L.R. Baggs Align Series Acoustic Chorus

The L.R. Baggs Align Series Acoustic Chorus is a chorus pedal built specifically for acoustic guitar, part of the Align Series of pedals L.R. Baggs designed for acoustic players. Where a typical chorus pedal can swamp a piezo or undersaddle pickup signal, this one is voiced to sit behind the instrument: L.R. Baggs says that with the effect in a side-chain, the Chorus "adds fullness behind your guitar without any signal degradation"¹.

The design intent is unusual enough that L.R. Baggs puts it plainly on the product page: "We designed the Align Chorus for players who don't like Chorus"¹. The idea is a subtler, more supportive effect than the thick, obvious chorus sounds associated with electric guitar in the 1980s.

A chorus built for acoustic instruments

The Align Series was created specifically for acoustic musicians, and the Chorus is a chorus built for acoustic instruments rather than electric guitars⁵. L.R. Baggs says it was designed with a particular player in mind: "We designed the Align Chorus for players who don't like Chorus"¹. The maker positions it as a pedal that "seeks to enhance the overall sound of your acoustic instrument, without drowning it in a sea of" effect², which is the same aim the rest of the Align Series line shares.

That acoustic-first approach shows up in how the effect is blended. Rather than replacing your dry tone with a processed one, the pedal keeps the unaffected signal intact and layers the chorus behind it. Pedal of the Day summarized the goal as seeking "to enhance the overall sound of your acoustic instrument, without drowning it in a sea of" effect².

The series also includes the Align Series Session, the Align Series Reverb, the Align Series Equalizer and an Active DI, all sharing the same design patent, U.S. Patent D918,293¹.

The controls: Chorus, Size and output level

The control set is four knobs: Volume, Tone, Chorus and Size³.

The Chorus knob is the dry/wet balance: L.R. Baggs describes it as blending the chorus signal with the unaffected signal, so at lower settings the effect stays underneath your acoustic tone¹. Volume and Tone, as Pedal of the Day put it, "get the control section rolling, letting you adjust the output and EQ of the effect, respectively"².

Size is the control that sets this pedal apart from a standard chorus. L.R. Baggs says it blends between two chorus voicings, and Guitar.com explained that the two voicings interact with each other as the knob is turned, with the maker likening an increase to "adding more instruments" to the mix⁶. In practice it works less like a depth knob and more like a texture control, moving between two different characters of chorus rather than just more or less of one.

What reviewers found

Published reviewers were positive about the pedal's usability and sound. Pedal of the Day called it "Easy to use and a true tone booster," noting lots of combinations to choose from and room for sonic exploration².

Acoustic Guitar's reviewer Jamie Stillway tested it in an open D tuning and reported that with the chorus and size knobs turned fully clockwise, "The combination of the chorus and the sympathetic ringing strings of an open tuning yielded a swirly and ethereal blend"⁴. She also noted some transient noise when engaging the pedal via the footswitch⁴.

The pedal shares its physical build with the Align Series Delay: a durable casing with a wood-like finish⁴, sized for a pedalboard or the floor¹.

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