Minnesota-based pedal maker Chase Bliss has its roots firmly ingrained in the soil of doing things differently, and its latest pedal, the Condor HiFi, continues that with aplomb.
Described as "part EQ, filter and overdrive pedal", the purely analog pedal is stocked with plenty of reasons for guitar players to never want to turn it off.
Chase Bliss is quick to acknowledge this isn’t an entirely brand new concept; the Condor has been in its arsenal for many years, but it’s received two significant updates that warrant the ‘HiFi’ postnominal.
Firstly, the pedal has “borrowed” the power supply from its Preamp MKII pedal to deliver internal boosting up to 30V. It responds to playing in real-time, offering a favorable amount of headroom for freely boosting the EQ of whatever instrument it’s paired with.
Under the hood, there are now OPA1662 op amps. These pack a higher fidelity sound whilst minimizing noise and providing an entirely different clipping character.
As company founder Joel Korte explains, this change gives the pedal a “vivid character where you need it and absolute transparency where you don’t”.
So, what does this reinvigorated pedal actually do? Well, if your instrument’s signal is a block of wood, then the Condor HiFi is a sculptor ready to shape its sound into (almost) whatever you desire.
The drive side of things can dial in clean boosts, turning a bald signal into a roaring Sasquatch, or deliver a saturated crunch, if that’s your jam.
Gain controls interact with the EQ to redraw the character of the drive, with Chase Bliss saying that cranking the pre-gain bass control dramatically pushes the pedal’s output. Using the post-gain mids and LPF controls, meanwhile, adds more resonance to the pedal’s punch.
In short, it sets about splitting up the frequencies of your signal, adding fresh EQ sculpting to each segment. There's up to 18db of boost or cut from its mids control.
Control-wise, there are six dials – for gain, frequency, volume, bass, mids, and LPF – with three switches helping you reshape your frequency's waveforms. There are two footswitches: one for drive/hold, and one for bypassing its magic, which is something Chase Bliss hopes you never feel the need to do.
MIDI, CV, and expression pedal controls are also available, as well as an internal memory for banking presets. Hidden within the Condor, its internal modulations cook up everything from tremolos and effects that can only be given the descriptor 'weird'.
With more headroom than its predecessor, Korte has sought to maximize the Condor's to avoid the clipping the Condor often produced – although he admits that side effect can be “cool, interesting, and dangerous.”
“We got this sound that was so gross before,” he says of the original Condor pedal. "We were all mad about it. Now it's all fucked up but in a really cool way.”
“Jump from warm, smoky tones to raw overdrive in an instant,” says Chase Bliss. “Punch in some jangly radio charm for the verse and cutting resonance for the solo. Part EQ, part filter, and part overdrive, it’s an all-in-one solution to crafting your core tone.”
For Condor owners reading this green with envy – or red with rage – fear not. For $49, Chase Bliss will replace the guts of the original units with its fancy new circuitry and then send the pedal back to its now envy-free owner.
There will be 2,000 of these pedals made, with the first 1,000 built and ready to be shipped. The remaining circuit boards are being held back to give existing Condor owners a chance to send their units in for electrical transplants.
It's important to note that the deadline for doing so is May 31. Afterwards, it’s light out at the Chase Bliss pedal surgery.
The release of the Condor HiFi marks a strong start to the year for Chase Bliss, following on from 2023 which saw it releasing the lo-fi stompbox, Lossy, which makes your guitar sound like a broken cellphone. That came after the Mood MKII, a spatial effects pedal that we described as "part Wes Anderson, part tonal fever dream".
The Condor HiFi is available for $399, with Chase Bliss offering free shipping for US customers.
For more information about the dizzyingly versatile pedal, head to Chase Bliss.
