I’ve heard quite a bit about T.C Electronic’s pedal series that introduces the “Toneprint” function but I had to try one out for myself.
The Corona Chorus came out with a series of other effect and distortion/overdrive pedals that all come with the ability to download and have, at the flick of a toggle switch, a preset artists effect for whichever unit you’ve gotten. You can also load a preset into the pedal through your smartphone directly from your guitars pickups. Yes, you read that right. You aim the phone at your pickups and it transfers the tone to your pedal. Sick. While I didn’t personally get to try out the Toneprint function, I did test the pedals two main chorus sounds.
With the toggle switch in the up position you get a simple yet powerful chorus effect. In the middle, Toneprint is enabled. In the down position you activate the “Tri-Chorus” mode. The “Tri-Chorus” mode gives you a lush, multi-layered effect.
The speed knob on the pedal controls the speed of the effects rotation and it has a VERY large sweep. You can set it to a slow paced effect for a creepy tone with some clean minor chords or set it fast for some cool funky major chord fun!
The depth knob is where the fun comes in. You can control just how soft or violent the chorus effect is – I say violent because when you max this knob the chorus tone goes absolutely wild. In either setting, the depth control works very close with the Fx Level knob. You can get a subtle chorus that sits behind your guitar tone or boost the controls for a more present effect. The Tri-Chorus seemed to get a bit overdone with the depth boosted high. If you’re looking for a crazy effect, that will do it – It really shows a versatility in this stomp box though.
The tone knob here adds a really high shimmer that worked great with clean tones. The other side of it added a warm and ballsy beef to the overall sound. The middle range didn’t add anything noticeable to either sound. I kept it pretty hard to the right and left to get the sounds I was after. I particularly loved the warm sound with a heavy drop-tuned guitar with some good crunch on it. The high end of the tone control worked great with a single-coil guitar set to clean.
If you’re looking for a single pedal to cover any type of chorus effect you might need, the T.C. Electronic Corona Chorus is a great place to start – You probably won’t look at much else after you’ve tried it!
Overall, I’ll give this stomp box a 4/5 rating. For the price, you won’t find much better. It looks cool and doesn’t take up too much real estate on your pedal board. The vast sounds you can dial in are very impressive. Give it a try at your favorite local guitar shop – It looks to retail around $129.99 at most places.
~Jon Mills