Pettyjohn Electronics Pettyjohn CHIME

The Pettyjohn CHIME is a low-to-medium gain overdrive pedal from Pettyjohn Electronics, announced on June 10, 2016 as the second release in the company's single-pedal Foundry Series¹. Its circuit draws on the right channel of the flagship Signature overdrive, the PettyDrive, a channel Pettyjohn designed as a full-range, low-gain overdrive or boost with light, sweet, harmonically rich breakup reminiscent of a pushed British style tube amp¹². The CHIME carried a $229 MSRP at launch¹.

Pettyjohn describes the pedal's target sound in terms players will recognize: the maker's current index says the CHIME MKII is "Known for it's ability to sweeten your signal with the touch sensitivity of vintage English amps on the edge of break up"³. In the launch announcement, Premier Guitar reported that the pedal delivers "sweet, harmonically rich edge-of-breakup tones" with "natural, musical harmonic presence and subtle natural compression often associated with cranked British style amps"¹.

Edge-of-breakup overdrive in the vintage English style

The CHIME sits in the low-to-medium gain range, and its lineage explains its character. The PettyDrive, introduced in 2015, was engineered to deliver "the powerful tone and dynamic feel of boutique tube amps pushed to the edge of breakup," with its Channel 1, called the Chime channel, designed as a full-range, low-gain overdrive or boost². The CHIME takes that channel as its inspiration and puts it in a single-pedal format¹⁵.

Within the Foundry Series, the CHIME is one of three overdrives alongside IRON and GOLD⁶. Where the Pettyjohn GOLD pursues a plexi-style amp-in-a-box sound, the CHIME stays in the sweeter, lower-gain territory of a British amp just starting to break up.

The controls and clipping modes

The original CHIME offered three clipping options, described in the launch announcement as "carefully designed" for a wide range of break-up flavors: Yellow LED, Germanium Diodes, and a combo mode¹. The gain control's range was increased by 2.5 times compared with the original PettyDrive version, giving the pedal more ground to cover than the circuit it came from¹.

The CHIME MKII added a clipping mix knob, a mini pot that adjusts the blend between the two pairs of germanium and LED clipping diodes, so the player can dial between the two flavors rather than switching between them⁴.

The MKII also adds Preamp Mode, an internal mini toggle that bypasses the clipping stage entirely, making the pedal a clean tone-shaping preamp and boost with no clipping at all⁴. The maker had already suggested this kind of use for the original, noting that at 18V operation it works "Great as a pre-amp for a delay. Even better as a front end boost to your amp"⁶.

Power: 9V in, up to 36V inside

The original CHIME runs on 9V to 18V DC and draws around 50mA¹. Inside, a dual-rail power section effectively provides 18V to 36V of internal voltage swing, which the maker translates as extra headroom for what it calls a truly studio-grade signal path¹. The MKII takes this further, delivering 36 volts of internal power from a standard 9V adaptor at 150mA, with up to 10 times the current of the previous version⁴.

The CHIME MKII takes this further with what Pettyjohn calls a proprietary true 36V power supply: it runs from a standard 9V adapter, delivers 36 volts of internal headroom, and supplies up to 10 times the current of the previous version, drawing 150mA⁴.

History: from the PettyDrive to the CHIME MKII

The line runs from the PettyDrive, the flagship Signature Collection overdrive introduced in 2015 and hand made in the USA with premium audiophile components². The CHIME, announced June 10, 2016, became the second single-pedal release in the Foundry Series, drawing on the PettyDrive's right channel¹⁵.

The CHIME MKII, announced ahead of NAMM 2019, was described by Pettyjohn's Nicholas Kula as making "some major advancements to this now-classic low-to-medium gain drive unit"⁴. Beyond the power supply and bypass changes, the MKII uses classic TL072 and JRC4558 op-amp stages "carefully implemented for warmth and feel," with Burr Brown OPA buffers at both input and output (the original CHIME had a Burr Brown OPA input buffer)¹⁴. It ships in a Foundry Series MKII custom enclosure with in-set screws, measuring 2.75 inches wide by 4.75 inches long by 2.5 inches high and weighing 2 lbs⁴.

Pettyjohn's current index still lists the CHIME MKII as a Foundry Series low-to-medium gain overdrive, calling it "a major update to our signature low-medium gain overdrive"³. The line has since continued with pedals such as the CHIME3 and IRON V3.

Both the original CHIME and the MKII are handmade in the Pacific Northwest, USA, box and circuit alike⁵⁴.

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