Old Blood Noise Endeavors Bathing

The Old Blood Noise Endeavors Bathing is what the maker calls a "liminal delay": a pedal that sits between a delay, a phaser and a reverb without being exactly any of them. Its core idea is a central delay line whose repeats pass through a cascade of allpass filter stages, and you choose how many, from two to twelve. With few stages the repeats stay close to a classic delay; with more they smear into phasey, flangey, diffuse washes¹. Old Blood Noise describes it in its own words:

The circuit builds on the "phase repetition" idea the company used in its earlier Dweller pedal, and it is the third installment of OBNE's Square series²³. It combines delay, phase and flange modulation, chorus and reverb elements in one unit⁴².

A liminal delay through allpass stages

An allpass filter passes all frequencies at equal level but shifts their phase. String several of them between delay repeats and each repeat comes back with its phase scrambled a little more, which reads to the ear as modulation, diffusion, or a smeared, reverb-like tail. Delicious Audio describes the topology as "a central delay line processed through multiple all-pass filter stages (adjustable from 2 to 12)"⁶. Gearnews put it more colorfully, calling it "a cascade of up to twelve allpass filter stages that smear, smear, and morph your sounds"².

The Stages knob is the heart of this. Guitar.com's reviewer described the repeats as phase-scattered, "the depth adjusting how far out they go, the stages adjusting how many there are"⁵. At the low end you get something close to a modulated delay; at the high end the repeats barely resemble the input. The pedal also carries a Dimension control that adds subtle stereo chorus or mono vibrato to the wet signal, and an LFO section that shifts the character of the repeats depending on your time setting¹³.

The controls

The maker's control set, from the product page¹:

Guitar.com's review noted that the pedal has individual dry and wet controls, which the reviewer appreciated, along with "nicely knurled knobs"⁵. The review also mentions envelope-activated ramps among the deeper features, though the reviewer found "these a little unwieldy"⁵.

Every knob on the pedal can be driven by an expression pedal, and MIDI covers every parameter as well¹⁶.

Footswitches, presets and MIDI

There are two footswitches. The bypass switch is soft touch with relay switching for minimal switch noise¹. The Tap/Aux switch taps in tempo, and holding it engages infinite feedback; it can also be set up as a preset switcher¹. Guitar.com's reviewer found the two switches "have enough room to be hit individually", a practical point on a pedal this size⁵.

• Presets: Sounds can be saved and recalled via footswitch or MIDI, with presets 1 to 3 onboard¹⁶⁴
• MIDI: Full control over every parameter, including MIDI clock in and out for syncing to an external tempo¹⁴²
• Expression: A dedicated expression jack, with control over every knob¹⁵

Power and connections

The pedal is stereo, with stereo in and out and analog dry through, the connections made via TRS jacks¹⁵. It runs fully mono, fully stereo, or mono in, stereo out, and in the stereo modes the LFO is offset across the left and right channels to create a variety of stereo effects⁵³. All the I/O, expression jack and MIDI included, sits in one place on the enclosure⁵.

What reviewers said

Guitar.com published a review in November 2025 rating the Bathing 8 out of 10. The reviewer's verdict highlighted "gorgeous sounds, gorgeous art, totally unique signal path, extensive I/O and MIDI support", set against "sounds can get quite extreme quite quickly and a couple of fiddly controls"⁵.

The review found the pedal "makes good on the promise of being 'liminal', with profoundly strange and evocative sounds from a totally weird signal chain", and described losing hours to it⁵. The wobbly multi-delay sounds reminded the reviewer of the EarthQuaker Disaster Transport Sr, and the review positioned it against other experimental delays such as the Chase Bliss Habit, a sort-of-delay sort-of-looper priced at $339⁵.

On character, the reviewer found the Bathing excels as "a wash of weirdness behind spacious playing", but at extreme settings the sounds barely resemble a guitar at all, and it is too sharp for wide droning pads, not traditionally lush or ambient⁵. On buying advice the review was direct:

Gearnews' take at launch was that "It also offers sounds and effect possibilities you get nowhere else"², and Guitar Pedal X highlighted its "wide control set, low noise floor and an expansive stereo field"⁴.

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