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Alright guys, been on a big Cranberries kick lately. Their chorusy/spacey atmospheric guitar tones are something that takes me back to my childhood. I'd like to try to emulate mostly their cleanish stuff.I feel that I am somewhat close but missing a few pieces of the puzzle (mainly chorus). Right now i'm going from either a Rhoney Oceana jr (most always now) or Fender Mustang into xotic sp compressor > visual sound volume > el capistan delay > Trinity reverb > amp.

I got got rid of my small clone because it just wasn't tweakable enough. I'm thinking maybe a ce-3? had a ce-2 and didn't get along with it (could have been my amp of choice during that era which made me hate my tone). Chorus is my favorite effect, but I still have been able to find a chorus I get along with. With the exception of the chorus which was on a malfunctioning JC-120 I used to own. When that amp would work, it was blissful. I believe the circuit was a ce-1 circuit on those. Any ce-1 clones out there? Chorus may not be the only thing I'm lacking but that's the obvious one that sticks out. Help much appreciated.

i'm gonna go on a limb here and say the choruses you're betting on are too deep... it may sound cliche, but have you tried the Boss CH-1??? it's a lot more subtle... if you put the EQ setting at low it should give you what you want... depth without too much "feel" of the effect

Quite a bit of trem on the early stuff.

The old Boss CE-1 is on one of their boards: here's an old rehearsal picture from 2012 (something about those chips probably makes a decent clone kind of hard to make these days, I suppose).

Good alternatives: Boss CE-3 (close to a CE-2, but w/ Depth & a Stereo Out, & cheaper), Analogman Chorus (a very good, true bypass version of the Small Clone, but with Depth control) or Bi-Chorus (w/ optional stereo ins/outs), maybe an MXR Analog Chorus (even more controls, but a tonally different beast) or Stereo Chorus (big & yellow w/ a bass filter).

I used to be really into his clean tone. Envious in fact. IIRC... he has always used the CE-1 live and in recording. but the secret to the tone on the albums was the ultra-rare Roland SRE-555(or 501, cant remember) The boss re-20 is about as close as you can get without breaking the bank. I know in later years he also had the original DOD Chorus(not the ice box) along with the CE-1. AFAIK, he has always used the dunlop tremolo. I personally bought the Semour duncan shape shifter because i thought it was more suited to what i was doing, but i can still get those tones.

they were basically my favorite band in the 5th grade.
i'm since moved on from Dolores' gutteral howls, unless of course
i hear "Dreams" and i'm instantly sent back to the feeling of my middle
school crush. Erin, what happened to you !?!

The El Capistan will do what the RE-20 does, but sounds much better (other than some odd multi-tap settings). I'm still crushed that Boss chose to model the RE-201 instead of the RE-501.

Also keep an eye out for a Boss CE-2b. Really close to a CE-2, but with a mix knob.

BlueMelody wrote:Quite a bit of trem on the early stuff.

I also forgot to mention this. I saw the Pulsar come out a few months ago and my immediate thoughts were trying to snag one for the purpose of recreating some cranberries type tones. Yeah, they definitely use trem. I had a boss tr-2 but never really got along with it and pulsars are pretty expensive. Any reccomendations in the trem avenue would be cool too. Nothing too expensive as trem will be only used sparingly.

Tried a Voodoo Labs Trem for a couple weeks and was really impressed for the price ($65 used). Very good tube trem approximation IMO w/ a fair degree of tune-ability that I probably would have held onto if I didn't already have several other trem pedals (trem is probably my most used effect outside of boost/dirt).

The other sort of affordable one I've tried that's fairly decent is the Mooer Trellicopter. It can be fairly noisy (not really more than the average amp trem though) but has a nice character IMO and has a decent amount of range. Can't beat the footprint either.

+1 for the CE-3.

Unicorn Warrior wrote: Any reccomendations in the trem avenue would be cool too. Nothing too expensive as trem will be only used sparingly.

I have a Nobels TR-X. Four types of modulation, level ( no volume drop like Boss) and at a really affordable price.

The last few times I have seen them on TV or in pics, the guitarist was playing a lake placid blue 50th anniversary jaguar so they got that going for them! I read an interview where he said Jonny Marr got him into Jags and that he was always trying to mimic Marr's tone.

gutter rock wrote:The last few times I have seen them on TV or in pics, the guitarist was playing a lake placid blue 50th anniversary jaguar so they got that going for them! I read an interview where he said Jonny Marr got him into Jags and that he was always trying to mimic Marr's tone.

Yeah dude, I actually saw where was using jaguars now. I've got a vm jag that is in pieces waiting on serious modifications whenever I get around to it (most likely never at this rate due to my busy lifestyle). My mustang should come close enough to that territory though. I know during a lot of the earlier days the guitarist used a les paul which took me by surprise. Kinda gives me Les Paul gas a bit. I think that the full sound of the les paul played clean was probably a large contributing factor on their tone as well.

Thanks guys, I will look into the trem suggestions.

So far for a temporary (or possibly permanent) chorus i'm thinking ce-3. I've never tried but I know that Robert Smith used one at one point and his tone is also very desirable for me. Plus they're cheap. I also saw a retro-sonic chorus which is supposedly a clone of the ce-1. Sounded really close in youtube clips, but was a bit darkerthan the ce-1. Looks like one of those could be had for about $250 used. I would ideally like to own an original ce-1 chorus one of these days but the price is something I don't know if I can live with. Also the strymon chorus would probably be good as well, but just not sure if it would sound "authentic enough"?

Unicorn Warrior wrote:.

So far for a temporary (or possibly permanent) chorus i'm thinking ce-3.

grandmasterdavid may have one he's willing to part with.

Anyone have any opinions on the JHS emperor?