Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Anyone use a bass chorus pedal ? I'm looking for one with a true bypass.

T-Rex Sweeper. Best bass chorus pedal out there and it's only $99.

aceonbass wrote:The Boss CEB-3 is a really good one, and made just for bass players.

+1

aceonbass wrote:The Boss CEB-3 is a really good one, and made just for bass players.

I've had a Boss CEB-3 Bass Chorus for nearly 20 years (I think I got this in '92 or '93); I've used it on countless gigs and recordings and it never fails to deliver. I have three Boss pedals, two of which are about 20 years old, and they still work flawlessly. I just bought a new DD-7 last week because I trust Boss to be of the utmost quality.

Boss does indeed make fine gear. I use the Boss CE-20 double pedal chorus ensemble. Works equally well for bass and guitar, and you can store 4 of your favorite sounds & scroll through them live - very handy.

Boss pedals are great, but they aren't true bypass.

EBS UniChorus is the one I use. Not cheap, but is true bypass and sounds great.

Electro harmonix Small Clone.
True bypass.
No bottom end loss.
One knob, one switch, super easy to get a great sound.
Does not change the tone of your bass, just adds chorus.
Can be purchased for under $90 sometimes under $80 New.
Made in U.S.A.
http://www.ehx.com/products/small-clone

A few notes...
True bypass is best only used if there is a buffered pedal in the chain before it, otherwise it will suck the volume out of your bypassed signal. The best setup is to use one buffered pedal (eg boss bass overdrive) and then use true bypass for all of your other pedals.
The single buffered pedal will drop the impedance down to squirt the signal through the rest of the line without too many losses.
If your bass is active, go true bypass all the way through the chain as your bass has a buffer in it already...

My choice for chorus for a live rig would be the plain old boss CE-2 (yeah yeah!,I know its not true bypass), very warm and earthy and honest. A great monorual chorus. So many other chorus pedals may sound bigger than the CE-2 but they lack the warmth....

Eden.

I believe the CEB-3 is buffered, no? Output impedance 1 k-ohm versus 1 M-ohm input impedance. Kind of like having an active bass, other than the length of cable separating the bass and the buffered pedal.

I like my CEB-3 a lot (my first pedal), although it eats batteries, and I think it stays "on" if you leave a cable in the output jack, even if that little red light is off. I've lost a couple of batteries that way.

I use Dod ice box
It is a stero chorus, is not TBP.

I would really like to be able to turn it off and have the exact sound of my bass as if the chorus wasn't there.

weemac wrote:A few notes...
True bypass is best only used if there is a buffered pedal in the chain before it, otherwise it will suck the volume out of your bypassed signal. The best setup is to use one buffered pedal (eg boss bass overdrive) and then use true bypass for all of your other pedals.
The single buffered pedal will drop the impedance down to squirt the signal through the rest of the line without too many losses.
If your bass is active, go true bypass all the way through the chain as your bass has a buffer in it already...

My choice for chorus for a live rig would be the plain old boss CE-2 (yeah yeah!,I know its not true bypass), very warm and earthy and honest. A great monorual chorus. So many other chorus pedals may sound bigger than the CE-2 but they lack the warmth....

Eden.

I also love my old CE-2's. They don't make em quite like that no more.

I had this purple Ibanez pedal YEARS ago that sounded great. They've actually re-issued it, but I haven't played through a new one. Been using a BOSS Bass Chorus for several years now. No complaints! Sounds good, and that stuff is totally reliable. I really don't care about true bypass. In fact, those types of switches are so prone to failure, I TRY to avoid them.