Chorus pedals add a unique slew of effects to your guitar sound. The way a chorus pedal works is, it takes the electric signal generated by your guitar, and then creates a clone of this signal. The clone signal is created by adding some delay and signal modulation to the original. Depending on the amount of delay, modulation, and distortion that is added on top of the original, the chorus pedal can make your guitar sound like an entire medley of choir instruments.
Chorus pedals for guitar: What to look for?
You will have the option to choose between analog as well as digital chorus pedals, and both of these two types of pedals have their advantages as well as disadvantages. Analog pedals tend to sound a touch warmer, while digital pedals have a brighter, more sophisticated tone. Choose the pedal that has the correct spectrum of effects that you want to emulate, since there are good and bad pedals in both the analog as well as the digital realm.
So, if you are ready to go out there and buy a new chorus pedal for your guitar, check out the list of chorus pedals beneath for ideas on what to buy. Each of these pedals has been selected after careful analysis of feedback from the music community, as well as a breakdown of individual features of the pedals.
Danelectro D-5 Fab Chorus Effects Pedal
Pro: Mix, speed, and depth control
Con: Plastic shell feels flimsy
With the mix, speed, and depth controls that are conveniently placed on the front panel of this pedals plastic shell, you can easily control the tonal characteristic of your guitar output, and the amount of gain reduction between guitar to amp is barely noticeable. It can conveniently emulate a bunch of chorus effects, and is great for running guitar solos, with little to no noticeable distortion. For its price, the D-5 Fab performs much better than expected, and its plastics shell should hold up as long as you don’t stomp the pedal or over torque the threads. It can be powered by a battery (not included), or an external 9 V power supply.
BEHRINGER Ultra Chorus UC200
Pro: Level, tone, rate, and depth controls, with bypass
Con: Needs to be hooked up with a rather powerful amp
Just like the D-5 Fab, the BEHRINGER Ultra Chorus pedal employs a flimsy feeling plastic shell, but at this price you should care more about the quality of the circuits inside the box rather than the box itself. With level, tone, rate, and depth adjustments, you can easily make the tone brighter or darker, and you can increase the amount of thickness by changing the depth parameter. It is as easy as turning a knob on the panel, and there are 4 of these adjustment knobs to control the tonal characteristics of your chorus effects. A blue status LED indicates battery levels, and you can also boost the signal integrity by switching into bypass mode.
Joyo JF-05 Classic Chorus Guitar Pedal
Pro: True bypass, with rate and width controls
Con: No level knob, signal boosting is noticeable
The Joyo JF-05 chorus pedal employs high-grade internal circuits with lots of noise shielding in order to prevent any artificial signal coloring or distortion. You can achieve a bunch of tonal effects with this pedal, ranging from shimmering subtlety to raging distortion, as well as swimming depths in the low end of the spectrum. There are ¼” I/O jacks for connecting with your guitar and amp, and it comes inside a metal case, along with true bypass wiring for greater signal integrity. A 9 V battery is included, although it can also run on external power.
Donner Tutti Love Pure Analog Guitar Chorus Effects
Pro: Pure analog feel, warm and balanced tones, aluminum alloy shell
Con: Needs an external 9V power supply as it will not accept batteries
The Donner Tutti delivers pure and crisp analog modulation, without any hisses or hums that are a characteristic of lower grade digital chorus pedal circuits. There is a large steel bypass knob located towards the bottom of the full aluminum housing, and an LED status indicator shows the working state of the device. It can run on a 9 V DC input, but there is no built-in battery support. The three basic control knobs allow you to tinker with the depth and tonal variation of the output audio, and this type of guitar chorus pedal is best suited to old school rock and pop.
Fender Chorus Guitar Effects Pedal
Pro: 500 K Ohm input impedance, with depth, speed, and mix controls
Con: Tonal range doesn’t have a lot of variety
With its gigantic 500 K Ohm input impedance, the Fender Chorus pedal eliminates all types of signal distortion and unwanted modulation and has an input noise rating of -90 dB-M. It has a 20 mA analog circuit installed within the full metal body and has ¼” input and output ports. The device can be powered by an AC adapter or a 9 V battery. This particular chorus pedal excels at recreating lush, warm and pristine special effects that have a euphoric aura to them, you can also add sparkle to clean cords, or you can simulate a multitude of distortion effects by adding thickness to the cords. It can operate in either mono or stereo output modes, which allows for a ton of sweeping and modulation effects, as well as shimmering 12-string sounds.
Electro-Harmonix Small Clone Chorus Pedal
Pro: True bypass, great doubling effects with chiming 12-string tunes, and pulsating warbles
Con: Simple construction leaves little room for on the fly tweaking of chorus sounds
No matter whether you want to create smooth, special chorus effects, or warm and pulsating cord sounds, the Small Clone will handle it all. It uses a true bypass and 100% analog circuit in order to keep distortion and hissing to a minimum, and this in turn results in extraordinary clarity across all tonal ranges, along with the ability to use a ton of modulation effects such as shimmer, sparkle, tone thicken ,etc. Twelve string chimes and warbles sound absolutely great on the Small Clone, and it is hard to find a better sounding true analog chorus pedal for guitar on the market, especially within this price range.
Boss CE-5 Stereo Chorus Ensemble
Pro: Excellent tonal quality at both high as well as low ranges, comes with effect, rate, depth, and filter knobsCon: Slightly reduces the gain between the instrument and amplifier
The Boss Stereo Chorus Ensemble lineup is known to deliver extreme high fidelity audio and is one of the most critically acclaimed chorus pedals in the entire music industry. It uses separate low and high pass filters to filter out unwanted frequencies and also includes high and low controls to give you full authority over the type of sound that you wish to create. There are knobs for changing level, tone, depth, etc. and when you combine all that with a 100% true bypass, the resulting clarity and tonal vibrancy is truly breathtaking.
MXR M234 Analog Chorus Guitar Effects Pedal
Pro: All analog circuitry, low and high tone filters, level, rate and depth controlsCon: Hard to emulate electronic distortion or hissing effects
The MXR M234 is a non-nonsense, enthusiast grade 100% analog chorus pedal that effectively emulates all the old school chorus effects that were famous back in the early 70’s and 80’s. If you are a fan of good old hard rock or heavy metal, or even classic jazz and pop, you’ll absolutely love this pedal. With the true bypass, all hissing and distortion are cut off from the output signal, and the sound is as warm and smooth as you would expect from a classic analog chorus pedal for guitar. There are level, rate, and depth controls, along with low and high pass controls.
TC Electronic Corona Chorus Pedal
Pro: True bypass, three chorus modes, speed, depth, and tone controlsCon: Very short battery life
The TC Electronica is the Holy Grail of hybrid chorus pedals. We say hybrid, because it employs a unique analog circuit that cannot be classified as 100% analog, but still manages to do away the distortion and humming that is representative of a digital chorus pedal. Tone print allows you to instantly access custom pedal tweak configurations that emulate the effects used by your favorite guitar idols, and true bypass ensures zero signal overlap and cuts out unwanted noise. The three chorus presets allow you to go all the way from a glassy shimmer to funky swirls and swimming deeps that feel thick and natural.