Product: Way Huge Blue Hippo Analog Chorus
Price Paid: US $185
Submitted
01/29/1999
at
09:54pm
by
Matt Borick
Email: mborick at icfkaiser<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
6
The unit only has two controls -- speed and depth -- but they have so much effect on the sound and so much interaction with one another that they are not "trivial" to figure out. The general rule of thumb seems to be that if you increase one control you should decrease the other. One cool feature the unit has is a blinking LED, which pulses in time with the sweep speed.
Sound Quality
:
10
Awesome analog chorus tone! You can go from slow subtle chorus to fast, deep, out-of-tune chorus. My personal favorite settings are (speed=8:00; depth=4:00) and (speed=9:00; depth=11:00). Also, it has a nice "shimmer" to it compared to, say, the Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus (which is more of a "creamy" sound ... but also cool). The Blue Hippo sounds good with my ESP and my Strat, and sounds good with clean or distorted guitar. Finally, the BH is very quiet -- you get some analog swirl but it's hardly noticeable. (The VL chorus is much noisier.)
Reliability
:
10
All Way Huge stuff seems pretty sturdy. I sure as hell hope it is given that my "lifetime warranty" has now managed to expire (i.e., because Way Huge is gone).
Customer Support
:
10
Mr. Huge was very helpful -- back when he was in business. I sure hope he will continue to help folks out if they need a pedal fixed.
Overall Rating
:
10
Overall I have to give this pedal a 10 because I love chorus units and this one is great. I don't care that I paid $185 for it -- it's probably worth $250 by now (and climbing). I'll be using the Hippo for my slower, shimmery sounds and the Voodoo Lab for my vibrato (a la CE-1) sounds.
