Chase Bliss Preamp Mk II vs The World (Dumbloid, King of Tone, Broadcast, Fuzz Factory 7)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ม.ค. 2025
- I finally bit the bullet and purchased a Preamp Mk II Automatone from Chase Bliss and have decided to shoot it out again the gain pedals currently on my board. Here I run through the presets I came up with to match the Analogman King of Tone (running at 18v), Hudson Broadcast 24v, Shin's Music Dumbloid BTM Boost and ZVex Fuzz Factory 7 (black glass version). After a couple nights of comparing and playing around, I can say with certainty that the Automatone is well worth the $750 asking price.
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socks man, for all us viewers out here, socks please.
I’ll try my best
Haha more for me then!
I don't get the deal with seeing feet.
Some people are foot phobic and some have a foot fetish. The rest of us don’t care either way.
Thanks for making this, Got mines a few weeks ago, pairing it with a HX Effects but putting it in the fx loop in HX effects for more control & midi control then going into a Victory Kraken V4 amp, endless possibilities & a small board too boot!
That’s pretty awesome, nice and flexible.
too bad the hx fx loop sucks so much tone :(
@@andryymusic I havent had any "tone" loss
Dude nice playing
Thanks for the kind words!
That was an impressive demo !!
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I have mine coming tomorrow - I already have the MC8 can't wait. I am taking screen shots for settings !!!
Awesome! The MC8 is a perfect match for it and is so easy to program using their html interface. I was trying to come up with a better way of sharing presets via CC messages, but got rid of my MC8 before I could get them all sorted out. Screenshot will get you a good starting point though.
@@GuitarTonePro Ok thanks , do you still use the PreampmkII ?
All the time. It’s a staple on my board now, and I swap other drives on and off for other “flavor” options and stacking. Only got rid of the MC8 because I have a Gigrig G3 on order.
Awesome!!! I'm loving my preamp mkii! Got rid of a Hudson Broadcast, Hudson Sidecar, and Sunface for it and ended up with a bit more savings. Like you said, the $750 seems like a lot until you realize the vast capabilities!
Got some nice preset ideas from your vid too, thanks!
With midi you can set the the exact position of each slider, so what I’m thinking is writing down presets based on midi so you can have even more presets, as long as you have a controller that can send enough messages. Probably post something on my site soon, to exchange presets exactly, but yeah it totally rocks!
@@GuitarTonePro that would be awesome! I'm thinking about making my next purchase be a morningstar mc6 or mc8
Well worth it. The MC8 so far is super easy to program. Plug it into the computer via usb (powered over usb) and pull up their website to program. Makes complex menus and stuff a breeze.
@@GuitarTonePro good to know, thanks!
@@GuitarTonePro i just got an MC8 and considering this pedal now.
And this is the number one reason I love my automatone. It is sort of like the kemper of dirt pedals. There is not a single bad tone in that box. Mine is always on.....always.
I agree to an extent. Which is part of the reason I got rid of it as well as many Kempers. But like the Kemper, I’ll probably pick another one up eventually.
@@GuitarTonePro 😂😂😂😂, I know the feeling.
There's a ton of bad tones in there! Mess up the E.Q. and it can be way too fizzy or muddy. But it does make for a good "parts" pedal. (meaning a very specific tone for a specific part in a song)
@@user-oy7gz5bf2hI think that can be the case with any pedal that has a multitude of tweakable controls. I play a helix now anyway so 😂😂
“Bad” tones don’t really exist. But certainly there are as many tones in there that you won’t like as ones you will. I picked another one up recently to use for more niche creative sounds. You can really get a lot of variety with a small q mid setting.
Great demo , no one else’s pointed out these fader issues , in a live settings it could be annoying, thx
Thanks, I found it really surprising no one mentions the noise floor when using the mid boost circuit. With some amps it can be quite bad and requires you turn the pedal off to cut the noise since it doesn’t decrease with the guitars volume.
Man, how could you not want one seeing what you can replace and make more room on your board for other things.
Yeah totally agree. Though I’m putting many of those pedals back in a rotation. They’re still different to play with even if you can get the same tones, they inspire different tweaking.
@@GuitarTonePro Also you pretty much have to have these other pedals just to even try and dial that tone in. Not something you can do off of a video.
Yeah. The one quirk to the Automatone layout is that the sliders are reeeally sensitive. Which means they’re powerful, but the tiniest bump can really alter the tone.
Really enjoyable video and very useful comparison against some of the big names. For me, the Tomatotone (copyright TPS) did a great job. Despite the TH-cam limitations, I still preferred the Dumbloid (I’ve owned that one and currently have their Clean Drive) - they have a lovely airyness that is quite hard to match. I appreciate that the differences disappear even further in a recorded or live mix, but there is something about feel of the Shin’s stuff that I like. The CB Preamp is still an amazing pedal though, and I agree with you about value for money based on emulating all those pedals with presets.
Thanks! And I agree that Shin’s stuff is amazing. When playing around the night before I found I could match the tone and feel of the Dumbloid very close, but where it didn’t match up was the reactive nature of the Dumbloid. This was especially apparent when I swapped guitar between a low output SVL and much higher output McCarty.
I'm glad I saw this comment and thread... I was just about to pony up the money for the Tomatotone to replace a Shin's Music Dumbloid Twin and Shin's Music Drive King Jr primarily.
So it really depends on how you use it. If you primarily use one tone from each pedal, than it is still an option. It can get really close or match the tone and feel of a Dumbloid, but cleans up a bit different on the guitars volume or when switching guitars. For me, I prefer the way the Preamp Mk II reacts most of the time, but find different inspiration from the Dumbloid due to focused tone/control set where the Preamp is like a “ginsu“ Swiss Army knife having too many tones to choose from. If you want more options, get one, if you just want to replace 2 pedals, might be better off keeping them.
@@GuitarTonePro I'll probably eventually get a Tomatotone because I really like Joel and Chase Bliss and it sounds so good... And also because it's guitar gear lol
But I'm also happy to know that the Shin's stuff still has some magic that can't quite be replicated.
@@jt3483 I got the CXM reverb for the same reason! Big fan of their creativity. I’ve held back on the Tomato because I haven’t heard a drive sound that I prefer from that pedal versus the originals. Obviously the Tomato gets very close to loads of pedals, and fuzzes, so it’s a total Swiss Army knife. I got the CB Brothers for the same reason a few years ago. Fab pedal for versatility, especially on a tight board, but the drives and fuzzes don’t sound as good to my ear as the single pedals personally. Also worth noting that the Tomato and CXM are MASSIVE in the metal - gotta love those faders - so leave a lot of space on your board! The Shin’s are great, and I find the same with Vemuram, which I pretty much always wind up with one of on any board.
So did you sell as you showed that these super rare and pretty elite pedals are now redundant?
Nope, just the opposite actually. Sold the Preamp Mk II. At volume it is pretty noisy if you have the mids turned up and I prefer the tones of the boutique pedals in the end. See my latest video which is of my pedalboard using the GigRig G3 as the brain.
@@GuitarTonePro Wow; I'm amazed. i have one coming and that'a not a great endorsement! Ouch...tx. for saying.
It’s something that isn’t mentioned much. I tried twice to make a video demonstrating it, but it doesn’t come through on youtube without a separate mic. Still an amazing pedal and I’ll probably pick up another one eventually.
Thanks for your honest input. I'll see how it goes before making a wild decision. Great video regardless. TX!
As a quick follow up, I rewatched Paul David’s video on the Automatone and you can clearly hear the noise a few different times.
Hi just received mine. I noticed a quiet annoying hiss that I don't have on the pedas I tried to match. I m on the same ball park of you. Did you hear something when you engage the pedal but don't play? It comes more evident when you go over the middle position with both of volume and gain and even more when you engage the mid button.
Interesting, I’ll give it a closer listen today. What amp and guitar are you using, and what pedals are you trying to clone? Also what power supply are you using?
@@GuitarTonePro few amps.. based on some classic fender tone. I have emulated a klon centaur, a tumnus delux, a ts808 and a fuzz face. Power supply is from gigrig system which is really dead quiet. All those pedal don’t give a noticeable noise like the automatone. That drives me crazy. Because of the price of that pedal 🙃
Let me know.. even when you only engage it. You hear like a digital process. Like a shhhhhhh
That’s really strange, I don’t get any noise beyond a standard overdrive pedal hum. Are you getting that noise even when you set it clean at unity gain? If so your unit might be defective, definitely contact Chase Bliss and see what they say as it doesn’t sound right to me.
@@GuitarTonePro what do you wanna mean by unity? All in the middle? Possible to send you a video somewhere? Email or fb or insta?
Unity gain refers to where the volume going to the amp is the same when the pedal is turned on/off. Feel free to send me an email admin (at) guitartonepro (dot) com
I wanted to love the Automatone, but it always sounds a bit more mushy than the other pedals :(
Really? Mushy is definitely not a word I would use to describe it other than the fuzz. Maybe pushing the mids too much? The only downside I found with it, which is a big downside, is the noise it makes when you engage the mid in it’s pre-gain setting. It’s a noise that doesn’t go away when turning down the guitar, so it’s harder to deal with.
@@GuitarTonePro What you mean? A hiss?
Yeah, it has a hiss/hum that doesn’t change volume with the guitar volume. When playing loud it becomes very noticeable.
@@GuitarTonePro Now that's interesting. Maybe material for a follow-up video. Would like to hear someone talk about the longtime experience with the pedal anyways, because there was concern regarding the longevity of the faders also.
I actually got rid of mine (though I do have another on the way this summer). The faders I’m sure are fine as they used studio quality components that should last no problem unless stepped on. I did try to make a video about the noise, but didn’t have a good way to setup extra mics. I was surprised you don’t see it mentioned in videos as it’s a deal breaker for at least a few people I spoke with.
What am I missing here? While the Chase Bliss ability to match tones is impressive, none of those overdrive pedal tones were impressive. Surely you could get more out of the Dumbloid. Is it that the two-rock bloomfield amp is a pedal killer? When I drove miles to check a bloomfield out with my es335, I was so disappointed. The kid next to me blew my tone into shreds with a strat thru a Mesa Mk5 and no pedals on either amp. And I don't need 70's or 80's dumble hi gain to satisfy my ears. Maybe you could get those tones if you cranked the Bloomfield to an ear-splitting volume. But the point of a drive pedal is to not have to do that
Sounds like my recording ability is letting you down. This was recorded pretty loud, which is really hard to capture with just SM57. The goal of the video is to show how close you could get in tone to many expensive pedals to show that while very expensive, the Chase Bliss Pre Amp Mk II is comparatively a good value.
@@GuitarTonePro the Chase Bliss seems like an incredible value and great pedal board downsizer. But how would I know the ballpark of where each of those tone matching settings were without the other pedals to work with, and then it seems a challenge. Maybe I can find a library of great (approx) settings on line to work from. And, as for a real Dumbloid pedal, I don't have a real Dumble amp to reference tones from anyway. (Anyway great demo!)
Definitely a challenge for sure. As far as a board downsizer, I would say maybe. It is a big deep pedal so unless you have 3 drives you can replace with it, probably not. I see it honestly as more of a studio / session tool where you don’t want to have 6 hooked up, but want a wide variety of gain tones. A big strength is the tone stack letting you put the mids before or after the gain as it not only affects the tone, but the feel quite a lot.
First
Thanks for coming!