What is it?
Ibanez BC5 Bass Chorus from Soundtank series, made in japan in mid-to-late nineties. Serial number is in millions, so it’s safe to assume this is late 90’s unit.
To me it seems like the bass effects are mainly distortions, autowahs and lots of choruses. Bassists are left out on many things as most of the pedals are intended to be used with a guitar. For some reason almost every brand that sells guitar choruses also sell bass choruses. The difference between the two? Mostly just a cap job to let more of the lower frequencies through. There are couple of pedals in Soundtank series that are like broters and sisters. Reverse the colours on the top label and swap couple of caps. That’s it.
Take a look at the board. It clearly has CS5 marked on the solder side. Although the board doesn’t look like the board on CS5 (that i covered very recently), it is the same board. The picture below shows that Maxon used the same boards for both units and replaced the label with a sticker – as seen on Soundtank SF5/FZ5 (that i covered a lot earlier). The components used are different. Where my specimen of CS5 has 1/8W resistors mounted axially, the newer board labelled BC5 has 1/4W resistors. The traces do not look alike. Those look much more modern on this unit, which makes me think that this is just newer unit than my CS5.
Topologically BC5 and CS5 are the same circuit. Some of the values may be altered, but i couldn’t find a schematic to confirm. And yes. I’m just too lazy to check this units component values against CS5. May it be whatever. These are well built units with lots of user value left in them. Swap the switch and you’re good to go.
How does it sound?
If there is any difference between BC5 and CS5, you’ll need to focus if you want to hear it. In fact i placed both pedals on my desk, tuned the delay time, width and speed to match each other and played away. Pressed both switches at the same time with indicator lights not visible to me. One out of every three times i guessed wrong which unit was active. The bass version sounds probably a hint thicker and fatter, but that’s it. The units are basically identical. So this might even be better for guitarists who want the fat with their cold , haunting gothic chorused guitar leads.
Do you know the pot values for this pedal? I love it and I’m considering rehousing it in a sturdy case and true bypass.
Noooo! Please do not do that. :) You could try to score a Daphon Chorus and rehouse that instead.
Here’s a classic Freestomboxes thread with a message from Dirk Hendrik: http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10743&p=124656#p123043 (you may need to be logged in to see it though)
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Hi. Im from Argentina i a see your web page casual. I m play the guitar and i want to know if the bass chorus bc5 ibanez i can use it in my guitar like a normal chorus pedal for guitar. Thanks a lot
Nico
Of course! You should definitely try it out. You might like it. The differences between guitar and bass versions are so small that either will perform well with guitar and bass.
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Hello.. Good day, I have Ibanez Bass Chorus, & suddenly, there’s no effect at all after I plugged in a 9v Psa Boss adapter, Does Anyone in this forum know what particular component(s) maybe suspected, or possible to replace, to work again? Thanks in advance! – jeff from The Philippines 🇵🇭
Hello.
If it’s completely dead, i’d start by measuring the voltages at the dc jack, filter capacitor and the parallel protection diode. If the diode is shorted, that will protect the pedal, but kill your power supply. Check the power supply output as well. My suspicion would point to that diode (near the dc jack), but it’s really hard to say.
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Hi Mirosol. My name is Miguel, I am also a pedal geek and I have just acquired an Ibanez BC5. One thing that I have realized is that its maximum speed is way slower than the one in the Ibanez CS5. Does this happen to your two pedals as well?
Regards.