The Warm Audio WA-C1 Mod is a pedalboard-sized take on the classic CE-1 style bucket-brigade chorus and vibrato. It is part of Warm Audio's Mod Series of compact versions of existing pedals. The fully analog circuit is aimed mainly at electric guitarists, and it also handles Leslie-style chorus on electric keys.
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Separate chorus and vibrato sections: chorus has its own depth and rate controls in place of the single intensity knob of the vintage design. Vibrato keeps the original voicing with its own depth and rate.
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Analog preamp with level control: adds bite, depth and some natural compression. A switch can take the preamp out of the signal for cleaner chorus tones.
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Input sensitivity switch: Low gives more headroom. High adds a fixed boost ahead of the preamp, so the pedal breaks up earlier.
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Hi-Z switch: selects the vintage 50k ohm input or a 1.1M input for passive guitars, shifting the tone from 70s warmth to a brighter 80s character.
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MN3007 BBD recreation: uses Xvive's version of the MN3007 bucket-brigade chip.
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Mono or stereo output: two outputs can feed two amps or a recorder.
Compared with the original WA-C1, the Mod version adds the preamp bypass option, moves the jacks to the top of the enclosure and shrinks the footprint. With the preamp in its vintage setting, it stays in the signal even when the effect is off, as on the original unit. Bypassing it removes it from the path, which helps on rigs with strict gain staging. The Hi-Z setting also works with the effect switched off.
Chorus gets closer to vibrato as the rate goes up. The dedicated vibrato section covers rotary-like wobble suited to funk, fusion, blues and jazz. A flashing LED shows the active mode and the modulation rate. The pedal runs on 9V DC, and an internal dual DC-DC converter supplies the circuit at its original internal voltage.