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Analog Man Vintage guitar effects
The Analog Man Chorus now has true bypass (since 2000), depth knob, and cool silk-screened, darker blue hammertone powder-coated cases for durability. Also using the highest quality circuit boards, double-sided to isolate the signal from any noise, and professionally soldered for perfect, reliable circuitry. These also have more shielding, less jumpers, and no volume drop when the pedal is switched ON. Still has the same awesome sounding circuit!
Starting in July 2003, we are now having our own heavy duty cases made for the standard Chorus. They still look about the same but now only 2 short screws need to be removed for changing the battery. They were steel up to 5/04, then they were made from aluminum. This is more expensive for us but we like aluminum best for corrosion resistance and ease of machining. Starting in 2005, we use the ultimate - aluminum top (not too heavy, good machining properties) and steel bottom (bottom heavy balance, pedal feels the "right" weight in your hand).
In January 2005 we came out with three new pedals, two were chorus pedals. The BI-CHORUS is one we have custom made until now, in random cases. Now we have had a batch of aluminum Hammond style die-cast boxes professionally powdercoated and silkscreened for the first production version. Though the Standard Chorus has been selling better than ever, we thought it was time to add some cool features without changing the awesome tone of the pedal that we have spent years refining. And I had been enjoying my custom BI-CHORUS on my pedalboard for some time!
Here is a 3MB avi VIDEO of the BI-CHORUS demonstrating two settings and how the switches work. It is using a $90 Roland Cube amp with my demo Hagstrom guitar and the camera's mic so don't pay much attention to the sound.
The BI-CHORUS is the same exact circuit and sounds the same as the normal chorus. The only difference is the A-B Switch, which allows selecting one of two sets of SPEED and DEPTH knobs, not just a second speed, and the other features above.Don't worry, we will still be making the standard CHORUS and one more - the MINI CHORUS!
The MINI-CHORUS came out about a week before the BI-CHORUS and we sold all five we had made, to people who saw them on our FORUM. Two forumites sold their standard chorus pedals on ebay ($200 buy it now, both sold within hours!) to make more room on their pedalboards. The MINI-CHORUS is the same thing as our standard chorus, but in a smaller, hand stamped box. It is the same SIZE as our small comprossors/juicers, 2.5" wide x 4.75" long x 1.5" tall not including swithes, jacks, etc. Same price as the normal Chorus, $225, as the box is a little cheaper but the extra labor to build the pedal into the small box is a lot more than the box savings. These have both battery and DC adaptor power, and the same board inside for the same sounds as the normal Chorus. Not available with options like Stereo or Depth Toggle, it's a great, simple, small chorus pedal with awesome tone! It is available with an external MIX (BLEND) knob though, for $25 more, as that will fit on the pedal no problem. Oddly enough, the external MIX knob will ONLY fit on the mini chorus due to construction differences in the various chorus models. The boxes on the mini chorus pedals came out looking great, really nice blue textured color.
We now have 18 different versions of our chorus pedal available if you count all the various options. We build them to order to your spec in just a few days. I dont think anyone else offers more than one or two versions of a chorus, so this is pretty unique and something that we can do since we are in effect a custom shop.
The original Electro-Harmonix Small Clone was one of the best chorus pedals ever made - with lush, shimmering tones. It was originally made from the late 70s until E-H was forced out of business by the mob gangsters and Japanese chip cartels about 1983. It could run on a 9V battery and was fairly small. This pedal has become VERY popular due to it's use by Kurt Cobain in Nirvana and many others. From some Nirvana web sites:
Kurt used the small clone for the chorus effects on Nevermind and Aneurysm. Visible easily on the Nevermind tour. His chain then simply went Guitar - DS2 - Small Clone - Amp. Used on Unplugged too. Visible in In Utero booklet under "Dumb" and on cover of Wishkah. Towards the end, Kurt got increasingly "effects-happy". He began using the Small clone for solos like School, About a Girl, In Bloom, Serve the Servants, etc.
The SMALL CLONE sounded great for the same reason that old fuzz faces, Tweed amps, and Les Paul Juniors sound so good - Simplicity!. The circuit used was about the simplest chorus that could be built based on the delay chips available at the time. There are no extra devices or circuitry to affect your pure tone. I use the original 1024 stage delay chip for high fidelity at the medium-short delay times that create chorusing sounds. We use New Old Stock (NOS) Panasonic MN3007 chips, not the cheaper low voltage MN3207 that most others use. The 3007 chip was used in the original pedals in the late 1970s and very early 1980s and allows higher levels and less noise without clipping your signal. The early Boss CE-2 used the 3007 chip, later Japanese and most Taiwan made CE-2 pedals used the 3207. There is also a Chinese version of the 3207 being made now, a very cheap chip. The 3007 chips that we use have not been made for years, but we buy them up any time we can find them, and will try to use them as long as possible for the ultimate in tone.
Original small clones are always at the top of my want list in popularity but I can never find enough to satisfy the requests, and prices are CRAZY! The first one I sold was $115, mint in the box at the Dallas vintage guitar show in 1993!.
As a tribute to
this great Electro-Harmonix pedal, and due to the need for an
excellent analog chorus, aNaLoG.MaN decided someone must make
a pedal like this available. In late 1998, we came up with a duplicate, in a
smaller, more rugged box. AnalogMike organized everything, and
with the help of Alfonso Hermida (electrical engineer and pedal
designer) we found all the original parts and decided on all the
components and layout of the pedal. We also realized after
building our first batch that the factory schematic is not quite
correct and effects built to that spec will sound a bit weak. So
we dissected my original Small Clones and found one tricky part
that's value was slightly changed and made all the difference in
the sound. I later found a few more tweeks to make them even
better sounding, thanks to Electro-Harmonix designer Howard Davis
who consulted for me to improve the true bypass and create
the stereo option. The pedal is no longer a "CLONE", but has
been developed and improved in every new version we have made.
The second problem after you somehow find an original Small
Clone, is that they just do not hold up well and tend to fall
apart electrically and physically. Several people waiting for our
first batch got back to me and told me that they had found
originals, but were already requiring repair. Ours is built like
a tank so it should hold up much better.
I decided not to mess with the classic circuit much but changed a few features that people have been asking for. We added true bypass and a depth knob instead of the two-position depth switch. The depth knob allows any setting from no chorus to full-on chorus, with 25% more depth available than the old depth switch allowed. The true bypass switch is designed for quiet switching with just a slight pop as in any true bypass pedal. Stop losing your tone with your non-true bypass Boss, digitech, line6 etc chorus pedals.
We chose this design for our Chorus pedal because it could have seperate Depth and Speed controls. This will allow my two favorite settings: medium depth / high speed for a LESLIE simulation, and high depth / low speed for a rich, thick chorusing. I also like a medium depth / low speed setting sometimes- this setting fills out your sound without really being noticeable until you turn it off, then you notice something is missing. The old Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble has a cool sound, but with one knob controlling both speed and depth of the Chorus, it cannot be dialed in to my favorite sounds. And it is not really designed to be used with guitar level signals, the CE-1 works a lot better at line level (keyboards, effects loops, etc).
On the left you can see a closeup view of the circuit board. The circuit board is double sided with plated through-holes as used by the military, this keeps the components perfectly attached to the board.
Why does our chorus sound better than the others that are made today? Both the MN3207 and MN3007 are rated for 2.5% maximum Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) at a certain input voltage level. For the MN3007, this level is 0.78V RMS. For the MN3207, it's 0.25V RMS!! This means the MN3007 that we use can take a much higher input signal level, which means much more dynamic range, and less noise. Think of it as trying to play your stereo at the same clean loud volume through a 78 watt solid state amp or a 25 watt S.S. amp. The 78 watt amp will have less distortion and noise, and sound much better at higher levels.
For you tech freaks here is what the back of the board looks like. You can see the light green GROUND PLANE which acts as a shield, like shielded cable, for the ultimate in noise prevention. Also note plated through holes and some more perfect solder joints. You will not find a board like this in any other boutique pedal that I know of.
Not really, a Uni-Vibe is a specific phase shifter and does not use time delay or sound very good as a high speed leslie. Our chorus pedal does true time-delay based chorusing, by delaying your signal and mixing it back into the original signal. It also varies the delay time slightly (modulates it) at the speed set with the SPEED knob. The sound is not like a univibe's "chorus" sound which is awesome for the Hendrix/Trower sounds but not really chorusing. There is much more info on the differences between a Uni-Vibe and a chorus pedal on my FAQ .
Unlike "digital" Chorus pedals, this pedal sips your battery very gently, using only about 7 milliamps when ON (about 10 for the Stereo version). This is only slightly more current than a tube screamer uses. That means an alkaline battery will last over 70 hours in this pedal. It also means you can share the same power supply with several other analog pedals, as long as the voltage stays over 9V you will be fine.
Most guitar effects are made to run on 9 volts, because 9V batteries are small and popular. But the chips are not really designed for 9V and will run and sound better at higher voltages. We sell an optional 12V adaptor for any of our chorus pedals. Higher voltage will give more clean headroom before distortion, more clarity, and maybe a little deeper chorusing. It is especially beneficial if you run a hot (loud) or distorted signal. These adaptors will also work great on our tube screamer mods (especially the SILVER mod) and older Boss pedals which specify the ACA adaptor. You can use the ACA (12V) output on PedalPower2 for any of our chorus pedals. Use the normal PP2 boss style connector cables when using our pedals at higher voltage. The Mono chorus pedals can handle up to 18V max but 15-16 volts is the optimal voltage (the pedalpower LINE6 output is about 16 volts, perfect for our mono chorus). Our chorus pedals with the Stereo Relay switch should not be run at more than 12V or damage to the relay could occur.
If you ever play through two amplifiers, or record in stereo with your guitar on both sides, you may be interested in the STEREO option.
The stereo version was suggested to me by Eric Johnson who likes to use his choruses in stereo. I made a prototype (#1 stereo pedal) for Eric and he likes it a lot. The mid 2001 - 2006 models came standard with a STEREO UPGRADEABLE Ver3 circuit board with a header on it to make the additional stereo board attachable.
In early 2006 we added the stereo circuity onto the chorus board (ver4) so the extra "stereo board" is no longer needed. Here is a picture of the Ver4 boards, mono on the left and with the added stereo option on the right:
You can see the blue BIAS trimpot and the white MIX trimpot
near the center of the boards.
With the stereo option, the sound from the normal output jack is exactly the same as our standard MONO Chorus, so there are no drawbacks to the STEREO model. The stereo option is $50 extra on a new standard chorus or Bichorus pedal.
An existing Analog Man mono standard or Bichorus pedal can be modified for stereo output. It is $100 on a pre-2006 Ver3 style board or $75 with the Ver4 board. Here is a picture of the Ver3 stereo board installed on the main board. You can see the attachment header on the left of it. The stereo board also uses another JRC4558D chip. Here is a picture of the insides of an earlier ver3 pedal without the stereo board added on. We can also upgrade the old fragile stereo chorus switches to a relay and strong switch for $45. See our MOD FORM for more info.
The STEREO version comes standard with TRUE BYPASS for the 1st ever true bypass stereo pedal!
With either of the above options, either output can be used in mono. When off it will be true bypassed, when on it will have chorusing. I recommend using the top output for mono chorus use, this will be 100% exactly the same sound and circuit as if you bought the standard MONO chorus. But you may also like the bottom output in mono use, it is a little thicker and more effected.
On the left is the stereo option on the BI-CHORUS with side jacks.
The bottom left jack is the stereo output. On the right is stereo with
top jacks, all 4 jacks (input, power, output, stereo out) are on top.
BASS GUITAR: Not many bass players use chorus but this one will not affect your tone at all when OFF due to true bypass. The chorus effect is not as strong on bass so you have to turn the DEPTH knob up higher, especially at slower speeds. It can do a cool leslie/vibrato at high speeds. Deep option (fixed or toggle) is recommended for bass.
We now offer a DEEP option, with a three position
mini toggle switch. The DEEP setting not only
makes the chorus thicker at all settings, but moves the frequency
spectrum of the chorus down. This enhances the low frequencies. Sounds
great on bass and excellent on guitar too, if you want to
be able to dial-in thicker
chorus sounds including some warbly, seasick sounds at higher speeds.
The second (middle) position is a THIN setting, which
sounds a little like the tc electronics Chorus. It is a lighter
sound, with less low end, and also a little less analog white noise.
It sounds a little flanger-like as a flanger has a shorter delay time
than a chorus.
The DEEP setting may have a little more white noise.
The Third position is the exact same setting as our standard
CHORUS, with no extra noise or change in tone from our
normal pedals.
The middle position of the toggle switch is always the THIN setting. On the standard chorus, DEEP is down and NORMAL is up. On the Bichorus, LEFT is deep and RIGHT is normal. But use your ears to see which side is deep and which is normal as some may be reversed (easy to install the toggle switch the other way).
There is no extra charge for a fixed DEEP or THIN
setting, or we can add the Toggle for $25 extra at time of ordering
(or $50 to mod an existing pedal). On the BI-CHORUS we normally
put the toggle switch on top above the SUN.
The DEEP switch always and only can work on both sides of the
bi-chorus as it's really one chorus circuit.
Depth toggle is not available on MINI CHORUS
but we can make it with a fixed DEEP mode.
Chorus is a blend of normal (dry) sound, and a delayed, modulated vibrato-type sound (wet). The standard setting on all our chorus pedals is 50% wet and 50% dry, for a normal chorus sound. With a MIX control, you can tweek it from about 25% to 75% wet, by turning the knob or trim pot. At the center setting, it is the normal 50% sound. There is a notch detent on the external MIX KNOB at 12:00 so you can feel the stock setting. Mix adjusts only the mono output (stereo output is not affected). MIX is available externally only on the mini chorus, it is a standard internal trim pot on the bichorus and an option on the standard chorus.
With the mix up high, you can get a reasonable vibrato sound, but without control over the waveshape like a true vibrato pedal. With the mix down very low, it adds sort of a thickening clean boost with some doubling, a nice warm, fat sound, not really a "chorus" sound.
While we are glad to add depth toggles and even a mix trimpot to the pedal at extra charge, sometimes simple and elegant is best. I got this email to drive home the point :
Hey I've been playing my Chorus even more the past few days and I realized something - IT RULES!!!! The last e-mail was about me asking how to make a "Swiss army knife chorus". I realize now I don't need a chorus that can cover every sound under the rainbow. I need a chorus that sounds bad ass and perfect and I have that! Thanks for your attention to my lame ass questions. And thanks for making the Chorus - a stunning piece of analog magic.
We can also add an expression pedal control jack for the speed of the chorus. It needs a 1 meg ohm controller, so a normal EXPRESSION pedal will not work. We can supply a metal crybaby type controller to work with the chorus for $90. The expression jack option (the jack on the pedal) is $50.
Here is a picture of the expression pedal connected to the chorus. This expression pedal has an optional MAX SPEED knob on the side so you can preset the maximum speed when you push it down all the way ($25 extra). We can put the expression jack on the right or left of the battery on a standard chorus, or on top for a mono bichorus. On the Bichorus, the expression jack will work for speed on one side only, and the other side will work as normal.
We can also build a chorus pedal into a new black crybaby shell, with a knob on the side for depth and the "wah" pedal controlling the speed. It has a true bypass switch and LED. These are $285, email for ordering info. Click Here for a picture of one with all the bells and whistles : Stereo outputs (blinking LED), Depth Toggle, external MIX knob. Speed is controlled by the rocker (by foot) and depth knob is always on the side.
floyd.mp3 Some Floyd, on a Tele (Tom). The 1st phrase is just the Chorus, then our COMPROSSOR is added and you can hear how it fills out the sound.
yespolice.mp3 Some Yes/Police, on a Strat (Roger Filgate). No settings are changed, only picking style.
coldshot1.mp3 Leslie sounds - some SRV style playing on a Strat (Roger Filgate). Chorus has speed at about 4:00 and depth 1:00.
Noexitv2.mp3 Here is a DIFFERENT sound, inspired by Jimmy Page's Leslie solo on "Good Times Bad Times". It's from Mitch Stein of the Steve Kimock band, THE HERMANATORS and Jim Weider's Project Percolator. Mitch played his King of Tone through the Chorus into a Two Rock amp.
Here is a good explanation of the depth toggle switch on a BICHORUS by my buddy Donner on youtube.
If you like indie melodic echo and reverb-rich pop, check out The Big Sad by Overlord. You can contrast the digital chorus used on the lead guitar with the warm analog man chorus used by the rhythm (2nd) guitar, comes in at 10 seconds on the left side. This is a live on-air performance.
Also check out the awesome KWS live video below in the REVIEWS section!
The leslie setting sounds great!- Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Here is a video of KWS and Double Trouble at the Louisiana Hayride,
May 2002. The Chorus is on almost the whole time. You
can hear it on leads and some cool rhythm licks when the Organ
is soloing.
KWS and Double Trouble
Kenny's onstage pedalboard, 5/02, with
my SNUFF BOX
on the left, then the Chorus. Two of my
TS9/808 pedals are on the right,
and the Captain Coconut in back. He was excited when he first got this
chorus pedal in 05/01, he put it on his pedalboard 5 minutes before
showtime causing his guitar tech Roy Kelly to nearly have a
heart attack! But it
worked out great- he used it on many songs all night long,
including most of "Blue on Black". The next time
I met up with them over a year later, it was still going strong
on his pedalboard, and still being used to take his playing up
a notch at strategic times. See my
weBLOG for more info
on KWS.
In June 2004, Kenny
spent most of the month filming
a blues music documentary. He recorded and filmed performances with the
likes of B.B. King, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Hubert Sumlin,
Pinetop Perkins and "Steady Rollin'" Bob Margolin in juke joints,
on front porches and in other comfortable settings. He also
had the guys from Double Trouble and some from the KWS band
on hand. This documentary is available on DVD and CD.
For this project, Kenny had
his chorus (seen above on the pedalboard and at left in 6/04)
shipped to the locations, it was all he needed.
Dan Spitz of ANTHRAX got a BICHORUS in late 2005 and wrote me :
I'm not easily impressed bro. I usually wait about 6 months to let the newness of something wear off before I comment. At this point I don't see how your chorus pedal will ever leave my custom 'clamshell pedaltrain' board.
I think my Bi-Chorus is coming along with me into my nailed and screwed up coffin and up into Gods hands so I can jam with Hendrix when I arrive.
(In 2007 he got back to me again:) I'm off the road after two years of pounding your chorus pedal into smithereeeeens.... not one hiccup. Just pure waves of chorus/flange/univibe doom for me! It is my only chorus pedal and it will stay that way. Thank you for taking a portion of your life and creating joy for so many of us my brother of tone, we all love you!"
Dan used it on 2005/2006 tours and says he will be using
it extensively on the new CD. Here is a
picture of Dan and his touring rig in 2006.
You can also check out the Harmony Central Effects reviews of the Analog Man Chorus.
The main delay chip used in the pedal is no longer made (but we have hundreds in stock) and costs more than all the electronic components in most boutique effects (for example all the TS-808 tube screamer clones) so we can not sell these cheap. But they are priced well compared to many of the TS-808 copies, and less than the other high-end analog chorus pedals currently available.
We have 18 versions of chorus pedals due to all the options we offer, so they are built to your exact specs after we get your order. They take a few days to build and we will email when we process your order and again when your pedal is shipped.
For easy ordering, check out our new website buyanalogman.com . The new website uses a shopping cart for everything so it's very easy to buy multiple items or add in options. It allows using paypal in addition to several other payment methods including credit cards. It also keeps track of status, tracking numbers, etc and allow editing orders after they are placed so it's best to use our new website.
DEALERS: Starting in 2002 you can get this pedal at
Rogue Music or Ludlow Guitars in New York City,
Truetone music in Santa Monica CA,
Tone Merchants in Orange CA, Cowtown in Las Vegas,
Music Gear Guys in Denver,
Fat Sound in NC, Rock Block in TN, and a few others.
Also available in Japan at Rock Inn and other music stores.
Try Global Vintage in Australia.
Our dealer/distributor in Sweden is mojoguitar.com.
We now have a dealer in
Russia, Guitar World!
Here is a
phone message
I got on my answering machine from a new Analog Man Chorus player,
you may recognize him!
Andy Powell from Wishbone Ash is touring with
a stereo Chorus he picked up in early 2003. It
sounds awesome with his '67 Flying V and
with his King of Tone and TS9DX/808/Mode mods running into it. Ben
Granfelt was the other lead guitarist and he got a
Black BI-CHORUS, also
in stereo, so he could switch between high speed leslie sounds
and low speed normal chorus sounds. We may have
one more of these black boxes left for a custom Bi-Chorus, let
me know if you want it.
Check out Violet Burning if you want to hear our
Chorus live. Andy Prickett (lead guitar) and Mike Pritzl
(vocals and guitar) both have
them on their pedalboards. The bass player does also- that's three
of them on stage! They help with their ethereal, alternative sound.
Check them out in the Long Beach, CA area or on
Northern Records. They sent me their live DVD and CD
which are really cool.
Andy also uses the Chorus when he plays with CUSH and
on most of the Northern Records music that he produces.
AJ Dunning, ex-lead guitar in The Verve Pipe,
toured with his, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd seems to keep his
on most of the time!
Tony Iommi has one of our older light blue chorus pedals on his
Studio Pedal Board.
Dave Malone
from the Radiators got one in early 2002, and is enjoying
it in his live setup with his TS9/808, KOT, DS1/pro,
Sunface, modded wah, bicomp, etc.
Also check out
Mark Karan,
currently playing in Bob Weir's band, he has one with the DEEP mod
after his BICOMPROSSOR.
Flume
is using our chorus in most of their new CD, and it's heard
on the flash intro on their web site. Brad Whitford
used an Analog Man Chorus on the Aerosmith tour in 2003.
Brad Fernquist has one on his board and one for backup for the
Goo Goo Dolls tours in 2007.
Richard Williams of KANSAS bought our Stereo chorus in late 2003
to go with his other Analog Man pedals (Bicomp, 808 mods, etc) and
has been using it live ever since. Richard got one of our
upgraded stereo RELAY switches so the switch would hold up to
their heavy touring.
Shayne Hill of Beaver Brown
has a unique orange BI-CHORUS, which he uses with his Mini Bicomp
and DD6, TS9, BD2, and SD1 mods.
Lloyd Cole
bought a Chorus with the
Depth toggle. Gabriel Moses (Macy Gray) is enjoying his Chorus
with depth toggle. Lee Ranaldo is using a BICHORUS in sonic youth
with his KoT pedal in 2006. Al Schnier from moe. got a pair of
Bichorus pedals in late 2005. He wrote in late
2006: I can't tell you how much I love my Bi-Chorus. I'm using it
about 1/3rd the time these days. Very nice pedal! Here's a shot
of Al's large pedalboard with the Bichorus, Bicomp (bottom middle),
DD6/hicut (left), and a cool AB switch we made him from an MXR
paperweight box
HERE . Another great player who has been using our chorus on
almost all his clean sounds is
John Wesley who I was lucky enough to meet in 2007
while he was playing with Porcupine Tree. Awesome player
in a great British progressive rock band with a nice edge, check them
out if you get the chance! Lenny Kravitz has a few of
our two knob Mini Chorus pedals which he's using live in 2008.
Keep on CHORUSing!
Mike aNaLoG.MaN
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