PastFX's Kurt's Cologne Chorus gives you 3 decades of Small Clone and more, including all of Kurt Cobain's favourite signature sounds
One of the best known chorus tones of all time ’Come as You Are’ is one of the many killer voicings that this pedal delivers with ease - where its 3 ERA voicings deliver all of Kurt’s favourite chorus infused tones - and take you into even more extended and rarefied territory.
The classic Small Clone pedals have just 2 controls - Rate, and Depth, where the Depth is a 2-way High/Low Slider Switch - which Kurt pretty much permanently had in the Upper / High position - which corresponds with the top - 8th notch on the Kurt’s Cologne Depth Rotary. The Small Clone Low setting corresponds to the 3rd notch on the Depth Rotary - where you can extend that range 2 further steps lower / downwards.
So in place of the 2 controls of the original - we have significantly extended range, and more granularity courtesy of 9 controls on the Kurt’s Cologne - including the Internal Stereo Balance Trimmer. I’m excluding the internal Bias control - as that is really for ’factory’ setup, and shouldn’t need to be touched thereafter.
Controls - Mix, ERA : 80’s (strongest) / 70’s (mildest) / 90’s (best balanced / goldilocks!), Rate, Level, 2nd Output Phase Inversion Button, 8-way Depth Rotary (3 = Low, 8 = High), Low Cut Button, Hi Cut Button, Internal Stereo Balance Trimmer.
Mix @ 3 o’c, Era on 90’s, Rate @ c. 1 o’c, Level @ 3 o’c, Depth on 8th notch, Low Cut Off, High Cut Off - delivers the perfect ’Come As You Are’ tones, I see some prefer to have the Mix and Level fully cranked - while I already feel it sounds spot on with those values @ 3 o’c - obviously there will be variations between guitars and rigs.
The 80’a Era voicing is the most full-on and warbly / wobbly, with the 70’s voicing the mildest / most subtle option, and the 90’s era perfectly balanced for me - with all the flavour you need without stepping to far into that wobbly vibrato territory.
Each of those 3 voicings delivers slightly different levels of ’colour’ / flavour - and together they give you the most fantastic extended range of chorus tones. I’ve loved each of Verlie’s Choruses - the Chorus Ensemble Mini, PX65 Stereo Chorus, New Division and this Kurt’s Cologne - which is probably my favourite of the bunch - while it’s a pretty close call.
Several readers have asked me to recommend bright and sparkly choruses - and this is one of the, if not the very best of that ilk that I’ve encountered. The extended granularity combined with the ease of dialling things in makes this chorus an actually joy to deploy.
This 'Smells Like Chorus' covers Kurt absolutely, but also Alex Lifeson, and much of John Petrucci - all of those greats favour brighter sounding choruses. And that particular complement of controls gives me everything I need out of a chorus. If the chorus gets too bright or boomy for you - you have those smart Low and Hi Cut buttons to temper and smooth out the output.
Most of Verlie's modulations take an 18V input - and sound much the better for it - more richly textured and more vibrant. I've often thought Verlie to be 'The Queen of Modulation' and this Kurt's Cologne Chorus further underlines her mastery of that genre. Her Choruses, Phasers and Flangers are some of the very best available anywhere and consistently number my very favourite ones of each type.
Verlie uses the highest quality parts and components, typically with a rare NOS BBD chip at the core of that circuit - where in this instance we have the the mighty Panasonic / Matsushita MN3007 BBD delivering those superior tones.
I sincerely love everything about this pedal, and remember various chats with readers over the years - talking about bright Petrucci chorus sounds, and Martha and the Muffins Echo Beach and various other brighter sounding chorus tones. This Kurt's Cologne would seem to be my overall champion chorus - it's bright and full-range and perfectly balanced in its 90's voicing. If you want to drop drown a gear - then switch to the 70's voicing, and if you want full warbly / wobbly chorus - then the 80's voicing has you covered.
The fact that you have Mix, Level and Depth controls means that you can very finely tune the output of this pedal - and if things get too much for you at either end of the output you can then kick in either or both of the Low Cut and Hit Cut switches.
I've not tried particularly hard to get flanger voicings out of this pedal - while it totally has me covered for all my key / favourite chorus sounds. You then just have to make the choice of wether to use Boss's DS-1W, The Keeley Ultra Modded DS-1, Drunk Beaver Distortion or VFE Dark Horse to combine with the the K's Cologne - for the ultimate Kurt Cobain tone. I wonder if Verlie is considering doing her own take on the DS-1. Of course Kurt also used the DS-2 Turbo Distortion - and I don't think anyone has yet done a pedal that precisely covered DS-1 and DS-2 in the same compact enclosure, while the Drunk Beaver Distortion has so many different clipping options and extras that is most likely has it covered too!
This pedal inspired one of my favourite visuals to date - which is kind of a take on a moody cologne advertisement to a degree - the inference is relatively subtle - but Kurt fans should spot it fairly easily - particularly on the main visual - that signature draped mop of hair is kind of unmistakable!
I believe the very original edition of this came with 2 different BBD chips, but with and internal Stereo Phase switch, while the later model like mine - relies on just the MN3007, and has the Ø Phase Switch externalised. There are also some tiny differences in depth calibration! While the later version is very much the updated take.
The current MN3007 model like mine goes for $209 USD on the PastFX Reverb.com Store, where customers based in Oceania can buy one direct for the PastFX Webstore - for $299. Choruses tend to be somewhat highly priced typically - so this one is a total steal!
I'm still amazed that Verlie's PastFX pedals are under the radar for so many - anyone who's the least bit serious about their modulation tones - should be buying Verlie's Choruses, Phases and Flangers. I have all 11 of the current models (as per the below visual), bar the Reticon Flanger which is a V1. As I've said many times already - these are some of the very best modulation pedals available anywhere.
I would still prefer these to be stereo in and out - as otherwise they can be tricky to accommodate fully practically in my current rig - while I will be making further changes soon enough so I can include mode of those MISO types.
And I will be following this article up with one on Verlie's 11 Modulations to date - verily 'The Queen of Modulations'!
Demos
