Chorus pedal that doesn't squash the tone or cut frequencies.

Looking for what folks are using for a chorus pedal that doesn't squash or thin out the tone or cuts frequencies.

Really leery about putting anything in my signal chain.

Currently run just a Teegarden Audio Fat Boy tube DI and an Empress Bass Compressor MKII.

Many thanks for your input and info.
 
I use a Source Audio Lunar, it's got some sweet features that are really helpful for bassists.
What I find missing on most analogue Chorus / modulation pedals is the lack of a bass friendly wet / dry mixer or a comprehensive EQ to dial back your original bass tone. Most modulation pedals are designed for guitar and have a pretty hefty bass cut. Bass doesn't output a lot of top end (which is what triggers the chrous effect), so we tend to need really heavy / full on wet sounds to barely hear any chorus effect in our tone. The sort of chorus levels that would make a guitarist shudder.
Most mixers are a 50:50 wet dry control, which is fine for guitarists who neeed that level of subtelty and won't miss the inherant bass cut that this type of mixer will bring. For us a bassists, the more we blend in the wet, the more chorus but loss of bass...blend in the dry and you loose a massive amount of chorus but gain a bit of bass....it's not helpful. A low retain blend is far more helpful, ie one that blend the mids to upper frequencies but leaves your bettom end alone.
Unfortunatly, this isn't very common on analogue Chorus pedals and is often missing on some large multi-modulation panels too.
Fresh bass strings help create the necessary zing to push the treble frequencies that are needed in a chorus effect. Good luck with flats....

The SA lunar has a really comprehensive 4 band EQ under the hood. I like to dial in extra bass than rely on the messy blend controls. I also like to assign a treble control to around the 4K region. This is really nice for boosting the necessary frequencies for the Chorus effect to be heard in a mix. The Lunar is easy to power, gives me 6 patches (that can be any type of modulation) and it's in a small box that's about the same size as an analogue chorus but with a ton of digital functionality. It also sound fantastic and doesn't sound digital at all...in fact more people thing it sounds very analogue and vintage.

As I said before, don't be timid here...maxxed out chorus effect is usually "is that all...I could do woth a bit more?" on bass.
Generally a tri or quad chorus is needed to really make the right sounds on roundwound bass strings that are a few years old.

I have Lunar patches available on the Source Audio Neuro cloud, look them up under "Gazzajagman".
 
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Looking for what folks are using for a chorus pedal that doesn't squash or thin out the tone or cuts frequencies.

Really leery about putting anything in my signal chain.

Currently run just a Teegarden Audio Fat Boy tube DI and an Empress Bass Compressor MKII.

Many thanks for your input and info.
Just get any chorus that has a crossover?
Is his what you are referring to? I like the boss ceb3 for this…
 
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I really loved the EHX Bass Clone. Works fantastically with no low end loss thanks to the crossover. I'm not usually into cheap (or cost-effective, shall we say?) pedals, but this one is a winner. I've also heard great things about the Anadime Bass Chorus, but it's spendy. The crossover is key in bass chorus, in my opinion, so the low frequencies stay in tact. Otherwise the whole thing sounds too mushy.
 
I never had a good experience with chorus and gave up using it on bass unless I'm playing solo and even that I prefer other effects.

That being said from my experience the best sounding chorus was the Fulltone Choralflange, MXR stereo chorus, and the TC elec. Chorus/flange.

Many bass chorus pedals including the MXR Bass chorus deluxe didn't do well for me. It's either not enough effect, or things get too muddy. This is because of the nature of the chorus effect and IMHO, it is not the best effect to use for the bass especially if the bass is supposed to provide the fundamental low end of a piece. A chorus effect modulates the pitch a bit and the last thing you want as a bass player is sounding out of pitch and muddy. That being said many great bassist including some of my favorites use it successfully. I decided it's not for me.
 
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A high pass in a chorus usually isn't about retaining low end. Its about keeping the fundamental from being modulated so you don't make the entire band sound out of tune when you turn on the chorus. If you just modulate frequencies above a certain point you can have some movement in the upper mids and treble without shifting the actual note heard in the mix. In most designs the dry signal passes through to the output exactly as it came in.
 
I love the idea of chorus on bass at times and have heard some good recorded examples. Live in person I have heard others use it and sound good but I never liked it for myself because of the reasons posed in your posts title….too effected, too much change.

I just picked up a TC electronics Viscous Vibe (which has a chorus option and uses chorus modulation as part of its structure). After playing with the settings in the app and on the pedal itself, I found a combination that I like that has an effect still sounds like my bass.

So you may want to consider TC as an option because of the tweakability.

I havent tried it yet with the band so the real test will come next week.
 
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The nature of chorus will always absolutely cause changes in tones and cut different frequencies. It's more how you set up your chorus and how much of it you use (or blend with the clean signal) than the pedal itself.

Chorus is just the signal split into duplicates, and then some are played slightly offset in time and slightly offset in pitch.

Those two characteristics will always cause some frequency cancellation. The frequencies that get cancelled out and the severity of the cancellation will change depending on how far offset the delay is, and how far out of tune each duplicate is. But it's going to happen. It's the physics of audio & acoustics.

It's the same reason your instrument "pulses" when you're tuning and the fretted and open note , or the two harmonics are just slightly off. The sound is going through cycles of cancellation and summing.

And yes, some chorus pedals will favor heavy-handed settings, and others will allow more transparent ones. But they all will have frequency cancellation which is tone fluctuations.