The Drunk Beaver JellyFish is a Small Clone-style chorus built around the MN3007 bucket brigade chip, the same chip responsible for the lush, slightly wobbly chorus on countless classic records. Drunk Beaver didn’t just clone the circuit and call it a day though. They added a Range switch that opens up two extra modulation flavors beyond the classic sound, and ran the MN3007 internally at 15V from a standard 9V supply to keep the noise floor low. It’s a focused pedal that does one thing extremely well and gives you real control over how it does it.
The panel runs left to right across the top: Rate, Depth, and Color, with Mix sitting below Color on the lower right. A toggle switch on the lower left selects the Range mode. The blue Rate LED pulses with the modulation speed so you can see what you’re hearing at a glance.
Rate sets modulation speed from a slow, barely-there drift to fast, seasick wobble. Depth controls the intensity of the pitch sweep. Color shapes the tone of the wet signal, dialing between a sparkly brightness at higher settings and a warmer, more mellow character lower down. Mix blends dry and wet signal, and at full clockwise it tips into full vibrato territory since the dry signal disappears entirely.
The Range toggle is where the personality splits into three. Clone mode is the classic Small Clone voice: wide, lush, and unmistakably Cobain-adjacent. Leslie mode pulls back the modulation depth for a gentler shimmer, closer to a rotary speaker at moderate speed. Blur mode is the outlier, pushing into dramatic detuned territory that sits somewhere between chorus and vibrato.
In the demo above I’ve set up sweeps for Rate, Depth, Color, Mix, and Range, so you can hear exactly what each control does in isolation.
Classic Chorus (Rate 5, Depth 5, Color 5, Mix 5, Clone mode) is the reference point: rich, rolling, and immediately familiar. It’s the sound that made the Small Clone famous, and the JellyFish nails it without any digital harshness.
Spooky Vibes pushes Rate to 8, Depth all the way up, Color bright, and switches to Leslie mode. The faster speed with the Leslie character creates an unsettled, almost woozy shimmer that works well for darker, more atmospheric playing.
Wild Detune goes full Blur mode with Mix at 10, which removes the dry signal entirely and leaves you swimming in pure detuned chorus. It’s dramatic and a bit unhinged in the best way, closer to chorus as a texture effect than as a subtle thickener.
The three combo presets pair the JellyFish with the Drunk Beaver Seattle Driver. Grunge Combo and Freak Scene both run Clone mode into the drive, which is exactly how the original Small Clone was used. Wobbly Filth goes Blur mode into a lighter overdrive setting for something weirder and more psychedelic.
The Walrus Audio Fundamental Chorus is a sensible cross-shop: also analog, also aimed at players who want classic chorus character in a modern pedal. The Fundamental Chorus uses sliders and offers three voicings, keeping the interface stripped-back and the tones relatively neutral. The JellyFish trades the minimalist approach for more hands-on control. Four knobs give you a finer grip on tone and blend, and the Range switch adds modes the Fundamental doesn’t approach. If you want something you set once and forget, the Walrus is clean and reliable. If you want to dig into the modulation and pull out Leslie shimmer or full vibrato alongside the classic sound, the JellyFish earns its extra complexity.
Anyone chasing that classic Small Clone sound, grunge and alternative players especially, will find Clone mode deeply satisfying. Leslie mode broadens the appeal for jazz, soul, and anything that wants subtle rotary movement without a Leslie simulator. Blur mode is for players who treat modulation as a feature rather than seasoning, useful for ambient, shoegaze, and experimental textures.
If your chorus needs are simple and you never want to think about it, there are simpler pedals. But if the idea of one box covering classic chorus, gentle shimmer, and full vibrato without compromise sounds useful, the JellyFish is worth your time.
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Get detailed specs on Drunk Beaver's website
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