and a ¼ note on the other , stereo does not always translate ideally when the listener ( aka congregant ) is seated too far to the left or right in a live venue . The seemingly obvious idea of flattening a stereo signal to mono usually ends up sounding bad and can introduce unwanted phase issues .
THIS PEDAL Personally speaking , I prefer Chorus in stereo , so I thought it was interesting that the Maestro folks opted for mono . Quite often , mono Chorus just sounds a bit weird , but noting how much I ’ ve enjoyed the other Maestro pedals , I knew the engineers did what they did for a reason . I almost always place Chorus before the Delay , so the fact that the Maestro Discovery Delay being mono in and out , is one very obvious reason the Comet Chorus is as well . To be honest , since many people play in mono , I totally understand the logic at work here .
I bought a CE-1 in the early ‘ 80s and have spent a lot of years playing in stereo , so it took me a bit of discovery to get to know , and ultimately love this little pedal . Like all the new Maestro pedals , the Comet features a mini toggle switch that adds a secondary function , which in this case enables you to toggle between traditional Chorus and Rotary ( Leslie ) style sounds . In either position , the Depth knob controls the amount of pitch variation , Speed controls the rate of the modulations , and Mix allows you to blend the right amount of modulated signal on top of the direct signal . The Comet is true bypass when not engaged , and the iconic ‘ Maestro bugles ’ light up telling you when the pedal is on .
In ‘ Earth ’ aka Chorus mode , the Comet helps deliver a really broad range of tones that range from shimmery cleans to undulating leads . Since the pedal was designed to just be used in mono , there is none of the ‘ collapsed to mono ’ weirdness you can get when playing in mono with a pedal that was intended to be used in a stereo application . Most noticeable when stacking the Ranger Overdrive and Invader Distortion was how much the Mix control adds to the signal volume wise . This is especially helpful in the ‘ Orbit ’ Rotary mode , where the nature of the effect actually causes your signal to disappear . Being able to bring up the effected signal per the design of the pedal does wonders in terms of getting the Rotary sounds to pop in the mix . Serious tone tweakers will also appreciate the internal trim pot which enables you to further adjust the level of the Rotary effect . My favorite overall sound was in Orbit mode with the Depth pulled back , the Speed undulating just below 9:00 , and the Mix sitting just above 12:00 . If by chance you ’ re a slide player , this setting is just awesome as it adds just the right amount of something to make the notes pop .
CONCLUSION While I found this pedal to be especially great for Rock parts , be they lead or rhythm , dirty or clean … this pedal would be great on Sunday as well !
$ 149.00 MAP MaestroElectronics . com