Chorus shootout....

Denverdave

Denverdave

Resident Ragamuffin
No clips though...:(

I'm thinking I need a chorus or phaser for my pedalboard so I wandered down to the Music-Go-Round by my house. I tried out four chorus pedals while I was there.

They were - in audition order....

EHX Small Clone Chorus
Arion SCH-Z
Boss CE-3
Danelectro Cool Cat

I am More into a subtle chorusing effect so with that in mind, how do you think I ordered the pedals best to worst? How would you order them? And no - I didn't buy one yet.

BTW - for the demo I grabbed an Ibanez Artcore. I think it was an AFS75. Pretty nice guitar. I think there were asking about $375.00. Not sure if i liked it better than my PRS SE or not.

AND - more importantly - the amp i played through. They had an amp on the floor that looked like a beat up tweed Blues Jr. Nope....1954 Tweed Fender Deluxe. :eek: I didn't get to crank it up too much, but not much clean headroom at all. And the tone? Holy crap that was a sweet amp! I cranked it just a bit for a minute and had to turn it down lest I go home and get my charge card with the zero balance and buy the sucker. Even the clean tones were magical. I want that freakin' amp! Two grand though. I have $600.00 in the music fund, I could sell my DRRI for $600 and I have a gig in Sept that pays $130.00. Lets see - $1330.00 so far. I am sooooooooooooo tempted.
 
build a deluxe kit. or buy one of the many reissues that have been made by small builders with no resale value whatsoever.

i really loved the Dano Cool Cat when it came out.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
build a deluxe kit. or buy one of the many reissues that have been made by small builders with no resale value whatsoever.

i really loved the Dano Cool Cat when it came out.
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I can't build an amp - that is a bit beyond my electronics background.

I'm not sure a reissue would sound like this amp......this thing had the near mythical old equipment mojo in spades. If I could remotely justify buying this I would, but I would have to sell the DRRI and that means this would have to do all the gigs and I'm not sure I want a 57 year old amp in clubs that often.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Cool Cat. I have a pretty low opinion of Dano effects in general but I did like this chorus a bit.
 
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Denverdave said:
I can't build an amp - that is a bit beyond my electronics background.

I'm not sure a reissue would sound like this amp......this thing had the near mythical old equipment mojo in spades. If I could remotely justify buying this I would, but I would have to sell the DRRI and that means this would have to do all the gigs and I'm not sure I want a 57 year old amp in clubs that often.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Cool Cat. I have a pretty low opinion of Dano effects in general but I did like this chorus a bit.
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the problem i have with Dano pedals are the shitty bypasses and crappy switches. but the housing on the original Cool Cat was a tank.

i bet an RI with a well broken in speaker will sound dead on. rub some dirt on it for mojo appeal.
 
Richter makes a great 5e3 clone:



Tom and I are both playing through the same amp.
 
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Help!I'maRock! said:
the problem i have with Dano pedals are the shitty bypasses and crappy switches. but the housing on the original Cool Cat was a tank.

i bet an RI with a well broken in speaker will sound dead on. rub some dirt on it for mojo appeal.
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I did notice that the CC was quite heavy. I didn't like the 18V thing though. I would need a separate power supply for it.

As much as the Deluxe sounded awesome, I'm not sure it has enough clean headroom for the country band. It might though.
 
Anyway - back to the chorus shootout.....

I actually liked all four - and amazingly all four sounded very different. My preference of the four was....

1. Small Clone
2. CE-2
3. Cool Cat
4. SCH-Z

The last three were all really close together. The only reason the CE-2 came in second was that I do like a more subtle chorusing effect most of the time. The Arion had a very distinct sound that I can see very useful in some songs - but just not my thing.

The Small Clone was the easy winner for me. I didn't buy it due to a couple things though. First it uses a different plug type for it's 9 volt power so I would have to have another power adapter or run it on batteries (and that ain't happening). Second it has a reputation from stuff I read on the net of not being very sturdy. I'll probably try a couple other boxes but I may end up with the Small Clone despite the negatives. I loved that tone - very warm and rich....
 
wait, was it a CE-2 or CE-3? they're very different.

on the small clone, go with the nano clone. it takes a BOSS style power plug.

40489030-260x260-0-0_Electro+Harmonix+Electro+Harmonix+Nano+Clone+Choru.jpg
 
I have the full size small clone and run it off my power_all. Iirc the onespot also comes with an appropriate adapter.
 
Dave - FWIW, try an Ibanez CS9 chorus - very subtle. If you happen to run across a TC Electronics Chorus/Flanger, that is really your winner - awesome unit.

On the Deluxe front - 5E3 clone bro!
 
I'm also a fan of the Malekko Omicron chorus that I have...at $129 it's not the cheapest option but it's small and does it's one thing really well.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
wait, was it a CE-2 or CE-3? they're very different.

on the small clone, go with the nano clone. it takes a BOSS style power plug.

40489030-260x260-0-0_Electro+Harmonix+Electro+Harmonix+Nano+Clone+Choru.jpg
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It was a CE-3. He mentioned they get some CE-2s through on occasion. They also generally command around $150.00 on eBay. The CE-3 was nice for a few sounds, but overall no way I would buy one.

I would have to listen to a Nano Clone first. I did like the 'depth' switch on the Small Clone...
 
Modern Saint said:
Dave - FWIW, try an Ibanez CS9 chorus - very subtle. If you happen to run across a TC Electronics Chorus/Flanger, that is really your winner - awesome unit.
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Mark Wein said:
I'm also a fan of the Malekko Omicron chorus that I have...at $129 it's not the cheapest option but it's small and does it's one thing really well.
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I'll keep those in mind.

But yesterday definitely impressed on me that a chorus really needs to be tried in person first. I mean if you try five Tube Screamers by five different makers, like Howie is apt to do any given weekend he is bored (:wink:), they will sound different but will have a similar base sound. Not so with a chorus. So the individual guitar players personal tonal preference will have a lot to do with it. I mean I tried out the Small Clone for the heck of it because it was there. I know they are the official 'Nirvana sound' pedal but that is not my sound at all. But I was able to nail what I was looking for from that pedal. I should run down to GC at lunch and try a few there. They probably have the Nano Clone and the MXR Micro i want to try. Actually - EHX has a Neo Clone which is supposed to be a Small Clone in a smaller box with the depth switch. Hmmm....
 
I usually end up buying pedals from ProGuitarShop.com and trying them in my rig...they have a great return policy and then I have the opportunity to hear what they sound like through my amp and not a broken blues deville at GC.
 
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