The wild, one-of-a-kind effects, inspired by the new Pedal Movie, are available exclusively on Reverb
(Image credit: Reverb)
To our knowledge, there’s only one thing better than an awesome new effects pedal collaboration – two awesome new effect pedal collabos.
Which is just what we have here, with the uber-cool Chase Bliss & Z.Vex Bliss Factory and the EarthQuaker Devices & Death By Audio Time Shadows, both of which are now available in limited-edition runs of 1,000 each on Reverb.
The stompboxes are inspired by Reverb’s upcoming full-length documentary, The Pedal Movie, which explores the history and culture of effects pedals and features conversations with all four brands.
(Image credit: Reverb)
The Bliss Factory, a first-time collaboration between Chase Bliss Audio founder Joel Korte and Z.Vex founder Zachary Vex, is Chase Bliss’s spin on Z.Vex’s classic Fuzz Factory pedal. It’s a five-knob, two germanium transistor fuzz with a digital control and a Korte-designed low pass filter for extra harmonics and texture.
“I’ve wanted to make this pedal forever – I’ve thought about this thing and really wanted to make it for some time with Zachary,” says Korte, who began his pedal-making career under Vex.
“Now the Bliss Factory is one of my favorite things I’ve ever worked on. I had high expectations and I’m just so pleased with the way it all fit together.”
The new Time Shadows, meanwhile, is also a first-time collaboration between EarthQuaker Devices founder Jamie Stillman and Death By Audio founder Oliver “Ollie” Ackermann. The circuit is an “experimental split,” with EarthQuaker’s pitch-morphed fuzz delay on one side and DBA’s multi-delay filter on the other.
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(Image credit: Reverb)
“It’s an insane synth buzz bazooka sound on the EarthQuaker side and a multi-intertwined delay filter remorphinator of cosmic waves on the Death By Audio side,” Ackermann says of the pedal’s sound.
The Bliss Factory is available for $399, while the Time Shadows is offered for $199. A purchase of either also includes priority access to The Pedal Movie upon its release next year.
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.