We are discontinuing 5 pedals

Hello everyone,

Before I dive into the details, the headline here is that we are discontinuing production on five products today: Preamp MKII, Thermae, Warped Vinyl HiFi, Dark World, and Condor HiFi. We have some stock remaining which will be available in the USA only at www.chaseblisslegacy.com. I know that’s not ideal for the rest of the world but I’ll do my best to explain.

The reason we are discontinuing these products is that we have learned that they are not compliant with market access requirements in the UK and the European Union. Specifically, the applicable Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment laws (RoHS) in the E.U. and UK restrict the use of a component that is needed in these products. There was an exemption under RoHS in the context of audio technology, but that exemption has expired.

A BIT ABOUT THE COMPONENT

The five pedals noted above contain an internal component called a “light-dependent resistor” or LDR for short. It’s a type of opto-isolator. These parts are also commonly called “vactrols.” As far as I can tell, these parts have been part of guitar pedal technology since as early as the 60s in the form of the Univibe. The way that they work is you have something that produces light, such as an LED or light bulb that shines on a photoresistor in a dark environment. The photoresistor is a type of resistor that changes its resistance depending on how much light it sees. The more light, the smaller the resistance. The less light, bigger resistance. These photoresistors require cadmium sulfide (CdS) to work, and the RoHS laws restrict products that use components containing CdS.

There are many popular applications of this technology in audio now and in the past, including optical compressors, low-pass gates, channel switching in vintage amplifiers, optical tremolos, and optical phasers. There are certain aspects of LDRs that are really special and useful in an audio context, especially in the digital control of analog technology. Some other methods exist for digitally controlling analog circuits like voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs) and digital potentiometers. Unfortunately, for certain functions there is no known replacement for LDRs.

WHAT WE ARE DOING ABOUT IT

Chase Bliss is taking the following additional steps today:

1) We are extending the warranty on Preamp MKII, Thermae, Warped Vinyl HiFi, Dark World, Condor HiFi, and Wombtone to a lifetime warranty. If there is a problem with one of these devices and it needs to be sent to one of our repair centers to be fixed, we will repair it for free and pay for the shipping both ways so that there will be no cost to you. We want these pedals working and making music with you, not in landfills.

2) We will be contacting all current and prior non-USA dealers and distributors to buy back any stock they may have where LDR technology is used.

HOW THIS AFFECTS YOU

Customers who already own Chase Bliss products with LDR technology might have the following questions:

1) Does the presence of the CdS component present a safety concern to users?
CdS is a toxic substance. However, the photoresistors which contain the CdS are an internal component that is enclosed in an airtight plastic / epoxy container for the LDRs that we use, and that container is housed inside the pedal enclosure and therefore the risk of CdS exposure is, in our opinion, incredibly low. Everyone who owns one of these pedals can – and should – continue to use and enjoy it.

2) How should I dispose of my product at end-of-life?
We are extending the warranty on Preamp MKII, Thermae, Warped Vinyl HiFi, Dark World, Condor HiFi, and Wombtone to a lifetime repair warranty. This also applies to any other previous versions or discontinued pedals that contain this technology. We also encourage our customers to responsibly recycle all our products in accordance with local requirements. Please contact help@chasebliss.com with any questions about anything here. 

If you are a gear manufacturer and you think you might be affected by our decision, feel free to get in touch with me at joel@chasebliss.com.

THANK YOU

Thanks for your understanding on this.

We appreciate the support, and write us if you have any questions:
help@chasebliss.com