Arion SCH-1 Stereo Chorus mid 80's Japan in good condition. Thoroughly tested and in perfect working order. Battery lid of this SCH-1' is fixed with tape.
The Arion chorus is a mono in, stereo out chorus with a wide range so it can also get you that faux-leslie type of tone. It can be run in mono with a little switch.
The pedal became famous because some LA-studio players started using it, it's cheap (although they are fetching bigger prices on Ebay now) and has a great sound if you want THAT sound.
There are different versions available and the internet-rumour says that the grey box sounds best. I owned them all and had 4 of them at a certain point, kept the best one which is a black box...
UTILIZATION
The setup is straight forward, the 3 control work well together. The rate and depth work well to fine tune the chorus tone. Running the rate high will get you that faux-leslie sound, works great!! The tone control is powerfull enough. Although I owned one with manual, I don't remember it, don't think I ever looked at it.
I have used the pedal on my board and in a rack setup. 1 annoying thing, the pedal is always off when you power it, so when you have it in a rack, you always have to remember switching it on!
SOUND QUALITY
I usually run the rate at about 10:30 for chorus sounds and have the tone a little above 12:00. When using it for leslie tones, I have the rate and depth up but keep the tone lower, around 11:00 for a smoother tone.
In bypass, it does suck some tone so there are modded-version available. Put it in a looper and it's no longer an issue. I currently have it in my rack but am considering picking up a modded version to put on my board.
OVERALL OPINION
It's a really cool pedal if you are looking for that tone. THAT tone would be the Michael Landau chorused clean sound he used to get from his big rack system. It's not 100% nailing the tone but close enough for rock 'n' roll!
Arion pedals were released in a collection of 22 pedals ;
SAD-1 Stereo Analog Delay
SCH-1 Stereo Chorus
SFL-1 Stereo Flanger
SOD-1 Stereo Overdrive
SDI-1 Stereo Distortion
SMM-1 Stereo Metal Master
SPH-1 Stereo Phaser
SPE-1 Stereo Parametric EQ
SCO-1 Stereo Compressor
MDI-1 Tube Mania
MOC-1 Octave
SRV-1 Stereo Reverb
MEQ-1 Equalizer
SFC-1 Stereo Fat Chorus
MMP-1 Metal Plus
DDM-1 Digital Delay
DRS-1 Digital Stereo Delay
MDI-2 Bass Distortion
MCH-2 Bass Chorus
MFL-2 Bass Flanger
MEQ-2 Bass Equalizer
HU-8500 Stage Tuner