PastFX's PX65 Stereo Chorus brilliantly revives and massively expands on the DOD FX65

PastFX has quickly become one of my very favourite brands for Modulation pedals in particular - including of course that killer Flanger Trifecta. They also make one of my most favoured Choruses - their Bosss CE-1 style Chorus Ensemble. PastFX’s particular knack is in the recreation of superior vintage circuits - with period-correct authentic NOS parts - but in more practical compact enclosures with added features and vastly extended range and versatility.

This PX65 is of course based on the DOD FX65 which was produced in two different iterations : 1985-1988 and 1990-1997. That 3-knob Chorus was most famously used by John Frusciante. While Andy Martin has had a modded version of said pedal on his board for many years as his own chorus of choice.

Generally, and by default the DOD FX65 is a slightly more subtle and darker affair compared to something like the bright and sparkly Boss CE-1 / PastFX Chorus Ensemble. There was a trick with the original where you could also wire the pedal up for an out-of-phase stereo output - which is great for crunching up overdrives and distortions - and is Andy Martin’s favourite way to deploy the pedal.

FX65 Controls - Speed, Delay Time, Depth.

PX65 Controls - Speed, Delay Time, Depth, Level, Mode : Dave Simpson [default] / Andy Martin [out of phase / faux TZF], Blend, Regen [feedback], Vibrato [kill dry].

As mentioned - the original had just 3 controls - which is replicated by the top row of PastFx’s PX65 - while those knob ranges have been very significantly extended - to cover off Andy Martin’s favourite Mod for instance.

The PX65 adds 5 new controls - in fact the ’Regen’ button was a very recent V2 iteration for this pedal - you will note that none of the demo variants have this. You of course have that essential Dave / Andy Mode switch - which gives you default and out-of-phase voicings - where the latter can also give you a really cool faux Through-Zero Flange flavour - with Speed and Delay Time dials set very low. And you also have a Vibrato button which kills the dry signal.

To get authentic DOD FX65 tones you crank up the Blend control to max - while you can dial that down for even more subtle tones. The Regen button works particularly well on the Andy side of things - and of course especially well for the TZF voicing.

I don’t tend to use the ’Vibrato’ button much at all as it very significantly drops the output level - and as I like my chorus pedals to be pretty flavoursome - the Vibrato requires a little too much compensation for me to be properly useful for my preferences. 

I really like full flavour Choruses - and as this one can be quite subtle by default - I tend to have the Depth, Level and Blend controls set very high - at or near max typically. Speed and Delay Time vary for application - particularly when using the TZF mode. While I love both Dave (Simpson) and Andy (Martin) modes - again used for slightly different applications. The Andy flavour comes through a little stronger in any case and adds a glorious extra crunch to your overdrive and distortion pedals. Largely I also have Level on Max, while Speed is typically @ 10:00 o’c, and Delay Time is @ 1:00 o’c.

This pedal is very easy to deploy - best for me with both LED’s showing red - the upper one changes to Blue for Regen on, and the lower changes to Blue for Vibrato on. Actually I’ve decided I quite like Regen on mostly too!

Note that the pedal is specified for 9V DC [-] usage while it can go as high as 12V - where I don’t really feel the need for that - possibly if I was wanting to use the Vibrato mode more I would - which as mentioned isn’t particularly a thing for me at the moment.