Product Review - Boss CH-1 Super Chorus

Boss has a long history with chorus pedals starting with the CE-1 in the late 70s. This was was essentially the same circuit that first appeared on the famous Roland Jazz Chorus amplifier, but shoehorned into a separate floor-based unit. Then came the legendary sky blue CE-2 stomp box, which has become the industry standard chorus and is on the boards of many famous players to this day.


So on to the Boss CH-1 Super Chorus. With the Boss pedigree in chorus pedals you might think this particular model would be something special. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

The CH-1 is a fairly popular, widely available unit that is made in Taiwan. Based on my gear and my ears, here’s what I think about it:

The Good
· Does not affect your natural guitar tone
· No volume boost when engaged
· Does the classic clean and icy chorus sounds quite well
· You can run your signal into a second amp from the unit
· Boss “tank like” build quality
· Works well with single coils and humbuckers

The Bad
· Limited range of subtle sounds so not very versatile
· Cannot do a Leslie simulation at all
· EQ and E.Level controls do very little
· Cold and sterile sounding

My favorite setting is 12 o’clock on the E. Level and EQ, and about 2 o’clock on the Rate and Depth. The pedal can be used with acoustic and bass guitars and because of its subtle effect, it works quite well with these other instruments.

Overall I think this is a very average chorus pedal and there are many better options out there even though you can pick these up used on eBay for only $40-$50. For a little more money I would go with a used Arion Stereo Chorus SCH-1, a used Boss CE-2 or perhaps an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone. And if you are really serious about chorus, there are many boutique offerings from Analogman, Diamond and others.

Les Paul R.I.P.

Les Paul, the inventor of the solid body electric guitar passed away today from complications associated with pneumonia. All guitar players owe him much gratitude.

From the early days when he unveiled "The Log" to his pioneering work with multi-track recording and tape echo, he was a music icon - much like the Gibson guitar that bears his name. His contributions to music will never be forgotten and he will be missed.

LYT Pedalboards – Good Value for Money

I thought about making my own pedalboard, but I don’t have a workshop, the tools I’d need or very good woodworking skills. I also don’t have the time so I went in search of low cost alternatives.

I ended up buying a LYT Pedalboard that I purchased via eBay for about $70. I use less than 10 pedals so I didn’t need a huge board so I went with the LYT 24 without the carry case. It arrived within two days and it was, as the name suggests, quite light. It is made from a pressed composite that is quite strong and painted in a flat gray color. The first step was to cut the enclosed Velcro to length and cover the board. My only complaint is the minimal amount of Velcro included – not enough to account for any errors or cover underneath the riser or the sides. I wanted everything covered in black Velcro so I went to Home Depot and purchased some more.

That minor gripe aside, I am very happy with the board. The riser is a nice touch (although it is fixed) and it is a great organizer – all my effects loop pedals are grouped on the riser. The board looks good and is quite strong. For bedroom use and playing out a couple of times a week it is a solid choice. If you are playing out a lot or touring I think any of the Pedaltrain models would be the way to go, but for what I need and the price, I give this two thumbs up.

Danelectro Mini Effects Pedals

I won an eBay auction last week landing five Danelectro modulation effects pedals for $56 including carrying case, cables and free shipping. Score!

The pedals are:

• Milk Shake Chorus
• Hash Browns Flanger
• Pepperoni Phaser
• Tuna Melt Tremolo
• Chicken Salad Vibe

I’m especially interested to hear the Tuna Melt Tremolo as it is on some pro-player boards who could buy any tremolo they wanted. I’m also interested to put the Chicken Salad Vibe up against my $300 KR Products MegaVibe – can I hear a $290 difference in tone?

I will review each product individually in upcoming posts.

King of Tone - Chris Duarte

Many people write Chris Duarte off as a Stevie Ray Vaughan clone – just like when Robin Trower was seen as a Hendrix clone early in his career. Wrong on both counts.

Duarte is really maturing as a guitar player and singer and I really like some of his more recent CDs. His tone is excellent – driven by a nice selection of analog effects pedals.

There is a great video up on YouTube where Duarte talks about his gear. Check it out at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmXUSfBIIsM&feature=PlayList&p=07ED3F6DA67A5E99&index=10


If you’d like to hear Chris is action check out these CDs:

• Chris Duarte Group – Texas Sugar Strat Magic
• Chris Duarte Group – Blue Velocity

You can also stream or download some live shows from here:

http://www.archive.org/details/ChrisDuarteGroup

Pedal Boards of the Stars – Guthrie Govan

I thought I’d start this new feature – Pedal Boards of the Stars – with a guitar player that may just be from another planet. If you don’t know him, the English guitarist Guthrie Govan has been dropping jaws all over the world since his debut CD “Erotic Cakes” came out in 2006. Quite simply, one of the best guitar CDs released this decade.

Besides being a stellar player, Govan has a very nice tone – much of this has to do with his boutique Cornford amp (he is an endorser) and his custom Suhr guitar. But a nice selection of analog effects pedals also play a role.

I’ve seen a number of pedal board photos so his rig seems to be changing, but as far as I know the photo above is the latest incarnation. It features:

• Analogman Chorus
• DigiTech Whammy
• T-Rex Replica Delay
• Guyatone WR3 Wah Rocker Envelope Filter
  
• Menatone J.A.C. JFET Compressor
• Hermida Audio Zendrive Overdrive
• Ernie Ball Volume pedal
• Pedaltrain Junior pedal board

Can’t wait for the next CD.

Product Review - Boss FT-2 Dynamic Filter

In the late 1980s and early 90s, Boss decided to discontinue a number of esoteric pedals like the Dimension C, Xtortion, Slow Gear and Dynamic Filter because they were not big sellers. Fast forward 20+ years and due to their relatively low initial sales, these pedals are quite collectible among analog pedal enthusiasts with a price to match. The Boss Slow Gear for example regularly sells for over $200 on eBay. When I saw a Dynamic Filter come up for auction a couple of months I was very interested mainly because the guitar player Alex Gunia from Matalex (a killer German fusion band - check out the "Jazz Grunge" CD) had one on his pedalboard and I really liked his guitar sound. $75 later and the Boss FT-2 was mine.

According to the promotional verbiage the Boss FT-2 is an auto wah pedal that fits into the company’s line of auto wahs between the TW-1 and the AW-2. I think this is a little misleading because in essence the Boss FT-2 is an envelope filter and produces quite a different effect than an auto wah.

There are four controls on the pedal: Sensitivity, Cut Off Frequency (high – low), Q, and Up/Down/Manual modes. You also have an “Exp In” jack, which provides the option of plugging in an external expression pedal so you can control it like a traditional wah, although I did not bother to do this.

The keys to this pedal are the Cut Off Frequency the and Q, which controls the peak bandwidth. By finding the right setting you can get some decent “quack” from this pedal, especially with single coil pickups, but try as I might I never really found “the sound” to make it a keeper. The pedal is an obvious choice for funk guitar, but it is more subtle and less usable to my ears than the Electro-Harmonix Dr Q or its Micro Q-Tron, which I think are much better sounding effects pedals in this genre.

When engaged the Boss FT-2 also destroys your tone – not really surprising because it is a fairly aggressive filter effect. My favorite setting was using full on distortion from the amp – it produced a very subtle wah effect, which could spice up solos and with the distortion cranked tone loss was less noticeable. I did try this pedal with my Ibanez bass and I think this may be where it shines best. Despite being a rare and somewhat collectible effects pedal, it didn’t make it on to my pedalboard so back to eBay it goes.