Free The Tone CC-1B Crunchy Chime Booster Pedal

Not all boost pedals are created equally! The Free the Tone Crunchy Chime Booster features a built in equaliser which allows you to really shape your sound, giving you a much wider range of boosted tones. Following years of research into vintage guitars and amps, the Crunchy Chime booster captures the essence of these much-loved pieces of gear and their harmonic components. The result is a range of tones rich in harmonics, pleasant overtones and a livelier overall playing experience.

With simple-to-use controls and housed in a sturdy chassis, the Crunchy Chime pushes your amp to it's limits, unlocking it's full potential. Utilising Free the Tone's HTS (Holistic Tonal Solution) circuit, the Crunchy Chime delivers high sound quality and low noise whilst enhancing the subtle nuances of your guitar and amp.

Key Features

• The MODE switch selects the boost/cut frequency range of the Bass control.
• The newly designed equalizer circuit creates natural sound.
• The Crunchy Chime can be used as a Mid booster by setting both the Treble and Bass knobs to the cut position.
• The boost circuit for volume control has an adjustable range from -16 dB to +17 dB.
• Free The Tone’s original HTS (Holistic Tonal Solution) circuit is implemented. Unlike conventional buffer circuits, the HTS circuit attains both “high sound quality” and “low noise” by performing impedance conversion while fully bringing out sound characteristics of the guitar/bass. The HTS circuit prevents degradation of guitar/bass timbre even when the effect is turned off.
• There is no need to worry about phase reversal: the output signal is in the same phase as the input signal.

Here's what Free The Tone say about the CC-1B Crunchy Chime Booster

The Crunchy Chime is our new booster unit with an equalizer function. A point worthy of special mention regarding this product is its harmonic components. The boost circuit that generates such rich higher harmonics is the result of our research on the harmonic components of vintage guitars and amplifiers. One of the attractive features of vintage musical equipment is its abundant and brilliant harmonics. We completed this boost circuit after various experiments and tests to learn the secrets of pleasant overtones that are never strident. With this product, you will feel greater vibrations from your strings and your guitar/bass will sound much livelier.

Every amplifier has different characteristics and there can be a problem such as a booster making the lower register sound dull. Actually, in the development stages, we had difficulties with these ample harmonics sounding muddy on some of the amplifiers we tested with, as unnecessary harmonic components conflicted each other to yield a harsh sound, etc. So we thought it is necessary to be able to adjust the frequency characteristics to match the gear being used and to get closer to an ideal sound. Our specially developed new equalization circuit creates a natural sound as if you were not using an equalizer for making tone adjustments for boost/cut. The characteristics become flat when both the Treble and Bass knobs are set to the 12 o’clock position.

A Mode switch to select frequencies is provided for the equalizer’s BASS control. This works well for the lower register of a 7-string guitar or bass guitar.

Born from a new way of thinking, the “Crunchy Chime,” a booster with equalizer, greatly widens the range of sounds from your guitar or bass and increases the pleasure of playing and sound making.

Specifications

• Input impedance: min. 500kΩ
• Output load impedance: min. 10kΩ
• Controls: Boost（-16dB～+17dB）, Treble, Bass, Mode Switch
• Terminals: 2 x 1/4" standard phone jacks (input, output), DC9V input jack (for AC adapter connection)
• Power supply: 9-volt PP3 battery, AC adapter
• Current consumption: 7mA
• Dimensions (W x D x H): 72 x 115 x 50 mm (incl. protuberances such as footswitches, jacks, etc.)
• Weight: approx. 230 g (excl. accessories)
• Accessories: Warranty card, manual, 4 x rubber feet