Chase Bliss Clean [Definitive] Review (2025)

Chase Bliss Clean [Definitive] Review (2025)

Chase Bliss (also referred to as CB hereafter) has created one of the most unique and sonically impressive compact compressor pedals to have ever occupied a pedal board slot. While most compressor pedals could never be accused of being overtly inspiring, Chase Bliss’s Clean is a swift departure from the norm. Not only does this pretty FX box effortlessly chassé its way to the top of the queue, strictly on the merit of its compression mettle, but its out-of-the-box attributes take it into unexpected sonorant territories that do indeed illicit all kinds of inspiration.

​Chase Bliss touts Clean as having a digital brain and an analogue heart. I concur - it’s a technological hybrid, if you will. Much of Clean’s uniqueness is owing to its ability to modulate the following: EQ, Swell, and Stereo Spread. In complete contrast to what one would typically expect from a compressor pedal, Clean even offers an interesting, somewhat distinct overdrive/distortion function - Dusty. Heck, it even has a set of ‘physics’ features that you can toggle to engage all manner of tonal flitter-flutters and kooky glitchings. Although Clean is pretty to look at, don’t let its stylish fascia beguile you! This fancy contraption is ruggedly constructed and outfitted with sturdy metal knobs, jacks, switches, and mini-toggles – no rinky dink plastic bits here, thank you.

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 CB’s Clean truly does deserve to be considered as such. As with most nearly any product that’s a cut above, both in terms of quality and design, Clean does require a considerably larger financial outlay than that required to buy a good old fashioned BOSS CS-3 compressor pedal. At the time of this publication, Clean’s MSRP is: $399 USD.

Preamble

Stompin’ effects pedals has seriously been ‘a thing’ in the world of rock n’ roll since Jimi first seared the imaginations (and ears) of his long-haired, beaded, trippy-hippie minions with his mesmerizing Fuzzed and Univibed wizardry. To say that electric guitar slingers have been chasing tone for more than six decades now, is a comical understatement. Here’s the rub though; soulful, sustained, powerful guitar tone is typically associated with green boxed j-Fet OpAmps, rare germanium diodes, and/or overdriven preamp tubes (or valves, for our UK compatriots). Until recently, if you wanted tone-ful, powerful, dynamic cleans, your options were decidedly limited.

Enter compressors.

While it’s true that a strong, loud, clean tone is very achievable whilst ‘stratocastering’ through a Fender Twin Reverb® or a Roland JC-120 amp, doing so won’t necessarily produce rich sustain, ‘organic’ movement, and robust harmonics like a cranked Marshall Plexi can deliver. Also, even though a potent, undistorted Fender Twin is capable of peeling wall paint at 20 paces, the dynamics tend to be somewhat uninspiring and quite spike-y sounding. To address this issue, early pedal manufactures such as ROSS, MXR, and Roland/BOSS, all took their swing at the plate – to varying degrees of success.

It’s true that the various early compressor pedal offerings each had their share of die hard fans and aficionados, but by and large, they all had a propensity to be one trick ponies (maybe two tricks in some cases?). The compressors of yesteryear really didn’t let notes ‘breathe’ with a musical ebb and flow; instead, their sonic characteristics usually leaned towards a somewhat flat and static singularity. Most of the original compressor pedals tended to roll off too many highs, and they generally blanketed the player’s tone with a dull, squishy character. While this can be useful (and loved) for chicken pickin’ Tele mischief, OG compressor pedals were not a humbucker’s bosom buddies by any means.

The compression pedal quandary subsided considerably in the mid 2000s. Guitarists’ compression conditions improved nicely thanks to welcomed innovations from folks like Robert Keeley, Brian Wampler, and Josh Scott. Those guys dove into the deep end of the pedal pool with Olympian determination, toting more advanced, refined componentry in their respective gig bags of tricks. Not to mention, they each possessed mucho electronics smarts.

Brian Wampler - Wampler Pedals

Robert Keeley - Keeley Electronics

Josh Scott - JHS Pedals

Jubilation! Compressor pedal circuits had finally been developed to the the point where they were usable across a wider spectrum of musical styles and guitar types – the newer breed of comp pedals were quieter to boot! Sorely needed appointments such as blend/mix knobs, additional EQ parameters, and quality-improved components, all contributed to compressor pedals becoming more widely used throughout various musical genres, and found on more and more pedal boards. This begs the question: did we really need yet another (upscale, boutique) compressor pedal introduced into the fray?
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Yes, I think we do indeed need another compressor – namely, Chase Bliss’s Clean!

DISCLAIMER: CB’s Clean is not your Dad’s old standard three or four knob compressor – it takes a fair amount of time (and experimentation) to become well-schooled with its breadth of functionality. Notwithstanding, I promise you, my fellow guitar-ian, that it is more than worth the time and effort it takes to become proficient with Clean’s multifariousness of operations.

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What’s In The Box?

​Clean ships in a sturdy, cardboard box. Although it isn’t an entirely plain, utilitarian affair, it’s evident that Chase Bliss cares about the environment by their choice of natural, (presumably recycled) packaging materials. The pedal itself is cradled securely in a stiff cardboard, egg-crate-like stabilizer. A concise, well written users manual is laid on top - it too seems to be fabricated from good quality, recycled materials. The booklet is substantial enough, and very pleasingly formatted. Considering its diminutive size, the text is easy to read and companioned with colourful, straightforward images. All in all, the user’s manual is one of the best I’ve seen – easy to digest, yet highly informative. Lastly, if collecting bits of swag is one of your idiosyncrasies, you’re rewarded with a shiny silver Chase Bliss sticker too.

My one, teensy tiny disappointment with the box’s contents, is that Clean didn’t come with a set of little rubber-silicone feet (feel free to mockingly say “awwww”, and roll your eyes at me). Most nearly every new pedal that I’ve unboxed over the past few years, did come with a set of rubber bumpers that you could peel n’ stick to the bottom of the pedal, if required. True, most pedal users just slap velcro onto the bottom of their pedals and plunk em’ down on their hook n’ looped pedal boards, but some of us don’t . . .

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​Unlike Eventide, and a couple other upscale pedal makers, Chase Bliss didn’t include a 9v AC adapter with the pedal either. I was slightly surprised by this obvious omission, since Clean cannot be powered by battery; it’s outfitted with an AC power connection only. Factoring in that CB Clean costs $100 more than an Eventide Ultra Tap or Tricerachorus, both of which do come with complimentary power packs, I was slightly taken aback by the exclusion of a handy little wall wart. I’m not knocking Chase Bliss for this, but it really would have been cool if they had bundled in an AC adapter. With regard to Clean’s AC-only power requirement, this unassuming little compression monster can gobble upwards of 300mA of power, so understandably, battery operation isn’t feasible.

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​At A Glance

This enticing little vixen of tone is easy on the eyes. Clean is a real pleasure to eyeball, greatly due to its crisp, clean layout (no pun intended) and spiffy motif. Clean is presented in a glossy off-white base accessorized with bright, colourful knobs and lettering. Obviously, the graphic arts personnel at Chase Bliss have very keen, well-honed design skills; this striking little device manages to come across visually as both demure and eye-catching all at once. Here we have a perfect example of how to encapsulate a stupendous amount of user-controllable features into a familiar, compact (BOSS-sized) pedal – all with an intuitive, tactilely-comfortable topology.

The top control surface is plenteously, yet tastefully laid out. The user’s eye is greeted by six attractive, knurled metal knobs (4x bright green + 2x bright blue), five neatly arranged mini toggle switches, three nicely proportioned LED indicators, and a sturdy pair of quiet relay-based foot-switches. Sounds like an overcrowded lot, right? On the contrary, although it might seem as though there are a few too many doodads to contend with at first glance, in fact, the schema is so masterfully organized that Clean is actually a breeze to work with.

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​At the front end of the pedal, there is a strip of 16 mini dip switches - these are divided into two groupings: Control and Customize. The green labeled ‘Control’ dip switches facilitate eight different expression-controllable functions, whereas the blue labeled ‘Customize’ switches can engage eight enhanced, always-on features, such as the unexpected ‘Dusty’ function (more about this later).

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On the pedal’s left side, you’ll find some usual suspects: a ¼” (stereo-capable TRS) input jack and a standard 9v DC (center negative) power port. Things diverge from the norm here though, where there is also an expression/CV input jack and a 1/8” sidechain port. The latter provides you with the means to interface this pedal with any compatible external audio device/instrument, while utilizing Clean as an outboard sidechain compressor. Let’s see you do that with an MXR Dynacomp . . .

Photo courtesy of Compressor Pedal Reviews.com | Click to Zoom

The right side of this little white magic brick is where you’ll find the requisite ¼” (stereo-capable TRS) output jack, a ¼” MIDI/Aux jack, and lastly, a micro USB port (connect to PC or MIDI CC controller). *As far as I understand it, a Chase Bliss MIDIbox is required to correctly interface Clean with a MIDI switcher, using a standard ¼” TRS cable.

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​Digital Brain, Analogue Soul

The friendly debate endlessly continues: digital vs. analogue. There is an army of ardent pedal collectors who swear religious-like allegiance to all things analogue (analog for USA folks), yet a large segment of today’s players demand the absolute preciseness of digital gadgetry. One camp champions the beloved warmth and organic character of analogue componentry, while their opposition extols the the virtues of digital clarity and exactness.

​Personally, I enjoy and make use of both technological bases. Admittedly, when it comes to overdrive, fuzz and distortion pedals, analogue is my platform of choice. For that matter, I confess that many of my favourite modulation FX are the vintage analogue goodies by BOSS and MXR (CE-2, black label - made in Japan, anyone? How about a ‘74 MXR Phase 90?).

​Part of what I am absolutely thrilled about, where CB’s Clean is concerned, is that this pedal seems to be the perfect blend of both technology types. The core - the heart, if you will, of Clean’s purpose for existing is its undeniable potency as a top tier, studio-grade, ANALOGUE compressor. That’s right, Clean, at its core, is an end-to-end analogue device. Seriously! If you were to completely ignore the eclectic, quirky, experimental, and digital attributes that are ingeniously built into Clean, you are still left with one of the most impressive, capable compressor pedals ever produced – bar none! Clean’s name is very apt; this thing truly is “clean” sounding!

​Clean’s digital brain is what enables a user to incorporate this otherwise analog all star into a modern, midi-driven setup with relative ease. Unlike a purely analog stomp box, Clean accommodates user presets! Via an external MIDI switcher, Clean is capable of storing up to 122 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, Clean lets you instantly recall a couple of presets by means of its ‘Presets’ mini toggle. How cool is that!?

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How Does It Sound?

Clean is a very transparent processor when used strictly as a compressor; it doesn’t alter or colour your instrument’s tone - unless, of course, you want it to. Unlike most compressor pedals that are based on traditional blueprints, Clean won’t dull your signal’s top end, or obscure your dynamics with a squished, ‘splatty’ sound (*providing you keep the EQ centered). Even while using fairly aggressive compression settings, Clean allows your playing to retain liveliness and energy, albeit with exceptionally well controlled dynamics and a welcome degree of tone thickening. Unless you go crazy with extreme settings, it is actually difficult to make Clean sound bad!

​Those who warily raise a disparaging eyebrow at the obnoxiously noisy compressor pedals of yesteryear, will be very pleasantly surprised by how politely Clean behaves – no hissy fits will be thrown here. This pedal is whisper quiet, in that it never introduces untoward, extraneous noise and/or hiss. Gee, even its pair of relay-based foot switches are quiet to operate. 

​I suspect that one of the primary contributing factors to Clean’s ability to treat a signal so cleanly, and dare I say, transparently, is its two-stage compression architecture. Rather than relying solely on a single dynamics processor, Clean first takes audio unevenness in hand with its remarkable VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier) compression section, and then sends the compressed signal into a variable, but highly refined, peak limiter. Technically, the limiter is more accurately described as a clipper, but due to its adaptive nature, it performs its limiting duties very aptly and inconspicuously. The user isn’t accorded any control over this ‘hidden’ second stage limiter; nevertheless, it is very effective at catching any rogue peaks or spike-y transients that might otherwise prove difficult to corral. Take a look at the signal flow diagram; it will help you visually understand Clean's processing path(s).

Click to see a Full HD View of the Complete Signal Chart (opens in new tab)

​Clean boasts a remarkably high level of headroom – perhaps Chase Bliss has integrated a 18v voltage charge pump IC? I dunno; I’m not an electrical engineer. However, I can assure you of this: you need never worry about overloading Clean’s input stage. There is more than enough headroom to prevent it from ever sputtering out ugly, collapsed audio garble – even if you were to push it to the max with scorching hot, active pickups.

​There is gads n’ gads of uncoloured gain on tap too; this pedal can effortlessly fulfill any ‘clean-boost’ needs you might ever have. Rather that offering a solitary ‘blend/mix’ knob, Chase Bliss has generously outfitted Clean with both a Dry (unprocessed) volume control, as well as a Wet (processed) dial. By the time you turn these knobs to their 2:00 o’clock positions respectively, the signal level is easily doubled, or greater. I dare ya to crank them up to 3:00 o’clock . . .

​Clean provides an effective, but simple-to-use tilt EQ. Straight up at the noon position, the signal’s tone remains unaffected and flat. Clockwise rotation will high pass (low cut) the frequency range. Contrariwise, turning the EQ knob counter-clockwise filters out upper frequencies. In my experience, the actual usable sweep of the EQ knob is between 10:00 and 2 o’clock, with 9:00 and 3 o’clock being the absolute maximum settings that may be considered usable. Twisting the EQ dial any more than this just kinda-sorta takes you into deliberate kookiness territory - not really practical for typical EQ tweaking. I haven’t any official word from the manufacturer, but I guesstimate that the filter point is set somewhere in the 600 – 1000 Hz range. And too, this EQ circuitry might be enlisting variable Q and/or adaptive frequency centers, judging by how pronounced the frequency roll offs become at either end of the knob’s maximum range.

​Yet and all, I’m really digging Clean’s EQ feature; muddy humbuckers can be coolly refined, while glassy single coils can easily be cajoled into warm relaxation. For a couple of quick reference points, let’s say that you’d like to record your ES-335 using the neck pickup, on a slow blues track. Unfortunately, a semi-hollow’s neck position often produces unwanted rumble and muddiness. On the other hand, a Strat or Tele’s bridge pickup provides the snappy, twangy tones that many of us love, but they become ear-fatiguingly shrill way too easily. Clean’s nifty EQ function sorts these kinds of issues out with just a quick twist of a single knob.

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​Compress to Impress

As I’d mentioned earlier, Clean has an analogue heart – and boy, does it ever have a big heart! Providing us with fully user-adjustable ratio, threshold, attack and release times (sometimes requiring a bit of hidden tweakery), this studio-grade compressor can be be configured to react with a feather light dynamics polish, all the way through to full-on crush-mode limiting and beyond. Unlike most old skool comp pedals, this one grants you full control over attack AND release timings.

​DYNAMICS: The first knob to tweak is the Dynamics knob (aka. ratio). This one engages varying degrees of compression throughout the first half of its sweep. From counter-clockwise *OFF, up to the 11:30 position, you’ll get compression ranging from 1:1, all the way out to 10-to-one. From *OFF to 10 o’clock, the compression flows in quite gradually, but from 10:00 to noon, the ratio values increase very quickly. For most of my general guitar and bass compression needs, I’ve found that keeping the dynamics knob set at the 10 o’clock mark results in a moderate, happy-medium compression ratio of approximately 4:1. Notwithstanding, dialing it up to heftier compression values of 8:1 or higher, Clean continues to sound great – free of any heavy handed, tone-robbing ‘splatiness’.

​When the Dynamics knob is set straight up at the 12 noon position, the compressor is functioning as a hard limiter. Continuing to turn the Dynamics control clockwise beyond 12:00, takes Clean into smooth, relaxed feed back limiting territory, but from 2:00 to 3 o’clock, the pedal morphs into a snappier FEED FORWARD limiter.

​Beyond this point, the Dynamics knob introduces a unique-to-Clean compression algorithm called, “Sag’. In essence, this feature intentionally replicates the ‘sagging’ anomaly of over-saturated vacuum tubes, where the tubes intermittently collapse, as it were, under the strain of too much signal. This is experienced as a temporarily faltering, or ‘dying’ cadence in a tube amplifier’s operation under intensively overdriven conditions.

Quick tip: I’ve found that this clever SAG feature is best experienced while keeping the Dry level at unity gain, thus utilizing sag in a parallel processing configuration.

​SENSITIVITY: The Sensitivity knob may be thought of as a familiar old threshold control. This tells Clean at what volume level (or playing intensity) it should start applying compression. When your input signal exceeds a predetermined threshold, compression (or limiting) begins to be applied to the signal – the louder the signal, the more the compressor will clamp down on it, up to the maximum amount determined by the Dynamics (aka ratio) control (Please excuse my nutshelled, “Compression for Dummies” explanation of threshold/sensitivity methodology). Maybe you want the compression to be active pretty much constantly, or perhaps you only wish it to engage while you’re boisterously strumming. In either case, and for everything in between, the Sensitivity knob doles out a very wide range of threshold adjustment.

Compression activity is visually indicated by the right most LED indicator. The luminosity of the LED intensifies in accordance with the degree of compression-to-threshold being actively applied. This (red) LED is NOT triggered by the Dynamics (ratio) amount; rather, it’s actuated in real time by the amount of signal that is exceeding the designated threshold (aka Sensitivity).

ATTACK: Directly below the Sensitivity dial, you’ll find the third critical compression parameter, ‘Attack’. To boil it down quickly, this user-adjustable parameter dictates how quickly the above-mentioned compression factors spring into action. At the knob’s left most position, the attack time is most nearly instantaneous (0.5ms), but it ranges all the way up to a lazy 300ms when turned fully clockwise. Most of the time, I keep this dial set anywhere from 11:00 to a smidge past noon; this results in nicely balanced dynamics control, without too vigorously chopping off pick attack and transients.

RELEASE: The final integral ingredient in a perfect compression recipe, is the release timing. Instead of being granted a dedicated knob for this, Clean provides us with a simple three-position mini toggle. Flicked to the left, Clean’s release is a super speedy 50ms; center detent is a very relaxed 650ms; and rightmost, the release time is stretched all the way out to 1.5 seconds. Personally, I find the fast setting of only 50ms to be too quick for most applications, but the middle setting of 650ms a couple hundred milliseconds too slow. Thus far, I haven’t had occasion to use the 1.5 second release time.

Fortunately, we can adjust the compressor’s release time by scooting into Clean’s hidden settings. To accomplish this, just hold down both foot switches for a couple of seconds - the outer LEDs (left and right) will turn bright green. Take note of where the ‘Attack’ knob is set, because this is the same dial used for making user-adjustable release time changes. *NOTE: the release toggle MUST be in its center position for this to work. For a more reasonable release time of 200 – 300ms, I tune the dial to sit between 9 and 10 o’clock. Now, release the foot switches and return the Attack knob to its previous position.

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​Compression-dependent Effects

​To be perfectly frank, it is my unbiased opinion that CB Clean is one of the VERY BEST compressor pedals available. Its ability to dish out delicious compression ranging from subtle, ‘invisible’ dynamics treatment all the way through to brickwall limiting, while maintaining the integrity of your instrument’s tone and character, is nothing short of amazing. Nevertheless, Chase Bliss has ingeniously conjured up a few captivating ways to employ compression as the ignition point to creating some very intriguing modulation effects. It would literally take another few (Word Doc) pages to detail everything that Clean has to offer, but here are a few of its stand out features.

Tremolo-esque Modulation: Unlike the typical volume oscillation commonly used for tremolo, I like to think of Clean’s offering as somewhat more of a harmonic tremolo. If you flip the ‘EQ Mode’ toggle switch to the right, this will engage Clean’s ‘Vibe’ modulation; the Attack knob will now double-duty as a tremolo rate control. Obviously, the ‘Dynamics’ and ‘Sensitivity’ knobs determine the intensity of the Vibe. Like many of the other user-adjustable parameters on Clean, I’ve found that values between 9:00 to 3 o’clock are useful; going outside that area of sweep really just takes you into weirdness territory. Then again, maybe you want to venture off into experimental territory? *Wink.​

​It’s salient to note here that Clean’s other Dynamic EQ mode, ‘Shifty’, is actuated when the EQ toggle is snapped to the left. Now, EQ adjustments are applied to any signal that falls BELOW the fixed threshold ceiling (aka ‘Sensitivity’). A good example of this would be to have some of the highs rolled off while softly vamping over a twelve-bar blues progression – you know, for a velvety, jazzy tone. But when you dig in and start playing more aggressively, the signal will rise above the defined threshold point, bypassing the low pass filtering. This means that the high cut will no longer be applied, allowing your full range of signal to power through unaffectedly. When you finish your loud solo, or stinging fill line, and return to more subdued playing, the EQ roll off will again become active.

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​Swell Modulation: Clean is highly capable of delivering good sounding auto swells. As per all things compression oriented, the ‘Dynamics’ and ‘Sensitivity’ dials determine the magnitude of the swell effect. By default, the pedal is configured to provide “on demand” swells by holding down the left foot switch (momentary mode). If this workflow proves to be somewhat awkward or inconvenient for you, you can just flip the mini dip switch marked ‘latch’ at the top of the pedal to “ON” (this is one of the blue coloured ‘Control’ switches). This way, the foot switches operate in regular, latched “Off or On” mode. In order to finagle customized swell timings, you’ll need to pop into Clean’s hidden settings by holding down both foot switches until the two outer LEDs turn bright green. The ‘Wet’ knob now functions as a “Swell In” control, ranging from 100ms up to a lengthy four seconds. Likewise, the ‘Dry’ knob stands in as a “Swell Out” button, again with timings spanning 100ms out to 4 seconds.

WET = Swell In | DRY = Swell Out

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Physics Modulation: Clean’s physics modulations can be a whole lot of twitchy, glitchy fun. If you flick the ‘Physics’ toggle switch to the left, subtle wobbly movement is introduced – personally, this subtler mode of operation is my preference. The effect here is delicate and understated, but it has an impact on your performance that is more felt (or perhaps indistinctly perceived), rather than obviously heard. Toggling over to the right side, physics modulation becomes immediately noticeable through unstable, glitchy randomness that sounds kooky and a little bit weird, but in a delightful way. Mind you, the more you increase the ‘Sensitivity’ dial, the more your signal will glitch; too light a ratio (sensitivity) setting just means you’ll have a barely affected sound. Remember! Clean is a compressor, thus all its additional quirky corollaries are entirely dependent upon the degree of compression you dial in.

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​Stereo Spread Modulation: I think it’s safe to assume that most old skool gigging guitarists (and bassists) usually perform using a monophonic setup (guitar > pedals > amp). Notwithstanding, many contemporary players are integrating cool stereo systems into their live rigs – thanks in no small part to stereo-capable digital modelling amps and/or devices like IK Multimedia’s ToneX or Kemper Profilers. Although Clean works perfectly in a straight-forward mono framework, it is entirely capable of being a full on stereo contraption, or alternatively, it can take your regular old mono input and output the signal in stereo. To accomplish the latter, simply put the mini dip switch labeled, “MISO”, into the ON position.

​Once again, let’s dipsy doodle into the hidden settings mode (press both foot switches until the two outer LEDs turn bright green). Once we’ve gained access to the hidden settings, we can assign either EQ modulation (Vibe/harmonc tremolo), or volume modulation (aka. Swell), or both Vibe and Swell to the spread routing. The assignment is made via the ‘PHYSICS’ mini toggle switch: Left = Vibe, Right = Swell (volume), Center = both. If you have a couple of amps placed a few feet apart, the resultant stereo spread modulations are totally vibe-y and trippy – you’ll dig it, I promise.

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DUSTY: “Come on, baby, come on and dust my broom” (Elmore James).

Who’d a thunk it – a ridiculously clean, transparent compression powerhouse that can also double down as a respectable dirt pedal!?

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​“What’ chu talkin’ bout, Willis!?”

It’s true, y’all – I ain’t lyin’! At the top of the pedal, you’ll find the ‘DUSTY’ switch (it’s located at the far left of the mini dip switch strip). Flipping DUSTY to the ON position, unmuzzles Clean’s second stage limiter/clipper, allowing for all sorts of clipped, overdriven tom-foolery.​

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​Clean’s dustiness is quite distinct sounding from most overdrive and/or distortion pedals. It doesn’t create a green-screamer kind of tone, yet it has a throaty, smoothly saturated quality about it that is very pleasing to the ear. At its more extreme, harder-clipped settings, Clean’s DUSTY mode puts me in mind of a vintage DOD 250 Overdrive or an original MXR Distortion+, but with fuller, richer tonality, and not nearly so grainy sounding.

​Speaking of ‘DUSTY’ tone, obviously Clean’s efficient tilt EQ has a great bearing upon the end result. If you find your single coil pickups are a little nasally or brittle sounding, just roll off some of those unwieldy highs. Likewise, muddy humbucker splutter can be removed with a quick clockwise twist of the EQ knob.

DOD OD250 - Click to Zoom

MXR '74 Phase 90 - Click to Zoom

​Unlike a dedicated overdrive-distortion pedal, Clean’s DUSTY feature can be a bit finicky to dial in, output-level wise. In order to get the clipping stage really cooking, it’s usually necessary to drive up the Dry and Wet knobs to 2 or 3 o’clock. Alas, this culminates in a substantial increase in output, with no easy way to reign it back in to unity gain level. As such, striking a good happy-medium between the ‘Sensitivity’ knob and the Wet and Dry knobs can be a bit of a balancing act. Nevertheless, after some experimentation you’ll be rewarded with some pretty cool overdrive tones. If you plan to use Clean’s DUSTY mode as a purposed overdrive/distortion effect on a regular basis, I strongly recommend that you save your favourite DUSTY setting to one of the two available preset switch positions.

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A Few More Interesting Bits

​Like I’ve already written above, it would take another number of pages to fully dissect all of Clean’s ancillary features, and put on display the myriad of use-case scenarios that you could fit Clean into. Still, here’s a quick summation of some of the pedal’s important, but not-so-obvious attributes.

Expression Control: Firstly, you can control Clean’s Dynamic, Attack, EQ, and Wet & Dry values dynamically with an expression pedal or CV device (Control Voltage). The range of controllable expression is determined by the minimum and maximum values you manually program in using the ‘Dry’ knob. *Don’t worry, the user manual shows you how to accomplish this.

​Noise Gate: Clean also has a handy-dandy built-in Noise Gate that you can take advantage of. This will allow you to shut out hum, or other types of noise, when you aren’t actually playing. The Noise Gate is switched on by its respective mini dip switch at the top of the pedal – you’ll find it in the blue coloured ‘Customize’ group of switches. The noise gate’s parameters are set by yet again revisiting Clean’s Hidden Options. The ‘Dynamics’ knob will serve as the Gate’s Release control, while the ‘Sensitivity’ dial assumes Gate Threshold duty.

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Sidechain Compression: Let’s say your band would like to implement the same kind of dynamics trickery than many recording engineers rely on to balance, or momentarily duck bass guitar out of the way when the kick drum hits. Or maybe you need a means of automatically lowering your output level while the keyboardist is soloing away in a Jerry Lee Lewis-like frenzy. Providing that any of the intended sources has a means of inputting audio signal into Clean’s 1/8” sidechain input, this is exactly the kinds of compression shenanigans that are possible.

Envelope Balance: Within Clean’s Hidden Options, the EQ knob functions as an internal sidechain filter. Do NOT think of it as an equalizer; rather, this parameter tells the compressor to ignore frequencies below a user-set delimitation. To clarify further, let’s say that you’re a bassist who doesn’t want Clean to be slammed by sub frequencies below 80 Hz, so that it won’t react quite so aggressively to lower notes. Invoking an Envelope filter point of 80 Hz forces the compressor to only react to frequencies ABOVE 80 Hz.

Please note that envelope balancing is applicable to both internal and also sidechain compression tasks.

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​Concluding Remarks

I​ can honestly say that out of all the compressor pedals I’ve used over the past 30+ years, Chase Bliss’s Clean is far and away the most powerful, customizable, and useful of them all. At it’s core, Clean is a super ‘clean’ VCA (voltage controlled amplifier) compressor that is remarkably adaptive and transparent. While it is certainly possible to make Clean’s signal processing obvious and bold, it gives you a long, long rope to try hang your sound with first – it’s not easy to make this pedal sound bad. Jus’ sayin’.

Some of the world’s most sought after mix bus compressors are VCA comps, such as SSL, G-Comp; API, 2500; Vertigo, VSC-3; and the Shadow Hills Dual. Thanks to Chase Bliss, ultra clean VCA compression, offering total control over ratio, attack, release, and threshold values, is fully at hand (or under foot) for the discriminate guitarist (or bassist, or keyboardist, or whomever). Given that Clean is so adaptive and configurable, it could readily be used as an outboard compressor within your home recording studio too – it most definitely is quiet and capable enough to fill this role. And too, because of its processing transparency and high headroom, there’s absolutely nothing preventing you from using Clean at the end of your pedal chain; as opposed to always placing it before most of the other pedals on your board.

​Do not underestimate the ‘SAG’ feature. This Promethean element of Clean’s copious potential makes playing with clean tones “funner” and vibe-y-er. This innovative aspect of the pedal allows your clean (as in undistorted) lead lines to ebb and flow organically, much the same way that overdriven tube amps do. Honestly, I’m not trying to squirm out of accurately describing this feature; all I can say is that it behooves you to actually hands-on demo Clean for yourself at your favourite music shop.

5 out of 5 Stars!

:: Pros

• Possibly the cleanest sounding, quietest compressor pedal on the market.
• Excellent build quality – sturdy, all metal surface components.
• Very well organized controls layout. Lots of doodads to tweak, yet it isn’t an overwhelming kludge.
• Remarkable sound quality – ultra grade analogue componentry throughout.
• Innovative, unexpected compression-driven modulation features (such as Vibe/Harmonic Tremolo and Stereo Spread FX).
• MIDI capable.
• Expression/CV controllable.
• Sidechain capable.
• The DUSTY feature allows Clean to hold down overdrive duties very respectably.
• Digital implementation to facilitate presets management.
• Two convenient on-board preset slots; the presets easily recalled with a simple toggle switch.
• Attractive, eye-pleasing piece of kit.

​I really haven’t any negative commentary to make about Clean; it’s an exemplary pedal in so many ways. However, in order to maintain an unbiased, fair overview of this spotlighted product, here are my ever-so-slightly neutralizing remarks. Feel free to take said remarks with a grain of salt though.

:: Cons

• For a pedal that’s no larger than a typical BOSS stomp box, Clean does require a considerable amount of power (upwards of 300mA). Mind you, considering the enormous headroom and very high degree of processing quality that the pedal delivers, perhaps its hungry power requirements are unavoidable.
• It’s petty of me, I know, but I would have liked to have found some anti-slip, peel n’ stick rubber/silicone feet in the box.
• Not exactly a con, but the inclusion of a compatible AC power adapter would have been much appreciated.

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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."

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