Do I wanna get into this with someone I know? How you feel about the ehx pedals with ac cords is really personal....
alright, i'ma do this, rip me a new one Shok... I know these boxes well, I've ahd soe apss through my hands for repairs, so here's my negative nancy view with some solid reasoning behind it as well as some other ideas for soem clone-tone.. any other EHX worshippers feel free to crucify me, I'm not going to read the replies. Last tiem I trashed the big muff I caused so much uproar... here goes:
personally I wouldn't bother with an old clone theory even if the pedal were affordable. Its a nice design on paper, but vintage EHX effects in the deluxe boxes are pricey and a huge hassle to make into useable instruments. A deluxe msitress for example is 10 times as noisy and twice as much hassle to modify into soemthing with good output and an acceptable signal to noise ratio as the regualr mono mistress... and the simpler pedal soudns a little ebtter too. 9 out of 10 people agree about the mistress. Only the deluxe memory man offers substantially better soudns then its kid brothers. On the other hand there isn't a direct equivalent to the clone theory in a small box. Allow me to elaborate until you're so bored that you would rather lsiten to unshielded power suply hum bleed into an opamp for an hour...
the clone theory uses the same mn3007 BBD chip for its delay line as the pre-sovtek small clones and is very similar in design. The main differences for the end user are, obviously, in the wet/dry 'stereo' output option, the separation of the depth and rate controls and of course a switch to select chorus, vibrato < 20ms flange mode with the handy addition of a mix control for mono chor/flange opreation. Last time I tried one of these Iw as able to get some good Andy Summers electric Mistres toens in flange mode, although without regen you'll enver get anything else form it in flange mode. The clone theory also runs at 15 or 16v if I recall so the amplifying stages will definitely have more headroom than the small clone and that might be a good thing if you're planning to wail it with a signal that's mroe than 1v peak to peak for some reason (maybe reamping as a mix-down effect?), but for guitar (and a lot of syntehsizer) use, assuming you don't have a cranked boost out front of it, the headroom is unnescasarry. Its probably running the chip and clock a little differently at that voltage, but I really don't think it'll make a huge difference to the effected signal's timbre. The original clone theory is also incredibly noisy due to the onboard AC/DC transformer being too close to the ins and outs (like msot AC chorded EHX, MXR and DOD pedals of the era) whereas the small stone utilizes a battery or wall wart and is one of the quietest vintage choruses ever made. In my experience it was even noisier than a deluze msitress, and that's too noisy to be used for anything but a paper weight or door stop in my book (YMMV).
Due to its relative rarity and collectible status the vintage theory is just not worth purchasing*** in my view***. A good exmaple is going to cost you a pretty penny (unless you get lucky at a yard sale or find a pawn shop manned by internet luddites) and still have major noise issues unelss you modify and devalue it. The ones I have repaired and/or modified (under protest) for other people are still in their hands and I really wodner just how many of these EHX made. For all its faults if I wanted the mn3007 EHX chorus tone I would get an analogman chorus and mod it for wet/dry stereo operation which shouldn't be too hard. If you wanna go on a wait lsit you could even ask him to build it that way, include a d-time switch and throw you on the mix knob for mono operation. Mike is a great guy to deal with and will work with you. With analogman stuff you know you're getting a legit 3007 chip and first rate components and workmanship. The tone will be damned close, you'll just lose the flange mode. Buy a msitress. I would personally NOT pay market rate for a pedal that has design flaws in the pwoer supply, switchign and buffering... nor do i recommend anyone else do it. But people do...
Okay okay, no small clone replica, fine... the closest thing to a vitnage theory I'm aware of is the master effects replica which eliminates the power supply noise by going to a modern boss wall wart setup supplying the 16v via a charge pump inside... it uses some better modern components and unelss you beleive in magic old capacitor mojo it'll probably make the epdal better due to a lwoered noise floor... if the wet/dry pseudo-stereo is make or rbeak then again you'll have to mod it ebcause I feel certain they did it as a mono only pedal. If I recall the thiing is true bypass and has unity gian when engaged unlike an original that has the tone-sucking EHX bypass and low output elvel of all thesir modualtions and delays from back int eh day. I'm not sure this guy still makes his clone clone (heh), but they turn up from time to time on the usual sites and are well regarded by the EHX cognoscenti. Anotehr option is the polychorus. Its more small clone-ish and vintage examples can fetch big money, but it has a more faithful reissue from what i udnerstand... although a lot of eople really like the little-box clone theory reissue, although its missing the mix control (it can probably be added via a small alpha pot ona flying lead if you wanna drill a hole in the side)...
