Chase Bliss just announced their first-ever signature pedal, the Chase Bliss Billy Strings Wombstone. It’s a dynamic phase with the kind of modulation depth, you’ve come to expect from them. However, given their recent decision to discontinue a whole range of effects in the EU and the UK due to new safety regulations, this pedal will only be available in the U.S.
Which pedals is Chase Bliss discontinuing in Europe and the UK and why?
Just last week, Chase Bliss announced that they would discontinue the sale of five pedals in their roster in the UK and EU, effective immediately. The five pedals affected were the original MKI Condor, the dual delay Thermae, the ambient reverb Dark World, the Lo-Fi-esque Warped Vinyl HiFi, and the beloved Preamp MkII. The decision to discontinue the sale of these pedals in the UK and the EU was made to comply with newly in-place market access requirements.
Part of these requirements is a set of safety regulations banning the use of a substance called cadmium sulfide in any component. Chase Bliss examined the components of their older pedals to comply with these regulations. The five pedals mentioned above come with a so-called LDR (light-depended resistor, also known as “vactrol”), which is an essential part of their circuit. In the LDR, traces of cadium sulfide were found.
This is why the newly announced Chase Bliss Billy Strings Wombtone will also only be available for customers in the U.S. The pedal had been in development for quite a while before CB recently announced its decision to stop selling some of its pedals. The Wombstone also contains an LDR, making it unsuitable to be sold in the EU and the UK.
Chase Bliss Billy Strings Wombstone: EnvoloPhaser
Chase Bliss’s original Wombstone phaser came on the market over ten years ago, and as things go, it was discontinued at some point. A couple of years back, it came to Chase Bliss’s attention that Billy Strings, rising star, and Grammy-winning bluegrass musician, had made the Wombstone an essential part of his sound. That’s why he was busy collecting as many remaining Wombstone pedals as possible. They reached out, and the Chase Bliss Billy Strings Wombstone was born.
They tried to stay close to the original while adding all the additional settings and modulation options you’ve come to expect in recent years, as they did with the Onward or the Reverse Mode C. CB calls the Chase Bliss Billy Strings Wombstone an “EnvoloPhaser.” The phase is altered differently depending on the dynamics of the input signal.
Settings and Setup
Judging from the dials, this might seem like a pretty ordinary phaser. The three-way switch on the lower left switches between two, four, and six stages. “Feed” turns up the phaser’s feedback, intensifying the phasing effect. “Rate” sets the speed of the modulation, “Volume” determines the output volume, while “Mix” lets you dial in how much of the effect you want to hear in your signal.
Then there is the “ModuShape” section with the two controls, “Depth” and “Form.” The former determines the frequency range of Chase Bliss Billy Strings Wombtone sweeps – the higher, the broader. “Form” lets you skew the modulation wave’s center point. That way, you can create highly asymmetric modulation waves. With the two dials underneath, you can separately determine the shapes of the modulation wave’s front and back half.
Then, you get three switches on the side of Wombstone to shape the way the pedal’s envelope follower reacts to the input signal. Here, you can activate the envelope follower and change its release time and sensitivity. Furthermore, there are a few dip switches at the top of the pedal. Through these, you can set various modulation destinations and change how some of the parameters react.
What does the Chase Bliss Billy Strings Wombstone cost?
The Chase Bliss Billy Strings Wombstone is only available in the U.S. for $399. Chase Bliss makes it a point to state that this “region-locked” pedal is a one-off, and future pedals will be available worldwide again. Preorder starts today while the first shipments are expected to go out within the next two weeks.
More on the new pedal from Chase Bliss
