Fender Starcaster Chorus Pedal

This is the hideous puke green Starcaster Chorus pedal put out by Fender. The Starcaster is Fender's super cheap line that is mass produced and sent all over to places like Best Buy, Target and some music stores.

This pedal by fluke does a cool dirty, low-fi chorus sound.

Best Buy was blowing these out for $10. They are still made, but most places have then for $40, Sam Ash did recently have these on sale. I lucked out and got one for $10.

It does the dirty chorus well. By dirty chorus, I'm talking that Nirvana Come As You Are tone where you think the whole guitar rig might blow up, but it sounds good for now.

It is a cheap pedal, thus it sucks tone and I really don't think I could count on it, so it sort of sits in my studio as an exotic option.

Sleezy. You never know if or when it will crap out on you or give you that magical tone. This pedal I believe classifies itself as an analog pedal. The pitch can warble, I can even get a little bit of an Andy Summers tone out of it.

It's cheap, it's a gamble. If you are looking to add a clean and reliable chorus pedal to your gigging pedalboard look elsewhere. If you are an effects geek or just like to experiment with noisy pedals, this has your name written all over it!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

It is a mono analog chorus: An input and output jacks, a 9v power supply connector format Boss. All in a surprisingly solid metal casing though a bit bulky, with a plastic cover that hides a 9v battery very easily accessible.
It is brand new in a plastic bag, kind of painful enough to open without cutting your fingers. This is also the only detail that shows Starcaster is a sub-brand of Fender intended primarily for beginners.

UTILIZATION

Five knobs allow you to set this chorus:
- "Level" controls the level of effect.
- "Rate" manages the speed of the effect.
- "Depth" manages its depth.
- "High filter" and "low filter" are used to adjust the equalization.

SOUND QUALITY

This chorus is downright versatile and allows for the settings approach sounds quite different:
With all settings noon, there is a pretty slick chorus in a variety vein / pop (Police is not far).
Upon further the rate and depth of the effect, we arrive at sounds like Leslie / vibrato that can talk to Charlie Oleg choice or Soundgarden (Black Hole Sun).
Small flat, the action of the filters is not the most radical.

OVERALL OPINION

Sold at a ridiculous price in the U.S. (note that shipping generally costs more than the pedal itself), solid, and providing effective and varied sounds, this pedal was for me a real good surprise. Built over two years to my pedalboard, it should stay there much longer.

The pros:
- The sounds.
- Settings.
- The apparent solidity of the case and switch.
- The price (under $ 30)!

The -
- The size (it's bigger than a size Boss, but it is not on the EHX vintage!).
- Filters not really effective.
- Plastic packaging (but not in use it once!).