Billy Strings Wombtone
Stratospheric Swirls.
Wombtone is back with some new tricks.
The Billy Strings Wombtone collects multiple styles of phasing in one place, using a rich, all-analog signal path. You can now control the phasing directly with your playing, for responsive and tightly-synced movement. If there’s a phase sound you’re dreaming of, it’s probably in here.
Made with Billy Strings
How we got here
The Billy Strings Wombtone is our first and only signature pedal.
A couple years ago, we discovered that Billy had started collecting every Wombtone pedal he could find. It had become a part of his core sound back in 2014, before we discontinued it.
“I wanted to make sure that until I am an old man, I will have one of these.” – Billy Strings
We decided to work together to bring it back, and make it even better.
What’s an EnveloPhaser?
The Billy Strings Wombtone follows the loudness of your playing and uses it to manually control the phase.
Explore reactive ripples and wobbling waves, all tight-synced to the dynamics and nuance of your fingers. Or route the envelope to control any (or multiple) of the Wombtone’s knobs.
Learn all about it
Joel sits down in front of a white wall to teach you all about using the new Wombtone.
Expand and integrate
The Billy Strings Wombtone features advanced connectivity and customization options including Envelope control, MIDI, CV and Expression control, presets, and internal modulation of any or all its knobs.
Downloads
Specs
- Mono I/O
- Presets (2 Internal, 122 via MIDI)
- Internal modulation (ramping)
- Envelope control
- MIDI (PC, CC)
- CV control
- Expression control
- External tap
- Tap tempo w/ subdivisions
- Momentary or latching bypass
- 100% analog signal path
- True bypass
- 9V DC Center Negative ~200 mA
Billy Strings Wombtone
Our first signature pedal
written by Joel Korte
Hello everyone,
We have a new pedal, in the form of an old friend. It’s an analog, envelope-controlled phaser.
It’s a limited release of 3,000 pedals, made in collaboration with Billy Strings. Before I dive into story time, there is one important detail:
This pedal is available in the U.S. only.
I’ll talk about why in the “details” section below.
You can pre-order now, with shipping estimated to start in 2 weeks. Full details on that at the bottom.
Story time
This story is about bluegrass. We start in May 2017.
Our head of artist relations, Tyler Devonald, saw something that caught his eye on the Fretboard Journal. Tyler is a big fan of the band Greensky Bluegrass and noticed that Dave Bruzza was using a Wombtone on his board. Tyler reached out and connected with the group and showed them some more pedals the next time they were in town.
A couple years later, I became aware of another bluegrass artist using Wombtone, but not only that – he was collecting every one he could find. He had a bunch. This is how I learned about Billy Strings. It wasn’t until years later that I realized it was Dave Bruzza who had introduced it to Billy while they were on tour together.
It struck me. Wombtone has long been a favorite of mine and has never left my personal pedalboard. And here’s this artist who cares enough to start collecting them. He knew they were discontinued and he wanted to be prepared if his should break.
So we started talking about the possibility of bringing Wombtone back.
It instantly felt like such a natural fit. I’ve always been a bit cautious of doing any sort of artist “signature” type of thing but in this case I could clearly see the impact Wombtone was having on Billy’s live set. There was just no mistaking that sound swirling away right in the middle of it all. It felt right.
What it is
I asked Billy how he would modify the Wombtone if we were to make a version together, and that’s when envelope control entered the conversation. Billy had essentially been faking envelope control with an expression pedal, moving it in time with each note.
So we made it for real. It turned out to be way more challenging for me than I initially expected, but I’m so happy with where we landed. I can’t stop playing it - I may have already played this new Wombtone more than any pedal we’ve ever released.
It also has a few other refinements. There’s a new slow mode, increased headroom, and we improved the input stage by using Burr Brown op-amps.
The Field Guide is ready if you want some more detailed info:
I hope you love it as much as Billy and I do.
Details
Preorders are open now and will be shipped in the order received.
Our target is to start shipping within 2 weeks and have all orders filled by the end of September.
This pedal is U.S-only for the same reason we discontinued 5 of our pedals last week. It contains a component called an LDR (also known as a “vactrol”) that is not compliant with market access requirements in the UK and EU.
You can read all about it here.
We do not plan to release any future pedals in region-specific areas. This pedal is a special case because it was already well into production as we began navigating all of this.
Let us know if you have any questions:
help@chasebliss.com
Thanks for reading!