The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 1

I remember the first time I heard it, a friend of mine had a DOD Chorus, He was running it in Mono, so wasn't true stereo, but the spaciousness it had was amazing! He was gracious enough to let me borrow it for a night, and that neat warble had me in it's clutches for years afterwards.

Working part time when you're a teen can suck cash wise, but eventually I got myself a used Digitech PDS-1700. The battery cover was missing, and the music store had it in their version of a "cut out bin". I think I paid $70 for it. It did Chorus AND a flanger. Digitech at the time was DOD's upscale brand, and while it might have technically been better. I think the DOD version sounded better. 

As the years went by, I delved into rackmount effects, and of course there was chorus. At this point I was playing in bands where I was the only guitarist, and I needed to fill out the sound, and this was an invaluable tool. 

Later on I got involved in bands that had a lead singer that also played guitar, and Chorus kind of just muddled things up in the mix. By this point I was primarily using it as a slight modulation, usually only on clean parts, with some delay and reverb for some ambient tones. 

I'm lucky to have an original Boss-CE2, and I had Robert Keeley go through it, replacing the leaky capacitors, and replacing some of the components for cleaner sound, and higher fidelity. He did a great job of it, and I have to say, I' never part with it.

Currently I'm using a Dreamscape by TC electronic. I did a review HERE on it a few years ago for Performer Magazine. It's very versatile, but again, I really only have it set for a wide spread in a shallow sense. We'll talk about that one in a future post.

I love inside jokes, and jokes that keep on giving. A few years ago at a NAMM show I ran into my friend Bobbo. He asked "did you see anything new that's interesting?' I just shrugged and pointed over to the nearby Tech21 booth, and said "well Tech21has a new chorus pedal" not thinking much of  my suggestion. Bobbo's response was simple and to the point:

"If you're into that sort of thing"

Admittedly it was funny, even now. He then was kind of like "aww shit". It was just such a knee jerk reaction that brings a smile to my face to this day. 

Since then I post and share videos of new Chorus devices and tag Bobbo, just for fun, At least I have fun. "if you're into that sort of thing" is a great tag line (ahem, new album title?) In this day and age it's nice to have a laugh at something that really doesn't matter in so many ways. So to take the laughs to another level, I bring you the "Twelve Days of Chorus". Every day from now until December 24th 2016 I will be sharing some of the best (maybe worst, depending on your tastes) examples of this wonderful effect that the internet has to offer.

Bobbo this one (and the next 11) are for you!