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denied « Vintage chorus on the cheap »
Published on 07/31/11 at 09:29- Controls for depth and speed
- Buffered Bypass
- Vintage DOD construction
- Compact
- Powered by 9v battery or DOD style adapter
- Solid and reliable
UTILIZATION
While this is an excellent chorus in many ways, the usability is a little annoying. The controls themselves are very simple, depth and speed/rate. Standard chorus controls, should be self explanatory. It is nice and compact which is nice. Now we get to the fun part. There is a very noticeable volume drop when the pedal is engaged. I had my own pedal converted to true bypass in hopes of rectifying this, to no avail. So it is great for studio work, or on songs that have the chorus all the way through. But for switching the pedal on in the middle of a song is going to be problematic. There is no LED indicator which can be pretty annoying. The adapter is a vintage DOD style, NOT the standard Boss one. There are adapters that will cross the two, but it is just plain annoying to deal with.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound itself is pretty great. I’ve been through a lot of choruses, and this one really isn’t bad at all, especially for the price you can get them at. Very warm and analog sounding. Anywhere from a slight shimmer to peaks and dives. Low noise, and not very cheesy sounding which seems to be the most common complaint regarding chorus pedals these days. Very similar to, but a little more subtle and refined than the more easily obtainable DOD fx65.
OVERALL OPINION
If you are after a solid vintage analog chorus at an affordable price, this is probably the one to get. Yes, it has some usability issues, and isn’t the most straightforward to plug in and use. But that is vintage gear in general, and the price you pay for using it. There aren’t really a whole lot of similar sounding chorus pedals to be had at this price point. That said, these aren’t the easiest to get a hold of. There are one or two on ebay from time to time, and they usually go between $70-100. I’d recommend mods for true bypass and a side mounted LED to make it a little more usable. If this sounds like it’s more of a hassle than you’re up for, I’d take a look at the Malekko or Cmatmods chorus pedals.
- Buffered Bypass
- Vintage DOD construction
- Compact
- Powered by 9v battery or DOD style adapter
- Solid and reliable
UTILIZATION
While this is an excellent chorus in many ways, the usability is a little annoying. The controls themselves are very simple, depth and speed/rate. Standard chorus controls, should be self explanatory. It is nice and compact which is nice. Now we get to the fun part. There is a very noticeable volume drop when the pedal is engaged. I had my own pedal converted to true bypass in hopes of rectifying this, to no avail. So it is great for studio work, or on songs that have the chorus all the way through. But for switching the pedal on in the middle of a song is going to be problematic. There is no LED indicator which can be pretty annoying. The adapter is a vintage DOD style, NOT the standard Boss one. There are adapters that will cross the two, but it is just plain annoying to deal with.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound itself is pretty great. I’ve been through a lot of choruses, and this one really isn’t bad at all, especially for the price you can get them at. Very warm and analog sounding. Anywhere from a slight shimmer to peaks and dives. Low noise, and not very cheesy sounding which seems to be the most common complaint regarding chorus pedals these days. Very similar to, but a little more subtle and refined than the more easily obtainable DOD fx65.
OVERALL OPINION
If you are after a solid vintage analog chorus at an affordable price, this is probably the one to get. Yes, it has some usability issues, and isn’t the most straightforward to plug in and use. But that is vintage gear in general, and the price you pay for using it. There aren’t really a whole lot of similar sounding chorus pedals to be had at this price point. That said, these aren’t the easiest to get a hold of. There are one or two on ebay from time to time, and they usually go between $70-100. I’d recommend mods for true bypass and a side mounted LED to make it a little more usable. If this sounds like it’s more of a hassle than you’re up for, I’d take a look at the Malekko or Cmatmods chorus pedals.
