sonic stigma by detailing some killer
chorus pedals that are just too cool
sounding to be stuck in the Aqua Nets
of nostalgia.
TC ELECTRONIC SCF STEREO
CHORUS FLANGEr
This mains-powered monster has been
the chorus pedal to beat for over 30
years. Why? Because the SCF has almost
zero clock noise, a built in 14db input
gain booster and one of the lushest
stereo chorus spreads in a stompbox.
My favorite thing to do with mine was
split the signal by sending one output
direct to a ’78 Marshall JMP half stack,
and run the other through a delay into
a Swart Space Tone 30 with a touch
of verb. I would then set the speed to
a crawl, the width to maximum and
the intensity fairly low. This gave me
a huge 3D swirly tone, reminiscent of
those early SoCal Deathrock bands.
Ron Emory of TSOL, Rikk Agnew of
Christian Death and the iconic neo-surf
guitar of Mike Palm and Agent Orange
were my references. Now, those are
some ‘80s chorus guitar tones that are
anything but cheesy.
On the better-known end of the tonal
spectrum, one can achieve a fantastic
Lifeson-like sound in much the same
manner. This should come as no
surprise because his legendary tasteful
chorusing and huge aural image was
projected with the SCF’s bigger rack
mounted brother, the TC 1210 Spatial
Expander. In fact, there is also a remote
switch should one want to treat the
SCF like a rack unit, which, due to
its headroom and flexibility, it kind
of is. Speaking of flexibility, the true
pitch modulation can be set for some
beautifully queasy dreamy movement
and really bring a dying clean tone to
life. For a higher-fidelity stereo chorus
experience, this is still one of the best
options out there and the SCF is still
handmade in Denmark, just like it was
three decades ago.