Boss CE-2 Chorus

Simple to use. Two knobs.

This thing's just great and that's why people still use them. It's a great subtle effect. Fills out your sound nicely. Change the settings and get a lush chorus effect. Has a slight boost that works in it 's favor. Boss got it right with this one years ago. Put the best of their CE-1 in a compact pedal.

It's a Boss. Built like a tank. I've had this forever and it's still ticking. And not as some museum piece. I use it.

I've got a lot of Boss pedals and the few times I've used their customer support they've been great. Gotten parts like battery screws and gaskets from them. Plus they've got manuals for every pedal they've made online at no charge.

This ones great for any kind of music. I've been playing long enough to have bought this new in 1981. Right now I in an r&b ban but I've used it for blues, rock, country, funk, punk, reggae, etc. It's a keeper. Right now mostly playing a couple of Tele's and a Strat through a couple of old Fender amps. I've used other chorus pedals but this is the one. My pedalboard varies but I always have an OD pedal and some kind of delay. The only two pedals that are always there ar this one and a tuner. If I lost it I'd buy another on ebay. This one get's a 10.

I bought this pedal from a Pawn shop for $27 because the guy didn't know what he had.

This pedal is pretty easy to use and get a good chorus sound out of. Two knobs - Rate and Depth. Pretty straight ahead. I don't have a manual and there's no need for it. This one is a Japanese model with the green tag.

Setup - 73 Ibanez Les Paul mod w Seymour Duncan 59 and Pearly Gates w 10s, 84 American Fender Strat w Noiseless single coils w 10s, Crate V32 Palomino 212 w custom mods to pre amp. Pedal is plugged into a Carl Martin Combinator with the rest of my pedals.

Sound - It can go from subtle effect at the lower settings to a nice lush deep chorus with the Depth knob cranked up. If you are looking for a fast speed on the Rate knob, this pedal won't get you a tremolo type effect.

You can use it for country / slow ballads, funk, jazz, and rock. I really like this one over the CH-1 I have.

Its a Boss so its built like a tank. I could gig without it but it would be a shame.

n/a

I play a variety of styles in my band. We play soul, r&b, 50s, disco, funk, rock, latin, and jazz. This pedal has been great for all these styles.

I have been playing for over 25 years. I own Boss, Carl Martin, Aphex, BBE, RMC, DOD, Dunlop, Ernie Ball, Ibanez, Line 6, Morley, Digitech, Radial Engineering, and Rocktron pedals. Yes I'm a gear whore.

If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely be upset. This is the best chorus I purchased.

I just love the analog sound. It sounds so lush and deep. Its warm and not overpowering. The CH-1 is sterile and has a lot of highs compared to the CE-2. It has been a great addition to my arsenal.

I have tried other chorus effect pedals - DOD, CH-1, Alesis rack effect, POD, Digitech - the Alesis was the only one that is comparible. Great pedal.

really really really really easy to use, only two controls.

i used a musicman guitar into a marshall AVT half stack, the other pedals i use are a boss DD-3, LS-2, TU-2, proco rat 2, electroharmoix little big muff and a holy grail reverb.

no noise from it i have noticed sounds amazing just what i was expecting, thick, full sounding chorus.

IT'S A BOSS as everyone always says, BUILT LIKE A TANK is another one.

don't know never had to bother

i love it! if it was stolen i would get another if i could find one at an affordable price. i managed to get this off some bloke in a second hand guitar shop, that didn't seem to have much of a clue to be fair, for ??20 so it was more than worth the money!

i used to own a boss super chorus but i sold it my mate when i got this, new chorus pedals can't really compete with the CE-2 as far as my ears are concerned.

Very easy to use.

I use a 5150ii half stack with a Schecter C-1 Blackjak. The pedal sounds great. I use it in my effects loop.

There are 2 reasons I'm not giving it a 10. First, it isn't the clearest chorus. But the reason is becase it's an analog chorus from 1982! Thusly, it is warm and lush, but not the clearest... Secondly, it sucks tone. All Boss pedals seem to attenuate the highs pretty good, and it is very annoying. Thus, true bypass looper!

Also, there is a very slight volume boost when engaged but not very noticeable. (much less than say a CE-5 or Ibanez cs-9).

Sturdy, has some paint chips, worked flawlessly since 1982.

Was slightly confusing to find the manual online, but then when I found it I felt dumb.

Have to give this a 10, no doubt about it. I play rock, I love rush and Tool. I've been playing for 10 years. I own a lot of gear and this pedal is tops in the list.

It's one of the simplest out there. Easy.

Well, I never really loved chorus but I'll be fair anyway (or try, at least). It did sound lush and very natural. No noise to speak of. I used it with Fender Japan strat and Fender Cyclones, mainly through a 70s Vase Trendsetter valve head and Marshall 210 cab. I could emulate other artists. If you like thick, natural chorus, this is for you. if you shy away from that, like me, maybe try something more sutble, like a Boss CH-1, which is what I have gone to. Much more subtle and is stereo. (Interestingly, lots of reviews mark the CH-1 down for being subtle...c'mon fellas...horses for courses.) Anywho, the CE-2 is excellent, just not for me.

Boss 10/10. I've probably had 40 Boss pedals ove years and not one has ever given me trouble. I've had 3 Washburn pedals- all had reliability issues. Zoom, likewise. Korg, ditto. DOD/Digitech...the same. Boss are just unbelieveable.

They've started publishing their manuals online (about time) but they're not especially supportive. The bossarea.com site is the best resource (but it's not run by Boss, just by Boss fans). Bossarea is very cool. Boss are fortunate that their products are such high quality, support is very rarely needed. Although, I'm sure they factored that in to their business plan...

Like I said, I cringed when I played it because it was that classic chorus tone. While I don't love chorus, if you get a chorus, this is what you expect (and, yes, I am a clown for getting a guitar pedal I didn't really like but it was cheap and definitely worth giving a go.) Great, thick tone but not for me.

The CE-2 is pretty easy to use: rate and depth knobs, and every setting sounds nice, really nothing to it; just plug and play.

Setup (I'm just getting into the effects world, but starting with the best of course). Carvin CT6M > Boss TU-2 > Morley W/V/D II > Boss CE-2 > Boss RC-2 > headphones & soundcard or cheap amp. I love this thing, if you're really into a heavy chorus it can pull it off, with a rotating speaker sound or without, either way it's pretty thick. That is especially sweet for pulling off a John Frusciante sound although he has a CE-1, which is another point to be made, I think the CE-2 has the best features of the CE-1 in a compact package from what I've heard of the CE-1. It's a truly classic effect, I'm looking forward to getting a Tom Petty sound as well (he uses one). You can get so many great sounds out of only two knobs, which is one of the best things about this pedal.

Well, I just bought it, but everything in it is original and has lasted almost 30 years so I'd say it's pretty damn reliable. Plus it's a Boss.

I've talked with them before, not about this product though, and they were very helpful.

It's still kind of new for me as I just got it, but so far I love it and I'm pretty sure that if it were lost or stolen I'd get another one, but I'm not sure I could get such a good deal on the original silver screw again :). I've been playing for over 4 years, and it's truly a great addition to my sound, I love it and because of this am looking forward to getting more vintage analog effects. This pedal meshes with all styles of music, whether it's funk, rock, alternative, classic, etc. I chose this pedal after making numerous comparisons through online sounds and videos, and also played the newer pedals in stores, like the ce-5 and ch-1, those just didn't compare. I look forward to comparing it to more pedals, as I am sure it will come out on top, it has that mojo.

Super simple and with two knobs several cool settings.

I bought it the late 80s and tried several times to find better pedal perhaps slightly cleaner with true bypass and more versatile but never came close to the beauty and depth of this unit. Others I purchased in my search were the H20, TC Electronics,Carl Martin. Carl Marin was the best but it was not compatible with my amp switchbone pedal.So back to the trusted CE2 it can nail the classic Robin Trower tones and does a great hidden treble boost plus a good over the top chorus but no real leslie setting. I use strats, marshalls, fenders,vox amps pedals include TS9,BuddaWAh,Goodie delay,switchbone.

20 years no problems yet.

I give it a 9 only becuse it does not do a good leslie but maybe a second pedal is best for that anyways. As a pure chorus it is the best period.

Two controls - rate and depth. Since this is a somewhat subtle effect, even full depth is not overwhelming, in fact thats where I leave mine set all the time. Set rate control to taste, to my ear it sounds best in the slow range, around 9 o'clock.

I've never cared for chorus modulation - until I got one of these. With depth set full and rate slow, it adds a something special to your basic tone. This is probably the all time champ Boss effects pedal - they really got it right with the CE-2. Of course they later had to "improve" the sound and the result was the CE-3 which sounds totally sterile by comparison. I have a Japanese black label in perfect condition and a later model from Taiwan. I would say the MIJ unit is preferable but not by much, so if you get a chance to own either one by all means don't be picky.

Both of my CE-2's are approaching twenty five years of age. Everything's still tight, working perfectly.

I would never call Roland to ask for help. Plenty of people are doing outstanding repair and modifications to Boss pedals. Hello? Robert?

CE-2's add a very pleasing organic sweep to your sound. I play through the clean channel of a Mesa Express 5:50, which is beautiful tone in the first place, and allows me to set chorus, gain, and compression from my pedal board and keep a very low noise floor. It's right at the edge of distortion - amp volume does the rest. Every time I hear a jacked up Marshall amp hissing like an air hose I just smile :) I'm so glad I don't own one.

Easy to operate, only an idiot would struggle with this one as there are only 2 dials to operate.

Like many Boss fans, after reading all the hype about this pedal I just had to get one, well two actually. I bought a Taiwanese version at first, was quite disapointed (ok very pissed off and certainly not the Holy Grail of chorus effects!) so I bought a Japanese version, ok slightly better - or maybe I just want to think it sounds better as I spend the extra on it, but still not what I was expecting, its a bit of a tone sucker and at the same time tends to reduce both pinched harmonics and arpegios to mud. Sorry but my Ibanez CS9 does a better job, and sounds more organic, and preserves my ??2000 PRS tone! I'm being quite critical in this review, but only becase of how much I paid for each pedal considering the performace. There are many better analogue chorus pedals out there for the same or much less money.

Both quite old now, still working as you'd expect from Boss!

Never tried to contact them, if it broke I'd repair it myself as the components are generally still fairly easy to get hold of.

I play many styles, - other than Jazz, from fairly clean classical to thrash. If either were lost I'd be pissed as I spent to much on them, but maybe the insurace would pay for a couple of CS9's! This is a vastly over-rated pedal, think twice before you fall into the same trap as I did.

Rate and Depth, too easy.

This is the late 70s/early 80s Alex Lifeson Chorus tone in a box. Nails that classic subtle Chorus, which is EXACTLY what I wanted. Doesn't do the Leslie thing or super extreme sounds, which is great because I couldn't care less about getting those kinds of tones. It's NOT dark, soupy, watery or overbearing like most of the botique Chorus pedals I've tried. Not metallic or thin either, just a beautiful, shimmering, pristine sound that makes clean tones sparkle.

It's from around 80-81 and in great shape. Boss is the Toyota of pedals, they last forever.

I've been playing for 22 years, mostly Metal (Iron Maiden to Morbid Angel) and some Jazz. Most of my pedals are "botique" and true bypass, but so far nobody has made a better sounding Chorus pedal to my ears than the Boss CE-2. I tried a few other Chorus pedals before finding this one, Voodoo Lab (Too dark and only one usable setting), Fulltone (Too expensive, don't like Flanging or Mike Fuller), Home Brew (In for repairs so the jury is still out), Electro Harmonics (Too metallic and hollow), Ibanez (A 9 and 10 series, nice but too overbearing)etc. The Boss just sounds "right" to my ears, if you like that classic Rush Chorus sound then this pedal is HIGHLY recommended.

very easy

This is a subtle pedal and one of the best choruses I have ever heard. I use this through > Strat/Electra/Kramer/Carvin> Danelectro FAB Distortion> Boss Chorus> Ibanex FL9> Ibanez AD9> Ibanez Turbo Screamer> Boss Super Phaser> Boss noise Suppresor>Dunlop cry-baby> Boss stage tuner> Randall RG100SC/Randall 2x12 Cab. Silent Pedal. Through an effects loop it's less noisy ( it's not that noisy though) and from guitar dirset to amp it's more noticeable but you get that "analog scream" ( thing Prince- purple Rain solo).

I severly abused this pedal since 1982. This was my first pedal and it stopped working around 1997. I recently found an excelent Luthier and he repaired it in 2 days for $30. This was a mirical to me! Boss boxes are tough and can be used for commercial construction and endorsed by the DOT for any heavy machinery applications. An insider at Nasa's propulsion labs told me that unwanted Boss units are used as anti- heat tiles for re-enrry units. Boss pedals do suffer from exterior oxidation and this can eventually affect jacks.

u dun knu

metal/blues/prog 28 years - ebay sells these units for at least $120 in decent shape. I would succumb to that if the untimate sacrifice was made by this pedal. I love the subtile otherworldly-ness and organic realness of this unit. Choruses are definantly a pedal where there are differences in tastes. Do you want an obvious 1980's overload, a 1970's background flavor or a now and then swooshiness. The Boss CE-2 is classic in its subtleness and beauty. I own 15 pedals, some mentioned here and some I don't use that often and this is the classiest. I'm sorry but when it's the best, 10's are all around.

2 knobs, can't be that hard

Well, I have a Japanese Black Label which is in almost perfect condtion! the guy I bought it off has looked after it so well! anyway, I installed the CE-2 mod from www.Monteallums.com and this pedal is the ultimate, its so warm and clear, your guitar tone shines through so natural. I don't know if you can get any better than this? well, I dont think about getting another chorus, put it that way

Mine is the Black Label so its old! pushing 30!! and it works perfect, you have to give a pedal 10 for this

Such a smooth, warm, clear chorus with and without a mod :) the mod I got, gives the pedal more clarity and increases the higher speed rates but keeping the slow areas as the original. Even as the stock version, its still a top notch pedal :) I just wanted an extra sparkle

Two knobs, stomp on-off. Not much simpler than that.

Mainly use this before a reverb (either RV-2 or modified RV-5) after distortion (modified SD-1, Fat Cat, MT-2). Rich chorus sound that can go from light to heavy. Fairly quiet for an analog pedal but it will influence tone when there are too many effects in the chain (it is not true bypass and more than 2-3 Boss pedals will make your sound a bit darker and duller even when they are off). To fix this, I use and EQ (Nady 8 band) and an EH-2/EH-50 at the end to clean up the dullness. Works very well with tremelo, especially running it before a PN-2. Overall, a great sounding pedal. I wish Boss would start re-issuing some of these classics with the exact same spec's as the originals.

Hard to kill these things. I fix many effects and the Boss ones usually only break due to botched modification or crazy abuse. Otherwise, Boss pedals are indestructable when used sanely.

Boss can be troublesome to get parts out of, especially for 'discontinued' products like the CE-2. I fix my own stuff so I never call Boss unless I need special parts. I suspect they have great support for current product line.

I play mostly Jazz, a bit of Rock and classic rock. Sometimes I hammer out a metal riff. I enjoy all music. I've been playing for about 14 years, but only seriousely for the last 2. I have been massing pedals for a while now and mostly fixing/upgrading pedals to improve their sound. I really like the simplicity of the CE-2 and the analog tone. I also have an Ibanez TC10 and SC10, as well as a DC-3 Chorus pedals. The Ibanez ones win for deeper, stronger chorus (especially the twin cam TC10 which is useful for other purposes) and neither of them are as subtle and rich as the CE-2. The DC-3 is a very good pedal as well but a little more subtle than the CE-2. I would definately buy this pedal again if stolen or lost.

Easy-peasy lemon squeezy

I was surprised by this pedal. After reading all the gushings on this page I was expecting some thick, swirly, detuned mayhem but the reality is that the effect produced by the CE-2 is actually quite subtle.
Nevertheless it is a fantastic effect. I am not really a massive user of chorus, but a recent renewed interest in The Police, and listening to lots of bad late 70s guitar jazz-fusion persuaded me to use it more often.
Kicking in the CE-2 with the rate at less than 10 o'clock really adds loads of presence and fullness to your overall sound, with higher rates you do get slight swirliness/detuning. I have to admit I never used it with less than maximum depth as I found this too subtle and, yes, I did play around, for several hours, with the internal trim pot to get the exact amount of 'wetness'.

My set up consists of either a Japanese 60s reissue strat with upgraded Kent Armstrong 'Tweed Tone' pickups or Gibson ES135 with upgraded Kent Armstrong PAF-style humbuckers. These go into either a silverface Twin Reverb or Deluxe Reverb via various other analogue stomp boxes.

For the record, the model I have is Made In Taiwan. I don't know how much its country of origin matters. It seems to me that those who own MIJs are adamant they are far superior, whilst those with MITs insist there is no difference. At the end of the day: if it sounds good and is what you are after, who cares with of those two far eastern islands it was manufactured on??

Boss pedal are very reliable - even at 20+ years of age.

Great pedal. One of the best (and cheapest if you buy MIT) choruses out there.
However, I prefer the sound of my black, made in Taiwan, Ross Chorus which is much more versatile: goes from light to super-thick-nearly-flanging and rate goes much higher for fast Leslie-esque sounds.
As a result I just sold my CE-2.
Lovely sound though.

Quite elementary; a knob for rate of oscillation, a knob for depth of the oscillation. Fin.

Guitars are....'96 Gibson Les Paul Standard w/ Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Jimmy Page pickups and coil taps, and a Heritage H-535.

My current rig is...
Guitar>Peterson Strobostomp>BSM Fuzzbender>Roger Mayer 9090A modded Vox wah>Xotic Effects BB Preamp>Boss CE-2>Fender Hot Rod Deville 410

I am honestly suprised by this pedal. It was suggested to me by my guitar tech, who told me that guys like Robben Ford used this pedal not for 'chorus', but for a small decibel lead boost with a "fatness" tone boost. Being curious, I looked it up on Ebay (I am hooked-on-Ebay) and of course this lovely site, followed the models, and bought the Made in Japan black label/long dash with a black screw. I believe I got a decent deal, considering the silver screw one I was also watching ended up over $200.

Anyway, I am really a Classic Rock and Blues guy. I never liked the chorus effect; I believed it to be a really cheap sounding effect that made the guitar sound fake, ruining the tone. I probably based this on my serious distaste for 80s rock, because the guitar tones in that era were simply awful in my opinion (I really like natural tone), and the 80s chorus sound was just one of them.

But when this pedal arrived, I found some very good sounds. You can get really smooth, to really subtle, to all out tone-morhping noise out of it. For me, I cannot use any setting beyond 12:00 on the Depth, or else the tone becomes "too 80's" for me. The settings I am using now are Rate at full, and Depth at near 10 o'clock. With drive from the BB Preamp, I get a nice vowely, mature sound that gets into Jazz/Fusion territory. The sound is thick, but also transparent; not overpowering the sound, yet there. Sounds even better clean as well. There is a lot of flexibility with the sound. You just have to be a tad bit careful with overdrive before it, because it can feedback, but most often it happens with my Heritage, which can feedback quite easily at full blast since its a semi-hollow. I don't use any amp drive (I run the amp clean and use my pedals for drive/fuzz, etc.), so I don't know how it works with that. All in all, very useful, musical tones. A 9 because of lack of comparison and chorus experience by me, and because I have never heard a CE-1, the true "Holy Grail" for choruses.

Does anybody really have any concerns? If you do, you don't know guitar pedals.

Never did, probably never will. It won't break down for another couple of decades at the very least.

I went from a chorus nay-sayer to a full on supporter (it does help that I got one of the most coveted chorus's produced). I fear that, like another poster, I may use this pedal too much! Sounds wonderful. I believe I got a really good deal for a very usable and somewhat collectable pedal; its in fact the cheapest pedal in my rig! I haven't compaired it to a green label MIJ, but will soon because my bassist wants one for himself. The only real concern I have would be with the Boss passive-bypass system, but since its the only non true-bypass pedal in my rig, I don't think its a problem. Lastly, I'm not sure if this goes for all old Boss pedals, but everytime I plug it in, it turns on, regardless of if it was off or on the last time I used it. No big deal, I'm just curious if thats normal. I might get another, probably cheaper, to check out Robert Keeley's mods, but either way this one's a keeper.

two knobs, easy as heck to get it sounding good.

I use this with an Ibanez GAX70 into CS-2>SD-1>Tube works Real Tube OD>PH-2>DD-2>CE-2>Marshall 9004 preamp (in the efx loop i have)BF-2>NF-1>EH-2>DD-3>CE-3. This chorus is everything i've wanted in a chorus, thick warm and shimmery. This chorus can pull off almost everything i can imagine>the only thing that is wrong with it is that it doesn't have stereo outs ( that's why I bought the CE-3) but definitly a keeper.

I don't feel that I need a backup but I'll buy another one to have modded.

its been said before. The best chorus pedal, ever probably. I got mine free...woohoo.......

I changed the power capacitor inside for a 100volt one, for more headroom. Kinda what Keeley does. changed the Op amp to a Burr Brown one.(0.97cent one compared to $12.00 for this op amp). Changed a few key resistors to metal film 1% tolerance. Wow,,,what a diff!!! Very lush, and headroom is incredible now through effects loop of my newly acquired MESA F-50 combo. woohoo.

Well, here's the kicker....i got mine free from a buddy, but about 10 years ago, the thing was in a house fire. You couldnt make out what was on the outside of the effects box, but you could make out the word BOSS. Anyway, it was missing the screw, so not sure if it was silver, but its a japanese one with long dash. I took the screw out of my CE-3 japanese (they have 5 or so JC4558 op amps for your TS-9 for your information!!) and used it for my CE-2. It worked fine after all the mods. Just got some detergent, and got all the black soot off it from the smoke, and wow, it was a CE-2. I heard all the hype, and man, its the quintessential chorus and sounds great through a parallel effecs loop. I give it a 10 for reliability, cuz, well, uh,,,cus it went through a fire!!!! ITS A BOSS, they even survive fires for C's sake.

no, never. dont want to, dont need to . the pedals never die man.

Great pedal. Its a permanent fixture, and will grace the my effect board along with a Fulltone OCD, Barber Tone press (compressor), Jeff Tees wah pedal deluxe, and my MXR 1978 flanger, grey box( I need to find out how to make that grey Flanger less noisy, and deal with the lessened output when kicked in), plus either a T-Rex Replica, DL4 Line 6 (unsure about reliability), or Boss DD-20. Would love to get the delayla, or the Fulltone Tape drive for delay, but not sure which one i will get. Once thats all figured out, my setup is complete, and the only addition is either an Orange rockerverb 50 OR,,,,a MESA Stiletto Deuce for that british side of things. I got my 6L6 amp with the F-50, and its a keeper (although the Lone-Star is eying me)

Easy, two knobs. You shouldn't need a manual.

I use a 2003 American Deluxe Fat Strat through an amazing Yamaha T50C tube amp(Soldano designed). that swirly sound is just amazing beautiful rich tone. I just got the pedal on eBay, so far I am really impressed. This is the one everyone is looking for. silver screw, long dash, 9500 stamped next to the battery. the bottom on mine is destroyed due to it being expoxied to a pedal board in one of it's previous lives.

It's a Boss.

I play mostly heavier classic rock, AC/DC, hendrix, VH, Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Bad Co., SRV, etc. Been playing for 25 years off and on. getting back into it big time now. I have an Ibanez V300 and a Hohner jack Bass. I relied on the reviews here to choose this pedal.
Bang on! I love it!

Easy as 3 knobs that do exactly as there name explains.

Makes a chorus sound as it should i use it for all kinds of music and with all kinds of settings but i normally use it for subtle chorus sound like in the eightys for stuff like Billy Idol.
I almost always have this ound on my clean channel of my amp purely to help make my clean sound more interesting

never had a problem and my copys very old.

an all round chorus pedal but i prefer the Marshall Supervibe but thats only becouse it works for the subtle chorus sound better but the Marshall pedal osnt as versitile.

Two knobs and a footswitch, real simple.

This pedal doesn't produce a bad sound. You can have a very subtile effect, all the way to spaced out warble. When the pedal bypassed, it is dead-silent.

I bought this pedal used from a friend of mine around 1986 or so. It's seen a lot of gigs, a lot of practices, and a lot of time on the shelf and has never failed and sounds just as good as the day I bought it.

It may not be the most extreme sounding chourus out there, but I think it is still one of the best BOSS has ever put out. Every other chourus Boss has produced since then has been based on CE-2 and that says a lot. These are getting harder to find and a little more expensive, but a great addition to any pedal board.

very easy to use-only two knobs-just about any setting sounds good.
no manual- it is old!!.
unit has not been altered, apart from me replacing the worn out battery conector.
made in japan,black label,metal screw,fatter font of letter C (of chorus),serial number in black ink (9200)inside battery compartment. a nice very early ce-2.
10 because 2 knobs require very little twiddling allowing me to concentrate on the important things in life, like becoming a fab guitar player.

My great strat through a fender champ valve amp (well what could be better for the house????)
no more noise with pedal on, than off.
Classy,thick chorus.can sound like a tremelo(ish),
Sounds like the artists who I understood to have used the earlier boss ce-1, ie police, chillies!!!!!!!!!!!
Does not sound cheezy, it's obvious but subtle too(yes I know that is a contradiction).

It is at least 22 years old so it could fail due to the old components but I have found a chap who used to work for roland who mends boss pedals and other boss stuff for a living. Here is his website www.delatronics.co.uk roland authorised repairs too!!!!!
I would use it in a gig (if only somebody would play with me and if I had more time)without a backup because I could survive with a chorus pedal dying as far as sound goes.
I am not going to rate it as I only got it today, and a new one would last a hell of a long time for sure (well 22 years is ok)

Rolands UK head office is in Swansea (read "the centre of the universe") so they give good jobs to the people of Swansea(where I was born and live)so they are fab.
I rang them (01792 515023)to ask about the discontinued aca adaptors which you MUST use with the OLD boss pedals, they said "you can not buy them in the shops anymore, but they have them and will sell them to you directly 22 pounds plus postage", I live down the road a little from them, so I will call in there when I get chance and buy the adaptor(I do not want to wear out that lovely metal battery compartment screw!)
They stock a lot of discontinued bits, I may ask for one of those old unwanted ce-1 units they don't want anymore he-he.

For what I was lucky enough to pay for this "First series vintage Classic" you could not buy a poor new chorus, so I am more than pleased.26 british pounds is about $40 !!!!!!!!!.
If it were lost or stolen I would have to satisfy myself with a later Japan model at best, I do not think I would be lucky enough to find another one of this period and would not be willing to spend enough on a chorus to buy a boutique makers example.
I have heard some more modern chorus pedals and they tend to sound thinner and cheezier than this one.Honestly.
"look out for those little silver screws".

I purchased my vintage Boss CE-2 Chorus Pedal, with the Black Label,& long dash and the silver thumb screw,Made in Japan, Used, for $159.00 (plus Shipping), just a month ago, but I absolutely love it! It is one of the sweetest sounding chorus pedals ever, actually this is the sweetest of them all!It is the original version of the legendary organic swirling, syrupy chorus, and adds anything from a subtle dimensional thickening depth, to a warbly vigrato. With only 2 knobs, it is very easy to use. It did not have a manual with it, but anyone can easily set it to the sound preferred by them. My pedal has all of the original screws, rubber backing, etc.,but has some wear from prior use by its original owner, which in no way diminishes the playability of it.

I use this with my Fender Telecaster and my Fender Frontman Amp (38w amp). Since I want to emulate the sound of my favorite Blues Player, Johnny Winter, I set the Rate knob at 10 o'clock, and the Depth knob at 2 o'clock, which is how he sets his knobs on the old Boss CE-2 pedal which he still uses. It is not traditionally a blues pedal, but sounds good on the blues. However, the knobs can be adjusted to get anywhere from an organic swirling, syrupy chorus, to a subtle dimensional thickening depth, on up to a warbly, warpy vibrato.I use a Boss Metal Zone pedal for Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, but this CE-2 can also be used for that type of music also.This CE-2 sounds great on whatever setting is used, in my opinion!

Because this Boss CE-2 pedal is made to withstand years and years of use, it is definitely a pedal which can be depended on. After years of use by its original owner, it still has that "new" sound and playability about it. I would certainly use it on a gig without a backup, as I have confidence in the reliability of this pedal.

Although I like different styles of music, at the present time, I prefer Blues/Rock. This is a perfect match for the Johnny Winter sound which I love, since it is the same type of pedal which he uses. My favorite feature about it, is that it is so easy to use. The ONLY thing I would prefer, is that the battery wires are a little shorter than the ones in the newer pedals,and it would be even easier to connect the battery if the battery wires were longer. Nevertheless, that is just a little minor annoyance which is really of no real consequence. I rated this category a nine, only because of this one minor inconvenience. I really LOVE this pedal, and do not plan to ever part with it!!!

two knobs and trimpot inside. You may have some noise problems, but fine tuning the trim pot inside is the key to leveling it out. It is more less a level pot.

Gary Moore Sig Les Paul - boss tuner - bad horsie - ce-2 - dd5 - Mesa DC-5 Head - 1960 4x12

I own the Tawain model (latest). I had trouble using a regulated power supply (modern powersupply). So I had my pedal sent to Robert Keeley @ Keeley Electronics to have the HI_FI mod done.

It not only corrected the power supply problem but the tone of this thing is nothing i have ever heard. Oh yea, lush organic tone. I have a hard time not using it. I sounds very real, not digitally fake. It really meshes with your guitar tone, as apposed of adding on top of it or taking away. It does boost a little, but who doesn't want that?

The pedal was great before the mod, but i would highly recommend the mod. I would probably go insane if I put one of the these things before a tape echo unit.

Oh yea don't buy into that hype about the different labels on the back either. Like i said I have the green label tawian unit, and it sounds the same as the others to me.

boss pedals last longer than its comp Ibanez for sure. Paint may come off , but there build like a tank.

Always liked the way that boss pedals *always* give a great sound with the knobs all pointing straight up. That's easy. And then you can tweak a bit from there.

Lush. Rich. Sparkles. Definitely analog. I've heard a couple of digital models of this pedal, and none of them come close.

An interesting effect, in that it is -- in fact -- a Chorus Ensemble, not a pure Chorus.

I was so curious about what gives this pedal it's unique sound, so I plugged a scope on it and reverse engineered the effect.

The answer: it's two short delays (about 4 and 7ms), and two swept delays in opposite phase that sweep across the delay rails. Why this works is a mystery to me, but the sound is stunning. Pure magic. And you can't replicate this sound with a more conventional chorus.

Built like a brick. When civilization comes to an end, all that will be left is cockroaches and Boss effect pedals.

Really boss would add decent support sections and online manuals for *current* effects (I can forgive them for not having a manual for this one on line).

Jazz. An instant foolproof way to pretty up a clean jazz tone.

I've just recently switched over to a multi-effect unit (a GT-6), but I still keep this pedal in the effect loop, because there is no substitute for the sound of a real CE-2. Allegedly, the GT-6 has a CE emulation, but it doesn't compare. The Line-6 Modulation Modeller also has a CE-1 emulation, but the non-virtual CE-2 is better than the Line-6 CE as well.

every setting, except ones that have a high rate sound good.

i use a few old tube amps with this pedal, also other pedals that i use with it are boss tu-2, dm-2 , modded sd-1 and sometimes another ce-2 or a dc-2.

if you use tinny high gain amps, you will get a mild hum/buzz.

i get no sounds that i dont like.

this is a strong effect, in that its thick.
I dont use this pedal as a chorus, rather, i use it like a tone 'conditioner'.
i set the rate all the way down, and the depth all the way up.
Hard to describe the effect here, its like it makes the signal 'glow'...it also has this swirly slow thick sound to it, which is the best thing actually.
this ones going to be an expensive classic soon, whichever one you have.
I have one of the original long dash silver screw ce-2's as well as a two japanese green label ce-2's.

The differences are interesting.

The long dash ce-2 has i. an NEC 4558 op amp

ii. a different casing. it has a thicker case, as well as a differently moulded battery compartment from any of my other boss pedals (i have about 25 of the bastards). It also has the siver metal battery compartment screw.

iii. the serial number is stamped in red ink right next to the switch, in the battery compartment.. the serial of the long dash is a very low 200.

iv. a different logo. the silver screw also has a longer dash in the logo.

The most important difference here folks is of course the op amps.
the other differences mean nothing except for maybe the thicker casing which will alow you to run it over with a hummer.

the japanese green label has a jrc4558dd op amp.

on a website called www.modezero.com , there is a ce-2 long dash with its guts spilt out, and it too has an NEC 4558 op amp in it.

keeley modifies these pedals. One mod that he does is to put burrell brown op amps in them.
i would never get this done to my ce2's because ,again, it makes them clearer, more hi-fi.
for me, the beauty in these things is that they THICKEN the tone, not thin it out just like all the shitty digital effects do. thats right, every single digital effect ive ever heard thins the tone.
it seems that with these pedals there is always some kind of bullshit hype. and of the course, the oldest one is the best one blah blah ....not in this case folks. if you after a nice thick lush tone, the green label is the hands down winner.

the long dash has more of a hi-fi sound (thinner, yet clearer ). It sounds more like my dc-2, although not quite as 'hi-fi'as the dc-2, which i feel is the chorus's chorus, the king of em all.

there has been some talk regarding the trimpot, but depending on which op-amp you have, the effect the trimpot has less or more impact.

if you open your ce-2 up and turn the trimpot all the way clockwise, and then back it off just a bit, you will find your sweet spot.
Again, depending on which op-amp you have, the trimpot will have more or less of an effect.

This pedal folks is an analog as it gets.

the current trend that sees old analog pedals getting top dollar isnt just because of the romance of it all, the old pedals have a thicker tone, they are much much sweeter than new pedals..another good one is the dm-2 delay.

get one.

n/a

there is no upgrade for this pedal.

ive got lots of pedals, most of them crap of course.
i play whatever the lads want to play, and am happy as long as there are girls around the place...

Very easy to use - only two knobs. However, I got the Taiwanese model. Being (1) the picky person I am and (2) wary of the current state of the pedal since I bought it very used, I wanted to mess with the internal potentiometer to adjust the sound. Didn't end up changing it by much, but the fact that I had to think about messing with it was a slight negative.

Very quiet - it doesn't add any noise that I can detect. One thing that I didn't like about it is that it seems to distort high level input. I have a Fender guitar on which the pickups tend to be pretty hot. There's a bit of distortion when I turn the CE-2 on, but usable. Going through my Stage 185 amp it's almost negligible. The cheap Kustom I sometimes use doesn't like the high output very much.

I could be the 100th owner. It lasted this long, my goodness, what do I have to worry about?

I own tons of Boss pedals and none have ever failed me. I never keep a backup of anything, although I do have a multi-effects pedal I keep with me just in case.

Who knows! No one needs to contact them!

My music is a combination of '80s new wave and Nirvana-like modern rock. It works well with that. I've used the EH Small Clone several times and I didn't feel like it had any significant "magic" that the Boss CE-2 didn't have. I'll definitely be keeping it for a long time.

It's vintage, so you have to live with a few obvious issues related to age and wear. Other than that, it's good.

Very easy. Two knobs.

gibson sg standard> boss tu-2> boss-dd6> boss ce-2> bbe 360 sonic maximizer. no noise. i plug everything into a furman power conditioner. i have yet to find a bad setting. the chorus is very thick and warm. no overwhelming shwooshing noise. i have had many chorus pedals. some that cost around $300.00. this 29.00 used box is better than anything else i've tried. full tone, mxr, boss ce-5, eh poly chorus reissue. I could never get the chorus i was looking for until now. this pedal accentuates your sound. it doesn't take it over. sounds good on most speeds.

i've only had it for a few days but no problems yet. i opened it up and found that the momentary switch is scotch taped to hold it in. the unit seems to work fine though. for 29$ i don't care if i need to get it fixed. i will send it to analog man if needed. the sound is worth it. i will never part with this. mine is made in taiwan with a magenta sticker on the back. the power supply is on the very bottom of the unit instead of in the middle for those of you trying to find out what year this was made.

best i've had. cheapest i've had

easy to use.

excellent sound quality.
very quiet.
hi -fi ish.
i use this pedal with a blackface bandmaster and a marshall jcm 900.
difficult pedal to describe..i have a ce-2 chorus, which is amazing. The ce-2 is thicker !
but the dc-2 shouldnt really be compared to other pedals..its kind of on its own. Im very glad to own one of these little purple gems.
sometimes i play with it with the first button pressed down all the time. sometimes i kick it in with the third or fourth button pressed.
this pedal is three d. its lush, it shines..really, its more than a chorus. i reckon this pedal is very special indeed.
the effect is much more obvious in stereo.
i havent been very helpful here..try and get to hear one somewhere if you havent got one.
its got twelve(!) chips inside it and a couple of variable pots on the circuit board..im going to find out what they do.

i can depend on it.
what is it with lugging around a backup? if the thing doesnt work on gig night..just play without it.

boss must be a cool company, after all, they built these interesting and seemingly indestructable pedals for us in the first place.

I've been playing long enough to know what tone is. This is a very musical device. If you see one for sale(i never have except on ebay)..buy it. you wont regret it unless you are just a punk kid who cant hear anything except a constant ringing from practicing in or listening to some silly metal band for too long.