The_Mop
02-20-2006, 06:09 PM
Chorus, an effect considered 'too eighties' for some, and a complete nessecary for others. Personally, I can't get enough of chorus, I actually bought this pedal to double up with another chorus pedal my dad has, but here it is; Behringer's £15 take on that oh-so-eighties pedal:
http://www.behringer.com/UC100/UC100_medium.jpg
SPECS
This pedal has 4 pots, controlling level, tone, rate and depth. More detail on what these do later.
The activate/de-activate switch is a first-class switching system, so it isn't true bypass, but hey, this is £15. And that's not to say that it's noisy, because it isn't.
This pedal has 1 input and 2 outputs - it can be used as a stereo chorus.
There's a 9V DC IN jack to power it, or it can be powered by battery. It also has an LED to show active/deactivated status.
SOUNDS
For this review, I set it up in two different rigs. Rig number one was this:
Guitar (JEM 7D)èUltra ChorusèMicro cube
The second rig was this:
Guitar (JEM 7D)èGT-8èUltra Chorus (in GT-8 FX loop)èFX return of Marshall JCM900
Firstly, I will review the sound from the first rig. The first pre-amp model I used was the JC clean on the Micro Cube. This gave an extremely nice clean sound when the effect level was right up, the tone rolled slightly off the top, the rate halfway and the depth all the way on. This gave a thick chorus without too much vibrato effect, and it sounded nice and sparkly rather than some choruses that only seem to affect the bass end of things. This sounded great for doing jazz chords and stuff like that. It’s pretty versatile as well, it can be very deep or quite subtle, very quick and messy or slow. All in all, a very impressive clean sound, definitely worth 15 quid. However, the same could not be said when put through the Rectifier model. It sounded crap, it thinned out and it didn’t sound nice at all. It made a lot of noise as well, which wasn’t impressive in the least. Not even worth trying, it sounded extremely bad.
On the next rig, with the GT-8, first I tried it with the JC 120 amp model. This again sounded very nice. As I could place the FX loop anywhere in the FX chain with the GT-8, I tried it in a couple of places. First, I tried it so that the Ultra Chorus was before the pre-amp. This sounded really good, similar to what I had described in the first rig on clean. I also tried it after the pre-amp, traditionally where a chorus would go. This sounded a bit different, it seemed to sound a bit more bassy. This again sounded good in a different way, it made the sound thicker but a bit less sparkly. Next, I tried it with a distortion I had made myself. Again, terrible placed before the pre-amp and even worse placed after the pre-amp. Very noisy, horrible sound.
I only tried using stereo mode once with a slightly different rig, and it really hardly made a difference. There stereo mode, in reality, a bit pointless.
SOUNDS RATING: 5/10. Half marks for the fact it can only be used under one aspect. It does sound fantastic clean, really, it’s worth buying the pedal just for that. But under distortion it really is shockingly bad. And stereo doesn't seem to do anything at all.
CONSTRUCTION:
This has been copied from another review, as it’s construction it exactly the same.
This pedal, even though it can sound quite good, it does have some design flaws.
The worst thing about it is changing batteries. Even though I don't use batteries as i've got a DC brick, it is annoying to open up the compartment. You have to get a pen to push in these tiny little black buttons at the side, which basically takes off the hinges. And then, if you're not careful, the whole cover can spring off, as now it's not attached to anything and the spring isn't fixed to anything. The fact that the spring isn't attached to anything is also quite annoying, as you could easily get it wrong and have to open it up again.
One of the more slightly less important points is that it's made completely out of plastic. Quite thick plastic, mind, but plastic nonetheless. This means that if you're ever tempted to kick your pedal REALLY hard, it'll probably crack. However, this does have one advantage - it's very light.
The switches have a slightly flimsly feel about them, however – the potentiometers in this example feel quite solid, unlike the behringer EQ. They definitely don't feel as solid as the boss pedals, but they're pretty good. The stomp switch, however, on close inspection, is one of those PCB mount tactile switches. Even though it hasn't failed me yet, I can imagine this getting damage if you really decide to really stomp your pedal down.
CONSTRUCTION RATING: 6/10 - opening the battery compartment is really quite annoying, and I'm concerned about the stomp switch.
EASE OF USE:
This is a pretty pedal to use. However, it does take a little bit of fiddling to get a decent sound, but it only really takes a couple of minutes with experimentation.
EASE OF USE RATING: 8/10. Very simple. Just takes a minute.
PRICE:
I paid 14.99 for this, and I’d say it’s worth it for the nice cleans. But if you’re expecting good distorted tones, it’s not even worth a quid.
OVERALL RATING:
I’d give this pedal 5/10. It’s a fantastic pedal for cleans, but if you’re expecting good distorted tones, you really should look elsewhere. It sounds terrible. Really, really terrible. Don’t even try it. And also the fact that the stereo mode doesn't seem to do anything brings down the marks a bit. However, it does sound amazing on cleans.
http://www.behringer.com/UC100/UC100_medium.jpg
SPECS
This pedal has 4 pots, controlling level, tone, rate and depth. More detail on what these do later.
The activate/de-activate switch is a first-class switching system, so it isn't true bypass, but hey, this is £15. And that's not to say that it's noisy, because it isn't.
This pedal has 1 input and 2 outputs - it can be used as a stereo chorus.
There's a 9V DC IN jack to power it, or it can be powered by battery. It also has an LED to show active/deactivated status.
SOUNDS
For this review, I set it up in two different rigs. Rig number one was this:
Guitar (JEM 7D)èUltra ChorusèMicro cube
The second rig was this:
Guitar (JEM 7D)èGT-8èUltra Chorus (in GT-8 FX loop)èFX return of Marshall JCM900
Firstly, I will review the sound from the first rig. The first pre-amp model I used was the JC clean on the Micro Cube. This gave an extremely nice clean sound when the effect level was right up, the tone rolled slightly off the top, the rate halfway and the depth all the way on. This gave a thick chorus without too much vibrato effect, and it sounded nice and sparkly rather than some choruses that only seem to affect the bass end of things. This sounded great for doing jazz chords and stuff like that. It’s pretty versatile as well, it can be very deep or quite subtle, very quick and messy or slow. All in all, a very impressive clean sound, definitely worth 15 quid. However, the same could not be said when put through the Rectifier model. It sounded crap, it thinned out and it didn’t sound nice at all. It made a lot of noise as well, which wasn’t impressive in the least. Not even worth trying, it sounded extremely bad.
On the next rig, with the GT-8, first I tried it with the JC 120 amp model. This again sounded very nice. As I could place the FX loop anywhere in the FX chain with the GT-8, I tried it in a couple of places. First, I tried it so that the Ultra Chorus was before the pre-amp. This sounded really good, similar to what I had described in the first rig on clean. I also tried it after the pre-amp, traditionally where a chorus would go. This sounded a bit different, it seemed to sound a bit more bassy. This again sounded good in a different way, it made the sound thicker but a bit less sparkly. Next, I tried it with a distortion I had made myself. Again, terrible placed before the pre-amp and even worse placed after the pre-amp. Very noisy, horrible sound.
I only tried using stereo mode once with a slightly different rig, and it really hardly made a difference. There stereo mode, in reality, a bit pointless.
SOUNDS RATING: 5/10. Half marks for the fact it can only be used under one aspect. It does sound fantastic clean, really, it’s worth buying the pedal just for that. But under distortion it really is shockingly bad. And stereo doesn't seem to do anything at all.
CONSTRUCTION:
This has been copied from another review, as it’s construction it exactly the same.
This pedal, even though it can sound quite good, it does have some design flaws.
The worst thing about it is changing batteries. Even though I don't use batteries as i've got a DC brick, it is annoying to open up the compartment. You have to get a pen to push in these tiny little black buttons at the side, which basically takes off the hinges. And then, if you're not careful, the whole cover can spring off, as now it's not attached to anything and the spring isn't fixed to anything. The fact that the spring isn't attached to anything is also quite annoying, as you could easily get it wrong and have to open it up again.
One of the more slightly less important points is that it's made completely out of plastic. Quite thick plastic, mind, but plastic nonetheless. This means that if you're ever tempted to kick your pedal REALLY hard, it'll probably crack. However, this does have one advantage - it's very light.
The switches have a slightly flimsly feel about them, however – the potentiometers in this example feel quite solid, unlike the behringer EQ. They definitely don't feel as solid as the boss pedals, but they're pretty good. The stomp switch, however, on close inspection, is one of those PCB mount tactile switches. Even though it hasn't failed me yet, I can imagine this getting damage if you really decide to really stomp your pedal down.
CONSTRUCTION RATING: 6/10 - opening the battery compartment is really quite annoying, and I'm concerned about the stomp switch.
EASE OF USE:
This is a pretty pedal to use. However, it does take a little bit of fiddling to get a decent sound, but it only really takes a couple of minutes with experimentation.
EASE OF USE RATING: 8/10. Very simple. Just takes a minute.
PRICE:
I paid 14.99 for this, and I’d say it’s worth it for the nice cleans. But if you’re expecting good distorted tones, it’s not even worth a quid.
OVERALL RATING:
I’d give this pedal 5/10. It’s a fantastic pedal for cleans, but if you’re expecting good distorted tones, you really should look elsewhere. It sounds terrible. Really, really terrible. Don’t even try it. And also the fact that the stereo mode doesn't seem to do anything brings down the marks a bit. However, it does sound amazing on cleans.