Chorus Pedals

Chorus pedals are part of the modulation family of effects. Working similarly to flanger and phaser stompboxes, chorus pedals colour your guitar tone via signal processing to create a rich and warbly vibrato-like effect. Because of these traits, many players use chorus pedals to embellish their clean guitar tones for an angelic sound akin to a 12-string guitar.

A chorus pedal processes your guitar’s signal. Essentially splitting it into two, one of the signals is left unaffected while the other is delayed by a few milliseconds and slightly detuned. This modulation of pitch is achieved via an ‘LFO’ (low-frequency oscillator). Most chorus pedals will boast ‘level’, ‘depth’ and ‘rate’ controls, which influence their effect volume, intensity and speed respectively.

A chorus pedal should be routed through an amplifier's ‘effects loop’ - between its preamp and power amp sections. This results in a balanced and natural sound. Chorus pedals can be connected to an amp’s main input, but this can cause an overly-processed tone with an unwanted boost in volume. Chorus pedals should be placed before any delay or reverb stompboxes in your signal chain. Using a chorus pedal after these effects will colour and potentially hinder the sounds of their ambient trails.