In anticipation of “The Pedal Movie,” Reverb's upcoming feature-length documentary on the history and culture of the stompbox, we're stoked to announce two insanely cool collaborative releases from four legendary pedal companies (EarthQuaker Devices + Death By Audio and Chase Bliss Audio + Zvex) available now exclusively on Reverb.
All four of these makers will be featured in the film, and these pedals reflect their stories and the collaborative energy of the boutique pedal industry. Keep scrolling for a brand-new sneak peek from the upcoming documentary below.
The first new pedal is called the Bliss Factory and is a collaboration between Chase Bliss Audio and Zvex. In the simplest terms, the brands describe the pedal as "a souped-up Fuzz Factory with digital control and a resonant lowpass filter," which sounds like the best of both brands' worlds. As is evident by many of the interviews conducted for “The Pedal Movie,” the Fuzz Factory ranks as one of the most influential pedals of the boutique era, and this new version represents the most ambitious take on the classic yet.
In fact, Chase Bliss founder Joel Korte has wanted to make this pedal for quite some time. Korte started his pedal-building career under Zvex founder Zachary Vex, and after striking out on his own, the pair hadn't spoken in years—until "The Pedal Movie" interviews brought them back together. “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,” Korte said. "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 two-germanium-transistor fuzz features a five-knob control layout, with each knob named for the parameter it has the most control over—but, in true Chase Bliss fashion, the titular parameter isn't all that knob controls. Every knob and switch on the Bliss Factory is connected to a digital brain that allows for hyper-specific control while leaving your guitar signal 100% analog and never digitally processed. All of your settings can also be stored in presets and/or controlled with an expression pedal.
The second exclusive pedal is a modulation effect called the Time Shadows made by our friends at EarthQuaker Devices and Death By Audio. Each company tackled one side of the dual-circuit stompbox, managing to make an effect with two wildly unique sides that complement each other perfectly.
Flipping the switch to the right gives you the Death By Audio side—a multi-delay filter "remorphinator" that promises everything from icy shimmers to cavernous caves of bouncing repeats. Flip the Time Shadows' switch to the left for the Jamie Stillman-designed EQD side, which is a pitch-morphed fuzz delay filter that works by saturating your input signal with digital distortion, blending it with a polyphonic sub octave, feeding that into a delay, and then spitting it out into a highly resonant envelope-controlled lowpass filter.
These super special pedals are extremely limited and only available on Reverb, so we encourage you to act fast if you're hoping to grab one. Visit Reverb's "The Pedal Movie" Shop, or click on the pedals above directly to get your own.
Anyone who purchases one of these limited edition pedals will also get free access to a rental of "The Pedal Movie" documentary upon its release in early 2021. Click here for more details on the documentary, and check out the new trailer below.