Vintage CE-2 Chorus vs. Way Huge Blue Hippo & Jam Pedals Waterfall

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Comparison of a vintage 1981 Boss CE-2 'Long Dash' chorus pedal and two of its modern counterparts: the Way Huge Blue Hippo MkII and Jam Pedals Waterfall. All three pedals have very similar circuitry and use the same BBD chips - Panasonic MN3007 and MN3101.

As stated in the video, whilst the depth knobs are largely similar on all 3 pedals, the maximum speed of the modulation varies greatly - with the Blue Hippo being able to modulate much faster than the other two. For all but the first demo, the modulation speed has been matched so as to better compare the fundamental sounds - but this means that the speed knobs are in different positions on each pedal.

The amp used is a Hughes & Kettner Puretone Combo fitted with Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7s and KT77s. The only microphone is a simple SM57. A Wampler Tweed '57 is the overdrive.

Personally, I don't think any chorus pedal will ever beat the sound of the CE-2 (except perhaps the CE-1!) - even in 2016 it's still spawning pedals derived from its analogue circuitry.

However, the Jam Pedals Waterfall does come incredibly close to capturing the same vibe & magic. The Blue Hippo is still a great sounding chorus but for me lacks a bit of the 'chime' of the others and isn't as inspiring to use. Truth be told though, they're all incredibly similar - as you will hear.

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