W
hen I was just starting to become obsessed with
guitars and music as a little kid in the late ‘80s,
hard rock and hair metal dominated the industry.
It was such a strange time to get interested,
because (as all kids do) I just accepted the flamboyantly schlocky
instruments around me as the norm. I just assumed all guitars
were candy-cream-clown-puke-polka-dot asymmetrical shred
machines. I literally felt like a kid in a candy store fondling those
day-glow Kramer and Jackson axes with my sticky Jolly Rancherglazed digits.
Yes, there was another naughty norm in those sickly sweet days
of overproduced weenie ballads: the cheesy chorus pedal. Of
course, the chorus pedal had been tastefully applied to some
timeless recordings by pioneers like Andy Summers, Robert
Smith, Robin Guthrie and Johnny Marr in the early part of the
decade. But, overuse and chorus abuse soon created a guilt-bypoodle-head association, which still hasn’t really broken to this
day. In this feature, I would like to help dispel this slightly unfair
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TONE TALK //
Chorus Pedals That are Hard to Hate