Fender says "Ultimate Chorus" - did I read that correctly?

[StephenGiles]

http://www.fender.com/support/amp_schematics/pdfs/Ultimate_Chorus_Schematic.pdf

[petemoore]

  I'm pretty sure I did.

[StephenGiles]

But there is nothing ultimate about the rather bland chorus circuit.

[anchovie]

Maybe it's "ultimate" as in "last", i.e. the last time you think "woohoo! a Fender amp with a built-in chorus!"

[dschwartz]

i happen to like the chorus of those amps.. a lot..
much better than my digital chorus..

[petemoore]

  I dunno, I ordered and got an MXR M-134, 18v Analog Stereo Chorus.
  ...and I think that kikks butt over any chorus.
  I've had so far...
  But not even that really, it's just an Analog Chorus with great features, such as chews distortion insteading of balking at boosted inputs...has a 2knob TC, stereo, 18v supply included, otherwise, pretty basic, can dial in amounts to ~thick 'n lush mostly, extremely beautiful because I like it, would be POS if I didn't !
  They all sound a little bit like components.

[mdaudet]

I own a Fender Ultimate Chorus and yes, it has a great built in chorus, in deed, is the perfect combination of elements that creates a perfect "all purpose" chorus. I'm in love with this chorus (and with the amp too, hehe). The stereo chorus effect is amazing...

More words to come.

Cheers.

Matt

[Krinor]

  They all sound a little bit like components.

[Ben N]

That's just a bit of puffery, except to the extent that any stereo chorus amp will sound richer than a mono chorus effect, so if you are coming from stomping on a CE-2, your experience in using a stereo chorused amp will be something like, "Whoa, dude, what is THAT?" Of course the "ultimate" to most people would probably be the JC-120, but that is the territory, at least marketing-wise, that Fender is shooting for with this moniker.

[dschwartz]

i allways use chorus in stereo (is there a point using it mono?), and still find the chorus of that amp really nice..

for the schem, it´s very similar to a CE2, or any MN3007 based chorus..is analog.. and stereo...warm and adds a trird dimension to the sound, without affecting the eq..

i like it..

[Mark Hammer]

Earlier this year I purchased a Fender SK-20, which is a "Sidekick" series amp.  It is essentially a baby JC120 in that it has two 8" speakers, each with their own TDA-2030-based 10W power amp (hence the "20").  Like the JC120, the chorus is stereo, feeding the wet signal to one channel and the dry to the other.  It has a stereo send-receive loop.  I like feeding the dry signal through a phaser set to slow for an even more interesting modulated stereo sound.  Although the rather close spacing of the two 8" speakers doesn't provide as much opportunity for the spatial lushness found in the JC120 to emerge, it sounds nice.  Given that I paid $70 for it - as much as many would spend on a chorus pedal itself - I think I came out ahead.

At the same time, I found the delay range used for the chorus not to be sufficiently long enough for my liking, so I replaced the clock timing cap it came with for a larger (82pf) value.  That bumped the delay range up enough to make a difference in lushness and thickness, without impeding its ability to do shallower "swirly" stuff, or exceed the capability of the built-in noise controls.  I have no idea what the actual delay range is now, or what the delay range of the Ultimate Chorus amp is.  Suffice it to say that sometimes it only takes a couple of milliseconds in one direction or another to make a chorus sound exactly the way you want....or to sound miles off from what you heard in your head.  In this case, it is every bit as nice as my CE-2 clone, if not nicer because of the stereo aspect.

Stereo amps are a wonderful thing, and not nearly appreciated enough by folks out there.  In many of the various and sundry threads about "proper" Leslie emulation, the need to use a stereo setup has emerged again and again; some things simply require spatial separation of signals to achieve maximum effect.  One of the early SMF amps that Mark Sampson designed used a second channel and speaker to carry the reverb signal, and I remember that the GP reviewer simply could not say enough good things about it.  Of course, a solid-state stereo amp is an easier and cheaper thing to produce (and ship) than a stereo tube amp.  The TDA7360 stereo power-amp chip  is frequently found in many older generation sound cards that provide their own on-board power amplification.  It can be run in bridged mode as a 22W mono amp, but run in stereo as a dual 6.5W amp (into 4 ohms).  If you see or have an old sound card with one on it, consider cannibalizing it for a small stereo amp.

[Ben N]

There's a nice Traynor SS 2x20W, 2x8" amp combo around, very similar to the Fender Mark just described, that I have been trying to get a hold of--I think it must make a nice complement to the Ampeg Jets and such that I am partial to.