CHASE BLISS AUDIO
SPECTRE
REVIEW BY SAM HILL
STREET PRICE $349.00
I don’t remember much
about the first flanger
pedal I tried other than the
fact that I didn’t like it. It
looked crazy, felt cheap,
and sounded terrible. It
produced a tone akin to
a jet takeoff, if that jet
contained all of the lead
singers from every terrible
‘80s band hopped up on
cocaine and booze trying
to sing all of their anthems
at once. Needless to
say, it was not a pleasant
experience. If you’ve
experienced similar trauma,
I’m here today to tell you
there’s something that can
help you heal: The Chase
Bliss Audio Spectre. The
Spectre is a versatile, full52
GEAR REVIEW
//
featured analog flanger
with some serious tweaking
capability courtesy of
advanced digital controls.
If you’re familiar with other
offerings from Chase Bliss
Audio, you know you have
plenty of tone shaping
options available. six knobs,
three toggle switches and
16 DIP switches allow you
to tailor flange tones exactly
to your liking, as well as
the ability to store a pair
of presets (you can save
many, many more with MIDI)
onboard via another switch.
If you can’t find the flanger
you’re looking for inside the
Spectre, then it probably
doesn’t exist.
It’s impossible to cover
Chase Bliss Audio Spectre
every single control function
in the space of this article,
so just know that you
can get every possible
flanger sound your little
heart desires. The DIP
switches offer extended
functionality, and Spectre’s
MIDI capability ensures that
you can save all the cool
sounds you discover as you
turn knobs and flip switches.
While this is a powerful
device, and it does require
a learning curve to get the
most out of it, it’s still a
user-friendl y pedal, and it
has tap tempo—because we
all love tap tempo.
Despite an intimidating
control set, I found it easy
to dial in great sounds