Turn in your chorus! Amnesty, cash paid!

[Caevan O’Shite]

I went from overusing chorus in the '80s and early '90s, to a LO0O0O0O0NG period, many years, of avoiding it like the plague... and back to using it again, if a bit more moderately...
 

I currently have an Old TC Electronics Stereo Chorus/Flanger, a 1979 MXR M-117 Flanger, an '80s Arion SFL-1 Stereo Flanger... (Yes, those flangers can be coaxed into doubling as chorus effects... )

 

In the same overall ballpark more or less, I also sometimes deploy the following in pursuit of chorusy modulation motion: Fulltone MDV3 V2, Keeley Gold Star Reverb's Flanged Reverb, the Wow & Flutter modulation of my Strymon El Capistan, the modulated 'verb of my Strymon Flint's " '80s Rack Hall Reverb" Mode...

[Winston Psmith]

I recall at least two pedals that combined Distortion and Chorus, Boss' Digital Metalizer, and Ibanez' Session Man. The idea was that a Chorus/Doubling effect was just as essential to your sound as Distortion, so of course, you'd want them in one pedal, right?

 

Maybe not . . . I don't recall either of them being big sellers.

 

For my part, I like using Chorus as a sort of "thickener" for the Guitar sound, rather than as an obvious Mod effect. The Chorus effect in the various Boss MFX also works very nicely as a "Stereoizer" even with Mod Rate & Depth dialed way back.

[CEB]

For the most part I hate Chorus.  It makes the guitar sound out of tune.  There are some exceptions.

 

-My favorite 'chorus' was using my old analog Memory Man in chorus mode.  It was thick and dirty.  It sounded good to me when laying down big chords with cool extensions.

 

- I like chorus for the warbly faux leslie thing. Also like a uni vibe.  Real dual rotor Leslies and very accurate simulators are weak by design.  80% of a leslies sound comes from the bottom rotor.  The cutoff point for the horn is 800hz.  Guitar does not have the bottom end harmonic content to drive a leslie.  Guitar not an organ.  The best actual leslie for a guitar is a single rotor.  Not sure why guitar players liked the old Ventilators so much.  It's cool if you only play with yourself but in a large electric mix it is thin.

 

- In the 80s I knew what was the entire Rush catalogue by heart.  I liked to use a chorus pedal to play Lifeson's guitar parts.  I liked chorus in Rush

 

But for the most part I hate digital chorus.

[KuruPrionz]

I just sold a Danelectro chorus. Some where around here I have a TC Electronics Flashback X4 (or something like that). It's a delay pedal with 3 presets and tap tempo. I have chorus sounds on 2 of the three presets, different ones. I actually prefer a de-tuning sound without the modulation. 

In the studio I'll record a track, copy and paste it and add a bit of chorus to the second track, I like it blended better than just by itself. Artificial imitation rotary speaker sound is an option I've used as well. 

 

Chorus is OK with me but just in bits and dabs as an effect, not as a go-to "this is my sound" sound. 

[desertbluesman]

I might have had  a chorus pedal long long ago. But never really bonded with any chorus pedals as keepers.

[Caevan O’Shite]

4 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

I recall at least two pedals that combined Distortion and Chorus, Boss' Digital Metalizer, and Ibanez' Session Man. The idea was that a Chorus/Doubling effect was just as essential to your sound as Distortion, so of course, you'd want them in one pedal, right?

I used to frequently- and do again, occasionally- use chorus and, particularly, the "Pitch Modulator Mode" of my TC Electronic Stereo Chorus/Flanger with aggressive sounding heavy overdrive and distortion, the pedal sitting in the amp's effects-loop. It sounded MEAN, and there was actually less noise and hum when the pedal was activated (in PM Mode) than when the pedal was off. I would often get compliments on how cool that combination sounded!

 

4 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

For my part, I like using Chorus as a sort of "thickener" for the Guitar sound, rather than as an obvious Mod effect.

I imagine that you would LOVE the Chorus Mode of the TC Electronic Stereo Chorus/Flanger- it is HUGE, FAT, WIDE, and THICK, substantially more so than the sound before the pedal is kicked-in, almost TOO much so, and even a good bit louder- no signal-drop blues or mid-scoop there! That is, unless the treble roll-off of Boss chorus pedals and the seeming majority of others.
 

 

4 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

The Chorus effect in the various Boss MFX also works very nicely as a "Stereoizer" even with Mod Rate & Depth dialed way back.

I know what you mean; my TC StCh/Fl, and my '80s Arion SFL-1 Stereo Flanger, are both very good for that, too.
 

 

3 hours ago, CEB said:

For the most part I hate Chorus.  It makes the guitar sound out of tune.  There are some exceptions.

As I mentioned in the initial post above, I've been of a similar opinion for many years! For me, though, the biggest reason might have been the predictable, same-old same-old repetitious LFO sweep.

I might actually wind up buying a Walrus Audio Julianna Deluxe Chorus pedal just for its Lag, Random, and Drift features... ! I would LOVE to have some of my modulation pedals modified to have those same parameters!! For real! If a dynamic envelope feature affecting the rate and depth or even other parameters like Regeneration, Manual, Width, even all the more betterer!
 

 

3 hours ago, CEB said:

My favorite 'chorus' was using my old analog Memory Man in chorus mode.  It was thick and dirty.  It sounded good to me when laying down big chords with cool extensions.

Yes!! That Deluxe Memory Man modulation is so lush and cushy and squishy and beautiful... The 'Wow & Flutter' modulation of my Strymon El Capistan is also fantastic!
 

 

3 hours ago, CEB said:

I like chorus for the warbly faux leslie thing. Also like a uni vibe.

I'm with you on that!
 

 

3 hours ago, CEB said:

Real dual rotor Leslies and very accurate simulators are weak by design.  80% of a leslies sound comes from the bottom rotor.  The cutoff point for the horn is 800hz.  Guitar does not have the bottom end harmonic content to drive a leslie.  Guitar not an organ.  The best actual leslie for a guitar is a single rotor.  Not sure why guitar players liked the old Ventilators so much.  It's cool if you only play with yourself but in a large electric mix it is thin.

I very often also use an octave-down or even sub-octave effect when using an out-and-out Leslie sim effect. I love both dual-rotary and single-rotary Leslie and Vibratone sounds. Love 'em! For years I was using a Boss RT-20 Leslie-sim pedal, and even occasionally its "UNI-V" Uni-Vibe modeling Mode, while completely snubbing more typical chorus effects. That certainly helped me have a more unique sound of my own, instead of sounding like everybody else in the area...
 

 

3 hours ago, CEB said:

But for the most part I hate digital chorus.

ME, TOO... !!
 

 

47 minutes ago, KuruPrionz said:

Chorus is OK with me but just in bits and dabs as an effect, not as a go-to "this is my sound" sound.

Me, too; not an 'always on' effect for me. I tend to prefer clean-tones without any chorus effect, at least not the usual types- unlike a lot of players, it seems!


 

  

46 minutes ago, desertbluesman said:

I might have had  a chorus pedal long long ago. But never really bonded with any chorus pedals as keepers.

Many- MOST- chorus pedals sound awful to me. Many roll-off too much treble and sound goopy, plasticy and murky to me! I hate how chorus pedals wreck John Scofield's and Mike Stern's tones!!

[surfergirl]

I have the MXR Univibe on my radar. 

[Scott Fraser]

I have a Boss DC2 Dimension Chorus pedal, the one with 4 presets on radio buttons, based on the somewhat legendary Dimension D rack unit which was an 80's studio staple. It's pretty subtle on the lowest buitton, just a gentle thickening without an obvious up/down sweep. It's also about 20 dB quieter than any other modulation pedals I've owned. The simplistic LFO sweep is what I mainly hate about most phaser/flanger/chorus pedals. The Dimension chorus is the only modulation I use anymore, other than a Leslie built into my rack units. 

[Caevan O’Shite]

 

3 hours ago, surfergirl said:

I have the MXR Univibe on my radar. 

 

Have you played through a Uni-Vibe type pedal before? I bet you're going to love it!

All of a sudden, all these classic recordings you've heard will come to mind as you're playing...

Crank the Level output to overdrive what you're plugging it into, and use your guitar's volume-knob to clean-up.

Slip one of those ECB131 rubber covers on the Speed knob for easy manipulation of the sweep-rate while your playing, you'll love it.

  

2 hours ago, Scott Fraser said:

I have a Boss DC2 Dimension Chorus pedal, the one with 4 presets on radio buttons, based on the somewhat legendary Dimension D rack unit which was an 80's studio staple. It's pretty subtle on the lowest button, just a gentle thickening without an obvious up/down sweep.  The simplistic LFO sweep is what I mainly hate about most phaser/flanger/chorus pedals.

That's almost kinda-sorta not a "chorus" pedal, and in some GOOD ways. And I'm with you on that "obvious up/down [LFO] sweep" of the majority of "chorus" and other modulation pedals.
 

 

2 hours ago, Scott Fraser said:

It's also about 20 dB quieter than any other modulation pedals I've owned.

Meaning signal to noise, as in low-noise, I presume?

[Larryz]

I had a Fender Chorus amp and a Boss Chorus pedal once...sold the pedal and traded the amp off.  Just didn't bond with the effect and/or use it that much for some reason.  They were popular at one point and one of my guitar buddies could get some impressive sounds using his chorus pedal.  My Boss Chorus put out some sweet clean sound and it sold faster than any pedal I had ever owned and put up for sale.  I sold it for what I paid for it after using it for a couple of years so I can't complain.  The jazzers liked them a lot...😎

[Scott Fraser]

21 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

 Meaning signal to noise, as in low-noise, I presume?

Yes, like studio level signal to noise ratio, pretty much no noise at all. Many years ago a client brought in a Dimension C pedal to my studio to use on the mixes of his hammered dulcimer. I plugged it in & it was so quiet I thought I had mispatched, but no, there it was, adding wonderful texture to the dulcimer without making it sound like a cliche.

[skipclone 1]

I was given a Maxon CS-01 as a gift for helping a friend out. Haven't toyed with it much as yet but, 
I agree with the less is more approach. There's a sweet spot for modulation in general that can be good
If used sparingly. 
I'll add this, having just watched a performance vid from one of my favorite clubs, which I have also played at for many years, it kind of underscores my point. There is a place IMO, for modulation effects. Playing fast, is not one of them.
No one has any idea what you're playing, they just hear a bunch of notes stepping over each other.
The players who use those effects-well, effectively-preprogram them to switch in and out. Of course it's possible to do it manually as well.

[Winston Psmith]

Fast playing through a Phaser or Flanger set to a very slow rate is very cool sound. Add Distortion to taste . . .

 

Fast playing through a Delay effect, OTOH . . . unless you're very careful about timing, everything tends to come crashing together in a flurry of notes.

[skipclone 1]

Ya that's true, in fact I did that very thing with a phase effect on one of our forum collaborations back in the day. 

[p90jr]

Among my formulative guitar heroes were Andy Summers from The Police, James Honeyman-Scott from The Pretenders, Elliot Easton from The Cars, Jamie West-Oram from The Fixx, Robert Smith from The Cure... so I like chorus... but the standard issue amp every cover band guy had around here forever was the Peavey Stereo Chorus, so they played everything with chorus on it... "Down on Main Street," "Take It Easy," "Wonderful Tonight," so that bugged me and made me avoid it usually and go in the other direction, unless it was something really out of left field I was doing...