Swiss army knife of tone

This pedal covers so much ground that it may be overwhelming, but on the other hand can also be pretty straightforward.

Think of it as an EQ pedal with bass, parametric mids and a treble knobs. You can boost or cut bass by 12dB and the lower left toggle determines the range of bass frequencies that it's affecting (to the left you cut/boost a small area of lower bass frequencies, and to the right the range gets bigger).

The mids control is parametric (which is what makes this pedal super powerfull) and has 18dB boost/cut. With the freq knob you set the pivot point of the mid frequencies you are affecting, all the way counterclockwise is 150 Hz, noon is around 1250Hz, and all the way clockwise is 4kHz. Again with the lower 3 way toggle you select how broad or narrow the range of the boost/cut is.

Finally the highs/trebles gets both a standard treble cut (like a guitar tone knob) with the lower switch all the way left, and then you also have two resonant low pass filters, the middle one being more subtle and the most to the right being very resonant and powerful for the deepest filter sweeps you ever heard your amp putting out. So the treble side of the pedal wont let you boost or cut high frequencies like a standard EQ, instead the low pass filter let's you shape how much of that high end will be preserved or not. All the way clockwise the low pass filter is making nothing since all the frequencies are passing through, but when you start dialing it counterclockwise the high frequencies progressively get filtered out, and since the middle and most to the right low pass filters are two-pole wave shape it means it will actually boost the frequencies right that are right behind the threshold of the LPF, making them very resonant (even harsh some times, you gotta tame it).

The LPF is great for ramping to get crazy and deep wah and phaser tones. One of my favourite settings (stored in a preset) is a faux envelope filter effect that is activated with the footswitch in momentary mode (hold). I set everything at noon except the LPF which is all the way clockwise (to make the pedal unnoticeable in the chain when it's on). I set the pedal to hold (momentary bypass) and LPF dipswitch to ramp up from the lowest value to the actual knob value (wich is at max) and stoping there since bounce is off. I also turn Reset dip switch on. So when I play a chord and at the same time click the footswitch the LPF instantly resets to counterclockwise position and starts raising all the way clockwise (and stopping there, no bouncing) giving it a very deep and resonant envelope filter like sound, except it has no actual envelope, just your foot and Condor's magical ramping. If I had not engaged the Reset dip switch what would happen was that instead of reseting to the begging of the ramping "path" every time I clicked the footswitch it would simple continue ramping starting off whatever value it was left on previously. The addition of a Reset on the dip switches really shows just how much well thought out this pedal was, leaving you to decide if the momentary switch is only temporarily starting and stoping the ramp "path" (awesome for varying cocked wah tones) OR if it actually resets the ramp to the starting values of it's "path" (for awesome faux envelope filter effects).

So yeah, there is ramping, you can ramp Volume for Tremolo effects or any other of the knobs for all kinds of modulation tones, Univibe, Tremolo, Phaser, Wah...

But what I really love is its drive mode, I would describe it as transparent and low-medium gainish, perfect for any pre-amp application. It also sounds to my ears like it preserves some wet signal in there as a Tube Screamer or a Klon would. Pair this smooth overdrive with the powerfull parametric mids and you can really nail Klon and TS sounds. I had my mini TS next to the Condors and was able to perfectly match them. I stored that preset on the Condor and sold the TS...

I have this hell of a pedal before the Bothers Gain Stage, and the possibilities are endless and massive.

I also have to mention it is also great to achieve really fat and defined jazz tones, with the help of the Para Mids filtering out high mids (Freq almost all the way up), LPF a hair before noon with lower toggle to the left and just a small touch of extra bass.

This pedal easily earns the "if I could only bring one pedal to my gig" award. Possibly also wins the "best guitar pedal for synths" award. It's really that good.

From Gear Setup

Give any effect the Chase Bliss treatment

It's been well established that for low-gain and transparent overdrives this pedal competes at the top, but I think the real value here is how it interacts with other pedals seamlessly; that is, you can use it to give any of your favorite pedals all Chase Bliss features. I rarely us it by itself and almost always in conjunction with another effect. It is real bread and butter is at taming digital octave pedals. When paired with a Meris Heidra set only to pitch shift, or a GFI Synesthesia set as an octaver, you can really dial in tone-wheel-like organ sounds. Beyond smoothing and analogizing digital effects, it can get wild and take an old-standard to new places and beyond - it really wants to be played with and you have to be mindful as you will totally loose track of time.

Preferred Settings + Usage: