Behringer unleashes the Chorus Symphony – Based on Famous 70s Pedal
How Close does it Sound to the Jazz Chorus?
4,1 / 5,0 | 
With the Chorus Symphony, Behringer is releasing the sixth vintage-style guitar pedal since coming out with the Fuzz Bender last November. The theme: closely emulate (some say clone) a vintage and sought-after pedal that’s part of the sonic fabric of the 50s, 60s, and 70s rock ‘n roll.
Chorus Symphony: Modern Day CE-1
Since cloning and re-issuing products is much more common and seldomly controversial in the pedal world compared to the synth world, any pedal maker releasing any re-make of a Uni-Vibe, a Klon, some bass fuzz, or an Octavia isn’t much a big deal. So naturally, the Chorus Symphony fits right in.
This time, the chorus pedal is styled after the Boss CE-1 from 1976. For quite a few modulation aficionados, this is the holy grail of Chorus effects. Like the original, you get mono-in and stereo-out, which at the time was almost unheard of. The CE-1 was know for creating absolutely massive and wide chorus effects.
The Police’s Andy Summers used a CE-1 excessively in his very distinct sound. When Boss released the original in 1976, it was a reaction to the many fans of their two Jazz Chorus amps, the JC-60 and the JC-120. Quite a few players were absolutely in love with the two amps’ chorus effect, but many weren’t willing to move over from their Fenders and Vox amps. Thus, the CE-1 was born.
From 1976 to Today
The Chorus Symphony mimics much of the CE-1’s design, with a BBD (bucket brigade device) circuit at its core. Behringer has opted for a more minimal design. However, that’s quite different from the CE-1 apart from its faceplate. Part of the reason might be the original’s not-too-insignificant weight (1.8 kilograms).
For the Chorus Symphony, you get a level control for the input level, a chorus intensity knob and two controls to set the vibrato effect. With the “low”/ “high” switch, you can select the appropriate. input impedance. If your signal starts clipping, the “peak level” LED will start to glow red to alert you.
Just like the CE-1, you get two foot switches. One bypasses the effect, the other one switches between chorus and vibrato. An additional internal switch allows for changing the Chorus Symphony’s bypass behavior between Buffered and True Bypass.-
Price and Availability
The Chorus Symphony is available to order from Thomann for 79 Euros! The chorus pedal will be available in a few months.
More on the latest Pedal from Behringer
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3 responses to “Behringer unleashes the Chorus Symphony – Based on Famous 70s Pedal”
Very interesting – one of the best sound devices developed in the past, a legend!
But why is there no full stereo path? Today’s users use a lot of stereo gear and it would be very useful to have such icons in full stereo versions.
I wish that Behringer takes two of the circuits in ONE box and integrates a variable modulation source (even with external CV control) to create spacy stereo effects.
Uli, please listen to today’s users and create stereo versions of such devices …!
and here we go again: as always with Behringer, the form does not fit the model, as if they spin a wheel for the design decisions.
It’s industrial plagiarism, if not downright copyright or IP infringement by this company, getting worse by the month too.