.

The 'heritage' is shown below;




There are 3 easily accessible banks of saved presets. The 9 or 10 that came loaded with it sounded superb straight out of the box.
Literally. Unlike most presets that come loaded on 'digital' pedals, which can sound awful. These worked instantly for me, and quickly gave me an understanding of what this amazing pedal can do.

So, in total there are 30 presets available.

Conclusion

 
The first thing that people would flinch at is the price, I guess. By any stretch, £750 is a lot of corn. But this pedal is superb, and worth every penny imho. I initially sold some brilliant pedals that seemed to be superseded by which the Automatone offers...

- Kingsley Harlot v2 plus gain boost
- Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop
- Expresso FX NKT Fuzz

The sale of these alone virtually covered the cost of the CBAP. And others may yet follow.

The CBAP sounds superb, in ALL settings. It is a delight and fun to use... those sliders, well, they are a dream. It is simple to use too, and can be adjusted, saved and altered easily depending on your live room/setting.

Ground-breaking ? Yes

Game-changing ? Yes

THE Best Pedal Made Thus Far ? For me, yes.

Just try one. But be warned, there might be a huge sell-off of your current ODs, preamps and EQs.... 

monquixote

I hate this pedal so much it actually makes me slightly angry.

mgaw

I hated it so much I had to buy one to see for myself   it wasn't worth it tbh

Winny_Pooh

But what happens when the moving parts break in 10 years time

It looks awful but I'm sure it's versatile, however, its not a new concept if you look at the Elektron analog drive, just the moving faders, which could also have been dealt with using light up rotary encoders.

I do hope you hang onto it and enjoy it.

benmurray85

Cracking review as always from you Waz. I must admit, I’m a Chase Bliss fanboy but I haven’t had my head turned by the sounds I’ve seen so far from this - although I’ve only heard online demos so it’s a completely uninformed view point. Coupled with the fact that this is well out of my budget means I won’t be grabbing one any time soon! 

Would love to hear some sounds clips if you have chance? It’ll be nice to hear from someone trustworthy, not just the YouTube brigade. 

Enjoy your purchase though, I hope it’s a keeper!!!

Wazmeister

benmurray85 said:

Cracking review as always from you Waz. I must admit, I’m a Chase Bliss fanboy but I haven’t had my head turned by the sounds I’ve seen so far from this - although I’ve only heard online demos so it’s a completely uninformed view point. Coupled with the fact that this is well out of my budget means I won’t be grabbing one any time soon! 

Would love to hear some sounds clips if you have chance? It’ll be nice to hear from someone trustworthy, not just the YouTube brigade. 

Enjoy your purchase though, I hope it’s a keeper!!!

Thanks Ben, very kind of you...

I really liked the Benson Preamp when I had it, although I tend to be more low gain in sound. I thought the EQ was superb with it, but sold it foolishly after being tempted by some sparkly thing or another...

You know how the Brothers sounded really good, in some settings ? Well, the CBAP seems to have taken it up a notch, imho. I genuinely never got a bad sound out of it when trying those first 10 presets. 

It really is a bit special.

fretmeister

How much did you get paid for that? 

Wazmeister

fretmeister said:

How much did you get paid for that? 

Absolutely nil unfortunately... the graphics took 2 days !!!

guitargeek62

This is the biggest fanboi post I’ve ever seen, I can’t even bring myself to be impressed! 


Also, rather than “CBAP”, can you refer to it as “Kebab” from now on please? Rolls off the tongue a little better...

stickyfiddle

Sooo, see you in the classifieds in 6 weeks rather than the customary 4? :P 

Wazmeister

stickyfiddle said:

Sooo, see you in the classifieds in 6 weeks rather than the customary 4? :P 

Yadda, yadda, yadda

HoraceB

Don't know about a groundbreaking pedal? With those graphics that was a groundbreaking review! 

Enjoy your new pedal

I'm enjoying mine

Paul_C

It's good, but it's no Miku.

Wazmeister

Paul_C said:

It's good, but it's no Miku.

Wisdom

Jonathanthomas83

Great graphics, I thought you'd lifted them! Great stuff, Warren!!

merlin

Wazmeister said:

So, in total there are 30 presets available.

Only 30? I can get more than that with my volume and tone control.....and then have lots of beer tokens left over   

benmurray85

HoraceB said:

Don't know about a groundbreaking pedal? With those graphics that was a groundbreaking review! 

Enjoy your new pedal

I'm enjoying mine

Genuinely thought those graphics were created by CB/Benson. Fair bloody play to you Waz for going to such an effort. 

Wazmeister

benmurray85 said:

HoraceB said:

Don't know about a groundbreaking pedal? With those graphics that was a groundbreaking review! 

Enjoy your new pedal

I'm enjoying mine

Genuinely thought those graphics were created by CB/Benson. Fair bloody play to you Waz for going to such an effort. 

Thanks guys....

It's amazing what you can achieve when you've got real work to do !  

soma1975

That's a long classifieds ad listing. 

EDIT: Beaten to it!

RaymondLin

Love the graphic, that was unexpected! 

ourmaninthenorth

I think this pedal is something else. 

Thanks for the review Waz, that certainly wasn't thrown together in 2 minutes.

 I appreciate being informed by in-hand reviews like this, almost as much as watching someone take a hefty punt and getting it right. 

I think it's called a win-win. 

Good on yer Mate.