Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus

It's not easy to hear it working at first. It just isn't that tinny, artificial sounding schmaltzy cheesy chorus sound. You don't hear that, you think it's not working. After using it a few days you start to get what it's all about. You wake up and smell the Voodoo and you know it's the best chorus you've heard. Then the question is do you want that sound?

Some of the reviewers probably don't even own this pedal. For example, "not as warm as a Boss CE-2"?!? "Boosts the top end starting at 10kHz"?!? "Signal became all dull with no top end"?!? "Have seen the CE-1 schematic, looked inside the VL and am not convinced"?!?

Here is my bit of rubbish to add: The CE-1 was made for keyboards and it loaded down your guitar pickups so it sounded very dull, or warm, or lacking in treble. It wasn't a shimmering trebly effect. This sounds just like that. It never shimmers, and it isn't enhancing your brightness in any way. I find it isn't really that lush compared to a Small Clone which is lushness plus but sounds artificial. I think it's a thick stormy and ethereal effect that whilst totally changing your tone still sounds very natural. This is how I find my Micro Vibe to. I think that is the Voodoo that the Lab imparts. These are not your fleeting forgettable soda pop effects, they are substantial like a pint of Guinness.

Contrary to some others I don't find any enhancement of top end, or bottom end, or midrange. It does jump up in volume which personally ***** me but it's correctable with a volume control. By comparison a Maxon CS-550 boosts the lower mids/upper bass tones and you just can't dial that out with your guitar volume knob.

This is my 18th chorus pedal. I think I like it best. To me it's a very natural sounding pedal that isn't subtle and weak, but can be subtle yet so very there because it changes your whole tone and it can enhance your sound. You turn it off and it's all lacking, like someone turned down the color control on the rainbow.

For overdriven tones it's almost perfect. It just enhances the whole show without anyone even noticing it. For those that don't know, overdrive is not "it didn't work with my TS9"?!?. Over drive is when your tubes start to clip and you are getting a natural tube breakup. What they really should say is "it didn't work with an opamp boosting my signal with two diodes clipping in the feedback path." Well there's ya problem. {snickering squirrels can see you're nuts}

I feel like it's all 6/8

Ms. Harmony is very quick to answer emails. Offered to send a part to achieve unity gain.

i won't describe the pedal as everyone already did quite well, the pedal is awesome, sounds incredibly good, but have the volume boost issue...i've made a mod-fix for this, you can find it here: www.franciscoespina.7p.com ....info is free, and anyone can make the mod, BUT...you will have to solder some cables and drill your loved VL analog chorus case, so thi isnt for totally noobs, just be careful, think twice and the mod will make your pedal the best chorus that u ever got or will get. this are my 5 cents so please dont be a ****** if you think you can do better, peace and love.

One main reason I had an interest in it was that it only has two knobs - one for intensity and the other for speed. Seems simple enough.

Here's the big issue. I bought one and the first thing I noticed was a very noticable jump in volume. Too much, so I returned it. Otherwide the chorus itself was usable.

Later I switched from a humbucker equipped guitar to a single coil and thought the volume increase wouldn't be as drastic so I tried another one. This time the volume boost was so great it actually caused distortion! Something isn't right to experience two pedals that have problems.

I've owned other Voodoo Lab pedals with no problems. I'll never know about the Analog Chorus.

I did call when I got the first one and asked if they offered a mod to lower the volume and they said yes, but I guess I didn't want to mess with it. Seems like VL would be better off just setting the chorus at perfect level to begin with.

I play all style of music. I've used Boss, Fulltone and Visual Sound chorus pedals as well. Since things are tight right now I'm probnably going to stick with a five year old Visual Sound H2O pedal for now.

The setup I tested this effect with was a custom Warmoth Jaguar with DiMarzio humbuckers --> Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus --> Fender DeVille 4x10. I also tried it with my Fender Toronado and an Ibanez Jet King II.

The effect itself isn't bad, but terrible white noise as soon as the pedal is engaged makes it completely unusuable for almost any conceivable musical performance. This pedal puts out more unwanted hiss and noise than my Frantone Sweet, and that is saying something considering that the Sweet is a Big Muff-type fuzz. In other words, I would expect a bit of extraneous noise with a distortion pedal--that's its job, after all--and even a tiny, TINY bit with a chorus pedal since it's doubling the guitar signal... but this is virtually unusable as a musical tool.

Seems like it would stand up to abuse. Solid looking case. Can't comment on whether it gets noisier or not. I returned it immediately.

Sticking with my AnalogMan Clone Chorus, which is absolutely dead silent. I had high hopes for this pedal, dashed as soon as I stomped the switch. For shame, Voodoo Lab, for shame.

Well, only two knobs. What can be easier?

Wow. I finally found what i was looking for since... well, always! This chorus sounds perfect. Lush, true analog sound. I sold my ce-2 because of it, it should tell you something about it's quality! Warm, organic and beautiful.

Well, I bought it just a few weeks ago, but it seems to be very well built. I'll defenitly gig with it.

Never dealt with them.

I had the ce-2, fulltone choralflange, maxon CS550-U chorus, and a lot more, and this is by far the best i've ever tried. The holy grail of chorus pedals. So forgive me, I'm going to play a bit... with my new chorus!

The guys below who says this pedal isn't as warm/lush as the CE-2/Ross/CS-9 etc must be on something.
I own all of those pedals, plus a host of other choruses (including a Fulltone Choralflange, Boss DC-2 and Arion SCH-1) and the Voodoo is by far the lushest.
It's most definitely the 'funkiest' of the lot, having an almost phasey/uni-vibey sound to at at max settings which is great for Red Hot Chili Pepper style rhythm or burbly, John Scofield type jazz.
However, it is also the noisiest of the lot (although it's still less noisy than all the Electro-Harmonix & MXR choruses I've played as well as most flangers), and it's volume boost when engaged (only particularly noticebale when in conjunction with some OD/distortion) can be annoying. However, if you place it in your amp's FX loop you may be able to minimise both of these issues (I only play old Fenders so no FX loops).
I'd give it a 10 for its actual sound (seriously thick retro chorus) but minus 2 for the noise/vol boost.

Totally dependable

VL are very quick to answer e-mails and helpful, but beyond that don't know.

If you can put up with a little noise and slight volume boost this is still the fattest, funkiest, retro chorus out there (excluding the Boss CE-1), and I've tried pretty much all of them. Full price, though, it's not the best value.

Very easy to use. Only two knobs: Intensity and Speed. Every child can easily play.

It is very professional - It has no unnecessary features, no "cool" features used to impress people or to create funny sounds but not useful in the actual playing... just everything you need.

I play a Gibson Les Paul Studio--->Tonebone Classic dist (not relevant since I never use chorus and dist togehter)--->Voodoo Lab analog chorus--->Fender Blues Junior amp.

This chorus is wonderful, brings a warm chorus sound. "Warm" is the best words - no cold, digital sounds, simply beautiful. Not my main effects (not because of the product but because I don't use a lot of chorus at all) but it does help to make the sound better.

I play it with a battery (which obviously ends sometime) so I will give it 8 on reliabity - it can end in the middle, but then - every battery can. Seemes to be build good.

However if you plug it to the electricy I would definitly depend on it, so I'll give it 10.

So anyway I chose to give it 9, because it depends on how you use it.

Never dealt with them, luckily.

Fantastic chorus, sounds great. I enjoy it a lot. I play Blues and "Soft" rock - Pink Floyd, Beatles, and more and it works great, especially with slow chord work (Such as Pink Floyd's "Breathe").

Beautiful!

very easy - no manual needed.

strat >> compressor >> sparkle drive >>> chorus >>> analog delay ( old ibanez) >>> tweed bassman re-issue. I hear no noise at all - true bypass works just like it should. The sound is certainly a modulation - very similar to chorus ( but not on the money ) at extreme depth and slow speed - sort of an almost phaser sound - not bad. Big time increase in volume when engaged.

seems well built

cover band - dance stuff - for parties / bars - Have played 40 years and have owned 3 chorus stomp boxes, one amp with chorus, a digitech multi-effect. The voodoo lab is ok - warm. But when you REALLY want a chorus the Ibanez CS-9 is the one - it has the shimmer - the voodoo does not - as soon as I heard the CS-9 ( I found an old - non-re-issue one for $60 about 2 yrs ago ) I stopped using the voodoo. ( I love my voodoo sparkle drive though )

Intensity sets chorus level and speed sets the speed/rate. Easy enough.

I have a boss ce-2 chorus pedal and the voodoo lab analog chorus sounds quite different to it though I love both. It gives a very lush and thick sound which sounds great for clean and distorted tones. The sound is high quality. The true bypass works 100% as it should.

True bypass works a treat.

For ?53 pounds off ebay it was a bargain. It is a fantastic chorus and with it's true bypass it's brilliant. I wouldn't pay full price but for what I payed I can not moan at all.

Square, sturdy metal box, one switch, two nobs. I've got the early version which doesn't have a status LED, so it couldn't be simpler, except of course without the status LED and with other effects and a whole band making your ears bleed, it's tricky to tell when it's on sometimes. Apart from that, as previous posts.

I play either a US "67 Reverse" Stratocaster loaded with stock single coils or a Gibson LP Junior with P90 soap bars, into a Boss CS-3 Compressor/Sustainer, Morley Classic Wah, Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer, into my Marshall TSL 122 amp. The Analog Chorus and a Yamaha FL10M2 Flanger are both in my FX loop, with the loop level set at 8.

This unit is an exceptional chorus pedal, but I got MUCH better results patching it through the FX loop rather than between the guitar and the amp. Between the guitar and the amp I noticed a significant boost in output volume, along with some increased highs (treble frequencies) that almost acted like a solo boost, which was quite useable to just raise you in a live mix, but not really what I wanted: why, I've got a compressor and tube screamer for solo boost?

Patched through the loop on the other hand was a different story: still the creamy, trebly chorus sounds which can sound quite convincingly like a Leslie rotating speaker effect when the intensity dialled back, and rich, lush chorus with the intensity up! Perfect. Also through the loop it was possible to moderate the volume boost... now I'm in sonic heaven!!!

I've not had any problems as such... it doesn't take your standard 9v external power supply, and to change the 9v battery means keeping a screw-driver handy so it can be quite a hassle. Also no status LED. My drummer reckons he's an electronics whizz (a sentiment I don't share) so he tried to fit an LED, but try as he might he couldn't get the switching right for on and off so the LED was either always on or always off... we disconnected it in the end when he gave up, and now mine does have a little LED, poking out of a little hole we drilled, but it doesn't to jack sh1t! Looks cool though!

I've not had any reason to have to contact the company, but it does look like they do some lovely pedal boards! I like their kit on the whole.

I play frequently (at least once a week) with my band, practices, fun sessions and regular gigs. This setup is damned near perfect for blues and blues-rock that we play (SRV, Clapton, Allman Bros Band, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, CCR, Stones, etc). For those that might be interested I'm still saving up for my Guyatone Digital Delay and MXR Micro Amp and I'm going to be sorted for effects for good. This is the best chorus I've tried, but if I hadn't got an FX loop I would have traded this in for a unit that didn't have such an obvious boost to the volume and highs.