Highlights from Doug's Chase Bliss Big Time Tour at The Dodo Micropub, Hanwell

Jun 1, 202608:00 by

Stefan Karlsson

Chase Bliss AudioDelayDigital DelayEnvelope Filter and Auto WahExpoGranular DelayLo-Fi DelayOddball DelayPreAmpThe Dodo Micropub+-

Pictured above are the early-bird arrivals for the event, of course main man Doug, American adventurer Nolen, Doug’s friend Yas (pub liaison), and the pub’s lawyer Jason - who’s early riffing was so impressive - that no one wanted to go after him! All of us were in there by around noon!

This was my first time in Hanwell - thank the powers above for the Elizabeth Line - otherwise it would have been tricky to get to! Hanwell is the western-most town in the borough of Ealing I believe. The train station mentions Hanwell and Elthorne - which alludes to an historic episode when some residents were trying to distance themselves from the then well-known Hanwell Asylum. The park right next to the station is Elthorne Park, and the earliest version of the station dates back to the Victorian steam age!

Hanwell is a cosy leafy suburb of around 28.000 souls with pretty architecture and circa 10 central pubs and bars, of which this event was located at the fantastic Dodo Micropub, 52 Boston Road. Below you will find a picture of the extremely genial and delightful proprietor Lucy - who owns and runs the whole show, and commands a staff of just 5 talented individuals. The size of the pub means that only one staff member is needed for the afternoon, with a second added for the evening session. More details on the pub below!

This was the 3rd leg of the Big Time Tour - which started at Minster Lovell on May 16th, then hit Brighton Beach on May 23rd, and Hanwell this past Saturday the 30th of May. With the tour due to conclude at the Bristol Brouhaha on June 13th - where that event ends in a gig - which Doug still needs to prepare for!

The idea of the Big Time Tour was for interested parties to get some hands-on time with the Chase Bliss Big Time Hybrid Delay - to further familiarise themselves with the device - and to finally decided whether this was a nice-to-have or essential must-have unit.

I would have liked a more instructional session, while when my turn came - Doug was alas otherwise occupied, and it was up to me to navigate myself around the device. Which mostly involved playing around with the 10 [0-9] onboard Presets - which I list further below. It felt like a couple of those had been messed up - as there was some particularly unruly and noisy feedback and distortion on some of them.

What's immediately evident is just how versatile this unit is - but of course - as to whether it's the right sort of versatile for your own purposes - you need to decide for yourself. I tend to mostly favour multi-head tape style delays - but I didn't get particularly far in exploring those possibilities. I also could not figure out how to get a dotted eighth time-signature - would be helpful if someone could jump in and offer further explanation. I'm pretty sure it involves the 'Scale' function!

This is a much more complicated device than the Automatone Preamp MKII or the CXM 1978 Reverb - with so many secondary functions and parameters - and you are essentially constantly switching in and out of preset mode. For the Preamp MKII - everything is very surfaced and intuitive, while there seems to be a far more significant learning curve for the Big Time unit - even when I saw Doug doing some demonstrating for others - he was constantly switching modes - Footswitches and Alt / Secondary settings for the sliders and arcade buttons.

CONTROLS - COLOR [Texture], TIME [Rate], CLUSTER [Depth], TILT EQ [Crossover], FEEDBACK [Diffuse] WET LVL [Dry Lvl], SCALE [Shift - Hold Shift for [ALT]] (Time & Pitch Response) : Off / Chromatic / Oct + 4 + 5 / Octave, MOTION [Spread] (Modulation / Type) : Off / Sine / Square / Envelope, Mode [0.5x] : Mod 3-46ms / Short 46-736ms / Long 736ms - 12.2s / Loop : Variable, FILTER VOICING AND TONE [Diffuse Type] : HiFi / Focus / Warm / Analog, State Limiter Mode [+12dB] : Digital / Compressed / Saturated / #!&%, TEMPO FOOTSWITCH [Hold to flip to and from Presets Mode] + Loop Play/Record, Presets 0-9 (127 via MIDI), BYPASS FOOTSWITCH [Hold] + Loop Stop.

PORTS - L In (Mono), R In, L Out (Mono), R Out, MIDI In, MIDI Out / Thru, AUX, EXP, 9V DC [-] 1000mA.

This particular iteration of this format moves this pedal more into the tabletop domain - as it's easiest to operate from a raised surface - it will be tricky to martial all those secondary parameters and functions from a floor-based stompbox position. Chase Bliss have really pushed the capabilities of this format - but they have doubled up the complexity also. I'm sure I will get used to it eventually, but I have no illusions that this will be a trickier device to deploy than my current incumbent Empress EchoSystem.

Ideally I would need some time with Chase Bliss's Charlie and Tom, and John Snyder too - to fully be able to understand all the capabilities of this device.

I feel that Chase Bliss need to do in-person tutorials for some of their devices otherwise most players will never get beyond scratching the surface of what is possible with those devices. We need some form of face-to-face instructional education here - as there is so much that you need to pick up on.

I really enjoyed my exploratory session - but I really didn't gain quite sufficient confidence to come to any conclusive decision. I feel that one of these very much lies in my future - but I'm still not currently sure exactly how soon.

I have still so many questions that I would like answered first!

I've definitely warmed more towards the device, and as I said - I really enjoyed the session! It is a highly unusual delay and does things natively that other devices cannot - I'm still very tempted - but not quite over the line on the rationalisation process!

Here follow the factory presets!

The presets start off very elegant and classy, and then get very experimental - and I'm sure there was a couple on Doug's unit that had become corrupted and overwritten - as they sounded somewhat outrageously gratingly noisy and overpowered with feedback and distortion.

When I'm exploring a device - I start by deconstructing the existing presets, and making adjustments - before I move onto making my own presets from scratch.

As mentioned above - I would need someone to instruct me on how I could get close to a sort of pseudo Space Echo sound - with sufficient syncopation on the repeats.

This is of course a superb delay-line modulator - which can deliver all manner of modulations, delays, and reverbs. You have the very potent Filter and Preamp sections that John designed for this project - to further get you into uncharted territory - I'm pretty sure also that the Big Time could deliver a sort of Rainger FX Reverb-X style distorted reverb sound with relative ease.

Some of the previous demos I had heard sounded somewhat gritty - and I thought that might be baked into the core voicing - but fortunately that's not the case - and this can go smooth as you like - as well as delivery dirty gritty textures galore!

It really does a mean Chorus too - with a proper vintage feel to it.

I generally and genuinely loved this device - but was still not 100% clear as to whether it's worth a €1100 investment (£953) for me. I've definitely warmed up to it a lot, and I liked most of what I heard!

The Big Time is of course available direct from the Chase Bliss EU Store.

Oh - and Doug was wearing an uber cool summery light-blue Chase Bliss Bunny T-shirt - does anyone know where I can get my hands on one of those in XL? I'm guessing they were very limited and are long gone!

The Dodo Micropub, Hanwell

Getting to Hanwell was a breeze from Tyburnia / Paddington - just 4 steps west on the Elizabeth Line!

And what a lovely venue the Dodo Micopub is - specialising in a proper CAMRA-approved rotating selection of ales and IPA's in particular - could do with some crisp German lagers (Früh Kölsch / Krombacher / Warsteiner), and Mexican Modelo also for the summertime - you really need something crips and refreshing when it's this warm.

The IPA I had was pretty tasty (Closet Brewing's They're Turning The Friggin' Frogs Gay!) - it's almost worth going to Hanwell just to visit The Dodo - such a wonderful sort of homely atmosphere!

Note also not to sit directly in front of the counter - or you will get frost-blasted by the excellent air-conditioning unit that sits over the main door. A gorgeous compact and bijoux multiple-award-winning Micropub - superbly run by proprietor Lucy - as picture below drying some glasses!

Opening Hours for The Dodo are :

Mon - Closed
Tue - Closed. Available for private hire & events.
Wed - 5pm - 10pm
Thu - 5pm - 10pm
Fri - 4pm - 10.30pm
Sat - 3pm - 10.30pm
Sun - 2pm - 7pm