Aria ACH-1 Stereo Chorus

3 Knobs: Speed, Depth, and Intensity (dry/mix maybe). Made of plastic (have had like 6 of these pedals, and these havent broken yet). I think I read these were made like 81-83 or so. This appears to be an 81,er..one. :) Switch is kind of crap (got to press down on it, but I cracked it open: if you were to put a little putty or something on the switch contact, that should make it more easy to turn on and off). One pot that should be set in the middle, its kind of marked to show you were it should be set, classy...

Very lush at lower settings (but the depth should be around 12:00 to be thick enough IMO). The Speed goes from slow to a nice Leslie speed, not super fast. (I could compare it to the Yamaha CH-01, which is a very nice chorus I used to have. Its about that fast). Not a very extreme chorus, but I agree its quite musical and pleasant. Not dark, not super bright, a good balance. The intensity knob doesn't seem to start affecting the signal till around 11:00 or so (I'm not what is so different from the depth and intensity knobs, maybe its a wet/dry control). The depth is a depth knob, like any other chorus.

None of my 6 have broken (but Ive sold them all).

Look up the ACH-1 stereo chorus on Youtube, i did a demo video of it. Its very clean, no?

I wanted this specific pedal for a while because it looked rather sweet. Aaron, thank you, you rock! (He found it and sent it to me). One of the generic Japanese pedals from the 80's. Cheaply made in Japan, but well engineered. The distortion and auto-wah (the other one I have left) in this series is really awesome. The distortion is very tube like. (I turned on guy on to one and he still uses to warm his signal chain.) For sweet chorus-y chords to a leslie vibrato for picking, this is a very nice chorus. Just the plastic/switch thing may bug some people, but if you can deal with it, you may be very pleased.

Got one of these since almost 1 year by now.
3 pots, easy to understand but the difference between depth and intensity is not so easy, as far as you play loud. Anyway, this is very classical, the pots range from 0 to max is always musical, so no reason why to put anything else than a 10 (I mean : what could be easier ??)

This is a very low cost, stereo chorus, and a very musical one. I was very much impressed by its sound : no noise at all, nice stereo output, very usable range... I used to play with a nice but large vintage "stage phaser" for clean rock sounds, but by now this simple chorus box brings me more feeling, while being much smaller (and my pedal board is overloaded !).
There are for sure some "better" chorus on earth (but better = dearer ?), but for my tastes this is a definitive keeper which makes me move my body while I'm playing...

As the years go by, my setup is going simple !!
I play blues to rock to progressive to reggae. My favorite axes now are a strat (89 - lace sensor) or a telecaster (77), plugged into -> Q-tron -> bad monkey -> boss DS-1 (an old japanese one, but latest units are as good) -> homebrew CPR -> aria ACH1 -> peavey classic 50/410. Playing since 30 years, but only the last 10 years seriously, and trying to give as much feeling as possible from my fingers' game. This setup - and the Aria on its own side - allows me to reach that goal.

A very nice effect, I would for sure get another one if required !

Shouldn't have to say to much here. If you have learned how to play guitar, I am sure you can figure out an effect pedal.

This thing just flat out rocks. I decided it was time to get a good chorus pedal when I watched Collective Soul play december live. I was very dissapointed at my local music store when all they had was new digital crap that sounded like somebody took my guitar and ran it though a tin can. This thing sound great. Very quiet at all settings. My rig is as follows: Peavey T-60-->v847g Vox wah-->Arion Chorus-->Digitech Screamin Blues-->zoom hl-01-->Boss volume pedal--> Guild Thunder one reverb. The sound is very warm and lush. Fills out your clean guitar great. You can absolutely nail Guns and Roses knocking on heaven's door cover or December by Collective soul. This thing even handles distortion well for a chorus pedal, even though no chorus pedal sounds that great with it.

I would depend on it. Don't like the plastic though.

No experience here.

If you are looking for a great analog chorus pedal and don't want to drop the 100+ dollars for a brand name, get one of these. The pedal is great and for the value, its incredible. This pedal holds its own with anything else on the market.

Well, what to say, it's a very easy to use, like any other similar pedal, just play 'till you get what you want.

I play bass and I m using this pedal as a bass chorus,playing on Washburn XB 400 bass and it sounded great on any amplifier I tried it, currently I use 60watt Trace Elliot, it sounds great.Te effects just sounds great in every value i try, very sensitive in changing values of effects, so you can get everything you need.

I would like it to be maded on a steel box instead of plastic, but...what can we do.It is reliable,I would definitely use it on gig.I have 2 same pedals,get second one used, for a small money, never needed to use the second one, it is very good and reliable pedal.

I play 13 years almoust and very various styles, from metal to jazz, with many different musicians, whenever song required Chorus, this pedal did a great job.I compared it with 2 other chorus pedals, and I never wanted to buy different one.
Since Ihave 2 of the pedals, I would sell the second one, so if anyone wanna buy or trade for some other bass pedal, contact me on E mail

I had one of those and it was an easy pedal to use, at any position on knobs it was great.

I have not found any other like that one. Its sound was so different to others and so beautiful and special. Please reissue it!!!!

Absolutelly.

I would like one just like the original.

Rock, blues. I've been playing for 26years. I have Crate Blue vodoo, marshall and fender amp; two Les pauls and a stratocaster, boss pedals and morley pro volume and wah pedal. I would like to get another ACH-1, I've sold mine to a friend while not using it and committed the big mistake. My comparison to other brands makes me desire it. I prefer it was metal crafted. It gives you joy when practicing and playing live. I need one.

Easy as any other stomp box effect, just play with the knobs until you get something you like.

This pedal always sounds great, no matter how deep or intense you want the effect. I use it through a 200 watt portable PA system and it sounds as good as the most expensive chorus pedals out there. It sounds good with other effects as well such as a flanger, but isn't great with distortion...but no choruses really sound good with distortion...

It IS made of plastic but I am overly-careful with my pedals, but I can tell that this one could take the wear of everyday use as long as it's not "abused" or stomped on.

I would DEFINATELY use this pedal on a gig, and plan to shortly because of it's great sound and ability to withstand stage use.

never dealt with them

I play almost every style of music from heavy rock to jazz and blues (no metal or punk or rap or crap in general) and this pedal gets the job done. When I play with my band I think it sounds especially good on intros and under-solo chords. Give this pedal a try and I wouldn't be surprised if you like it as much as i do

Standard chorus knobs. Rate - velocity of the chorus, Depth - how deep is, Intensity - effect level. Not simple to get the sound you want, but I saw choruses much complicated.

Well, I use it with a Mexican Tele --> Nobels Overdrive Special --> Zoom 505II. I have no amp, at home I use phones, but I run all my stuff in a mixer when I play with my band. This pedal is great. For first, I tried to set all knobs to 0, and sounds like no effect! True! Then I play with knobs until I got the sound I wanted-I got it. It's beautiful, clean, analogic. I compared with Boss CE-5 and CH-1 and this is way better.

It's an 80's pedal, but it's still effective. Be careful, it's plastic!

I play with my band a mix of alternative rock and punk. My favourite bands are Radiohead, Placebo, Dinosaur Jr and CCCP, but I don't try to copy them. I've been playing for 5 years, and I played a bit of everything. I bought it because I wanted to change my Zoom's chorus, which is shitty. This is really great. I found it used at minimum cost; in the shop it was also a Johnson chorus but Johnson = shit. This chorus was made by Aria only in (if I rember well) 1981-1983, so it's quite difficult to find (see www.ariausa.com). But if you see it buy it!