Sound Pure's Take
The Black Lion Audio Bluey 500 brings the legendary "Blue Stripe" 1176 FET limiting amplifier—specifically modeled after Chris Lord-Alge’s uniquely modified vintage unit—into a single-slot 500 Series module. Known across the industry as the secret weapon behind hundreds of hit vocal tracks, CLA's original "Bluey" had undergone decades of custom technician modifications, tech repairs, and transformer swaps, creating a uniquely aggressive, mid-forward character that differed significantly from standard 1176 reissues.
Black Lion Audio painstakingly recreated this exact circuit layout, complete with custom-wound Cinemag transformers and discrete FET components tailored to match CLA’s physical unit. The Bluey 500 retains the blistering attack speeds and gritty, rich harmonic saturation of the original 2U rack unit while adding a highly practical active Mix knob for instant parallel compression directly on the faceplate.
From Black Lion Audio
The Bluey 500 is a 500-series version of the Bluey Limiting Amplifier, which is a recreation of Chris Lorde-Alge’s most prized 1176 - used on every lead vocal he mixes.
FEATURES
- 2 Cinemag transformers; a recreation of the original UTC input transformer, and a recreation of the original Reichenbach output transformer
- Wet/Dry mix knob allows for parallel compression not available on the original
- Stereo-linkable
- Input and Output buffering taken directly from Chris Lorde-Alge’s console inserts
- Hand-tested, calibrated and QC'd in the USA.
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