STOAKES GEAR TALK – CARL MARTIN ATLANTIC CHORUS

This review has taken me considerably longer to get out than I initially intended, and for that I can only apologise. I reviewed the Carl Martin Plexi Ranger pedal just before Christmas and was staggered by its high quality and I was eager to try more Carl Martin gear out. Carl Martin suggested the Atlantic Chorus and sent it out to me and I have thoroughly enjoyed playing with this pedal over the last month or so. The pedal is considerably better looking than the PlexiRanger, it’s sleek, sexy and a little bit curvy. Aesthetically, I was in love!

Designed in Denmark, built in China, it maintains Carl Martin’s build quality despite being more athletic looking. None of the build quality and strength is lost, this will stand up to the beatings it will get out on the road. The footswitch provides a little resistance, meaning that you wont accidentally stand on it and engage an effect that you didn’t intend to. Its compact size also means its ‘pedal board friendly’ and will fit in without too many problems.

First things first, this is a great chorus pedal and it has a few tricks up its sleeve. The pedal has four dials; a speed, depth, rate and level. These four dials are this little chorus pedals secret weapon. You see, the majority of chorus pedals have depth and speed controls, that is to be expected, however, the addition of a level control allows you to boost the signal, ensuring that your guitar sits right in the middle of the mix and it’s great having that extra bit of boost.

But, hey, that’s not too impressive, is it?  A lot of chorus pedals come with a level control, but, the Atlantic Chorus’ secret weapon is the rate dial. Turn it all the way up and you’re almost in vibrato territory. I was really impressed. In fact if you turn the rate and the depth all the way to the top, it really does sound like a vibrato. It’s very cool.

It’s nice if you turn everything down too, have the level a little bit up. You just get a bigger sound, almost like it’s double tracked. Then if you add a little bit of chorus by turning the speed up to about 20% and perhaps a smidgen of depth, then you’re right in the eighties and your primed to play the intro to Status Quo’s ‘Whatever You Want’. (Don’t forget to tune down to Drop D!) Joking apart, that was the first thing I did when the pedal arrived, I had great fun with my tele!

Could this pedal be improved? In all honesty, I really like it, it produces a great tone that is really smooth, however certain power adapters do make it buzz. I’ve tried it with a few now and certain power adapters are just noisy. The Plexi Ranger didn’t buzz at all, this one however suffers. I know noisy power sources are a common problem but, you have to wonder if including a battery would be worth it to cut out the buzz?

I wouldn’t let the noise put you off, this is a deliciously good pedal. The variety of sounds it can produce is great and it’s a wonderful alternative to the normal chorus pedals that you tend to see on everyone’s boards. The Atlantic Chorus will make you stand out from the crowd!