A quarter of the 10,000 boxes will hold a new pedal ahead of its 2027 release, and Brisbane’s Pedal Empire is selling 25 boxes in-store this Saturday.
Chase Bliss has brought back its Mystery Box for 2026, and this year it comes with a pedal nobody has seen yet. Of the 10,000 boxes on offer, 2,500 will contain a new analogue Chase Bliss pedal that won’t get a standard release until early 2027.
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The Mystery Box version will be identical to the eventual production model except for its colour, which is exclusive to the boxes. That gives each buyer roughly a one-in-four chance of getting it first. Chase Bliss hasn’t said what the pedal does.
Joel Korte founded Chase Bliss in Anoka, Minnesota, in 2013, naming it after his late brother Chase and a favourite Joseph Campbell quote of his, “Follow your bliss”. The company made its name pairing analogue signal paths with digital control, adding DIP switches that let players automate or reverse knob settings, starting with the Warped Vinyl chorus and vibrato. Since then it has released pedals like Mood, Blooper and the Habit Echo Collector, and worked with Benson Amps, Goodhertz and Analog Man. Its pedals turn up on boards belonging to Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, Nine Inch Nails and John Mayer.
Every box includes at least one Chase Bliss pedal, along with an art print from one of four US artists and a set of custom dice, and the company says the retail value of every box is higher than what you pay for it. A small number contain B-stock pedals, which have a minor cosmetic mark or have come back as a customer return, and those boxes get extra merch to make up for it.
The run has bonuses mixed in too. Five hundred boxes include a second pedal from one of more than 60 “Friends of Bliss” builders, among them Death By Audio, Empress Effects, Fairfield Circuitry, Meris and Old Blood Noise Endeavors, and some of those builders have made special runs just for the boxes. Ten boxes will also contain a pedal hand-painted by artist Hannah Haughberg.
There’s a strict limit of two boxes per household, and Chase Bliss says any extra orders will be cancelled. Shipping runs in zones from 26 October through to 23 December, and buyers can check their estimated shipping date with a tracker that goes live on 26 October.
Australian players also have an in-person option. Pedal Empire in Brisbane is one of the Bliss + Mortar stores around the world selling 25 boxes in-store on Saturday 24 October, one per customer, while stocks last. Those in-store boxes don’t count towards the two-per-household online limit.
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