Chorus vs phaser

A chorus detunes a delayed copy of your signal and mixes it back, so it sounds like two guitars playing together — wider, thicker, shimmering. A phaser sweeps notches through your frequency response, so it sounds like a swoosh moving through the sound. They are different mechanisms with different results, and the quickest way to tell them apart is that a chorus adds a second voice while a phaser filters the one you have.

This is a comparison people make before buying, usually from demo videos where both are set deep and fast and genuinely do sound similar. At normal settings they do not.

01The mechanisms, briefly

The control list at the bottom is the fastest way to identify an unlabelled pedal. A modulation effect with a Level or Mix control is almost always a chorus, because you need to balance the second voice against the original. A phaser rarely has one, because the notches are applied to your whole signal rather than added to it.

02 — The shortlist

Which modulation effect

#	Product	Best for	Price
01	BOSS CH-1 Super Chorus Four controls including an EQ and a stereo output — the most adjustable chorus here.	Width, and a chorus you can set precisely	$126.45 · Check price #ad How we’re funded · price as of September 13, 2026
02	MXR Phase 90 One Speed knob. That is the entire interface, and it is either the appeal or the problem.	The phaser sound, with no decisions to make	$99.99 · Check price #ad How we’re funded · price as of September 13, 2026
03	No photo Electro-Harmonix Small Clone Analog Chorus A bucket-brigade circuit with a Rate knob and a two-position Depth switch.	The analog chorus voice, if you accept two settings	Check price #ad How we’re funded

Rows link to the full write-up further down this page. Prices come from the live price layer only — where there is no live figure the button reads “Check price” rather than showing a remembered number.

03Which one for what you are trying to do

1. Make a clean part sound bigger. Chorus. Adding a detuned voice is literally more signal; a phaser only filters what is there.
2. Add movement to a sustained chord. Either, and a phaser is subtler at slow speeds.
3. Sound like a twelve-string. Chorus, with the depth low and the level moderate.
4. Funk rhythm playing. Phaser, fast, and it is one of the defining sounds of the idiom.
5. Thicken a solo. Chorus in stereo if you have two amps; otherwise neither, and a delay is the better tool.
6. Fix a thin tone. Neither. That is an EQ or a pickup problem — your solo disappears covers it.

01

BOSS CH-1 Super Chorus

Width, and a chorus you can set precisely

A chorus delays a copy of your signal by a few milliseconds, modulates that delay time so the copy drifts in pitch, and mixes it back in. The result reads as two slightly out-of-tune guitars playing together, which is where the name comes from.

BOSS publishes four controls — E.Level, EQ, Rate and Depth — plus mono and stereo outputs. The EQ control is the useful one: chorus adds most of its character in the upper mids and being able to shape that is the difference between shimmer and harshness. The stereo output is what turns it from an effect into a width.

The cons: it is a bright, clearly digital-voiced chorus, so if you are chasing a warm analog bucket-brigade sound this is not that circuit. No adaptor is included and BOSS publishes no electrical data for it.

Published specifications for the BOSS CH-1 Super Chorus

Controls	E.Level, EQ, Rate, Depth
Outputs	Mono and stereo outputs
Power	9 V battery or PSA-series adaptor
Electrical data	No current-draw or impedance figure is published for this pedal, so none is stated here.
What it does not do	No adaptor included. It is a bright, clearly digital-voiced chorus — if you are chasing a warm analog bucket-brigade sound, this is not that circuit.

Specs from BOSS CH-1 product page. We have not used this unit.

$126.45 · Check price

#ad How we’re funded · price as of September 13, 2026

02

MXR Phase 90

The phaser sound, with no decisions to make

A phaser splits your signal, shifts the phase of one copy across the frequency range, and recombines them. Where the two are out of phase they cancel, producing notches in the frequency response — and sweeping those notches up and down is the swooshing sound.

MXR publishes one control: Speed. There is no depth, no mix and no feedback, which means there is exactly one Phase 90 sound and you cannot get it wrong. On a dark stage that is a real advantage, and this specific circuit is on a very large number of records.

The cons are the same single knob from the other side. No depth control and no mix control, so a subtle phase is not available — you get the Phase 90 amount or nothing. MXR publishes no current-draw or impedance data either.

Published specifications for the MXR Phase 90

Controls	One Speed knob
Power	9 V battery, Dunlop ECB003 adapter, or a DC Brick / Iso-Brick supply
Electrical data	No current-draw or impedance figure is published for this pedal, so none is stated here.
What it does not do	One knob means no depth control and no mix control. If you want a subtle phase you cannot dial it — you get the Phase 90 amount or nothing.

Specs from MXR Phase 90 product page. We have not used this unit.

$99.99 · Check price

#ad How we’re funded · price as of September 13, 2026

No photo

03

Electro-Harmonix Small Clone Analog Chorus

The analog chorus voice, if you accept two settings

The analog answer to the CH-1. A bucket-brigade delay line is the original way this effect was built, and it sounds warmer and less precise than a digital chorus — the wobble has a character that the cleaner circuit does not.

Two controls is the whole interface: Rate as a knob, Depth as a switch. For a sound that is famous for one specific setting, that is arguably enough.

The cons: a two-position depth switch instead of a knob means you get shallow or deep and nothing between. There is no mix control, so you cannot dial the effect back. And it is mono only — no stereo spread is available, which is the CH-1's main structural advantage.

Published specifications for the Electro-Harmonix Small Clone Analog Chorus

Controls	Rate knob, Depth switch
Circuit	Analog bucket-brigade chorus
Power	9 V battery or a 9 V DC center-negative supply
Electrical data	No current-draw or impedance figure is published for this pedal, so none is stated here.
What it does not do	A two-position depth switch instead of a knob, and no mix control. Mono only — there is no stereo spread to be had.

Specs from Electro-Harmonix Small Clone product page. We have not used this unit.

Check price

#ad How we’re funded

04Where they go in the chain

After your drive pedals and before delay and reverb. Modulating a distorted signal is the conventional order and what most records do — a chorus in front of a distortion gets largely flattened, because the distortion compresses away the level and pitch variation the chorus just created.

A phaser is the more common exception. Placed in front of a driven amp it modulates what the amp is clipping rather than the clipped result, which is a more dramatic and less polite sound, and it is a legitimate choice rather than a mistake. Pedal order covers the reasoning and the exceptions in full.

05How much is too much

Both effects are set deeper by players alone in a room than by players in a band, for the same reason: they sound impressive in isolation and eat clarity in a mix. A chorus at full depth makes a chord sound detuned rather than wide, and a phaser at full depth removes enough of the frequency range to make you quieter.

The setting that survives a mix is usually far shallower than the one you would choose alone, which is the same lesson as best tremolo pedals and the modulation roundup — and the roundup is where to go once you have decided which of these two effects you actually want.