Best chorus pedal

What are everone's opinions on the best/better quality chorus pedals, either mono or stereo?

How about reverbs?

Thanks.


Ron...

You'll get a lot of different opinions I'm sure, because chorus is one those things that if you like it at all, you like it only a certain way.

Anywho, here's my opinion. I like it occasionally for ballads or on crisp, funk rhythm playing. Therefore I don't like anything that's too swirly or whooshing. I've tried all the Boss choruses, the Dan-O, the Voodoo Labs, the Maxon analog chorus, and many rack units, but nothing is better for my tastes than the TC Electronic "SCF."

For me, it's one of the few things that actually lives up to the hype (and high price). It's the only chorus pedal I've ever used that I actually had to force myself to turn off when it's not called for, because it just sounds so good all the time.

My 2 cents.

As a recovering chorusaholic (I bought a Boss in 1980 and I don't think I turned it off for 3 years) I rarely use one these days. I still have a couple of the early Boss blue choruses (CE2's ??) that I use when needed. The TC Electronics is really nice and a recent favorite of mine is the Arion stereo chorus. I don't own one, but I used one on a few gigs and I really thought it had it's own thing going. I don't know how road worthy they are, but I really liked the tone.
Of all the rack units I've owned, the best chorus I ever heard was using the modulation section of a Chandler digital echo. A really fat beautiful stereo spread that got thick without too much detuning.
Overall I don't think you can go wrong with an old Boss unit. They certainly have a good track record.

After some research, I've decided to get a Lexicon MPX-1 with the MPX-R1 remote floor board. This will give me world class reverbs, modulation, pitch, delays, etc. They're pretty reasonable on eBay and I can use it in my studio for mixing.

For a simpler pedal board arrangement I'm going to try out the Arion SCH-1 or SCH-Z. I read some very good things on Harmony Central.

I'll let you know how it works out.


Ron...

Not sure what the best ones are but my faves are the old blue 2 knob Boss mono chorus (ch1 or 2 or somthing like that) & the early 80's Ibanez 2 knob Stereo Chorus SCL.

Another vote for the TC Electronics. I love the way it does stereo....

Haven't heard the MPX-1, but I have an older Lexicon and the reverbs are hard to beat for a variety of uses(vocals, rooms, etc.). The delay has some buried settings that can do a decent Ecoplex emulation(high cut the repeats).

Depending on the era you are trying to emulate, I like the Fulltone Dejavibe, the Voodoo Lab analog chorus for 80's vintage and the Fulltone Choral Flange for more modern HiFi type textures.

Best band for you buck would be the Voodoo Labs Analog Chorus. Rich and chewy, although it adds a little something on the slower setting that I didin't like. A little high end boost that annoyed me. The AnalogMan Clone Clone is my new favoritie. No boost, nothing added, great fast AND slow speeds, but a little expensive.

Here's another vote for the Fulltone Choralflange...best I've ever heard.

I use:

Boss DC-2 Dimension (Analog)
Boss DC-3 Digital Dimension
DOD 690

While I'm Getting ready to drop the green on a TC, I would like to point the the Arion Chorus really is hip. I had one that got stolen in the eighties. Recently I Decided after years off rack mount junk that Ii wanted a good sounding simple floor box chorus. played through about 20 used and vintage Chorus pedals and went home with, you quessed it ,an Arion (best of two) try one you might like it.

I dig the chorus built into my Roland JC120. I know I'm a heretic on these boards for my devotion to a solid state amp but there you have it. The JC120 chorus is a fantastic sound. You can't adjust it at all, but why would you want to?

Just an update from my earlier post above.

I just bought the Lexicon MPX-1 (1 year old - $360 on eBay), but I'll only be using it in my recording studio, mostly for the reverbs & occasionally for the other fx.

I bought an Arion SCH-1 on eBay for $40. It was very nice, for the price, but I tried out the Roland CE-20, which has the original CE-1 and 5 other chorus types, including 1 for bass and 1 for acoustic. All of them were excellent, unique and amazing in stereo. For my needs it was the best. Check out the Boss website for sound samples. I got a new one on eBay for $100 and sold the Arion for $90! I love eBay!

I also bought a slightly used tc electronic M300 ($150 on eBay) for my guitar rig, mostly for the reverbs and delays (including a 2290 dynamic delay - very cool), but it also has the nice tc chorus, flangers, phasers, tremolo and a few others.


Ron...

ya gotta hear this one!

http://www.dlseffects.com/sounds.htm

their chorus~vib sounds like a t.c. with body! another cool thing about it is that it preserves the stereo outputs when the chorus is turned off!

here's some of me through one:

http://www.thefenderforum.com/forum/...=&postid=31115

http://www.thefenderforum.com/forum/...=&postid=31116

ml

Yep--the Arion SCH-1 is one bad mamajama.

This bad dog comes closer than any pedal I've ever heard to nailing the sound of that rarest, most sought-after holy grail of choruses: the Dytronics
Tri-Stereo Chorus (early 80s rackmount analog chorus used by first-call studio guitarists like Michael Landau, Steve Lukather, Dan Huff, et al.
If you're lucky enough to find one of these units then be prepared to cough up at least $2,500.00. Ouch!)

Another of my long-time favorite choruses is the Scholz Stereo Chorus/Delay (another 80s-era, analog rackmount chorus.) I've used this unit off and on since about '87. What blows me away about the Scholz is the fact that when I use it on live gigs it always sounds more transparent and always cuts through the mix better than any other chorus in my rack--including the high-end stuff.

To hear the Scholz in action, check out the contemporary jazz tune called "Jasmine" (clean/comping guitar parts) from my new project.
(Link to mp3 downloads on my webpage.)

:cool: