Carl Martin Chorus XII

Stupid simple.

Well, I wrote a review here in 2002 when I bought it. I bought a Pod Xt live when they first came out and have put away my pedals since. I broke the power socket on the POD and took the Carl Martin and Aphex Acoustic Exciter to play live acoustic at a wedding.

I like the convenience of the line6 but the great tone and ease of use have me thinking pedals again.

Bottom line...I could hear how good this sounded...and got tons of compliments. This chorus is really nice...best when modestly applied like all effects.

No issues since 2002.

NA

I'm keeping it. And like it.

Ease of use from a standing position was clearly a criterion used in designing this pedal. You can toggle between settings with a toe tap.

Yes, you'll lose some high end, such is the nature of chorus pedals, but the Carl Martin has more headroom than other chorus pedals (including my 2002 Fulltone Choralflange). The lush chorus comes from BBC analog chips. My only criticism is that the x2 does not offer many configurable settings, and its most extreme setting isn't impressive. For the basic chorus guitar sounds though, this delivers.

I've never had a malfunction while using a CM pedal. I've bought one or two second hand with malfunctions. I'm a little wary of the tiny footswitches, but no problems so far.

My experience is that these guys stand by their products, even when purchased second hand.

If you want to color your sound with some basic analog chorus and you are particularly interested in having an effect that is easy to use during a performance, I would recommend this.

Very easy to use, there are some sample settings on their site.

Lush analog sounds, sounds good in mono, the real shocker comes when you use two amps, huge sound.
Warm and a wellvoiced chorus unit.
Use it with an AC-15 and a Fender Deluxe reverb.
Really brought a spacious quality to my setup, love the two independent settings, I use one for fast leslie like sounds and one for that spacious wide chords and soundscapes.
My overdrives sounds very good through this one, I have the pedal after my delay, it creates a nice modulation on my delays.

I bought it 8 months ago, it has seen quite a few gigs by now.
Sofar it has worked without any glitches, solid made.
Dunno what they use for parts, but some thought has gone into make this a sensible product.
Will not say any names, but sometimes people gets too hysteric about what parts is used, if it sounds good then it sounds good, they have build this pedal for along time now, says too me that CM knows what they are doing!
Cool in my book.

Had a few questions for some other of their products, got a swift polite answer.
Seems like good people to me.

I play various styles, and it fits my needs, it is a quiet good analog stereo pedal(really makes it wide) the monoside sounds good, but it really shines with two amps.
Recomendable piece of equipment.

Only two controls, speed and depth, times two. It's very convenient to be able to switch between two different settings.

It is designed to produce a very thick and mellow chorus sound. No extremes in the settings possible. In bypass is sounds almost neutral and acts like a unity gain buffer.

But: If compared to the TC Electronics SCF, it is a lot noisier, especially when the chorus is switched on. And it has no gain control. The TC has adjustable gain, which makes it a lot quieter whe used with low input signals.

The TC is designed much more professionally and is more flexible, however, the sound is generally a little thinner and a little more glassy. But the difference is hard to determine since the TC has much more possibilities of adjustment, which are not always useful...

Compared to most digital modeling devices, both sound definitely much better.

I bought the device about 10 years ago. It was probably one of the first units. The p.c. board looks as if it was made by an amateur.

My unit seemed to be rather poorly designed. Worst of it: The built in 220 volt mains supply transformer injects hum ito the input if the guitar volume control is in a middle position, presenting a high impedance to the unit. Internal inspection shows that the sensitive input lead is rather long, unshielded and close to the 220 volt line.

Some of the components seem to be bad quality. After some years, it started producing a pop noise each time the rate LED goes on and off. Later it started producing much more hum and noise, actually it worked as a RF transmitter. The jacks are low quality and loose firm contact after long use. One of the Switches had to be replaced, too.

n/a

I am primarily a jazz player. As long as it works, it is a very useful peace of equipment and very easy to use. It is super for for both electric and acoustic guitars.

Extremely easy to use. There's no instruction book at all. You basically have two parameters, depth and speed. It has two channels so you can preset 2 different chorus settings and switch between the two. Anyone can figure it out in 60 seconds.

The other posts are true. It's quiet as a mouse and doesn't shift the tone brighter. It doesn't go into extremes but I don't find extreme sproingy chorus useful anyway. The range is more in the sensible area anyway. I'm playing it through Fender tube amps clean. I don't know how well it mixes with other pedals but i assume like most chorus it favors a clean amp/effects chain. It doesn't color the guitar tone at all so it might be better if you do use a lot of effects in keeping the sound real. I haven't tried the "stereo" configuration out of 2 amps but if I have a problem I'll post it.

so far no problem. but I've only had it a few days

no opinion. Never dealt with them.

Clean chorus. This is a great pedal and I'm very critical.It's very efficient. it gives you everything you need in a chorus pedal , nothing you don't. No noise, coloration of your signal, and a lush low end. See if you can find one cheap before these become popular.

Fairly easy to get decent sounds out of it. Doesn't do extreme chorus sounds, but you can get a great shimmery chorus with relative ease that adds a little sparkle to your tone with just a few minutes with the pedal.

Ok... this is hard for me, because I really liked the pedal overall, but I had some problems with my setup that I just realized were due to this pedal. My setup is this: Fender custom strat > RMC III Custom > Keeley Comp > Analog man Sunface > Loooper 3 Channel. Channel 1: Two TS 808's Channel 2: Carl Martin Channel 3: Boomerang Loop pedal All into a Fender twin reverb with Celestion Century Vintage speakers (Why yes, my setup DOES rock!!) ALl the effects are powered by a VOodoolab power supply. For some reason, I was getting a GOD AWEFUL hiss when my wah was on, despite the fact that I sent it back to be triple-shielded to block electro-magnetic interference. Still, the hiss was there, and my single coil hiss was pretty bad too. As soon as I unpplugged the carl martin (regardless of whether or not it was on), the hiss went away. So I just sold it. Aside from that, it sounds great, and I'll miss it, but I'm getting an Analogman Clone Chorus which should be just as good and a bit cheaper.

Didn't have it for very long, but no problems. I never have backups.

I sent them an e-mail and it was responded to in a matter of hours, from Denmark!!

A great sounding pedal... too bad it didn't work in my setup.

It's a chorus pedal....

Excellent sound quality - I agree with the other statements of transparent sonic quailty

I've had to re-solder a resistor attached to the speed select switch 3 or 4 times. For some reason it keeps detaching itself. After a couple of years the bypass switch has given up the ghost which in itself isn't a big deal, but read on - it gets worse.

The US distributor (who was very cordial and pleasant) doesn't stock parts or do repairs. All units have to be returned to - get this - DENMARK! The distributor said he might be able to get one sent with the next shipment - due in 2 months! I cannot believe that I am the only person to ever have a switch fail and need replacement parts in the United States. This is unacceptable.

Great sounding unit - but who cares if it doesn't work and you can't get replacement parts in a timely manner. As of right now, it's a very attractive, very expensive doorstop. This will probably be my last Carl Martin product because of this foolish policy of not allowing anyone but the factory to do repairs.

It's a 4 knob chorus - 2 pairs of knobs (depth & speed) so you can switch between two degrees of chorus intensity. I set one pair for a very slow speed and mild depth as a tone thickener and slight volume boost which the unit does (I've noticed the more chorus depth you use the greater the level of the boost). The 2nd pair of knobs I set with a faster rate and more extreme depth for a strong chorus color. Each pair has a LED indicator to show which is on and how fast the rate is. There's also a larger LED to show effect in or out. When playing live I found I would get confused with the LEDs as to if the effect was in or out so I put black tape over the knob pair LED that is set to the mild chorus and this made it easier for this bonehead to differentiate.

I use this with many other pedals (let's face it,,you don't care which) and it goes into a Bassman head set clean. I run the chorus before my dirt pedals because I like that analog chorus into distortion sound. If you run the dirt through the chorus into a clean amp you get quite a boost which may or may not be desirable (with me it wasn't).

About the chorus quality - listen to me - I believe it is the best analog chorus I've heard,,,,here's why: It does not change your tone - most chorus units will put increase in the treble register and it's usually an undesirable frequency. Yeah I know I said it kicks the volume up a bit,,,but it IS just a tad and it's not a change in tone. I can see why this unit is popular with bassists because it won't thin your sound - You just hear a luscious chorus period - sounds similar to a TC.....I think I've read somewhere the designer of this unit is the same cat as who did the TC so that would explain the similarity. I do think this unit can get a bit more dramatic than the TC plus you have the 2 pairs of Depth/Speed controls; like having two chorus pedals in one box. When you kick the chorus in you get a bit of hum - obviously more noticeable when you're on a dirt setting - perhaps a design flaw in the PS.

I had a problem with this unit - the higher I set the depth the more I would hear a slight clip when playing a clean tone. I will address the service of this malady below - otherwise I think it is made very well and should not be problematic.

Ok, here's the shining mark for the Carl Martin company. I had the clip problem I mentioned above, emailed Martin in Denmark and had my first reply from a guy named Soren in a few hours - he told me offhand he didn't know what it was but send it to them and he assured me he'd fix it for free and send it back.
- He received the unit in Denmark, fixed it and had it back on its way to me one week from when I sent it! That would be impressive if it was a company in the states but here's someone in Denmark. Every email I've sent them has had a response within a few hours. All companies should learn from such excellence.

Look,,,I'm like the other reviewers you've seen,,played for 30 years, play all styles,,yadda yadda and that part is true - here's what you need to hear; this is a fine chorus pedal and the company backs its product!

easy

Is it on? All the benifits of chorus without the cheezy 80's effect. Goodbye to the old swoosh...swoosh. Does what chorus is supposed to, not the lame cartoon effect you've come to expect from a chorus pedal. If you wan't that get a vintage chorus ensemble or something. Personally that type of sound is what turned me off chorus pedals so many years.

I like this one better than the t.c. electronics pedal, the chorus in the g-force and the chorus in a roland jazz chorus all of which i also own, but rarely use. This is the only chorus i would not consider selling.

A few of these reviewer's must have gotten broken pedals or need their ears checked. There is no better chorus pedal that I am aware of.

point off for flimsy switch. I've had a few carl martins for a couple years. I've never had a problem.

We'll see

Best chorus pedal ever! but it does cost a bit to much, so a point off here. look around. carl martin pedal are kind of overpriced new,but they have a way of hanging around untill they end up in the clearance section! Patience.

A very simple pedal to use..has two sets of two knobs. Cake. No need for additional control as they will just suck out tone anyway.

I have a huge pedal rig which has taken me a significant amount of time to build. I have tried to assemble a board that contains the best effect for each category. Having tried every chrous pedal widely adored the Carl Martin was the answer for me. Bear in mind I realized I needed two choruses of different depths for clean and distorted channels. I also had a need for a space saving answer: enter Carl Martin Chorus XII. I tried the Boss Ch-1 (eww), CE-3 (good value), CE-2 (great for clean eats distortion alive), MXR Micro Chorus nice but not for both channels, Tc Electronics (why is that thing $350???) and they all paled in comparison to this gem. Space saving, versatile, well built, quiet as a churchmouse = perfect.

It's been kickin' for a year now and I bought it used! No backups on my board.....I give it a 9 ONLY because I have only had it a year...can't say how reliable it is, but I imagine it will last as long as I don't fry, it, feed it a beer or drive over it!

Never had to deal with them.

I play a huge variety of music but mostly different shades of rock. At home I'll play anyhing from Fleetwodd Mac to death metal. My badn is a mixture of Perfect Circle, Fear Factory, Alice IN Chains and others and this pedal keeps up with all styles.