The Pettyjohn Electronics Chime MKII makes some major advancements to this now-classic low-to-medium gain drive unit. Along with the surface changes, the updates are mostly under the hood.
A new 36-volt power supply kicks things into high-headroom territory, letting your tone breathe and also greatly increasing the pedal’s stacking ability. Feed anything you want into the Chime MKII and you’ll be handsomely rewarded.
Other changes include two mini pots that adjust the mix of the two pairs of clipping diodes and a special EQ band that keeps you in the mix. Be sure to scope it out at the NAMM show, or get a sneak peek via the video below. – Nicholas Kula
The Pettyjohn CHIME MKII is a major update to our signature low-medium gain overdrive. Known for it’s ability to sweeten your signal with the touch sensitivity of vintage english amps on the edge of break up, the CHIME MKII builds on it’s predecessor with an all new and proprietary 36V power supply, a new relay based true bypass circuit with soft touch switch and loads more.
Product Description
The Pettyjohn CHIME MKII is a major update to our signature low-medium gain overdrive. Since it’s release nearly three years ago the CHIME has become our most popular pedal to-date and gained somewhat of a cult following. The CHIME has been loved for its ability to sweeten your signal with the touch sensitivity of vintage english amps on the edge of break up. The sweet saturation and harmonic excitement ends up being always-on for many players.
Let’s start by saying everything we love about the CHIME has been preserved. Our team listened to feedback from players and dealers alike and then sharpened our pencils and set out to improve one of our favorite pedals. Through much toil we believe we have taken this pedal to the next level both sonically and functionally.
New Proprietary 36V Power Supply
We are proud to announce a new proprietary true 36V Power supply! This new, extremely robust power supply uses a standard 9V supply and delivers a huge 36 volts of headroom with up to 10 times the current as our previous version. In short, this means the active electronics inside are running at their full potential, at their theoretical max safe operating level. As far as sound quality goes, high voltage means high headroom, which imparts an openness and 3D quality which sounds amazing and just feels great while playing. Now everyone can have the tonal experience of high headroom when they plug in the pedal, without the need for a special adapter.
New Relay Based True Bypass Circuit
The next major upgrade is our new relay based true bypass circuit with soft touch switch. We have had many requests for this and found it harder than expected to develop a relay circuit that met our quality standards. We are very proud of our unique design which accomplishes a totally quiet switch via a sonically transparent gold contact relay. It even auto-bypasses when the power is disconnected. We designed this to be an upgrade to our current version one pedals as well and the new relay switch will be available to customers on our website.
Mini-Pots, Lower Noise, Active Level Output Control & More
While the core CHIME circuit has been preserved, we looked at every part of every stage to see if there was anything that could be improved. We removed the mini toggles and upgraded to mini pots for full control over the clipping range and sweepable High Pass Filter (HPF; i.e. Low Cut). We lowered the noise, increased the headroom of every stage and extended the frequency response to be a bit wider. We also added our active level output control which allows for no tone loss when adjusting the output level. The main gain structure and tilt EQ with orange drop caps has remained unchanged.
Full Unique Features
- New! High voltage power! 36 Volts of internal power from standard 9v adaptor (150mA)
- New! Relay True Bypass switching
- Soft touch switch with totally quite switching and auto-bypass when power is off
- New! High Pass Filter mini knob
- New! Clipping mix knob, blend between Germanium and LED clipping
- New! Increased headroom and lower noise on all stages
- New! Active output level control for no tone loss
- New! Discrete Opamp upgrade option. Upgrade to CHIME MKII Deluxe and the input and output stages become powered with our Studio Grade 990 style discrete opamp for extra clarity and depth
- New! Knobs and Labels. Easier to read on stage
- New! Foundry Series MKII custom enclosure with in-set screws
New! Internal “Secret Settings”
- Preamp Mode: Internal mini toggle bypasses the clipping stage making the CHIME MKII a perfect clean tone shaping preamp and boost with no clipping at all.
- Power Rails Switch: Internal mini toggle switches between max rails of 36V and a more modest 28V, a setting some users prefer for a more vintage tone.
- Gain range for warm saturation
- Boost: Pre-boost control with that adds extra presence and grit
- Tilt EQ: An audiophile approach to tone control, the Tilt EQ circuit is carefully voiced to compliment the clipping options and utilizes Orange Drop tone caps for a musical sweetness not normally found in a pedal.
Audiophile, Studio-Grade Performance in a Pedal
- Burr Brown OPA input and output buffer
- Classic TL072 and JRC4558 stages carefully implemented for warmth and feel
- Audiophile grade, through-hole 1% Metal Film resistors
- Top Shelf WIMA and Silver Mica caps used in tone sensitive operations
- Internally Direct Coupled stages for purest signal path possible
- Lead-Free PCB constructed with Audiophile Lead-free Silver Solder
- Extremely Low Noise
Product Details
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Box and circuit handmade in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, USA
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Dimensions: 2.75”W x 4.75”L x 2.5” H
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Weight: 2 lbs
