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Peter Hook chorus: alternative to Clone theory (not analogue man)?

boristhespider7

boristhespider7

Jan 27, 2008
1,572
766
UK
#1
Does anyone know of a chorus pedal that wil get me the clone theory tone of Peter Hook? Such as one this track:

Joy Division - 24 hours - YouTube

I won't consider the clone theory as its too noisy. I have a Boss CEB-3 which i find too subtle. I know there's a lot of love for the Analogman on here but its out of my budget. The Boss CE-5 is probably about the most i want to spend. At the moment i'm considering:

EHX Small clone
Cool cat chorus
Boss CE-5

but would consider anything else of similar price. Would any of these get me that tone?
 
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#7
grygrx said:
Plastic jacks connected directly to the PCB. One rough yank, from say a drunk singer tripping on your cable, can be enough to end them.
Click to expand...

Thats a shame. Just out of interest is there enough clearance inside to get metal jack sockets that can be bolted to the outer shell and then wires to the PCB? If so would be a worthwhile upgrade considering the price
 
#11
I was willing to let go of my Clone Theory when I found that the Hardwire Chorus could hit the Clone Theory "Chorus 1" setting at 12:00 by setting the Hardwire to the "Vintage" setting and Depth and Rate both at about 10:30 or 11.
 
#15
BluesProgMetal said:
Small Clone will get you what you want.
Click to expand...

Anyone know how this compares to the clone theory?

I know it has less flexibility, but if it nails some of that tone i'm not too fussed. Does it do thick warm chorus on bass? It sounds like it on guitar, but i haven't heard it on bass (apart from a sound clip where someone did some slapping with it...not what i had in mind for using chorus with :eyebrow:)
 
#16
The Small Clone was the basis for the AnalogMan Chorus pedal, and I love my Small Clone with some similar mods to the AnalogMan. I have done a bunch of simple modifications to my Small Clone that make it much more tweakable than the very basic single knob/single switch- added Delay Time Pot, Depth Pot, Blend Pot, and Feedback controls as well as expanding the rate control. I found all these mods on the net and just tweaked a bit from there. Joy Division and New Order have made some of my favorite music and I feel like my Small Clone can get me in a similar tonal universe as Hook, though I've never really tried to cop his tone (I did a JD cover night for a party many years ago, but it was long before I ever considered using effects or even knew that he had used a chorus). I think the original Clone Theory is different from later EHX Chorus pedals in that it had that "Edge" control that added a whole lot of top end shimmer (and also alot of noise along with it). My Small Clone definitely adds a nice shimmer and edge to the tone at the settings I normally use, but I have never owned any of the Clone Theory versions to make a direct comparison. I definitely haven't heard that same kind of metallicy shimmer from other choruses I have tried. My Small Clone was a cheap project for fun that ended up working perfectly for me after some fiddling!
 
#18
s_mcsleazy said:
ah a subject i know all about (big hookey fan here) i use a boss chorus for it. its a early 90's boss chorus and it nails the sound. the only problem i have is it kills your low end but it works well for the joy division sound
Click to expand...

The bass version or the guitar ("ensemble") version? I have the bass version and only find it usable with everything set on max apart from rate
 
#19
I found the Boss Bass Ensemble to be too subtle as well for Hooky chorus. The Boss DM-2 sounds great from clips I have heard, but is prohibitively expensive (long discontinued) and not very tweakable (and again- not very much like the EHX). I think that was the pedal responsible for the Cure's chorus sounds using bass and Bass VI.

Have you tried the newer Stereo Clone Theory? I have heard that it is fairly close tonally to the original and less noisy. I went with the Small Clone because I wanted to experiment with modding it as the Stereo Theory (and other EHX XO pedals) uses tiny SMD components that are much harder to modify.
 
#20
boristhespider7 said:
Anyone know how this compares to the clone theory?

I know it has less flexibility, but if it nails some of that tone i'm not too fussed. Does it do thick warm chorus on bass? It sounds like it on guitar, but i haven't heard it on bass (apart from a sound clip where someone did some slapping with it...not what i had in mind for using chorus with :eyebrow:)
Click to expand...

I love it. Its alot lusher and richer than your standard BOSS chorus. Its made by EHX as well so I assume the might have similar tones to Hooky's Clone Theory. You can nail his tone using the following setting:

Depth: up
Rate: 9-10 o'clock
 

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