Ibanez CF-7 Chorus/Flanger

Easy to use until the pedal won't toggle on and off with one press of the pedal. After about 8 years of moderate use the unit started having trouble toggling on and off. Had to replace it. I bought a Boss super chorus. Hope it lasts

Noisy with only a fair sounding chorus.

Not too bad for the $60 I paid but I would advise buying a better unit.

Hey. Hope ur having a good night and catchin a good buzz. gettin' high on life. i don't care. i get off on good music, new gear and getting drunk.
CF7? oh yeah...thats right. Just bought one. love it. I'm in digital chorus heaven. Yes....it is easy to use...OK?

Setup? yawn. Fender Jaguar 66 re-issue made by Japanese people (love it. Arigato!). Effects?(always changing)Boss NS-2> Boss LS-2 >Loop1-Boss PW-10 Vwah> Boss SD-1> Keeley DS-1. Loop2-EHXmicropog> EHX>metalmuff.> Boss DD-3> Ibanez CF-7> Boss RV-5> LaneyVC-50 + Guyatone Reverb Custom. Both Amps on clean channel with a touch of gain.
I play shoegaze guitar. in the style of: my bloody valentine/swervedriver/ride/chapterhouse etc.
I needed something digital sounding on my pedalboard and i wasn't disapointed with the CF-7. It's like a rack quality chorus + flanger in one. I mostly use the Chorus. I'm using it in stereo with two amps. I read the other reviews and no-one mentions stereo?!? it has two outputs for 2 amps...if you're disapointed with the sound thru one...try 2! practice amps even whatever! If i only heard this pedal in mono i wouldn't be happy either. i give the chorus a 9. It's better than my boss CE-3 and CH-1....and i really like Boss. Chorus is a weird effect though...to me it always sounds un-natural. But isn't that the point of effects? to EFFECT the sound of your guitar and amp...I dislike reading reveiws that say: "it ruins my guitar and amp tone!!!" I have a solution for those cats: PLUG YOUR GUITAR STRAIGHT INTO YOUR AMP!!! and stop reviewing effect pedals. Haha.

I just got it...and, yes...It looks tough...and er... "dependable".

No opinion.

This is where tough guys write "if it got stolen and i caught the guy..." How boring!!! Get a life! And when you do...tell me how to get a life. Seriously! i need one. I'm writing a pedal review FFS.
Don't buy this pedal just for the flanger...or the Wack'd feature...I think "Wack'd" is a very appropriate name for THAT switch.
I'm 35...been playing guitar for 20 years. You really wanted to know that didn't you? The CF7 is as good as any Boss chorus...which some people believe to be the standard. As for the flanger it's not my thing but it's not totally horrible...it's just as aweful as every other flanger i've ever heard. Peace and Love 90's britpop style!

Pretty easy to use, despite the misnomer "WACKED" being used in place of "HI-SPEED", which is mostly what it does. WACKED doubles the max SPEED available, as well as increases the maximum DELAY TIME. If you find yourself lost when switching between NORMAL and WACKED, turn down the SPEED and DELAY TIME to get back to a more "normal" sound and tweak from there.

Once you figure that bit out, the pedal is as easy to use as any other chorus/flange pedal you'll come across.

Playing the CF7 with various custom Strat-copies into tube amps. Sounds good, pretty normal setup.

Effect is a little noisy when various controls are moved, but they settle down after a few seconds. There's a little hiss when the effect is engaged, but not much of a concern unless you're running it into a distortion or other gain-boosting stage.

There are two main contributors to the brittle sound the CF7 has in its stock configuration. The first is the op amps (other than the LFO op amp). Stock, they sound flat and brittle. I swapped IC1 with a Burr Brown OPA2134PA to get the high-impedance JFET input near the effect input, and then put two JRC4558D op amps in place of the JRC4580 chips for IC2 and IC3. This brought the much-needed mids back into the tone. After that, I replaced every 1.0uF electrolytic cap (including the tantalum in C7) and 0.47uF electrolytic cap with equivalent film caps. This brought the bass and life back into a rather flat, filtered-sounding tone.

The second issue is with the digital delay part of the circuit when used in chorus mode. The delay has a real hard "digital" edge to it that is difficult to subdue. I put a couple of 0.047uF capacitor shunts to ground on the outputs of the M50198D digital delay chip to darken the output of the chip, which helped. However, if you're looking for the sweet, mushy chorus you'll get with a vintage CE-2 or similar, you really can't get that out of the CF7. The chorus effect (with the aforementioned mods) sounds better, but still sounds digital. It's not a bad sound at the end, but is not really a great chorus effect either.

So the chorus can be made decent, but with the aforementioned mods, the flange part of the CF7 becomes quite good. For this reason, I use the CF7 primarily as a flanger and rely on my modded Daphon E20CH for its sweet, CE2-like-but-better chorus tones.

I can't split my rating in this category, so I'll break it out here.

Stock Chorus: 3
Modded Chorus: 6

Stock Flange: 5
Modded Flange: 8

Very well built. Everything inside is screwed to the chassis...no floating boards anywhere. Should last as long as the other ToneLok pedals I've had over the years, some of which I still have. Those pedals still play like they did when I got them years ago.

Ibanez has schematics/parts lists for the ToneLok series available on their website, which helps immensely when trying to mod these pedals. Given that, which is better than BOSS/Roland, I'd give them a strong thumbs-up on customer support.

As for warranty support, I'll never get the chance to use it, as I usually mod my pedals in some way as soon as I play them for a few weeks.

If you're prepared to heat up your soldering iron, the Ibanez CF7 can be made into a nice little Flanger and reasonably-good Chorus. Stock, the CF7 is brittle and harsh and is of little use beyond using it for high-rate vibrato-like effects used for ambient fills.

So once again, I'll split my overall rating as follows:

Stock CF7: 5
Modded CF7: 7

Pretty simple; if you know how to read and
if you can use your ears, no problems at all.

I use mediocre to good guitars (good being '52. reissue telecaster in
my book). Current amp of choice is Roland Cube 60 for its great clean
tones.
The bypass isn't great, be warned. No tone suck, but a little digital
weirdness is perceived. The chorus is abysmally bad in my opinion.
Maybe the worst I've ever heard.
The flanger is polite and usable, and proper settings can produce
a much nicer chorus than the chorus setting itself.

Now the reason I'm writing this review is a fabulous ringmod sound
I was able to get: the settings are flanger/krazy switch on;
all knobs on 10, but the delay time can be adjusted to taste.
A warm, fuzzy, gonky ringmod sound that's allways in tune.

I've also got the de7 delay (great, great pedal, incredible for
the money). They've both been kicked around and/or dropped plenty
of times, and the worst I've been able to inflict on them is
light scratches across the knobs (no, being "hidden" inside the
box didn't help). So, pretty reliable, but the tiny switch looks
flimsy. For the money, though...

No idea.

Hmm, usable flanger and a fab ring mod.
Pretty robust and reliable. Good times for the bucks.
The crappening of the overall sound is a bit of a let-down.

I'm thinking I'll be getting a true bypass loop, something
small and cheap like the one mr. Keeley makes.

Not really easy to find out what the knobs do.

Two effects rolled into one? Forget about it. The only usable sound i found was a vibrato (chorus in wack'd mode, I believe) that made my bottleneck/e-bow-efforts sound like a theremin. The flange is weak and only souns halfway decent if you put a RAT in front of it.
Worst thing about it: even if it's turned off your guitar sounds like Andy Summers going de-doo-doo-doo-de-da-da-da - bypass is no good.

The switch is most unreliable, like most tone lok stomps, so it seems.

No idea.

I gave it two years, kept tryin. No use for it. It's gotta go.

I bought it used, so there was no manual, but it's as easy as any other modulation effect. The Regeneration control doesn't effect the Chorus sound, only the flanger - that confuses some people I know. The only thing that really interferes with the ease of use is the footswitch, which is only slightly more reliable then the ones on my 80's DOD boxes.

I am an 80's DOD freak and buy and restore every one I can find. I usually find some good sounds with a modded Boss CS-3 - modded DS-1 - DOD Overdrive Preamp - Grunge - CS7 - and finally a DOD digital delay or Akai Headrush. I like Fender Telecasters combined with either a Peavey Bandit (for durability) or a Fender Bassman (for tone). The CS7 has a thin, digitized, brash tone that is easily offensive to the ear, but often fits in perfectly with the music. Guitarists sometimes forget that the guitar is not the one and only constituent to good music. A thicker sounding chorus could make the music feel too weighty when combined with the bass, but the CS7's thin crackle floats above a band mix in a very Radiohead sort of way. I still have it on the same arbitrary setting that I used in the store, and it does a good job of giving chord parts some movement. The Flanger makes the usual cool-but-useless sounds that a flanger makes, just not as cooly as most other flangers. I used the Wack'd mode to record one overdub part a while ago - it's OK, I guess. My DS-1 set to a slight Marshall-y snap and running into this pedal makes by far the best sound (remember the intro to Hell's Bells?)

The footswitch is iffy, as are the mode switches. So far, no problems, but I don't think this pedal is near as well made as a Boss (the internal stomp switch is the size of a grain of rice). This thing eats batteries for breakfast, and sometimes has seconds. It draws 85 milliamps, about ten times as much as must pedals. That being said, I'm used to 80's DODs, which usually stop working for no reason - at least this thing breaks for a reason. The Bucket Brigade chips in this thing are very sensitive to voltage spikes and there's no internal regulation, and I'm constantly aware that it is one surge away from death. Chorus is not an important part of my sound, so this pedal is the only one that isn't backed-up.

No opinion, but I'm not one to run whining to the company anyway. If something breaks, I can usually fix it myself.

I usually play laid-back jazzy rock with copious amounts of delay. I've come to really love the thin sound of this and other digital effects. My playing is very scruffy, and analog effects can make it sound like I don't know what I'm doing. It mixes well with a little bit of grind from the Overdrive Preamp or the DS-1, but is useless with high gain distortion. It is mostly religated to random noise-making when I play crazy dissonance with my Sonic Youth-esque band. I chose this over a EH Small Clone because it was $20 cheaper and I didn't want people to see me with my Fender Mustang, DS-1, Small Clone and think I was just another Kurt Cobain ripoff. Currently, it is filling the space on my pedal board until I can find a good DOD box to make my life complete.

Ease of use: 8: pretty easy, except getting good ring modulator sounds
when using the delay knob, with the flanger on "wacked".

The manual couldn't be any more minimal: one piece of paper with 4 languages expaining only the most basic characteristics.

Setup: Wormoth strat (SD hot rails in neck, and lace gold sensors in mid and bridge positions); Epiphone korina wood SG; old 1970'2 Hoyer(like a Fender Jaguar); and a Samick Telecaster ->Johnson J-station-> Ibanez CF7-> Crate 20 watt vintage club, tube amp.

Not that noisy.

The effects are strong but are very synthetic feeling. Definately "colors" your sound.

The Chorus: Gets deep but somehow doesn't get "lush", kind of synthetic, alot of options, though. I have gotten only a few useable sounds out of the "wacked" function.

I give the Chorus a 7.5

The Flanger: Also gets deep and has nice spread but doesn't leave the inherant sound of your guitar intact. The most annoying problem is, while trying to get some Jimi-sounds, I noticed this flanger sounds like crap with all of the distortions offered by the J-station, which is over 12 different kinds, with a wide range of personalities. The flanger gets this tinny-noise grain that sits on top of the sound when putting distortion through the flanger. Tried a few eq corrections and when I finally got rid of it, the tone was sucked right out of my signal.

I think this petal is suited for heavy distortion-type players who want the "chaosion option-package" offered by the "wacked" feature. Which I could, BTW, get some really interesting sounds that would be good for industrial music and the like.

My brother's girlfriend through this petal right through the wall, I pulled it out, covered with sheet-rock dust, plugged it in and went to town!

I play clean, jazzy, jam-style music; this petal is not a good match because it lack natural sound qualities

I've been playing for about 11 years.

If it were lost/stolen, I would get a much better petal than this one.

My favorite sound is a distortion into a deep chorus-pretty thick and sweet.

I wish it had better quality, more-transparent sound.

I don't even use this petal that often at all.

Petal searchers: Research the pedal, play the pedal, hang out with the pedal, if mail-order be ready to return the pedal, COMPARE THE PEDALS, and take home the one you like. There is no such thing as "best" there is only what is pleasing to you!

THis Pedal is as easy to use as most chorus or Flanger pedals. I never got the manual as I got it new from the store and the Clerk was looking at it and nicked it. I've had it for about a yaer now and am just dissapointed.

I use either a fender strat or an SG through a behringer GMX 212 there are pedals to but theis is the only one that sucks tone ( I've tested it) and it is only used by itself.

I bought this when I needed a Flanger or Chorus sound for live use and have yet to get a satifying sound out of it. First the wacked switch is useless as it just makes everything sound like crap and i can do that without a pedal if i wanted to sound like crap which i dont.

THe other guitarist in my band at the time chose this for me as an exceptional pedal. but since then i've played through countless better pedals. the sounds are usable but when engaged the pedal's sounds seem to say " HEY I"M AN EFFECT". This is not a good thing as my playing is based mostly on the tone i'm getting through my guitr and amp.

as solid as a BOSS

I play a mix of Rock Blues Ska Regae Jazz and of course Funk and Fusion.
This was bought for a Ska/ Psychodelic Jam style thing but just didn't work out well. the digital chorus on my amp was better and since that wasnt cutting the mustard ( the reason i got the pedal) i just dont think i'll ever use it again unless i have to which somehow I cant envision such a situation.

It easy to get an ok sound on the chorus. Every chorus effect pedal seems to be pretty easy to set up. Just mess with the knobs.
The flanger is easy enough to use as well but the sound always sucks. The settings in the manual made a decent flanger sound for a couple minutes until I realized there is an incredibly loud hiss that is at its worst point when you put it at what the manual calls the classic flanger setting.

My setup is a prs custom 24 to a vox wah-wah, another tone-lok pedal-- the TS-7 tubescreamer, a fulltone deja' vibe and then the CF-7, all going to a mesa boogie rectoverb.
The effect I use the most is the chorus. It's decent, but not a very lush chorus sound. It kinda has a sterile sound to it. I solve this problem by using the deja' vibe in conjunction with this which makes the sound VERY lush sounding. This is just a trick I found works, but it doesnt speak well for the ibanez.
The flanger sounds even more sterile, there seems to be no way to make it sound like a normal flanger pedal. The worst part with the flanger though is this loud rumbling hiss that comes as the the flange comes to its highest frequency. The stronger the flange, the longer and louder the hiss goes for. making the delay time longer helps, but then you get a reverb sound, and again, always sterile sounding.
In retrospect, I should have realized that a pedal this cheap is gonna sound really cheap. But when I bought this thing probably 4 or so years ago I was only 16. I read a review in Guitar World that said this thing was really great for chorus and flanger and that krazy switch made some cool sounds. It's true that it can get some cool ring modulator sounds, but to me that is no reason to buy a chorus/flanger pedal. Only if you play guitar to make stupid noises and you don't care about how to play guitar will the ring modulator effect be worth the cost of the pedal. Thanks for saying anything to make money and keep your sponsers Guitar World.
Actually, I love Eric Krasnos' and Scofield's guitar styles, and they get those ring modulator sounds alot, but this pedal's effect is kindof unusable in a real musical situation cause little turns of the knob throw all of the frequenceis out of whack.

It's dependable. I use it without a backup

I am not a fan of this pedal. If you really want a good chorus/flanger pedal, I really think you have to pay for the price of a chorus pedal and the price of a flanger. If you want to cut corner's and buy a cheap pedal ok good for you. It just isn't gonna sound good.
My goal is to buy a fulltone chorus/flanger I tried one out in a store and the thing was amazing. The flanger sounded like a real flange effect from slowing one reel when using 2 reel-to-reel recorders. This is how the true flange sound effect was invented. It wasn't as intense as alot of flangers, but the quality is what counts. And that pedal goes for $295.
It's alot of money but you can either do something half-assed or do it good. Who cares about the money, if you really can't afford it than practice without effects instead and you will become a really good guitarist first. Then you will make alot of money and you can get whatever the fuck effects pedals you want.

4 pretty self-explanitory knobs and 2 switches. One toggles between chorus and flanger, and the other between normal mode and useless mode. I haven't used the manual yet, but I have a pretty good understanding of effects.

I don't notice any signal loss when pedal isn't on, but my signal is usually heavily overdriven. When it's on, there is the normal light swooshing sound when not playing anything, but no noise. I haven't tried this in the effects loop of my amp, though.
The chorus can go from a very light, smooth sound to crazy ray gun blips. I'm not a big fan of flanging, so I haven't used the flanger side much.
The Wack'd mode is retarded, so I never use it.

I have never had any problems with this pedal, but I've heard that the switches can be flaky. So far, it's been very reliable and I'd probably gig with it without a backup. If I used it as much as, say, distortion, then I'd probably get a backup.

No idea.

This is a very versatile effect for those on a budget. I'd probably give it an 8 if it wasn't so cheap. You can get some decent modulation and some fun noisemaking from this pedal.

Seemed to be easy to use. didn't get a manual with it.
set it up in my fx chain in a live situation got one quick
chorus sound and waited to use it.

That one quick setting i dialed up sounded good. but as soon as i went to use it live it died! had to unplug and bypass it. tried to get it working after we finished playing and the only sounds i got out of it were the tapping noises of my fingers tapping the pedal trying to get it to work. icould drop it from about four inches and it sounded like a train wrecking!
finally got it working again! for bout two minutes
sounded good when it was working though.

not at all!!! dealer took it back and is getting me another one. i may have to pay him a visit and pick out another pedal first.

didn't mess with ibanez yet hope it doens't get that far
hope dealer will work it out

i will have to enter another review when i get the second one. after reading how this thing sucks batteries dry not sure i want one
may have to try and get him to fix me up with a boss super chorus!

I've chosen to post a review on the Tone-Lok pedal series instead on one pedal in particular. Not difficult to use, just spend some time on the controls and find the sound you like the most.

I've owned two, the CF7 (Chorus-Flanger) and the DS7 (distortion). Also if not the best sound around, for example like the CS-505 or CS 9, the sound of the pedals I've owned is pretty good. On the DS7 you have to keep the tone control to zero to have a sound closer to the real one you have bypassing the effect. It only cuts some little low frequency.

I've got a used CS 505 lately, and I think it's the better Chorus around, no matter what. But the CF7 is not that far to the old pedal. If you have the chance to change the latter for the old one, do it. If not, keep this one. It has a great sound, expecially for the price you pay for it.

This is not on the customer support, but on the overall quality of the Tone-Lok serie. I really don't know how Ibanez might had put these pedals on the market. The quality is close to zero. In 41 years of life I've never, and say never seen so many units going back to the customer support because of the defects. I've bought the CF7 first, and changed it three times because it didn't work mehanically or electronically. It's really a shame. Maybe the people at Ibanez put on the market again the 9 serie because of the great, great lack of quality of the Tone-Loks. I really hope they'll improve the quality because the pedals on sale right now are aweful.
Anyways I've got the chance to have the pedal changed three times. In the end I gave it back and partially traded with a guitar.

Good sound but aweful overall quality. Even if "cheap", also if I don't know why they call 50 euros a cheap price, the construction sucks completely. I don't think they have a quality control at all. I really can tell on... say 10 pedals, 7 came back because of the defects.

I had a bit of problem founding a good sound first, so I tried the manual settings. Deep chorus and Classic Flanger were pretty good, but I didn't like the Whack'd vibe and the other vibe thing at all. Too out-of-tune for me. Ring mod was good. Let's put it other way. It was WEIRD, which is what ring mods should sound like, so I guess it's good. After a while of playing I got bored with the Deep chorus' (IMO) over-deep sound. I also got bored with flanger. And I don't have a real use for a ring mod. Time to twiddle the knobs and get *my* sound. I got really great sound after a while, and it works in chorus-normal, flanger-normal and flanger-whack'd as well. Speed 5, Depth 2, Delay time 5 and Regen 8.

I'm using it with an ESP guitar, Orange amp, Fuzz Face, Dunlop DB-01 Dimebag custom wah, Ibanez SM-7 smashbox, LF-7 Low Fidelity Filter and DE-7 Delay/echo.
Lots of people are complaining about chorus not being deep enough. I don't think so. I like my chorus with depth set at 2. Also the flanger SHOULD sound metallic. I don't find it noisy.

Dependable, at least has been for the year I've had it. Switch looks flimsy.

-

I play metal, funk, Hendrix-y stuff and experimental and prog rock. Suits my style and was cheap. Try one before buying, this is not for everyone.

It's easy to use... it's a pedal... got knobs... a switch. It does some odd stuff in the whackd. DON'T USE THE WHACKD!

I also could never get it to whoosh in and out with the beat. It's very random. points off in sound quality though, it's still easy to use.

It is noisy in all settings. and in an effects loop. the flange sounds better than the chorus, but it still is very metallic. Like somebody scraping around inside a tin can. Only with your guitar sound. The chorus is wimpy. it gets lost in distortion, and it makes your clean sounds very trebly. Don't use the whackd, not worth it. I'm noise-core and I can't do anything useful with it. yes it ring-mods, but terribly. it's literally impossible to create a harmony or even a nuetral note in the modulation. It does Korn... but wimpily, and I don't like Korn.

Now, I can't lie. I have another 7-series pedal and it's awesome. I'll buy more. Theyre hardcore. but not this one. At least it's built like a real pedal, though.

Who knows. I hear they'll trade you up for them older pedals with bad switches. Both mine have good switches.

Overall, huh? I play in two bands, one in church, the other doing rock and alt covers. And I write music on my own. Been on it for two years, but I've got a job and some time. I don't suck. I'm a music freak, and I wouldn't tell yall bout it if I had no skills to back it up.

I like the Ibanez 7s, but not this one. I've tried four of them, own the de7 too. I'll sell this one and buy a ph7, see if it agrees with me any better. If it was stolen, I'd want my battery back.

I've tried the boss flanger, I liked it more, but not for the extra $40. I don't need a flanger, thought it would start something creative. I found myself going out of the way to use it, and getting mad at it. Stay away, boys. peace.

a million different sounds can be found in this pedal. four different possible effect settings
chorus/normal
chorus/whack'd
flanger/normal
flanger/whack'd

very nice.

sound is good especially the normal modes. i play alot of crazy noise-core stuff with it.

hasn't let me down or caused alot of problems.. but ibanez pedals suck the shit out of batteries really fast so i use it with a power supply.

never had to deal with them

good versitile pedal of high quality. if you don't have a power supply... get one. i used to have to change the battery like every 2-3 hours.

It's your basic pedal, and thus fairly easy to use. Finding usable sounds is pretty easy, though you probably will be dissapointed the overall sound quality. As they say, though, you get what you pay for.
The manual is average, gives a few cool settings - but otherwise it's nothing special.

Current setup is Schecter C1+ --> Marshall ED-1 Compresser --> Art FX-1 or Alesis Nanoverb (I can't use them both until I get a noise gate)
--> HAO Rust Driver --> Crate V-Series 1512 (Class A All-Tube) Amp.
I no longer use this pedal, but tried it in various positions/combinations before I sold it.

The chorus effect is fairly weak. It doesn't sound horrible, but it is way too thin. A chorus is supposed to fill sounds out - the CF7 is simply too weak to do this. Again, it doesn't sound bad, per se - but it doesn't act like a chorus should. Tweaking the knobs, and using the "wack'd" (stupid name) switch can get you some cool vibrato-type chorus, which is kinda neat as a sound effect that you might wanna insert into an interlude of some sort. Overall, however, the chorus is not something you are going to wanna write songs with.

Now, the flanger. Things get even worse here. It's noisier than a flanger should be, for one. It sounds too harsh and robotic, almost. If I didn't know better, I'd assume it was coming from some antique, low-budget, low-quality digital proccessor. Which is not to say you can't get ANY usable sounds out of it, you can - but there are so many better flangers around - using this one as a primary flanger effect would be ridiculous. As a beginner flange, it isn't too bad I suppose, but there are still better flangers for similiar prices. Oh yeah, and the flange KILLS tube tone. If you're a tone freak, stay far away.

The most dead-on effect in this pedal is actually the ring modulator. No, it doesn't include a ring modulator - but if you use the "wack'd" mode, and tweak the settings right - you will get a spot-on ring modulator sound. But when a Chorus/Flanger pedal's best sounding effect is ring modulation, well - you know something's just not right.

As for emulating artists, I dunno - I aim to create my own sound, and don't really wanna sound like someone else. I believe ex-Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes whoever used one of these though, so maybe you can sound like him? Why anyone would WANT to sound like Limp Bizkit... I don't know.

One more thing, noise. The flanger is the noisiest, as I mentioned earlier. Also, all these Ibanes Tone-Lok pedals create hiss and buzz when you aren't playing.

Overall, the sound quality is fairly poor for the actual effects, but if you're looking to create some odd modulation sounds, then the sound quality is OK.

It seems pretty well-built, certainly not a BOSS or anything, but better than most lower-end pedals. However, the foot pedal is horrible! It's very finnicky, sometimes the effect comes on, sometimes it doesn't. You usually have to figure out how to press it just right to make it work - either that or step on it 3 or 4 times. This is just unacceptable, and would be a disaster in a live situation. I'm taking off 4 points for that. This pedal also sucks batteries worse than any other pedal I own - I shouldn't have to buy a 20 dollar adapter for a so-so pedal, so I'm knocking it down another couple points for that.

I play lots of styles - blues, metal, punk, garage rock, etc. I've been playing for about 5 years or so.
I wouldn't buy it again, in fact I sold it to a friend of mine who is less picky than me.
The only way I would reccomend this pedal, is if you like to insert weird sounds and such in your songs, then it might be ok. Otherwise, stay away. There are better sounding pedals at affordable prices. Rocktron, Guyatone, Boss, Digitech, etc.

This thing is not too complicated. You may have to mess with it for a bit to get the sound you're looking for but that goes for most pedals.

The chorus sound is good. There are no suprises here. If you are looking for a heavy chorus sound you may want to try something else. I use it to get that trippy water effect that gives your sound and tone that little bit extra of pimpness. A lot of people hate on the flange. I agree that it is not very powerful but again, if you want an effect pedal that doesn't drown out your tones this is the one. My only gripe is with the Krazy switch. You WILL lose tone when it is on wack'd mode and have distortion on. You don't notice the tone deteriation too much when the distortion is off. I don't know of another way to duplicate that weird sound so unless you know of one, this pedal is the only way to get that krazy korn vibe.

It eats batteries so get an adapter or power supply (but that goes without saying).

My type of music is a cross between Shadows Fall, Fear Factory, Korn, and Deftones. The CF7 is ideal for this sound. I've been playing for about 10 years an played all types of rock with all types of sound and the sound I have now is my favorite. I use an LTD guitar with duo humbuckers, the DOD death metal distortion pedal(I don't care what you say, it friggin shreds!) the Boss Noise gate and the Boss delay /reverb. If I lost my CF7 I would buy it again because it has exactly what I need, nothing more, nothing less. What I love about it is that it is that it allows me to incorporate what a lot of nu metal bands are doing now into my own style. I'm not going lie...I like being able to finnaly duplicate a sound I have been trying to achieve since '96-'97. I only wish the wac'd switch didn't take out so much tone. This pedal by far has opened doors and changed my sound in a way I've always wanted.

This pedal is pretty easy to use, its not too difficult to find some good sounds. The manual helps a lot to get you going and show you what knob does what.

I was in a Police cover band for 2 years and I needed a good chorus pedal I decided on this one becuase the other ones I tried sucked.
I used mine with a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100, Les Paul, and a Strat.
The sound quality was pretty good. The chorus mode adds a really nice brightness to your tone but its weak overall and does not give you the expansive feel that a better chorus will give. The flanger is nice but its very noisy, if your not playing and its on, it hisses like crazy. I never found a use for the "wackd" mode, you cant use it unless you want to cover a Korn song or let people know that you can make the "Korn sound". This is a great pedal for a beginner or someone looking for a nice combo pedal. If you really want THE BEST chorus pedal get a Boss Chorus Ensemble. Its unbelievable and hands down the best, most powerful chorus pedal I've ever heard.

What can I say, it crapped out on me during many gigs. We gigged about 3-4 times a month and our shows were about 4 hours long. This piece of shit would "die" out of nowhere and kill my whole effects chain and therefore all of my sound! It had plently of power from a daisy chain so it wasnt the battery. I would have to jump to the front of the stage and slam it up and down till it lit back up and made a loud popping sound. It wasnt the cables or connections either I tested the shit out of them after the first time it died. The bitch of it all was that it would perform just fine through hours and days of practice but go to shit at the gigs. I ended up buying a Boss Chorus Ensemble and throwing the Ibanez in the trash.

Don't know never called them. The fucker died 2 months after the warranty expired.

I bought it becuase it was cheap and had 2 sounds. The chorus is pretty good and sounds different from all other choruses. It broke at the worst possible times. It would be great for someone who only plays at home becuase you get 2 quality effects in one box and its cheap. The tone lock knobs are a really nice touch. If you want a really good, "watery" sounding, professional chorus DON'T get this one.

It's pretty easy to get a alright chorus sound. The flange, however, is okay - I'm not big on flange because I have a small amp, and the whoosh overpowers it, thus turning the sound to shit. The "Wack'd" switch gives me what I bought this pedal for: weird stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, "it's that Korn shit again" - well, what if you twist it to your liking? I liked the fucked-up tremelo-esque sounds because it's creepy. Especially in the middle of a song [like Korn, of course] when those unnatural, eerie tones pierce the distortion-driven riffing - just cool.

The switches [to switch between modes] appear to be off-set, but they work just fine. The push/lock knob idea was a genius one, as I tend to get a sound I like, and I'd like to keep the settings while I'm playing.

The main on/off switch is variable, however. You gotta give it a quick, hard tap to make sure it's on/off - if you tap halfway, it flicks on and off quickly, and screws you up.

Other than that, it's pretty easy to configure.

I'd rather not reveal my setup, as it's a bit "low-tech".

It isn't quiet at all times - during flange mode [or any mode that sounds like it's "moving"], you can hear a background "white" noise, like static on a TV, and it gets annoying.

The effects are pretty good as far as sound quality goes, and you can get pretty chorus and flange sounds from 70's/80
's metal bands. As far as the "Wack'd" sounds go, the only band I can think of that utilizes these tones is Korn.

Due to the dodgy on/off switch, it probably won't be reliable unless one is wary. I would use it on a gig without a backup, because these Ibanez 7-series pedals are of high-quality physical design, and the sound is exactly the same every time.

Haven't dealt with Ibanez as of yet. My only real issue with them is that they tend to keep up with the top trends, i.e. "Wack'd" switch = Korn, heavy-duty shells = heavy-metal slammin', etc. Not like I mind - just that it seems they don't want to be completely original at times.

I play whatever I feel like playing - this pedal helps out with those different tones, and helps me escape from the natural guitar tone, although I do like it. If it were stolen or lost, I'd at least want to get my money's worth back, whether it be replaced with another or refund.

One thing I wish this pedal had is a better switch.

Unlike a lot of other chorus pedals currently on the market, the CF-7 is much more configurable. The time setting alone allows for a wide range of chorus sounds, while a lot of other similar pedals have one specific chorus sound that can be manipulated. In terms of the flanger effects, it is about as configurable as most other similar units. If you take some time and sit down with this pedal and learn how its controls work, you will be rewarded.

I use the CF-7 with a number of different guitars including Strats. Along with other pedals, I play it into a Digitech Genesis 3 which outputs to a Mackie mixer, an amp and studio monitors.

Just like the other Ibanez (DE-7 Delay/Echo) pedal that I use, I find the CF-7 to be very quiet.

In terms of the sound quality, I would rate it has excellent, especially as compared to other similar pedals on the market. I also own and use a Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble which has a great sound but is very one-dimensional compared to this unit. The "wacked" switch opens up all kinds of sonic possibilities (including ring modulation) that are far beyond what most chorus/flangers are capable of.

This unit looks to be extremely well-built with a metal case. It looks like it would be very reliable. My other Tone-Lok series pedal has been.

I haveb't had to deal with Ibanez.

I think that the CF-7 would be a good match for anyone looking for a wide range of chorus/flange/modulation effects from a single pedal. I think the sound quality is great and with the right knob adjustments, you you will be amazed at the range of sounds that are available. It does require a bit of work to learn it and unleash its full potential, however. There are other pedals on the market that may offer more recognizable and distinctive sounds, but this pedal covers all of the bases pretty well. If I was buying just one chorus/flanger pedal, this would be the one I would get.

Its easy to get a good sound but the delay time knob is confusing I usually keep it off or at 3 o'clock but you will need to learn to use it if using the pedal in whack'd mode. There is 4 knobs and 2 switches Speed, Depth, Delay Time, Regen and Chorus/Flange switch Normal/Whack'd mode switch

The reason why I give an 7 is because the flange effect is weak when clean but sounds good when distorted. The chorus effect is good usually but it doesn't compare to most other single stompbox effects. The whack'd mode is cool and basically speeds up the flange or the chorus.

Pretty Dependable seems like its made of plastic though so if you dropped it, it might break. Haven't had any problems with it in the 8 months ive had it

Never had to deal with it

Ive been playing for about 2 years and i own 11 pedals. This pedal is good if you don't have a chorus or a flange so you can get 2 in 1. Also this pedal is good if you are looking for ring mod type effects (whack'd mode). I wish the flange wasn't so weak but its ok because i now have a Ibanez FL301DX (One of the best flangers made 1975)

Very simple to use

Wack'd mode is useful.
Chorus is decent (but it's very difficult for me to describe it because I don't like very much this effect)
Flanger is very good with clean sounds and very particular for distorted sounds : It destroy your notes.....you can only ear the flanging....I like it but I know some people can hate it.....you must try it ! I had a Boss BF-2 Flanger and the quality is the same but the Boss doesn't destroy your notes so I prefer the CF7

Flanger and Chorus are not, in my opininion, very importants effects so I use it only some times.

I play alternative-rock and I've a very noisy touch such as Matthew Bellamy (Muse). My set is......
-Fender Telecster

-Jim Dunlop Original Crybaby
-Electro-Harmonix Big Muff (Russian Reissue)
-Boss OS-2 (Overdrive/Distortion)
-Ibanez CF7
-Boss DD-3 (Digital Delay)

-High-watt Bass amplifier

I'm looking for an used Whammy but there are so many versions of it.............(2, 4, XP-100....).
My favourite guitarist is Tom Morello (Ratm)
.......Johnny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien(Radiohead)

Jimi Hendrix Rules
Sorry for my English.......I'm Italian.......

Turn the knobs. There's four of them, and a switch. I dunno. The switch just made the thing sound like arse, so there isn't really one thats important. Its cool that you can lock your settings, Ibanez really scored with this.

K, setup. '68 Fender Mustang -> Mr. Crybaby -> TS9 -> ProCo Rat -> CF7 -> Ibanez Analogue Delay -> '65 Fender Deluxe Reverb. This pedal sounds alright. Nothing amazing. It doesn't kill your tone when its off. It doesn't really kill it when its on. It doesn't really enhance it in any way. I just got this thing to make some noise really, and to recreate some Incubus sounds, but that Fuel line comes to mind (jeez, remember them?). I also would like to use it in a "Speak to Me and Breathe" type of way, but it doesn't quite sound lush. The chorus doesn't really do anything, I kept bringing my face closer to the light to see if it was on. It was. Then I fell over.

Uh. I've only played it a couple times. Ain't nothin broken. I'm sure it won't, I treat my pedals pretty well.

Sure.

Hey, its a flange pedal. I had 80 bucks and decided today would be a good day to buy a pedal. It was. I bought this one. Cheap, effective. If it got stolen, I'd get pretty pissed, but I wouldn't miss it in any specific way. I only buy pedals because I think I need it when I'm writing a song, like "I hear this sound right... HERE"

Not too difficult to use. The manual is decent.

I bought this pedal primarily for its chorus function. I would say that the chorus sounds on this are really good. The pedal is also capable of doing a good univibe simulation. You can also get a ring modulator sound. The flanger sounds are a bit of a disappointment, though. The flanger doesn't sound too good with distortion. It's alright if you're using it for a slight flange but its more extreme settings aren't too good.

I've had it for a month now. No problems so far.

I think that this is a really good, versatile pedal for the money. The chorus and univibe sounds make it worthwhile. Pity about the flanger.

If you stay in normal mode you'll get some good regular chorus and flanger sounds, but when you get in the whack'd moded learn how to control that stupid Delay Time knob, i personally don't like that whack'd mode, only for getting fast flanger sounds since their not in normal mode and sorrta uni-vibe sound with the chorus. I give it a 9 just because of that stupid Delay Time knowb

great sound quality but when you mix distortion thats between your guitar and this pedal with this pedal while in whack'd mode you lose volume and tone, but if you put a distortion pedal in between your amp and this pedal the whack'd mode will be fine but the normal mode will lose volume and tone, other then that it sound pretty kool by it self and with delay. i rather use my boss ce-5 chorus ensemble though because i barely use flange or those whack'd chorus sounds.

these tone lok pedals or tanks!! only thing im worried about is if it will start doin what my SM-7 will do, the switch doesn't work some times!

never had to dealt with them

it's good but i bought these one with out trying other pedals first, try diffrent chorus and flanges before, try boss! or digitech's new x-series!