Tag: mxr

The Best Chorus Pedals on the Market

Today’s article will focus on the best chorus pedals available. Nothing beats that lush, warm, watery, organic chorus that makes you feel like you’re floating. Finding the right chorus however is no easy task as there are many on the market that sound 2-dimensional, and having issues such as volume-drops. So lets take a look at the some of the best chorus pedals.

AnalogMan Bi-Chorus

No secret that AnalogMan has long created some of the best boutique pedals available. The Bi-Chorus is no different, creating a very pure and warm chorus. What’s really unique about the Bi-Chorus is that there are two speed controls and two depth controls along with an A/B switch. The benefit is that you can have two different chorus sounds set to your liking that you can switch between on the fly just by stomping on the A/B switch. I find this to be a great feature as you may want your solos to have one kind of chorus sound and your rhythm parts to have another. AnalogMan has long been known to allow customizations. The Bi-Chorus has an option to add an extra output for true stereo. Definitely a great pedal.

MXR Stereo Chorus

This made the list simply because it is the most cost-effective stereo chorus available! As well, Slash uses one to add even more mojo. A great feature of the Stereo Chorus is that there are separate EQ controls (Bass, Treble) allowing you to really shape the chorus exactly to your liking. As well with controls for speed, intensity, and width, this pedal really gives you unlimited tonal possibilities. With this amount of control, it can work well with any pedalboard. View the MXR Stereo Chorus on Amazon.

Effectrode Vibralux Tube Chorus

Made with real tubes, this all-analog chorus is undoubtedly the most organic sounding of them all. It gives that pure warmth that only real tubes can give. In some ways, it may be perhaps closer to a univibe, but it still gives some of the best chorus tones we’ve heard. This makes the list as being the most organic and pure-sounding chorus.

Red Witch Analog Empress Chorus

The Red Witch is a very deep and lush sounding chorus. It was something we noticed right away upon hearing it, that it just sounded really sweet to the ears. The Empress Chorus has a lot of controls to really tweak the sound, though it sounds great at just about any setting. The controls include a voice switch (chorus/vibrato), Mix dial (between chorus and clean), velocity, depth, and a bright switch. As well, there are dual outputs for playing in stereo between two amps. That’s how you really get a chorus with a lot of depth! View the Red Witch Analog Empress Chorus on Amazon.

Other Great Chorus Pedals on the Cheap

TC Electronic Corona Chorus – True Bybass, and sounds great!

MXR Analog Chorus – All analog and lots of controls for tweaking.

Electro-Harmonix Small Clone Chorus – No frills, but great analog chorus tones. Was used by Kurt Cobain.

How to get Eddie Van Halen Tone


Eddie Van Halen, known as one of the best electric guitar players ever has amazed audiences for years with his fast picking and tapping skills. For many guitarists, Eddie’s tone is quite sought after. Without his rig, he wouldn’t be able to properly get his guitar to scream, or hold copious amounts of sustain for those tapping solos. So todays’ article will show you how you can get Eddie Van Halen’s guitar tone.

Guitars
First lets look at which guitars Eddie used. Early on, he used a a crazy looking stratocaster-style guitar with a humbucker pickup for a fatter sound. In the early ’80s, Eddie famously used Seymour Duncan pickups. Over time, this strat became a partsocaster with different necks and such. One of the biggest changes to Eddie’s guitar was that he swapped the bridge for a Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo. This would allow him to go crazy on the whammy bar without going out of tune. Other guitars Eddie used were the Gibson 335, Les Paul, and Les Paul Jr.

Amps
One of Eddie Van Halen’s favorite amps to use was a ’60s Marshall SuperLead Plexi. Many have said that he would crank all the dials on the amp to get a lot of his tone by pushing the power tubes. Some guitar magazines say that Eddie used an attenuator to control the output of the amp. In later years, he used Peavey Amps which he had a part in designing. As for the cabs, his were loaded with either Celestion 25-watt Greenbacks, Vintage 30s, and/or 75s. He would use multiple cabs on stage for that really fat sound.

Pedals & Effects
Eddie would use a MXR EQ in the studio that was set to give him a mid-boost. Other MXR pedals he would use is the Flanger and the Phase 90. He was also known for using an Echoplex. Throughout his career, he started incorporating all kinds of rack processors to get the exact tone he wanted.

Eddie Van Halen Tone on the Cheap
Of course acquiring all of the equipment mentioned can be rather costly. In order to get Eddie’s tone at a low cost, here is what I suggest. Use a high-gain amplifier, a guitar with a humbucker pickup, your favorite distortion, echo, and phaser pedals, and that should get you close.

In the end, if you want to sound like Eddie, you gotta play like him. So of course practicing his technique will give you his sound, much more than any rig could. Hope this article brings you one step closer to Eddie Van Halen tone!