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I've never been much of fan of chorus pedals before. I've sort of always felt it was an effect that was way over used. A sound I really did not want to associate myself with. But as of late, I've been experimenting with pedals in combination. I recently had a Danelectro FAB chorus pedal in my chain, where as the pedal did not measure up to my standards, I did find that I really like the way it sounded with an over drive pedal running into it, so I decided I had to have one!

My first choice would have been the BOSS Chorus Ensemble. I really did not want to pay the current retail price, so my only option appeared to be to wait for a used one to come up for sale, so it was off to the local Guitar Center to see if they had any.

The “used” case was empty, as far a chorus units goes, so the sales guy asked me what I was looking for. I told him use BOSS Chorus pedal. The then recommended that I check out the Electro Harmonix chorus pedal.

I've never been a fan of Electro Harmonix pedals. The last one I had was a Small Stone phase shifter in 1979. They were very light and seemed to be made out of a very soft thin meta, so I was a bit skeptical. But this no longer mattered when he played his “Ace in the hole”. He dropped the priced by twenty bucks, and threw in the special Electro Harmoix power adapter that still uses the old 1/8” audio plug.

I was pleasantly surprised when I took it out of the box to find the really beefed up the case on these newer models, and they even added a battery door. On the old ones, you have to dismantle the entire case to change the battery.

As far a controls, it has to be one of the simplest chorus units you can find. It has only a rate knob and a depth switch. Simple, but so effective.

With the depth switch, it seems they knew exactly how deep to cut. Whether you are in the light or the deeper mode, they seem to be just right. Not too much, not too little, and it sound fantastic either clean or with my Tubescreamer running into it. In the light chorus mode and the rate at about 1/3, it produces the exact amount of chorus I was hoping for. Just enough to fatten the signal, but not too over the top.

By utilizing the switch and the rate you can go from a light chorus to a heavy warble. This thing actually allows you to go way out of the realm of what is considered chorus, and produce some truly innovative sounds. The only down side is that when over driven, you can hear a faint “swoosh” from the unit. Not real bad, but it is there.

I also does not appear to suffer from “Tone Suckage”. When in bypass mode, it does not seem to alter the signal. I'm sure it does to a point, but I can't hear it.

Give one a try, I think you will like it also!
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