Warm Audio WA-C1 chorus review – a CE-1 that fits on your board and won’t break the bank
$189/£189, warmaudio.com
For many guitar players, the first chorus pedal remains the best. The Boss CE-1 Chorus/Vibrato was a genuine game-changer when it first arrived in 1976, and despite the effect becoming ubiquitous over the following decade, and spawning a raft of variations and iterations on the form – even a few from Boss itself – the sense that they got it right first time is one that endures today. Don’t believe me, check out how much a vintage CE-1 is going for on Reverb these days.
READ MORE: Universal Audio’s UAFX Brigade: an elegant take on the OG chorus pedal
The prices of vintage CE-1s – combined with the undeniably impractical large footprint and hard-wired mains power of the OG unit – mean that there’s a thriving market for pedals of this oeuvre. We’ve actually reviewed two of them this year already.
Which is another way of saying that it’s surprising it’s taken this long for Warm Audio to release its own take on the format. Because over the last few years, the Texan brand has earned a somewhat controversial reputation for making very good quality and relatively affordable pedals that are, let’s just say, very, very close to the originals.
The copying of classic circuits is, of course, what the entire boutique pedal world is based on, but the way Warm has sought to emulate not just the internals but the externals of certain classic effects has certainly raised a few eyebrows in the wider community.
Personally I find what Warm Audio does quite charming. In a world of endless 1590B die-cast enclosures painted slightly differently, the fact that Warm puts time and effort into making its pedals feel faithful to the (often discontinued) originals – even when it’s as weird as a Foxx Tone Machine or a Mu-Tron – is a positive not a negative. All of which brings us to the WA-C1.
Image: Press
What is the Warm Audio WA-C1?
It’s a CE-1, mate, I dunno what to tell you. For real though, the WA-C1 is a very faithful, all-analogue recreation of the original 1976 Boss CE-1 pedal just… smaller. Quite how small it is compared to the original I wasn’t quite prepared for – so much so that I made an involuntary noise when I opened the box expecting a full-sized CE-1 clone, only to be greeted by something that’s about the size of a standard double-wide dual-switch pedal. Can a pedal be cute? If you’re a weirdo like me, then yes apparently so – holding it in my hand it almost looks like a Gashapon version of a CE-1 – which if you’re reading this, Boss, would be a fantastic idea, please make this happen.
I said just now that it was a CE-1, and it is, but to dismiss it as a mere clone would be doing it a disservice, because Warm Audio has made a genuine effort to enhance and evolve the iconic blueprint to make it more usable here in 2024.
Like the original, the WA-C1 has an always-on analogue preamp and switchable chorus and vibrato modes, but unlike a vintage CE-1, this pedal gives you more tone-shaping possibilities on the chorus side. So unlike the original, which just had a single ‘intensity’ control for the chorus, you now have depth and rate controls to tweak the wobble and warble of your sound to taste as opposed to increasing the rate and the depth together. There’s also a ‘hi-z’ switch on the back that adds extra treble and upper mids – taking this 70s pedal more into the world of 80s studio choruses. There’s also a pair of bright LEDs above the footswitch to let you know whether you have chorus or vibrato engaged, and these also pulse in time with the rate so you can set it in the heat of battle without needing to have the effect engaged.
Image: Press
Does the Warm Audio WA-C1 sound like a CE-1?
I mean, yeah? It’s become almost a given now that these Warm Audio pedals will do a mightily impressive job of capturing the sound of the original pedal they’re aping, and so it is here. With the level, rate and depth set at around two o’clock on chorus mode I’m instantly awash in a sea of lush, undulating classic chorus that just cries out for picked arpeggios and a single-coil guitar. Keeping the two knobs in the same position feels like something of a waste however – we have the ability to tweak these to taste and it’s instantly apparent that this simple addition opens up a world of sonic options.
With the depth up near the top and the rate cut back to about 9 o’clock, you get a clipped, percussive chorus sound that’s very 1980s in a shreddy way plus a bit of Andy Summers into the package. Flip those two around however and you’re in much more phaser-y, proggy territory, while maxing everything out gives you the sort of sound that can even get a bit Hammond-adjacent as you move up the neck.
The vibrato mode often gets unfairly ignored when people talk about CE-1-type pedals, but you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t give it plenty of attention. It’s a wonderfully musical sound that can do everything from gentle Fender-amp-style throbs to Black Hole Sun-esque warbles. Turn the rate down and it’s very Johnny Marr too.
Image: Press
Should I buy a Warm Audio WA-C1?
I guess the question of whether you want this pedal depends on a couple of things. Firstly, can you afford an original? If the answer is no but you want something that faithfully captures the look and feel of the original for less than a third of the price, well you should buy a WA-C1. If the look isn’t important to you – or indeed you want a CE-1-style pedal that takes up less pedalboard real estate – then look, there are plenty of great chorus pedals out there in this price bracket that offer more sounds.
But mojo is important, and once again this pedal proves that Warm Audio are masters at not just recreating the sound of a classic pedal, but the vibe too – and that’s something we can all enjoy.
Warm Audio WA-C1 alternatives
It would be remiss to talk about chorus pedals and not mention Boss here of course – the current CE-2W Waza Craft ($219/£189.95) distils both CE-1 and CE-2 sounds into a compact pedal format and does a very good job of it. Universal Audio’s Brigade Chorus ($219/£189) is an impressive digital recreation of the CE-1 format into something that’s tiny and fantastic-sounding. If you want a slightly tweaked take on the CE-1 sound, Mythos’ The Fates ($229/£229) is a very fun time.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
