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Getting ODS Tones from the Bloomfield Drive

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If you’ve followed Two-Rock or been interested in their amps for a while, you’ll know that many of their amps are Dumble inspired. The Bloomfield Drive is no exception, taking inspiration from their ODS-style TS-1 and adding a lush reverb. In theory this should be the best of both worlds, but owners have been finding that they can’t quite get the ODS tones they’re looking for from it. So is some magic sauce missing, or is it user error?

Goals

I have owned a Bloomfield Drive combo now for more than a year and it has been exactly what I originally wanted. An amp that can do beautiful cleans similar to a Classic Reverb but with a drive channel that lets me get some breakup at reasonable volume levels. Setting the drive channel just on the edge of breakup gave me two “clean” channels that I could stack pedals in front of.

However lately I’ve gone back an watched Joey Landreth’s demo again, as well as checking out some videos of other actual Dumble amplifiers. I found myself wondering if I could get the ODS tones from my Bloomfield Drive. Turning up the gain on the drive channel didn’t really get me where I wanted, and remembering the Josh Smith video of the TS-1 reminded me to turn up the gain on the clean stage first as it cascades into the drive channel to push it further.

Revelation

Well turning the “clean” gain up to 3 o’clock didn’t really get me there either, leaving me a bit cold and bewildered as to how Joey got those sweet tones. Was it due to some really pokey P90s? Maybe my combo is set to lower gain levels, or I needed to roll some tubes. Well the answer was none of the above, and once again came from thinking back to a Matt Schofield video from when he was on “That Pedal Show” explaining how he sets his amps, pedals, etc.

He describes listening to the pots as you turn them and to listen for the point where the have the most impact. When doing this you usually find a couple points on the rotation of the pots (short for potentiometers or “knobs” for the non-technical) where they have a lot more impact. Doing this on the first gain knob through the whole range I found two interesting spots I didn’t notice before. They are at around 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock, or on a 1-10 scale they’d be about 8 and 9. At these two points the gain jumps up by a lot, giving those sweet overdrive tones I had been looking for.

One bonus tip if you’re looking to really up the gain on the Bloomfield Drive, the mid boost switch gives a good boost to the gain that can push it over the edge. This is especially good with certain guitars such as a Strat that is naturally more lacking in the minds.

Bliss Factory

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As many of you know, I have found a new fatuation in Chass Bliss pedals and all their configurability and quirkiness. Also if you’ve known me for even longer than you may know that one pedal I’ve always come back to is the ZVEX Fuzz Factory 7, my all time favorite fuzz. When I found out that they were doing a collab for the Reverb Pedal Movie, I jumped on the chance to snag one.

Of course this being the time of Covid where everyone is home and online, as well as Chase Bliss pedals going for ridiculous markups after undoubtably selling out, I was too late. In the first hour of sale all one thousand pedals were gone with no plans to make more. So back to the board with a plan to watch the flips pop up, and to try and get one for as little as possible, which would still turn out to be nearly double the original price.

But this post isn’t about the troubles of limited runs and the scalpers that markup the pedal the next day, it’s about this fantastic pedal. And it is FANTASTIC. One of the reasons I keep coming back to the Fuzz Factory 7 over the years is that it has fantastic cleanup, and there are a ton of different tones in there. From classic Fuzz Face, to thick molten modern fuzz, octave rich spitty tones and gated video game effects, all are possible. With Joel’s magic done to the Bliss Factory, the biggest part for me was the ability to save all those sounds to presets.

The added resonant high pass is a nice addition, giving some flexibility to tone, whether mellowing it out with reduced high ends, or adding some peak resonant frequencies to give a cocked wah feel. The Aux foot switch let’s you do things like make the high pass in one state and have it rolled off in the other allowing you to sit back in the mix even with a thick tone.

Chase Bliss / ZVEX – Bliss Factory

Lastly in true Fuzz Factory style, the noises that happen when this pedal self oscillates can be used for all sorts of crazy creations. Add this to pedals like the Thermae, Mood and Blooper and you have music potential with no guitar needed. That said, for me this is a fantastic fuzz pedal first, with all those noises coming in as an occasional fun thing to play with. The cleanup on the guitar volume knob is up there with the best of any fuzz and is truly an overlooked feature of this amazing pedal.

If you’d like to support the blog and the channel then please use our links when purchasing through Reverb and pickup your own Fuzz Factory variant today.

Chase Bliss Pedals – Reverb

Custom Pedalboards

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As electric guitar enthusiasts, we all like our effects pedals. A collection that typically starts with a drive pedal, then maybe a delay, a looper and so on. Eventually we all get to the point where the pedals sitting on the floor are too wieldy and need to be organized and locked down either for transport or simply for our mental sanity, and so begins the search for a pedalboard. After many years and probably a dozen or so pedalboards, I have decided to start making custom boards that fit my need, and maybe yours.

The Flatboard

This board is perfect for the player who wants a clean demo area for making videos, or for an enthusiast who likes to grab a couple pedals off the shelf at random and doesn’t need all of their pedal available at any second. It’s fully carpeted (even the bottom) so that it can be placed on a desk/table without worrying of scratching while also making it Velcro compatible for temporary but solid layout.

GuitarTonePro Flatboard

Single Level Hinged

When players start to look for a cleaner option, they begin to look at hinged-top pedal boards that let them hide all the power and wiring, but still allows you get in there and make changes easily. These self-contained boards are nice for gigging musicians as well since all the wires are kept safe and secure and you plug into the board itself making multi-amp setups a breeze.

Chumley Studio Board

The downsize to these boards comes when you mix in a pedal loop switcher or base mounted power supplies. In this case the large hinged top means having to run long cables to the back of the board then along the bottom of the top to allow the top to open while keeping the cables in place. Custom cabling and small power supplies that can be mounted to the bottom become very important increasing cost.

Two Level Clamshell Hinded

In order to minimize the effect of a hinged top, while still allowing many pedals in a small area, a two level clamshell style board allows for the board to split in the middle meaning shorter cable runs and less chance for noise to creep in. Modular power supplies and custom wiring is still a good idea if using loop switchers, but wiring is a good bit easier to handle.

GuitarTonePro Two Level Clamshell (prototype)

Ordering a Custom Board

If you’re interested in ordering a custom board, just email me through the contact page with your contact information and what kind of board you’re interested in. A list of pedals and any needs will be discussed so we can get you exactly what you need. Otherwise I will be building more boards in the future and putting them up for sale.

If you want a fully setup board, I can do that too. We can discuss wiring, any additional power supplies, switchers or custom options you would like to see on your dream board.

Chase Bliss Blooper – Can it do normal looping?

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From the creative minds of Chase Bliss Audio and Knobs, comes the “Bottomless Looper”, a creative fully featured looping pedal that can even be customized. But how well does it work as a standard looper, and does it’s extra features provide the normal person with enough value to justify the high cost?

As a standard looper, the Blooper has really just one hurdle to get your head around. The length of the loop doesn’t change even though it may seem like it temporarily. Confusing to describe, confusing the first time you do it, not too hard to work around once you know what’s going on. For example, when you slow the playback, it will play the full loop at half speed and an octave down. However if you then try to “record” that effect permanently into the loop it will only record to the length of the original loop, giving you only half of the slower loop. Like I said, confusing to explain, not too bad once you play with it.

So now how about that Repeats knob? Well when you put the pedal in “Add” mode, it takes any filter and re-applies it per repeat. So a slowdown gets even slower each time, a warp gets more warpy each time around, and the volume drops based on the repeats knob. Turning this creative, character-ful looper, into an awesome, customizable delay. Reverse delay, character delay, high-pass filter, dropper; all kinds of things are possible here.

At about $500 new, this is the most expensive looper that I know of for sale, making my previous looper (Pigtronix Infiniti Looper) look down right affordable. As is the case with pretty much all Chase Bliss pedals, it may look overpriced on the surface, but when you start looking at it as a whole it starts to make sense. Midi controlled, super flexible looper, incredible character delay and future upgradability via usb updates, this pedal gives you ton’s of options in a very small package.

Once again Chase Bliss Audio has taken a simple concept and expanded it to be a creative tool that you can get lost in for hours at a time. This is why I have embraced them wholly and built a board pretty much exclusively from their pedals.

Support the channel and buy you own Blooper on Reverb.

Return of the Strat

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Regret and reconnection, these two words sum up my history with this guitar. December first, 2017 after selling off some 50 pedals and other assorted gear I finally ordered the 1959 Stratocaster I had been dreaming of. I had worked with the buyer over couple days coming to a price that worked for both of us and was now in my budget.

When it first arrived I felt immediate regret. The tuners felt loose, the neck was super skinny (which I later found out is common on Strats of this year) and some of the controls were pretty sloppy feeling. Had I bought a dud? When people say that vintage guitars have their own personalities, they mean it. This guitar likes heavy gauge strings (11’s minimum at Eb) and prefers to be in standard tuning unless you go even heavier. At that point the tuners are rock solid, the frets play smooth and clean, and the guitar sounds incredible. Learning how to get it into the 2 and 4 pickup positions took a little while but have their own rewards. Did you know on a three way selector there are more than 5 pickup combinations? Apparently the 2 and 4 positions can actually “lean” towards the middle pickup and the neck/bridge. Resulting in different tonal combinations which for example could sound pretty much identical to the neck pickup, but both tone pots would affect the tone, giving very slight variations.

I had owned the guitar for just just over a year, have learning all the intricacies and foibles of the guitar over that time. However a new focus on financial freedom, and an immediate need for money to purchase a rental property would mean a need to sell. After fees I made a very small profit but was content that I essentially borrowed a vintage Strat for a year and got paid to do so.

A year and a half goes buy, replacing my guitars with a ‘61 Reserve SVL, which after replacing the middle pickup with a non-reverse wound one got as close to the tone of the ‘59 as any other guitar I had tried in that time. But then came the messages, first from someone who contacted me to see if they could get the buyer information of the Strat to see if they could buy it. That deal didn’t happen, but I was reminded of the guitar and new the buyer still had it and was willing to sell now though. Later when moving videos from my old YouTube account to the new one, I was reminded how incredible that 1959 Stratocaster sounded.

Some messages later, an agreement was struck to essentially refund the original purchase and return the Strat back to my possession. So now it’s back, and this time I’m not making the mistake of letting it ago again… well at least that’s the plan for now.

Support the channel and pick up your own Strat on Reverb.

Preamp Mk II Automatone VS The World

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The Preamp Mk II Automatone is a gimicky, over hyped and overpriced overdrive pedal. At least that is what I thought at first when it was first announced and I saw those automated sliders flicking between presets. In a world where pedal prices keep jumping up to new levels, Chase Bliss leads the way in high priced gear, but after spending time and completely loving their Thermae, I understand why.

The Preamp Mk II answers with gusto the main critique I have will all pedals that employ favorites or presets, that when you switch to said preset you have no idea where the knobs are set. Sure some makers have come up with work arounds such as Stymon’s where turning the knobs will blink the light when you read how it is set for the preset, but they have all felt like cumbersome hacks. Chase Bliss and it’s fancy auto-faders have solved the problem, the sliders move themselves to the preset settings when switching. It seems like a gimmick, but man does it work.

Then came the demos by people who’s opinions I hold with regard, the final straw being That Pedal Show‘s episode where they put the Preamp Mk II up against some of the heavy hitters of the overdrive world and even Mick’s Fuzz Face. See their episode here. So I decided to give it a shot and ordered one direct from Chase Bliss (which said it had a 1-2 week backorder, but shipped out the next day) and shoot it out again my newly wired pedalboard.

At first I wasn’t impressed by the sliders, they felt too light and not quite as sturdy as I’d like for a $750 pedal, especially compared to the beautiful knobs that are on other chase bliss pedals. However after some use I realized that they have to be extremely light in order for the motors in the sliders to last forever. It’s sort of like picking up a guitar with super light wood, at first you it feels like a toy, but after a while you realize that it’s lightness is part of what makes it great.

Actually dialing in tones, especially if trying to match another pedal, it takes time a experimentation. When trying to match the high gain sound of my Hudson Broadcast, there was a top end that I found hard to match. In the end I had to turn down the treble and boost the upper mids in a specific frequency range to get it there. Sometimes you get the right high end by cutting lower mids in either the pre or post mid eq setting. It seems simple, but the controls are so powerful that shaping your tone can be more complex than expected.

In the end, I managed to match my King of Tone (at 18v), Hudson Broadcast 24v, Dumbloid Overdrive BTM Boost and even my Fuzz Factory 7 to an extent. While at first it seems like an overpriced bit of a one trick pony, it actually revealed itself to be a true chameleon of a pedal and is going to replace all four pedals on my board… well maybe.

I still love my other pedals, so they’re not going anywhere. It may be time to build my own pedalboard, just for the Chase Bliss pedals I have.

Support the channel and buy your own Preamp Mk II on Reverb.

GuitarTonePro Joins Patreon

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Guitar Tone Pro is now setup on Patreon!

This doesn’t mean that there’s going to be a lot of exclusive content or that anything is going to be taken away from the general public, so don’t worry. In fact what it means is that more content will be coming to everyone, after all gear cost money. Along with more reviews and better recording equipment, it means more of a chance to give back.

Can’t afford to support the channel and your own gear addiction? No problem, as always the links around this site to Reverb or any other merchant will kick back a little referral money to me with no additional cost to you. So site back, enjoy and maybe buy some gear on Reverb.

How to spend your money in a day.

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Ok, I’m an idiot. Or maybe an addict? Hi my name is Andrew and I’m a pedalholic, and I’m ok with that. Sort of.

I go through a lot of gear, and typically I find the stuff I want to try out used at a bargain price. I am patient, calculated and nerdy enough to know exactly what price I need to buy something at in order to be able to resell it later and break even or preferably make a small profit. I’ve done well for myself, with my gear hobby breaking even after all the gear I buy and keep for myself.

Sometimes though, I go off the deep end. I spend every last cent I have saved up for gear and sell off everything I can. It’s been one of those days.

It started when I decided to pick up a used Chase Bliss Thermae for a pretty great price. A price that after selling my ARDX20 and Amaze0 had me in the green, while also being low enough that I could resell it and at least break even. So what happened? Well the ARDX20 after years of service is gone, and I’ve developed a new obsession with Chase Bliss. I’ve tried only 1 other pedal of theirs before (Brother’s Gain Pedal) and didn’t really find it to my taste, but the Thermae was so beautiful sounding, and so inspiring with it’s many options, that I just want more.

Soon after That Pedal Show released their “Tomatotone” vs Everything video and I decided it was time to give it a try, after all I was in the market for a good Fuzz Face and Klon Centaur or clones there of, so if it could do both and more it would make sense, especially now that I’ve started using Midi for controlling my rig (starting to see the cascade of rational yet?). Prices were crazy on Reverb, so I ordered direct (plus a Mood since I had just gotten rid of my looper) figuring I could always sell it on reverb and break even if we didn’t get along.

Speaking of getting rid of my looper, I couldn’t decide between the Mood or the Blooper, so I budgeted for both as they seem to compliment each other in many ways. The Blooper is still back ordered so that isn’t here yet, but just know that will also be on it’s way soonish.

Lastly searching for any other Chase Bliss pedals I might be interested in, I came across two crazily priced pedals on Reverb. The Ayahuasca Tremolo Fuzz and Generations Loss. While I love the sounds of the Generations Loss, I can’t justify the price they command right now when I can get some of the sounds out of the Mood, Blooper and Thermae. The Ayahuasca while really cool, was similarly priced insanely, but I did like it. So in order to ease my wanting, I setup a search with filter on Reverb for an Ayahuasca that would be $750 or less (still double the original list price) but had to be the “Spirit Molecule” coloring, of which there were only 10 made (#50-59). Low and behold a few days later…. well you get the idea.

Buy Chase Bliss pedals on Reverb today and support the site.

iZotope Spire Studio – Can it make me sound better?

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The iZotope Spire Studio is a standalone recording studio that’s portable and easy to use, but can it handle recording a guitar amp and how good can it sound?

iZotope Spire Studio

Having a full time job as well as being a father of two small kids, I don’t have much time or energy at the end of the day when it comes to recording. The desire to be creative and to share information that I wish I had however, continues to drive me to create videos on the gear that I find interesting. This means that I typically record using just the mic built into my iPhone 6s, not exactly the best for recording an amp at volume, but better than not recording. However recently a comment on YouTube brought in to sharp focus my recording technique. I was asked why some videos (like mine) didn’t sound as big and lively when recording the Two-Rock Bloomfield Drive, and I knew the answer came down to the lack of using a close mic and room mic to give a better mix and representation of the sound in the room.

Enter the SM57 close mic and iPhone room mic test, which successfully proved that some additional setup time could make my videos sound much bigger and crisp. The downside was cables strewn across the room and an annoying walk to setup and start recording, like trying to run a recording managing a recording desk in a studio while also performing in the live room, ugh. I’ve tried other solutions such as a Zoom portable recorder, or a usb interface with long cables, but ultimately I didn’t like having to set and adjust levels using headphones to monitor. Hopefully the Spire could be the solution.

Portability means I leave my mics in place and grab the Spire when I want to record. A high quality built in stereo mic means I can close mic the cab with the SM57 but also get excellent room sounds at the same time straight to the same DAW for mixing on the go (which is conveniently done on an iPhone or iPad wirelessly). The built in mic is high quality and does an excellent job of handling the output of a 40 watt tube amp cranked. The “Soundcheck” button gives me the one touch level setting that I always though should be on all interfaces, especially cheaper ones aimed at home recorders. Hit it and play for ten seconds or so and it sets the input levels to match your peak levels so you don’t clip, while also optimizing the track based on what it thinks your using to record (guitar, voice, etc). Mix the tracks using the graphical mixer, export in any number of formats (including mixed individual tracks in wav format for importing into a video editor), and you’re set to go in your video software in minutes.

So far the only real complaint I have it the way your phone connects to the Spire. You connect your phone to the Spire’s inbuilt wifi signal, which is fine and allows for high data rates, but which means you need to disconnect and reconnect to your home wifi before you transfer final mixes to a cloud location. The lack of USB port for file transfer from the Spire to a computer seems like a huge oversight as it would make for a great computer conferencing mic as well, but would also just make it less painful to transfer the large zip files created when sending multiple tracks of wav files.

I’ve only recorded one video so far, but it seems to be less painful than any other solution I’ve tried so far and the results are pretty good. But don’t just take my word for it, check my video and see what you think.

Buy a Spire on Reverb

Analogman DS-1 Pro Mod

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The Boss DS-1 is a classic distortion box used by many artists over the years. Known for it’s somewhat scooped tone and high amounts of gains, it’s really a pedal that lends itself only to the heavy metal/rock tones. Built to a price, cheap parts abound and a thin fizzy high end makes it unusable on too clean of an amp.

Enter Analogman Mike Pierra and his pedal modding wizardry. Refined over a couple variations, the Pro Mod replaces mod of the cheap parts allowing way more bass and mids to come through, and taming the top end fizz. This pedal can now be thrown in front of a clean amp (think Fender Silverface Twin) and gives are Marshall-esque tone that any player could find use of. With the gain all the way down you get a crunchy boost pedal that drives an amp from on the edge of breakup into full glorious gain. Maxed out the pedal invokes all kinds of beautiful harmonics and overtones while retaining a percussive clarity that drives rhythm tones without turning to mush.

When you want a high gain pedal, there are tons of modern alternatives that do a great job, but it’s definitely worth taking a look at this old favorite as it has some tonal qualities not found in many modern pedals. Plus who doesn’t love the classic orange box?

Buy one now on Reverb