Boss CE-1 vs. CE-2

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Two of the most famous chorus pedals together at last! A 1979 (approx) Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble, and it's successor, a 1981 Boss CE-2 "Long Dash" Chorus. Two absolute classics. Which do you prefer? Comment below!

The CE-1 is the big daddy and has just one knob to control the rate & depth of the chorusing. The CE-2 is the pedalboard classic that everybody knows and separated the rate & depth onto two knobs. For this video, I tried to match the rate & depth of the CE-2 as closely as possible to the CE-1, so we can better compare the fundamental sounds of the pedals.

The CE-1 was originally designed for keyboards, not guitar, and has a 50k input volume pot - this is active even when the effect is bypassed. If you give the pedal the high impedance signal from a guitar, the 50k pot will remove much of your high end.

To solve this, you can do one of two things: modify the pedal and replace the 50k pot with one of a much higher value, or simply give the pedal a buffered, low impedance signal. As the video shows, once I put a Suhr buffer in line before the CE-1, all the high end comes back. I leave the buffer in line before the CE-2 also, just to keep all variables as close as possible & create the fairest test.

The CE-1 has a high/low input switch. Guitars tend to work best on the low setting, with the volume turned up to the point that the CE-1's preamp just starts to clip when you dig in (this grit is an important part of the CE-1 sound).

Guitar is a Fender Strat through a Hughes & Kettner Puretone, recorded with a simple SM57 and an sE Electronics RNR1 Ribbon.


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