Chorus Pedal
A modulation pedal that duplicates and subtly detunes a guitar's signal, creating a thicker, shimmering sound as if multiple guitars were playing together.
Chorus works by taking your guitar's signal, copying it, and detuning and delaying that copy very slightly before mixing it back in with the original. The result mimics what happens when several instruments or voices play the same part slightly out of sync and out of tune with one another — a natural "chorus" of sound — giving a single guitar a thicker, wider, shimmering quality. It's a defining texture of 1980s clean and lightly driven guitar tones and remains popular for clean rhythm parts and arpeggios.
Types
- Analog chorus — warmer, subtler modulation, often considered less "swirly" and more musical for guitar.
- Digital chorus — typically offers a wider, more intense range of settings and often stereo outputs for a bigger spatial effect.
- Multi-voice/ensemble chorus — layers multiple detuned copies for a denser, more lush texture.
How to use it
- Place the chorus pedal in the modulation section of your chain, generally after gain pedals and before or alongside delay and reverb.
- Set the rate control for how fast the pitch wobbles, and the depth control for how intense that wobble is.
- Use the mix/level control to blend the effect in — for a subtle "widening" effect keep it low; for a lush, obvious swirl push it higher.
- Chorus works especially well on clean or lightly overdriven tones; heavy distortion tends to mask its detail.
Care
Standard pedal care applies — clean power, dry storage, and occasional checks of cables and the footswitch.
💡 Tip
Sources
- Guitar Pedal Buying Guide — Sweetwater