Chase Bliss Gravitas Tremolo
The Chase Bliss Gravitas Analog Tremolo is end of life — which makes now the time to track one down. This one is absolutely worth hunting for on the used market. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode the Chase Bliss Gravitas takes center stage, running into my Benson Amps Vincent on both clean and dirt channels. Stratocaster with Lollar Pickups throughout.
The Gravitas is built around a fundamental design philosophy that Chase Bliss has refined across their entire lineup: the guitar signal stays 100% analog from input to output, while every knob and switch is connected to a digital brain that offers control depth impossible in a purely analog circuit. The first thing your signal hits is a discrete Class A clean boost — transparent and gorgeous. From there: Analog Devices AD823 op-amps for buffering and tone shaping, followed by the tremolo circuit itself.
Three core tremolo voices at its heart. Standard vintage opto-style amplitude tremolo — the classic '50s and '60s tube amp volume modulation. Harmonic tremolo, inspired by the 1961 Brownface Fender Twin — where the signal is split into high and low frequency bands, each modulated out of phase, creating a richer and more complex tremolo character than simple amplitude modulation can produce. And a combination of both simultaneously, running at whatever rates and depths you choose independently.
Then the Ramp knob and the dipswitch array on the top face unlock everything else. The Ramp control acts as a transparent clean boost when no dipswitches are engaged. Assign any of the five parameters — Tone, Rate, Depth, Sway, Volume — to the Ramp via dipswitch, and that parameter oscillates continuously at the rate set by the Ramp knob, independent of the main Rate control. Oscillating the Tone knob with Depth at zero kills the amplitude tremolo and leaves only a harmonic tremolo effect — all from the same pedal, with no separate circuit needed. Combine both simultaneously at different rates and you're deep into territory no other analog tremolo has explored.
Controls: Drive/Ramp, Volume, Tone, Rate, Depth, Sway. Tap tempo with subdivisions. Preset storage. MIDI, CV, and expression pedal connectivity.
This pedal is discontinued. Find one while you can.
🔍 Search for the Chase Bliss Gravitas on Reverb: https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=chase+bliss+gravitas
🔊 Benson Amps Vincent: https://www.bensonamps.com/amps/vincent
🎸 Lollar Pickups: https://www.lollarguitars.com
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🎸 Stratocaster | Lollar Pickups
🎛️ Chase Bliss Audio Gravitas | Analog Tremolo | Harmonic Tremolo | Ramp | Dipswitches
🔊 Benson Amps Vincent
