Bass Chorus Pedals

Bass Chorus comparison.

I think @howard is right. To my ear, the EHX Bass Clone has a fuller more lush(?) chorus sound.

Does anybody have a chorus pedal they like better than what’s shown here?

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Do you actually need a chorus specially made for bass?

For example the Boss CE-2W Waza Craft Chorus version sounds so much better imo.

The boutique pedal from JAM pedal is cool too, but this is more of a modulation pedal. It has Chorus/Vibrato and a Phaser (so in this case I understand the bass version). Combining a chorus with a phaser sounds amazing and an expression pedal input is cool too.

(I personally would recommend the smaller version: JAM pedals WaterFall | analog chorus / vibrato pedal)

Recently I bought a Zoom MS-70CDR. Pretty happy with it because it solves all my ambience effects and it doesn’t sound bad at all. Can’t find a proper bass demo but as you see in the demo it even has dedicated bass chorus effects.

Last but not least is the Carl Martin Bass Chorus. I love old/weird/rare/vintage pedals that sounds great. If I recall correctly Rex Brown also had this one in his setup.

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In short: Yes. Or rather, you need one of four things:

  • A Chorus with a Crossover feature like the Bass Clone
  • A Chorus with a blend knob
  • A splitter like the Tyler to preserve the low end, with the Chorus in the high loop
  • A multiband chorus that will let you only chorus the highs

I love Carl Martin products. I had his Opto-Comp and it was awesome.

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I would tend to agree with Howard here…

The Universal Audio Astra is a cool modulation pedal (emulating vintage pedals), but clearly mostly made for guitar (and keys perhaps), and so lacking a bit with regards to the bullet points mentioned by Howard.

Other pedals to consider are the Eventide Tricerachorus:

And the Strymon Ola (sorry not a very good test video):

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I also really like the controls on the Bass Clone. Very straightforward. Crossover on, the bass knob controls the dry mix volume, and the treble knob the chorused mix volume.

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This one is cool too. Iron Ether Polytube

@howard I bought a parallel effect blender so I can add some guitar pedals in the mix. It’s not as sophisticated as the Tyler, but blending the effect with clean also does the job (at least for practice/live). I think the Tyler is much much better for recording.

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Yeah that would work fine too, something like the Boss LS-2.

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Back when I actually used pedals, I had the Bass Clone on my pedal board and really liked it. I can’t speak on the others though. If I ever went back to using a pedal board (never) I would get another Bass Clone.

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Never say never, Pam :laughing:

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Yeah, be careful! @John_E will screenshot your post and then hit you over the head with it if/when you don’t keep your promise :joy:

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If I ever find myself in need of effects again, I still have my handy Zoom B3n.
For now, I just focus on being the best bassist I can be.

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just keepin it real…

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There is an ever growing list of things I’ve proclaimed I would never do, yet ended up doing:

  • Play anything less than 5 strings
  • Sell my Frank Bella ESP
  • Own more than 2 basses
  • Play round wounds
  • Play with a pick
  • Move my studio monitors down from a shelf and onto stands
  • On and on
    I’m sure @John_E has screen shots of all of them :rofl:
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image

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Too late, it’s very contagious and soon they will be one of us :rofl:

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To be honest I think I liked the Boss best. Also, being “simple” and “fool proof”, it was probably designed with me in mind :sweat_smile:

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Here’s the Julia on bass. By far the best look, but not the best sound IMO :slight_smile:

It’s not bad - it’s actually my second favorite of the ones I have heard - but I like the EHX better. The EHX is also much, much cheaper. The Julia controls are a little funky due to its vibrato as well. Not bad but a little less straightforward.

I am also really biased towards the EHX, I should note, because Hooky. Peter Hook has been rocking a Clone Theory or one of its descendants for decades. It’s just a great sound. Manny Silverstein is playing a Hooky bassline (“Age of Consent”, by New Order) at the start of this demo:

Watch that all the way through where he adds the Big Muff :rofl:

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Same here Mike, but not enough to switch from the MXR.

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Just remembered I started this thread. :rofl:
I had posted this in another thread but I should have posted it here.

If anyone’s interested, here is the Bass Boost Chorus. They aren’t made anymore but are available on the used market.

I liked this video showing how it works.

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