Donner Tutti Love Chorus Review

When it comes to guitars, amplifiers, and effect pedals, technology has come a long way, and innovations are introduced each year for better convenience, sound quality, build quality, and playability. Guitar effect pedals have been a staple for every guitar player’s rig throughout the years to add extra depth to their tone and introduce a little more character in their riffs and solos.

While some hardcore stompbox fans try to get boutique pedals for their rig to get their “holy grail” of guitar tones, many guitar players have found success in improving their sound with inexpensive pedals.

For a very long time, renowned brands such as Dunlop, Electro Harmonix, and Boss have ruled the market with high-quality pedals that undoubtedly sound amazing. However, there are still guitar players who cannot afford these. To answer the demand for cheaper pedals with great sound, brands like Donner have produced a line of mini pedals that sound great while staying at a very affordable price point. 

The Donner Tutti Love Chorus guitar effect is one of their great miniature pedals that offer guitar players a rich-sounding chorus effect that holds its own against higher-end competition from brands such as Boss. The Donner Tutti Love is a smaller and more affordable option compared to the brand’s other great chorus pedals, such as the Donner Harmony and the Donner Tutti Chorus. 

With an intuitive layout, pure analog circuitry, true bypass, and a lovely chorus effect, the Donner Tutti Love is a perfect chorus pedal for those guitar players on a budget or looking to save their money to spend on other parts of their rig.

Gaining a reputation for great and reliable guitar effect pedals, Donner has once again released a great budget-friendly pedal that’s worth going into your rig and ready for your next gig. With its great design and sound quality, the Donner Tutti Love Chorus guitar effect is the best cheap chorus pedal you can get.

The Donner Tutti Love chorus guitar effect is a miniature-sized pedal, meaning it’s around 70% of a regular pedal’s size while still featuring control knobs to adjust the effect’s parameters. Because of this, the Tutti Love is great for those who want to maximize the space on their pedalboard to be able to add even more effect pedals to their rig.

It is also great for those who want to start incorporating a chorus effect into their playing without busting the bank on expensive chorus pedals due to its affordable price. The sound quality is even good enough for use during a gig if you consider the fact that most if not all of your audience won’t be able to tell the difference between the sound of an expensive chorus pedal from a cheap one – and the gap gets even closer because of how great the Tutti Love sounds.

Furthermore, if you are a beginner and want a great first pedal to pair with your amplifier’s distortion or crunch channel, a miniature and affordable chorus pedal like the Donner Tutti Love is perfect.

Before we dive into our review, let’s look at some of the pros and cons of the Donner Tutti Love Chorus:

Pros

• Very small size, perfect for maximizing pedalboard space to make room for other effects.
• Affordable for almost everyone and is perfect for guitar players on a budget.
• Great chorus effect despite its price.
• True bypass pure analog circuit.
• Great build quality for a mini guitar effect pedal.

Cons

• Not fully transparent and slightly adds color to your tone.
• Lacks power compared to more expensive pedals.

Features

The Donner Tutti Love Chorus guitar effect is a great buy for such a small package. With all the good chorus pedals on the market, deciding which one to get for your rig can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new to chorus pedals or effects.

The Donner Tutti Love is a great way to ease into it because it is inexpensive. Another great thing is how much you’ll be getting for the price you’re paying for this pedal. For such a low price tag, you can crank out some great tones from the Donner Tutti Love and elevate your instrument’s tone.

First of all, most inexpensive pedals cut corners on the build quality – not Donner. The Donner Tutti Love Chorus guitar effect is enclosed in a durable metal chassis that will last you countless years and performances before giving in.

Many pedals in this price range will resort to plastic material enclosures to save costs and deliver the product at such an affordable price, but Donner was able to provide customers with a high-quality metal encasing so that this pedal is not one of those “disposable” effects pedals that break as easily as you would expect from something as cheap as they come. 

The Donner Tutti Love chorus pedal also has pure analog circuitry, meaning it retains that vintage and classic effect goodness that purists and tone fans love. Many guitar players, including myself, prefer pure analog pedals due to their unique character nuances that add to your tone’s nuances in a good way – something digital pedals cannot provide.

Of course, Donner has also implemented true bypass switching to the pedal, which ensures that your tone stays intact and none of it is sucked out by the pedal while disengaged. For how inexpensive this pedal is, this feature is a great addition. Of course, it also has an LED indicator found above its footswitch to let you know whether or not the pedal is engaged, which is very useful for performances and gigs where the lights could be dimmed.

It’s always great to see these features added to a micro pedal, such as Donner’s pure analog chorus pedal. They were able to squeeze in all the essential and standard features that you would get from a more expensive pedal into such a small and affordable package.

However, it is worth mentioning that this pedal is not 100% transparent, which tends to add color to your tone when the effect is engaged. While this does not matter for a lot of people, guitar players who are going after a specific tone might see this as a slight inconvenience as it would require another EQ pedal or tweaks to their amplifier settings.

However, this effect is not severe and does not make the sound bad. It is also worth noting that the pedal does not support batteries due to its size, meaning you’ll need a 9V DC power supply to be able to use this thing. If you have a pedalboard with a  daisy chain or a power supply, this should not be a problem, and the Donner Tutti Love will fit right in your rig.

Controls

In terms of controls, this Donner chorus pedal is very simple and intuitive – even beginners with some knowledge of terminology will be able to adjust the effect’s flavor to their preference easily. However, if you’re unfamiliar with the terminology and control knobs’ purposes, the included manual should be able to help you out, and a quick read will have you setting up the pedal’s settings in no time.

First of all, there are two smaller knobs on the top – the Level knob adjusts the pedal’s output level or volume, and the Depth knob adjusts the intensity of the chorus effect applied to your instrument’s signal or sound. Below these two is a larger knob for Rate, which allows you to adjust the chorus effect’s speed. Below all of these encoders is the pedal’s true-bypass footswitch for engaging or disengaging the pedal.

Sound

This Donner Chorus stompbox does not sacrifice sound quality for its price. Testing out this pedal will put you in awe after hearing the rich and lush chorus effect that will be added to your tone. When adding extra depth to your tone, this analog chorus pedal holds its own compared to other expensive analog chorus effects from brands such as Boss or Electro Harmonix.

Tweaking the effect’s knobs will get you tones that range from slow and calm chorus effects to fast and intense chorus sweeps for those rock solos. Even better, it does not take hours of fiddling with the knobs before finding a setting that sounds great – that’s how good this pedal is. Although it colors your tone slightly, the effect is still a great way to add depth to your tone and sounds very great for such an inexpensive pure analog chorus pedal.

For a demonstration of this pedal, refer to this video:

The Donner Tutti Love Chorus pedal gives way more than what you’re paying for and is a great addition to your rig. Its size allows you to save space on your pedalboard, and its amazing chorus effect will blow your audience away on your next performance.

It has all the necessary and important controls for a chorus effect and sounds great in any setting, making it extremely versatile and allowing you to get any chorus vibe you need. It has great electronics, true bypass, and great build quality. Because of how affordable this pedal is and how great it sounds, I highly recommend this pedal for guitar players on a budget or those who simply want to try out an amazing product from Donner.

You can check it out and get one for yourself through the link above.