Chase Bliss BROTHERS AM Review (2025) [EXCITING KoT Dual Overdrive]
By my estimation, Chase Bliss should be considered a boutique pedal builder. I fully realize that terms such as ‘bespoke’ and ‘boutique’ have become industry buzz words ad nauseam, but Chase Bliss’s BrAM truly does deserve to be considered as such. Like most nearly anything that’s a cut above, both in terms of quality and design, BrAM does require a substantial financial outlay -- actually, it comes at a very similar price point as the King of Tone itself requires. Where things become dramatically divergent, however, is that at the time of this publication, potential customers have to wait no fewer than six years (yes, 6 YEARS) on Analog.man’s waitlist in order to buy a KoT. Meanwhile, you can snag Brothers AM directly from Chase Bliss for the tidy sum of $399 USD, but you’ll typically only have to wait for a few delivery days to get it – certainly no longer than a few brief weeks.
Preamble Part 1 – Analog.man’s King of Tone
So, you’ve heard the stories, you’ve watched the videos, and you’ve searched through online forums, but the renowned King of Tone vibe remains elusive and difficult to procure. For most of us, we breathe out our disappointment with sighs of dejection and turn our attention to other well-deserving, more easily accessed alternatives such as, JHS’s Morning Glory, Wampler’s Pantheon, or MXR’s Duke of Tone. The latter being a previous collaboration between Dunlop and Analog.man, but more in keeping with Analog.man’s “Prince of Tone” overdrive pedal.
Just in case you’re a casual player who doesn’t dive too deeply into pedal-ology, nor suffers from chronic *Pedalitis, there’s an off chance you didn’t realize that the aforementioned overdrive pedals are all more-or-less based on the iconic Marshall Blues Breaker circuit. While the original Blues Breaker pedal was loved for its distinctive, throaty and creamy tone, it was not without its shortcomings. Namely, it fell victim to a relatively high noise floor; it also had a hard time keeping up with unity gain levels. As a low to mid gain overdrive with very modest output, you couldn’t utilize a Blues Breaker as an effective clean boost. Lastly, the original Blues Breaker was a bit of a tone-suck scoundrel too, but ya didn’t hear that from me. *Wink.
**Pedalitis is a not-so-rare form of compulsive pedal collecting disorder that many electric guitarists inexplicably seem to suffer from.
For some mysterious reason, Marshall stopped producing the Blues Breaker pedal in its original schema, and revised the product as “Blues Breaker II” in 1992. Nevertheless, it seems that the preferred model amongst avid collectors is the original, circa 1991. For the next 10 or 12 years, anyone who wanted the “Blues Breaker” sound, was pretty much constrained to securing one of the various iterations of Marshall’s own offerings.
Praise the Lord and pass the patch cable, because in 2003, one of the most beloved drive pedals to have ever been stomped, was created by a relatively unknown pedal-modder/electronics tech by the name of Mike Piera. Better known to musicians-in-the-know by his moniker, “Analog Mike”, he collaborated with his buddy, Jim Weider (The Band), to develop a Blues Breaker-inspired pedal that would take everything that the original was known for, but deliver all the sumptuous BB tone with boutique upgrades and features. The newly minted boutique box was christened, “King of Tone”. The timing of that monumental release couldn’t have been better planned – the Marshall Blues Breaker had gone out of production and was no longer being sold in local shops.
At last! A hand wired, all analog Blues Breaker (clone-but-not-a-clone?) was available; albeit quite obscurely since it could only be ordered directly from Analog.man - located in Bethel, Connecticut, USA. For the first few years of King of Tone’s production, Analog Mike built each and every KoT by hand himself. Soon, the Analog.man company grew and qualified personnel were hired to help keep up with the increasing demand. Nevertheless, this small, grass roots, boutique pedal shop relied on nothing more than word-of-mouth to gain notoriety. As such, only the most avid collectors and ardent tone chasers knew about Analog.man and the company’s stupendous boutique fare. Long passed legendary devices of rock n’ roll royalty, such as Rangemaster Treble Boosters, germanium Fuzz Faces, and Unicord Univibes were being re-imagined and made available to discriminating connoisseurs of tone.
Alas, many of the high quality components used to build KoTs are now rare and unobtainable. Over the years, Analog.man had quite literally stock piled certain integral components - many of which originated in Japan. Once the supply has been depleted, adaba da abada, that’ll be all, folks – they will be gone for good. According to Analog Mike, replacing any of the original-recipe components in the King of Tone would result in it being changed unfavourably (in his opinion). This also is a very pertinent reason for the inability of any copycat pedal to truly ‘nail’ the famous King of Tone sound.
Until very recently, that is . . . Preamble Part II - Enter Brothers AM
“Nobody saw this coming!”
There’s no way to truly replicate Mike’s process, everything is simply too personal and hand-crafted (and made with finite, vintage NOS components). So we decided to focus on the aspects of the King of Tone that we could expand and take further. Instead of labouring over a perfect recreation, we decided to make an expanded counterpart.” – Joel Korte, Founder/Owner of Chase Bliss Audio
What’s In The Box?
At A Glance
One more mini toggle sits inconspicuously between the pair of near silent, relay-based foot switches at the bottom – the presets switch. In its center position, the pedal controls are all ‘live’, but two onboard presets are available by flicking this switch to either the left or the right. You are actually given two additional presets by setting the ‘BANK’ mini dip switch to ‘ON’ (located at the front of the pedal).
There are three easily-noticed LED indicators just above the foot switches: one for each respective channel, and one to show you when the pedal is engaging one of the onboard presets (presets mini toggle switched to the left, or to the right). When a channel is active and operating in default (normal) gain mode, its respective LED turns bright green. If the channel has its optional 25 percent gain boost applied, the LED will be bright red while the channel is engaged.
If you would like to permanently save your pedal settings to one of the onboard preset slots, press and hold a foot switch for three seconds; the presets LED will turn green. Then press and hold the alternate foot switch for three more seconds. The presets LED will flash a few times, indicating that your settings have been saved. If you want your settings to be saved to the presets switch’s left position, you begin by first holding down the left foot switch. Likewise, do the same process in the opposite order for the right-side slot.
Digital Brain, Analogue Heart
As convenient, useful and multi-purposeful as modern digital modeling technology has become, most tone purists would zealously argue that absolutely nothing bests a really good sounding analog dirt pedal – I’m one of them. I too appreciate the pristine preciseness of top-flight digital effects, just as much as the next guy. For example, who could argue with the amazing algorithmic triumphs produced by Eventide and Strymon – especially with regard to their time-based FX, such as delays and reverbs? Be that as it may, when it comes to compression and overdrive, no computed algorithm that I’ve heard, or have experimented with, has yet to come close in direct side-by-side comparisons with upper class analogue kit.
Chase Bliss claims that this pedal has an analog heart, and boy, they are NOT kidding! This contraption plenteously pours out analog deliciousness as effortlessly as ice cold sweet tea goes down on a mid-summer’s day in South Georgia! It’s all here! Huge tone enhancement, perfect responsiveness to pick attack, rich harmonics, and that unmistakable analog magic that seems to invisibly envelop each and every note with organic mellifluousness. (organic mellifluousness?? . . . I had to pay extra to copyright that phrase.)
BrAM’s digital brain is what enables a user to incorporate this otherwise analog rock star into a modern, midi-driven setup with ease. Unlike a purely analog stomp box, Brothers AM accommodates user presets! Via an external MIDI switcher, BrAM is capable of storing, and recalling presets. But even if you’re an ol’ skool pedal stomper like me, and you don’t utilize any sort of external midi control apparatus, BrAM lets you easily recall a couple of presets by means of its ‘Presets’ mini toggle. Actually, you have four onboard presets, but as I’d noted in the previous section, you have to flip the ‘BANK’ mini DIP Switch at the top of the pedal to access the alternate preset bank. Extensive Control
Where Brothers AM pulls way out ahead of the original King of Tone and wins the gold, is on the MIDI relay track. It’s not even a contest, since the KoT doesn’t integrate any sort of MIDI or expression functionality. When connected to a compatible MIDI controller, BrAM is capable of storing (and recalling) 122 user presets! I honestly can’t imagine that anyone would require over a hundred overdrive and/or clean boost variations from a single overdrive pedal, but nevertheless, the functionality is available. Beyond presets navigation, you can also engage/deactivate most nearly all of BrAM’s functions and features via MIDI. For example, you can activate the treble boost, or change the treble boost mode, or switch the gain structure mode, or turn the additional Gain boost on, and . . . well, you get the idea – all remotely via MIDI.
Be sure to check out my in-depth review of the Mission Engineering EP-1 Expression Pedal - Click here
The Same, But Different
It is my understanding that both sides of Brothers AM are theoretically identical, with the sole distinction between them being a Treble Boost circuit - which is exclusive to channel one. Each channel can be configured to function as a clean boost, an overdrive, or as a distortion pedal via its respective (channel dependent) mini toggle switch. The two channels can be used in tandem or individually, but generally, channel one pipes into channel two, making for awesome sounding in-series setups that range from subtle to octane-fueled volume boosting, all the way through to face-ripping overdrive and distortion.
How Does It Sound?
I venture to guess that the foremost question on the minds of most eager-beaver, prospective BrAM buyers is this: “Does it really sound like a King of Tone?”
Let me assure you that this pedal does indeed deliver a highly convincing KoT experience.
Very much in keeping with the original Marshall Blues Breaker’s style of smooth, creamy, toneful overdrive (and subsequently the King of Tone’s), Brothers AM delivers that same kind of delicious saturation and tone enhancement in spades! Even if you crank both channels’ Gain knobs to their max, with both channels set to Distortion mode, BrAM will retain exemplary note definition and clarity – even while playing full chords! The varying degrees of overdrive are smooth and sophisticated; harmonics are distinctive, complex and sumptuously pleasing to the ear. Although BrAM can be twiddled to produce gads of high end sizzle, it doesn’t come out sounding fizzy or brittle.
What? You’re concerned about its response to pick attack and your guitar’s volume knob settings? Fuhget about it, already! This is one of the most “amp-like-sensitive” pedals I’ve ever played through. BrAM responds to playing dynamics very nicely; it cleans up when you play delicately, and it snarls when you hit it a bit harder.
Boost: As a clean boost, BrAM holds up the headroom ceiling with Samson-like prowess. In this mode, Brothers AM is the most full-ranged and open sounding that it can be; it’s also the loudest. Boost mode takes your original tone and enriches it, making it ‘more gooder’. There is a tonne of (clean) gain/level on tap here, so if your objective is to pummel the input of your tube amp, causing copious amounts of natural tube overdrive to ensue, this one’s your Huckleberry for sure. Although it is possible to generate light amounts of (internal) soft clipping in Boost mode, you’ll most likely need to dial the gain knob up to 3 o’clock or higher to achieve it. For reference, my over wound Telecaster bridge pickup doesn’t produce any clipping in Boost mode unless I set the Gain knob to 3 o’clock, and even then, I have to really dig in before it starts to break up. Understandably, soft clipping might occur at a lower gain setting if you’re playing a guitar equipped with hot, high-output humbuckers.
OD/Overdrive: I think it’s safe to say that this is where both KoT and BrAM live the most comfortably. The Overdrive mode epitomizes that classic, quintessential King of Tone sound - the natural, transparent type of very-slightly-mid-boosted drive that brings misty-eyed joy to many a grown man. There’s no annoying, exaggerated “green screamer” mid hump to be heard; instead, the critical mid range frequencies are embellished beautifully in true, ‘just right’ Goldilocks fashion. Here, your original tone is lusciously enhanced; bathed in characterful, chewy, analog sweetness that can’t help but inspire, provoke and excite your guitar-ian sensibilities. Oh yeah, baby – this is the domain where tone is King!
Much like the OG Marshall Blues Breaker, and subsequently the King of Tone, BrAM’s default Overdrive gain structure sits relaxingly in the low to mid gain camp. You’re really not going to traverse into moderate crunch territory here, especially with single coil pickups, unless you dime the Gain knob. Thankfully, an additional 25 percent gain boost is easily activated on the crown of the pedal by means of a mini DIP switch (there are two Gain DIP switches – one per channel). Personally, I like to keep channel 1’s ‘Gain’ mini DIP set to ‘ON’ permanently. With the extra gain enabled, BrAM can churn out some very tasty, satisfying crunch. It’s easy to scale the amount of overdrive back, but once you’ve maxed the Gain knob (in default gain mode), there’s nowhere left to go. As such, I really dig having that extra 25 percent of saturation to play with. ;)
Distortion: In my honest opinion, labeling this mode as ‘Distortion’ is a bit of a misnomer. To my ears, the Distortion mode sounds very similar to the Overdrive – just somewhat gain-ier and more compressed. Although the distortion circuit does enlist a more aggressive type of clipping than the OD does, it still sounds much softer than that of a BOSS DS-1 or ProCo Rat. If a BOSS DS-1 were represented as a beach pail filled with fine grained, compacted sand, you could think of BrAM’s distortion mode as a gently heaped mound of course, loose gravel – there’s still space around the the notes, as it were. Instead of your notes being perfunctorily hard clipped, and stripped of most of their natural dynamics, BrAM’s distortion mode produces rounder edges and smoother aural textures – they retain a good amount of transient and attack, instead of just being squared off jaggedly. It sounds vastly more musical and organic (Arghhh! I resorted to taking advantage of over-used, wearisome buzzwords again).
Huge, singing sustain and rich, harmonic saturation are the most obvious characteristics presented here — absolutely perfect for big, bendy leads. The Distortion’s tonality is very much the same kind of delectable, ear-pleasing timbre heard in the Overdrive mode; albeit, I don’t find that the lower mid range here is as chewy and full sounding. I suspect that this small, but noticeable tonal variance is due to the compression element of the circuit clamping down harder on lower (but higher energy) notes. Distortion mode is also the lowest in output volume – don’t worry though, there is more than enough output level available to compensate for the lessened dynamic range, courtesy of the Volume knob.
IMPORTANT! — Don’t for a single moment think I’m reporting that BrAM is thin or anemic sounding. No, no, no! I’m merely pointing out that its Distortion mode doesn’t bear the same muscular low mids presence that a King-of-Tone does. As a general statement, BrAM retains a MUCH fuller frequency response than most overdrive pedals do - especially Tubescreamer and Klon types. 
Ok, enough already! How close does it actually get to sounding like the REAL King of Tone?!
I guesstimate that Brothers AM will take you 93 to 96 percent of the way to KoT-ville. No KoT copycat attempt, by any other pedal builder, has come anywhere close to achieving the fantabulous results that BrAM carries off. Nonetheless, there are a couple of subtle dissemblances between the Analog.man original and this promising, newly-collaborated counterpart. Before we delve too deeply into the audio dissection though, l want to make it emphatically clear that the slight shades of difference are just that – subtle and slight.
Low Mids Magic: First, the King of Tone possesses a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ with regard to how it emulsifies low mids. The KoT seems to coat your signal’s low mids with a delicious, ever-so-slightly-thickened sonic sauce that creates an extra degree of tonal dimension, without becoming overbearing or muddy sounding. Brothers AM does not impart that exact same kind of low mids oomph. To my ears, BrAM comes across with improved articulation in the upper mids and highs, and a flatter EQ curve in the bottom end and low mids. Perhaps it even marginally rolls off a smidge of low mids, especially when it’s in Distortion mode. On the unit I have (1st batch after initial release, I think), I discern this particular tonal difference on the second channel a little bit more readily; channel 1 seems to be just a tad fuller sounding. Again, we’re talking about dialing in the ‘ear calipers’ to measure the minutest of sonic differentia.
Now before you huff n’ snort, and impatiently dismiss Brothers AM because it doesn’t deal out the exact same kind of low mids treatment that a KoT does, consider this: In a typical recording or live band scenario, tighter (low) mid range is a greatly appreciated benefit since it would be unlikely that your recording or band’s overall sound would suffer from muddy (low mids) build up. Sure, hefty, warm tones sound great whilst you’re playing on your tod in the basement, but those same warm tones can turn into a mud-fest very quickly in a full mix. Generally speaking, I find that BrAM maintains a wider, more hifi frequency spectrum than its forbearer; it can be made to sound a little more open and airy, where the KoT seems to cruise in an ever-so-slightly narrower frequency lane. Of course, you can certainly make BrAM sound more rounded by rolling back its tone control(s), but in general, you’ll require less clockwise rotation on its tone knobs than that typically dialed-in on a King of Tone.
What is a Treble Booster?
For general overdrive use, I don’t engage the treble boost feature on Brothers AM, but there are a couple of scenarios in which it totally becomes an elite secret weapon for me. For example, using my old Epiphone Sheraton II (Korean, 2007) - that’s still valiantly enduring its original factory-fitted Epiphone ‘mudbuckers’ - I am able to wrangle up one of the coolest, most ear-grinning blues tones I’ve ever heard. In the neck position, with the tone knob rolled down a little on the guitar, I can achieve an articulate, vocal, “woman” tone by flipping BrAM’s Treble boost switch to the right. This is the classic, ‘Beano’ option; combining it with a modest gain setting in Overdrive mode creates a marvelous, distinctive blues flavour à la Deluxe. The resultant tone floats somewhere between ‘cocked wah’ and ‘cranked old tweed’. Instead of cringing under a wash of hackneyed Epiphone mud-buckery, I get caught up into a Bonamassa-worthy cloud of tone euphoria.
Concluding Remarks
I readily admit that I too am one of the umpteen thousands of guitarists whom has longed for an Analog.man, “King of Tone”, longer than I care to admit. I’m in my latter 50s now, so to be completely honest with you, signing up to a six year(+) waitlist (or longer), plus waiting for however long it would take for the pedal to be hand built and shipped to me, has caused me to shy away from adding my name to the KoT pool. After all, I wouldn’t get the blessed box-of-tone until I was 65 years of age or older! There is such a thing as diminishing returns, ya know. . .
When the head-snapping announcement came across my desk that Chase Bliss Audio had just released this totally unexpected overdrive pedal (April, 2025), following five secretive years of project R&D, and collaboration with ‘the man’ himself, I was totally stoked! Could it possibly be? Was there finally an honest-to-God, authentic KoT stand-in capable of reproducing that elusive, bigger-than-life, overdriven tone of regal renown? Having deeply investigated the compression greatness of Chase Bliss’s previous offering, the Clean Compressor, I was more than a little hopeful and expectant that Brothers AM would deliver everything that Chase Bliss promised it could – and maybe even more. Still, I wasn’t about to let fan-driven hyperbole sway me from the facts.
At the time of this publication (July 05, 2025), I’ve had my Brothers AM pedal for approximately eight weeks. Needless to say, I’ve put it through its paces with unrelenting intrigue and fastidious scrutiny. Just because it’s purple, and just because it bears the logos of two of the most distinguished names in pedal building history, and just because it’s presented as a more evolved King-of-Tone counterpart, were not reasons enough to influence my honest findings. As it turns out, I am absolutely over the moon with BrAM’s ability to deliver exactly what was promised by Chase Bliss. This little purple pedal eater sounds freakin’ awesome!
Has Brothers AM dethroned my Wampler Pantheon to reign over Blues Breaker-ish land? No, no it hasn’t; I like both of those respective Blues Breaker-y options very much. One thing that the Pantheon has over BrAM though, is its potential for big, bodacious bottom end and low mids (thanks to the Pantheon’s three-band EQ with active bass control). My sole, ‘armchair-tech’ recommendation to Joel Korte and the Chase Bliss fam, is that they consider adding one more hidden option; perhaps another mini toggle switch, to facilitate an optional 1.5 dB POST-Gain low mids bump. Barring that single suggestion, I gladly go on record to say that Brothers AM is indeed a highly respectable counterpart to the royal King-of-Tone. As a clean boost that seems to have a somethin’-special, fairy-dust quality about it, it’s unrivaled. As a KoT-type overdrive, it’s the best I’ve ever heard.
Here are a few videos that are extremely relevant to this review. Enjoy.
Stay in the Loop - Subscribe Today!
Brother Charles is a freelance writer, Gospel music artist and minister. Charles had been a professional touring musician during the nineties; working primarily as a lead guitarist in the Canadian country music industry. Brother Charles is also involved with music production and quality home recording."
2 Comments
Average Joe Blough
7/16/2025 04:55:27 am
Wow! Great review of a really great pedal!! I’ve been wanting a king of tone since years now… Lol… But I didn’t wanna have to wait a long time either. I really, really wanna get one of these brothers a.m. pedals coz this thing sounds like it is freaking awesome man. Best review of it I seen!!
Chuck P
7/17/2025 03:29:43 pm
Awesome review Bro Charles! I am gassing for a BrAM big time, not that i want my wife to see me buy another od pedal LOL. I have an old Fulltone OCD thats been my goto favorite since years, but i always wanted a KOT too. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
NO SPAM! 
Contact Us For Pricing and Availability
Will You Help?Web hosting is getting more and more expensive all the time, and Reviewer's Revival is NOT funded nor supported by any commercial enterprise or business. A donation of any amount is greatly appreciated. Even $2 or $3 for a coffee - every little bit helps. Thanks very much.
Legal BlurbAll of the articles published on Reviewer's Revival are undertaken to be purely objective, impartial reviews. Reviewer's Revival is not owned, funded-by, nor hired by any company or individual. Reviewer's Revival is the sole property of, and solely under the discretion and direction of Brother Charles. |
RSS Feed
|
Copyright 2012 - 2025. Reviewer's Revival.
|
|