More than ever, pedal builders understand that guitarists aren’t the only ones looking for new dimensions in sound. Consequently, the number and variety of effects for low enders grows each year. One long-standing member in this society of pedal builders is MXR. Thanks to their extensive product line, they’ve played a part in some of rock’s most memorable music for decades. And with Jim Dunlop at the helm, MXR Bass Innovations has produced a number of bass pedals that have garnered high praise from players over the years. Looking to continue on that success, they recently introduced their latest effect for bassists—the feature-packed Bass Chorus Deluxe.
Time Tweakers and Stereo Shifters
The Bass Chorus Deluxe is powered by
“bucket-brigade” technology, an old-school
approach of taking the signal and passing it
through a series of capacitors. This methodology
to sound transmission is meant to
create a unique and musical delay that keeps
the original notes up front and shifts the
secondary signal into a more supportive role.
Delving into the aqua-blue Bass Chorus Deluxe is simple, as the dials and switches are logically arranged and clearly marked with their function. The standard intensity, rate, and width knobs are there, but MXR also included additional features not found on many chorus pedals.
Attentive to the bassist’s primary role in an ensemble, MXR installed a crossover (x-over) switch. This decreases modulation at 100 Hz—focusing the chorus in the mid to upper ranges—and is meant to preserve the fundamental notes while delivering just the right amount of effect. A sweet little gift sitting to the right of the x-over switch is the flanger button that MXR placed onboard for the occasions when a player wants more intense modulation. And those who like the option of being able to add warmth or top-end edge will certainly find the separate bass- and treble-boost/cut knobs a nice bonus.
For bassists who like to hear and feel their effect, MXR provided a head-swaying feature inside the Bass Chorus Deluxe. It’s an internal switch that toggles between true-bypass and a TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) stereo-hardware-bypass mode. The stereo mode allows a player to plug in a Y-splitter cable to divide the signal and connect to two amplifiers, thereby permitting the modulation effect to shift from left to right.
Dr. Chorus and Mr. Flange
For my initial go, I sent the Bass Chorus
Deluxe into a Phil Jones D-600 head connected
to a pair of Glockenklang Space
Deluxe 112 cabinets. Equipped with a 1966
Fender Jazz, I started out by experimenting
with the sample settings provided in
the manual. Sting fans can cop that spacey
bass sound in “Walking on the Moon” by
configuring the controls to the hilariously
labeled “The Po Po” mode. The “John
Francis” setting is a tribute to everybody’s
favorite bridge-pickup bassist, and it creates
a clean effect that veers towards Jaco’s chorus
heard in many of his live recordings. And
“Fixation Blvd.” is MXR’s aptly named tag
for the control setting that goes after Simon
Gallup’s sound on “Fascination Street.”
As I moved on to concoct some custom choral creations, the Bass Chorus Deluxe delivered a controlled chorus effect with a mild amount of saturation. Variances in the rate and width never seemed to be overpowering, but instead wrapped the bass notes in a swirling sheen. With all of the dials at their fullest, the pedal created a throbbing, quivering timbre that might work well for bassists wanting to capture the vibe of a Hammond B3.
The flanger mode is an awesome addition to the Bass Chorus Deluxe, and it can go from whooshing to wacky pretty easily. I was able to conjure up some very cool tones with the pedal’s responsive knobs, ranging from a Duff McKagan-esque Use Your Illusion era bass sound, all the way to making the neck pickup on my ’66 Jazz sound like Darth Vader. In fact, the latter discovery sparked my inner nerd so much I couldn’t resist plugging a microphone into a Digitech Whammy pedal, setting it to the octave-down mode, and sending that signal into the flanged-out Bass Chorus Deluxe to get me even closer to the voice from the dark side.
Ratings
Pros:
Thoughtful features, easy to use, excellent flanger.
Cons:
The chorus might be too dry for some tastes, x-over switch takes away too much effect.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$169
Company
jimdunlop.com
Lost in Space, Safe in the Studio
The Bass Chorus Deluxe drew mixed
results in a live situation. While performing
with an R&B/fusion band, I placed the
pedal in between the same Jazz bass and a
Markbass Little Mark Tube 800 that was
paired with a Glockenklang Quattro 410.
While the Bass Chorus Deluxe gave bass
lines a delicate, atmospheric texture during
quiet moments in jams and slower ballads,
the effect seemed to have a tendency to get
somewhat lost in the mix at medium to
loud volumes. The bass itself stayed present,
but the chorus was having trouble doing
the same. Engaging the x-over button took
away even more and made the effect almost
non-existent onstage. Cranking the knobs
brought out the expected warbling bass
lines, which were audible at higher volumes,
but that sound was a little extreme for this
particular application. Instead of removing
the Bass Chorus Deluxe from the signal
chain, however, a press of the flanger button
saved the day. It functioned well at all volumes,
and I ended up keeping the pedal in
that mode for the rest of the show.
Despite some volume issues onstage, the Bass Chorus Deluxe performed quite well in the studio. In both chorus and flanger mode, the controlled environment allowed all of the pedal’s characteristics to come through. It gave a pickup-equipped German upright a smearing, moody vibe, and put a Nash P-style bass on the mothership with some throbbing, flanger-induced funk.
The Verdict
MXR Bass Innovations prides itself on
producing products by bass players, for bass
players. And the onboard features of the
Bass Chorus Deluxe exemplify this ethos.
What was most impressive was that no matter
where the dials were placed, the Bass
Chorus Deluxe still preserved the original
signal. Its primary effect could be considered
the “white tea” of chorus pedals—clean
and smooth with subtle flavor. Some might
argue that its chorus effect leaves something
to be desired, but either way, the flanger,
EQ, and stereo option offer a lot of upside
to the Bass Chorus Deluxe. So if you’re
seeking a pedal that serves up a clean chorus
that preserves your primary bass tone—and offers up some cool extras—the MXR
Bass Chorus Deluxe might have a spot on
your pedalboard.
The powerful DSP-based Orbital Modulator embodies that approach, packing 12 modulation effects (two of which can be saved as presets and assigned to the two footswitches) and significant shaping power in a compact pedal that’s formidable onstage or in the studio.
Shuttle Craft
With all its knobs, buttons, and blinking
lights, the Orbital doesn’t boast the world’s
most welcoming interface. But it doesn’t take
long to learn how to navigate the unit. The
centermost knob accesses four effect groups—chorus, flanger, resonator, and phaser. Within
each of these modulations you can select variations,
including quad chorus, vibe (based on
the original Uni-Vibe built by Japan’s Shin-Ei
in the 1960s), and multi-stage phasing. The
remaining knobs control parameters such as
depth, speed, and wave shape.
The option control opens up even more fine-tuning potential, enabling adjustment of six parameters (as shown by the LEDs at left) in conjunction with the option knob. Delay/freq adjusts the delay time between the dry and modified signal when using chorus or flanging. When using the phaser, a clockwise turn moves the modulation center point over higher frequencies and gives the effect a brighter tone. Feedback controls the amount of wet signal fed back into the pedal, an essential adjustment that affects overall presence and definition.
The volume parameter provides up to 6 dB of gain, and lo retain isolates low-end output in case you want less effect on your bass frequencies. Increasing tremolo adds another layer of modulation to your base modulation, and you can dial up the presence to generate a more robust chop. Mix adjusts the overall ratio of your dry and wet signal, with a maximum wet signal when cranked clockwise. However, the 12 o’clock position produces a completely dry signal, and once you start going counter-clockwise the frequency becomes inverted—typically pulling out some of the low end, depending on the effect.
Although the fact that the Orbital can only be powered with the included 9V barrel adapter might be a bummer to some players, the two footswitches boast flexibility that should more than make up for it: Both can be switched to either true or buffered bypass. On the downside, their proximity to each other, to the other controls, and to the edge of the housing can make it difficult to engage one without hitting a knob or button, the other footswitch, or an adjacent pedal’s footswitch.
Each switch can also be used as a tap tempo for the speed control. If the left preset is engaged, the right switch becomes the tap switch, and vice versa. There’s also a multifunction in/out that can be used to adjust modulation via MIDI, an expression pedal, or Source Audio’s unique motion-sensing Hot Hand.
Into Orbit
Inserted between a Les Paul and a ’68 silverface
Fender Bassman, the Orbital Modulator
displayed a lot of range—and headroom. I first
dialed in a dual chorus effect for a deep, interwoven
waver that remained impressively complex
without getting oversaturated or mushy. At
these settings, the basic character of the Orbital
Modulator is fairly bright, which obscured
some of the Les Paul’s low-end honk. But I was
able to enhance low-end definition with the lo
retain parameter. Notching up feedback helped
pull out more top-end too, and what I ended up with was a very full-bodied chorus that was
perfect for ’80s Cure-inspired leads.
The Orbital’s “12 stage” setting showcases its more extreme capabilities. It’s the most chaotic of the phaser’s four stages and takes you giant leaps away from the Leslie-like sounds of tamer settings. Single-string runs using a sine wave took on a cosmic character, sending ringing trails chasing after each picked note. Using tap tempo to increase the speed gave the modulated tones a metallic, hollow, and springy feel, perfect for a dub vamp. Rolling off the bridge pickup’s tone knob created a hazy, percussive tone perfect for a slow Funkadelic jam.
Ratings
Pros:
Lots of effects for the money. Compact. True or
buffered bypass option.
Cons:
Switch proximity may cause difficulties on a busy board.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$169
Company
sourceaudio.net
The phaser control’s lower stages approximate the wobble on classic-rock records, and again tap tempo was indispensable for quickly and precisely changing speed.
With a Stratocaster in the mix, I discovered one of my favorite settings was a vibe option. Making the most of it demanded the use of an expression pedal for adjusting the speed, but it sounded excellent at a fixed rate, too. Keeping the Bassman at the verge of breakup and kicking on the vibe yielded Hendrix-like tones—two-note bends became a dizzying howl, particularly with two pickups engaged.
Adding a Fuzz Face clone yielded more savage Jimi tones, and in this much louder, more hectic setting, the Orbital’s finetuning capabilities were invaluable. The lo retain and feedback parameters helped me fine-tune the output so the fuzz cut through the swirling, complex mix. And despite all its tweakability, the Orbital is very transparent and friendly to the intrinsic voices of your rig elements.
The Verdict
At $169 street, the Orbital Modulator is a
great deal for such a complete, capable, and
option-filled modulation machine—and its
56-bit DSP processing makes many of the
more analog-like effects sound quite genuine.
There are plenty of parameters to discover
new and colorful sonic textures, and
it’s friendly to single-coils and humbuckers.
Perhaps best of all is that all that parameter control means you can really tailor the waveform and EQ characteristics of this pedal to suit the idiosyncrasies of your rig. Given that flexibility, the Orbital Modulator is a great solution if you’re trying to sack a few effects from your chain, save pedalboard space, or are looking for a highly configurable modulation pedal that can move readily from stage to the studio.
Watch our video review:
Granted, a pedal built by a solder-huffing hermit is no guarantee something will sound good. But if there were a standard by which true handcrafted provenance could be judged, TSVG pedals would be a lock for certification. And as the Angry Jeff fuzz tested here reveals, handbuilt—from the right hands—can still mean stompboxes of exceptional quality that are a welcome deviation from the norm, too.
A Wolf in Cloth Wire Clothing
At a glance, the Angry Jeff doesn’t scream
“handcrafted!” For one thing, that universal
signifier of boutique-pedal status—an
enclosure painted by hand—is eschewed in
favor of a decal. And the lack of knob labels
suggests something cheekier than focus-group-driven wit. There’s not even the
vaguest suggestion it’s a fuzz. If you picked
Angry Jeff up in a recording studio without
any awareness of who or what TSVG is,
you’d just have to plug the dang thing in to
find out.
Just as surprising is what you find when you remove the back panel. There isn’t a circuit board anywhere. Instead, you see an ordered, many-tentacled mélange of cloth wire—all point-to-point wired to a beautiful array of AC 128 germanium transistors, and Mullard tropical fish and Sprague capacitors.
The functions of the unlabeled controls are fairly easy to decipher with a little trial and error. But there is a twist. While the knob at far left is a pretty standard volume/level control and the one in the middle is a fairly typical fuzz control, the third is a bias control that’s a big part of what differentiates the Angry Jeff from more classically voiced fuzzes.
The Many Moods of Jeff
The voices that lurk within the Angry Jeff
elude the most obvious sonic touchstones.
The germanium transistor-based circuit has
the spitty, hectic qualities of an old Fuzz
Face. It can even take on the burly, bossy
intensity of an old Triangle Muff, though it
lacks that pedal’s singing sustain. But it’s the
differences that make it special.
Entering Angry Jeff ’s world takes the willingness to experiment. Getting the pedal above unity gain means cranking the volume to about 2 o’clock. Once you’re there, things happen fast. Roll the volume back and crank the fuzz, and Jeff will spit out the buzzy, ’66-style sounds of a similarly configured germanium Fuzz Face. But the pedal is happiest when the volume is wide open, and that’s where you hear the unique colors of the Angry Jeff best.
The fuzz control is much more adaptable, and its range makes Jeff a chameleon. With fuzz and volume cranked, power chords take on the cool texture of chaos on top of a fat, smooth harmonic bed. It’s wilder than a Muff and more bossy than a Fuzz Face or Tone Bender. It enables first-position and power chords to pull of the cool trick of maintaining string-to-string clarity and articulation while fractured harmonics explode over the top. In this way, it’s like a Univox Super-Fuzz with fewer octave overtones.
Ratings
Pros:
Beautiful, handwired, point-to-point circuitry. Lots of unique tones.
Cons:
Could use a touch more sustain.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$155
Company
tsvgpedals.com
Rolling back the fuzz tames the spittier aspects and rounds the output in a way that makes driving barre-chord progressions deliciously savage. It also makes single notes a little more controlled and singing. That said, the Angry Jeff is not a sustain machine, and while you can shape lead tones into everything from hectic to nearly violin sweet (especially when you throw in some fast finger vibrato), you won’t get the even, lingering taper on a note you’d get from a Big Muff. And if you dig the sweeter-to-squirrelly potential of the Jeff but crave a little more sustain, you may need to count on throwing some boost and subtle delay in the mix.
The bias knob has an enormous effect on Jeff’s output. And like the fuzz control, it can be transformative. Cranked counterclockwise, it has less effect on the tone. And it’s here that you’ll get the most output and harmonic color. But turn it clockwise to starve the pedal of voltage, and unexpected things can happen. Between 9 o’clock and noon, the bias control has a smoothing effect on mids, creating a slightly boxy and wooly, but still very rich and sonorous lead tone that works great with bridge or neck pickups. Past noon, bias makes Angry Jeff progressively more rabid—creating a splintered, cracked, and chaotic mid- to high-frequency overtone field that gives power chords and leads a particularly feral edge.
The Verdict
The very individual, handbuilt Angry Jeff
is not a fuzz for everybody—particularly
not traditionalists who prefer working
within the well-known performance
parameters of the classics. But given how
confrontational it can sound, it’s remarkable
how effective it is at shape-shifting
for different musical settings. It’s probably
best suited for garage and avant artists
who like their tones big and rich but
a little less pretty. But if you’re willing
to experiment, it can deliver interesting
twists on Fuzz Face, Super-Fuzz, and
Big Muff tones. And if you’re willing to
accept that the path to extracting your
own unique voice from this beautifully
built pedal will be a bit indirect, chances
are you’ll uncover a universe of killer fuzz
textures along the way.