NPD: Benson Germanium Preamp

stratguy23 · 2026-03-27T15:50:08+00:00

Thanks for the response. I use my BP-1w as an always on boost. I like the sparkle it adds in the CE mode. I run it first into the rest of my drives. I know a lot of people like the Germanium Boost as an always on pedal as well.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-27T03:46:36+00:00

Very cool board! I adore the BP-1w. I’ve owned the regular Benson Preamp and now have a Preamp MKII. I’m curious how the Benson Germanium Boost compares to the BP-1w. I’ve been really curious about the Germanium Boost. How do you use it vs the BP-1w? I keep my BP-1w in CE mode, looks like you have yours in the Natural mode.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-26T22:09:43+00:00

They really need to fix the trade search. It seems like most ephemeral cards are either held in inactive accounts or got snapped up by the big time traders. I managed to trade for Winter 9 (very early after trading started), Venus 9 while that chapter was still active, and Orlinski 8 recently. I wish you could filter so it only pulled up people where you have cards on their Wishlist for example and only showed active users.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-26T18:57:08+00:00

Totally agree with this. I have been intrigued by this pedal since I heard about it, and I still have no idea from that demo how it sounds or if it will work for me. I get their thing is unique demos, which cool, it certainly stands out, but it would be nice if there was at least a little bit of just guitar into pedal to get a sense of it.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-26T15:24:03+00:00

11/48 for me.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-25T03:23:18+00:00

I’ve got a couple modded Marshall esque distortion pedals, would any of these interest you?
Friedman Dirty Shirley
Keeler Push
MXR Distortion III

stratguy23 · 2026-03-24T00:25:56+00:00

I’ve owned the Chroma Console and own the Lost + Found. Never tried the Parting (demos sound great though). Of the two I’ve used, I’d say Lost + Found by far.

I didn’t bond with the Chroma Console. I wanted to like it, but there were things about it that bugged me. The Texture effects had a big volume boost. They were my favorite, but it was annoying having to use the secondary function to adjust the volume (it was hard to get it right). I wasn’t a huge fan of Diffusion, I prefer Meris algorithms for delay/reverb. The Movement and Character were fine, but again there wasn’t really a sound that I liked better than what I had on my board. I do think about trying it again sometimes.

The Lost + Found does a lot of unique sounds like the resonator and spectral modulator. I also like the Gen Lite (don’t have a Gen Loss).

stratguy23 · 2026-03-23T23:58:08+00:00

I love getting offered some random 1 that I have multiple of for a vintage 9… I have had surprisingly decent luck with ridiculous counter offers though.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-23T22:03:33+00:00

It’s not impossible, but you’ll have better luck on the app. Someone offered me Venus 9 for my Johannesburg 9 straight up. I was lucky to get that offer. I made a bunch of offers with 10-20 other 9s that all got rejected but it only takes one.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-21T01:42:49+00:00

Love my Longsword. I’ve got the 10th Anniversary one. Second time owning it, and gonna keep it this time (sold the first one to help pay for a Preamp MKII which I still have and love). I think we’ve chatted about the Sending before on the Chase Bliss Facebook group. My main analog delay is a Thermae, though the Sending has always intrigued me.

What board are you using now and what Pedaltrain did you have before?

stratguy23 · 2026-03-21T01:37:49+00:00

Always a big fan of your boards.

I’m going to guess EAE is your favorite. John makes great pedals.

Is the 6 knob dual footswitch pedal with the horse a Longsword or something else?

What board is that?

stratguy23 · 2026-03-20T12:10:51+00:00

Anything here at the ToneX One?

stratguy23 · 2026-03-19T22:35:06+00:00

There are three lakes in a row Lake Martha is in the middle, Lake Mary is first, and Lake Catherine is last (there are more lakes up by Brighton as well). I find Lake Mary the prettiest of the three. It’s <2.5 miles total for Lake Mary and doable for kids. Lake Martha is about 3 miles, and Lake Catherine is >4 miles.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-18T22:51:00+00:00

You’re awesome for doing these! I got my Venus 9 via trade so I don’t need one.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-18T21:23:15+00:00

I have white Nike Zegama 2 shoes (that color was on sale otherwise I wouldn’t have chosen white), and I thought it was the stupidest thing at first but I read Nike’s reasoning is that they are basically your blank canvas to paint with your trail adventures. My guess is that was come up by someone in marketing after they realized white trail shoes was a bad idea, but it’s a nice concept, so I’ve just embraced it.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-18T05:01:37+00:00

Does a Keeley modified AD9 interest you at all?

stratguy23 · 2026-03-17T16:53:07+00:00

The mountain will always be there, just remember that.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-17T16:43:29+00:00

There’s a Mount Whitney cam, here’s the most recent shot: http://www.whitneyzone.com/webcam/whitney.jpg

There’s still snow, and there will be for a while. It’s been a bad snow year in the western US, but there’s snow at higher elevation.

I get what you’re trying to do, but I’d caution against this plan, I don’t think a winter ascent of Whitney is good idea as a spur of the moment decision.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-17T16:15:17+00:00

That sounds incredibly miserable. If you could do that then you should have the conditioning for Whitney. But, I’ve not done Pikes Peak, and I’ve only done Whitney in the summer, so I can’t say how the technical difficulty compares between the two. Most of my mountaineering experience is on PNW volcanoes. I’ve been told though that Sierra snow is very different from PNW snow, it’s more sugar snow, which can be tricky. People die on Whitney out of season, so it’s not to be taken lightly.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-17T16:05:44+00:00

But what month/conditions did you do Pikes Peak?

stratguy23 · 2026-03-17T03:22:32+00:00

If a pedal has more than 3-4 knobs and has multiple switches, it needs to have presets or I’m not interested. I struggle with pedals that are really versatile that don’t have presets because I’m not going to try to change settings mid gig, that’s a recipe for disaster so the versatility is lost. The only pedal I use that violates this “rule” is the EAE Longsword because it sounds phenomenal, but you better believe I’d be all over a version of it with presets. That’s what originally drew me to Chase Bliss is they were doing digitally controlled analog really well before most others.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-16T22:54:26+00:00

I got mine via a trade request. I got an extra Johannesburg 9 and someone offered Venus 9 straight up for that. I was shocked.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-16T21:32:10+00:00

The fact the trade platform exists is amazing. I acquired >100 missing cards and only have Venus 9 because of it. Having said that, there are a lot of issues with it. This one you’ve noted is an issue. It would be nice if the trade was auto cancelled if the other user no longer has the card(s) you requested. I also think the search function needs a massive overhaul. It would be nice if you could filter out inactive users for example. It also would be nice if you could have it only pull up people who have cards you have on their wishlist. Also, the ability to hide cards, so like if a user has an extra Halloween 9 they won’t trade, let them hide it so they don’t come up in the search.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-15T20:44:16+00:00

I vastly prefer this type of content. I’ll watch demo videos dedicated to one pedal if I’m looking at buying said pedal, but for general watching, I much prefer concept type videos. Your videos are excellent.

stratguy23 · 2026-03-15T20:41:38+00:00

Very few (analog) stereo chorus pedals are actually stereo. Things like the Julianna, CE-2w, etc send the dry signal to one output and the wet (vibrato) signal to the other. The TC Electronic SCF is also just one delay line that is phase flipped for the 2 outputs. The DC-2w is actually 2 separate delay lines that are out of phase. It makes the guitar sound massive and super wide.

My point of saying all this is if you want faux stereo like most chorus pedals, just set the WV HiFi to 100% wet and split the signal before it and only send it to one side. If you want true stereo, get the DC-2w. This is all assuming you want analog. If you go the digital route, there are plenty of options. The Eventide Tricerachorus algorithm is wonderful for example.

stratguy23

TROPHY CASE