Looked back through some old posts and saw a comment on one of earlier posts on the TC Electronic Corona Chorus where a commenter believed that the chorus pedal was one of the more useless pedals. I didn’t take offense to that statement, because everyone has their tonal preferences, but for me, chorus has been an integral part of my sound for years – especially when I’m playing acoustic guitar.
I started using a chorus when I saw Michael Hedges start using one way back in the early 80’s. Before he hit it big, I used to watch him at least a couple of times a week at a local bar, and one day he showed up on stage with BOSS CE-2. I instantly fell in love with that sound. He never went over the top with it, but he used chorus in a lot of tunes after his first album. Done right, chorus can be absolutely inspiring.
Here’s a video of Michael playing the first three songs off his Taproot album. The first song, The Naked Stalk, is one of my all-time favorite Michael Hedges tunes. It is super-simple, but that’s the beauty of this piece. Anyway, take a look:
I think most people cringe about floating whammy bar hamonics and other goofy 80s guitar fads when chorus is mentioned.. I do.
Michael Hedges gets a super tasteful sound using chorus.. more watery than spacey… proper usage if ya ask me.