Boss CE-3 Chorus

Pretty easy to use rate depth stereo switch

I use it through a fender champ and a '65 princeton along with a crybaby wah, dod phaser, hao soul pressure overdrive, and boss os-2 overdrive/distortion, and boss ps-3 pitch shifter with a Godin exit 22 and a fender standard stratocaster. This is the Japanese "green label" model. Very quiet. As far as the sound goes, I don't understand what all the Hype about it is. The effect seems to be barely there. I would recommend a PS-3 pitch shifter for a chorus effect instead of this pedal (maybe I don't like it because I've used the PS-3 before I heard the CE-3). Cuts the signal a bit when engaged but doesn't seem to suck tone when disengaged. I bought it because of everyones reviews (against the advice of my brother-in-laws guitarist he also uses a PS-3) and am quite disappointed. It has hardly any depth to it and definetly won't make anyone seasick.

Solid as a Boss rock that it is.

Never needed it

I play blues and classic rock mostly and have been playing off and on for 30 years. I wish it had more depth to it although it does add a bit of shimmer but nothing earth shattering. I would probably not replace it especially since it only cost $30.00. I would check out others and definetly some other model.

It first look it appears complicated due to all the settings. But once you plug in you figure it out pretty quick.

In my opinion this is the chorus of choruses. I got this in the 1980's and have used it since. Its tone - very thick Bossy chorus is very 80's. Very yummy and colorful. Combined with a Memory Man delay all is perfect in the universe.

Worked for me since what? 1983?

Never needed

Play all kinds. My modeling amp handles my chorsu needs so this pedal sits idle. Getting a tube amp just to use my vintage pedals and get rid of all this digital crap....

Touch trickier than other choruses (chorii? choree?? plural anyone?) because of the extra selection of configuration. But if you want that in the first place, you can't really complain that you have to deal with it... Otherwise simple enough.

I used it with a bench of Japanese Fenders through a Peavey Classic 30 valve, a Fender all valve Super 210 and an old 1970s Vase Trendsetter valve head (with a Marshall 210). Sound quality seemed good, although a bit metallic and/or cold at times. I'm naturally a bit biased because something in me has never liked chorus tone. I've used it more to separate the stereo channels when I use 2 amps. (But I'll still be gentle...)

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...

We play indie or alternate stuff. I have been playing for a long long time but I'm in denial over my aging, so I won't say how long... This was an ok chorus. I sold it to buy a CH-1 (again- back to the one that suits me more). In my very humble opinion, it sounds more organic and seems to do a better job of splitting the signal into stereo. Very sufficient- just not for me. And it's hard to be truly objective...

It's pretty basic. Rate and depth. The third knob is for changing between stereo and mono.

I just got this one back from my bass-player. Forgot how good it sounded. I know, ten is high rated, but man... I own a ce-2, the holy grail of chorus except from the ce-1. This one does a better job in my world. Ce-2 has this big transparrent sound to it, but the 3 has a warmth and a lo-fi Wibe that I like. It just sounds better to me. The ce-2 is from Taiwan and ce-3 is from japan. So maybe there's a point there. Never heard the Japan ce-2. But of all the chorus-effects that I've heard, this one is the best. That includes any fulltone, Voodoolab, EHX, Ibanez.......and more..

Chain in command: Us strat plus or Gibson The Paul>> Budda Wah>> Boss od-3>>Reezafratzitz distortion>> T-rex tremolo>>(and now)Boss ce-3>>Boss dd-3>> Ampeg Reverberrocket r12r.

Never had a boos crakc down on me.

Never had to.

I play mostly blues, rock and indie. I have been playing for almost 25 years. If this pedal was stolen Id get another one in a sec, the price for this one is pretty low. The ce-3 is a very good pedal, it has a warmth to it. The only chorus that fit my taste. I know this is a high rating. But I've never heard it beaten.

This pedal is really easy to use you can find your chorus in like 5 minutes. its quite simple a bit confusing at first but once you get the hang of it you are set.

Sounds good, come on it is ANALOG it sounds good not as good as the ROLAND CHORUS JC 77 amp which I owned. I bought this one because I wanted to hear if it sounded like the amps chorus but it didn't. It laked "Depth" and it is more focused on the mids because it uses JR4558DD opamps which are the ones that the Tube Screamer uses, which tend to take away the some of the low/high end making it best suitable for overdrive pedals.
Never the less this pedal is quite warm sounding and it quite good compared to most digital choruses of today.

It is A BOSS they are made TOUGH >:(

I have ordered some parts for a ROLAND JC 77 amp and they were very friedly.

This pedal is great for me because I like chorus. I own 2 the CH 1 which I like and this one the CE 3 whish I also like, the two are quite different though. The only thig that I wish that this pedal had is a bit more depth and a bit more speed, which I modified mines to do, now it sounds like my beloved JC 77 chorus amp. If you guys want to modify this pedal it is really easy and cheap as well. you can do the same mods of the CE 2 to this pedal because their circuitry is very similar, almost the same.

Very simple to use and easy to find the sound that you are looking for. Not complicated at all. It has some cool features also.

I recently bought this pedal in Evil-Bay, I saw the oportunity and I took it it was cheap like 20 bucks but it did't have the spring, I recently got a spring and I'm glad I did this investment.

The sound of the pedal to me is similar to a CH 1 which I also own, without the high end EQ. The tone of the CE 3 is more focused on the MIDS really warm though and I like it. I recently replaced most of the Electrolitic capacitors because they age with time and they tend to dull the tone of most Chorus pedals and tube amps. The pedal I own was made in JAPAN 1983 and thats like "24" year old Electrolitic Capacitors which can affect the tone mostly for bad. Now it sounds a lot cleaner and I can hear more highs, overal it has more clarity. If you want to try a simple mod just replace the 100uf capacitor, which is the thickes _cylinder like_ component with the same value but NEW take a look at the polarity carefully and go for it. You can find these at any radio-shack for a buck.

IT is a BOSS, I own 5 of these and they have never failed me except on the on/off FOOT SWITCH, but that is easily fixed.

I have dealt with them a couple of 2 and they are very friendly and they know what you are looking for. I think they are musicians also. I have ordered some parts for amps and pedals and they are right on target all the time they know the products very well.

I play Contemporary Christian in spanish and this pedal is good for many music styles. Blues, 80's rock and super Ballads. I have been playing 8 years now. I like the tone of the CE 3. I hate that it doesn't have enough DEPTH.

It depends how technical you want to get about stereo stuff but yeah it's an easy to use pedal. (and NO! not all pedals are easy to use)

K well when I first got this pedal I really didn't enjoy using it, the chorus sounded pretty normal really and I got very annoyed at the way it dulled the tone on my guitar a bit even when it was dissengaged. Also the volume drop when engaged was annoying. So it does have a few little quirks i guess but here's the thing... when it came time to sell it I just couldn't I guess I fell in love with it. I've done a lot of experimenting with this pedal in terms of various amp set-ups and the stereo setting including using it in the stereo effects loop of my stereo Marshall MG 250DFX and also using two seperate amps. I've pretty much found that if you put the rate at about 12o'clock and the depth at 3o'clockish, switch the stereo knob to mono mode and just plug into output B (D-E) you can get quite a sweet sound that will cut through a bit for solos (depending on your other effects and settings etc) and also is just plain nice clean. Sounds cool with a long delay :)
The reason I use output B is because I find that output A seems to have a bit of destructive interferance from adding the wet and dry signals together which can make the sound a bit too thin fr my liking.

I also have a rocktron Tsunami chorus which I wasn't too sure about when I first got because it didn't really sound like "a better version of the ce-3" at all but after playing a bit you can get really hot swirls of vibe-like analog chorus from the tsunami. So lesson learnt? if you want deep, seductive swirls of mojo don't get the ce-3. But if you want a chorus pedal with plenty of chorussy chorus you might like the ce-3. Just to clarify the tsumani has a simpler possibly subtler sound than the more complex (like more chorusses) sounding boss pedal.

The other set-up that I played with for a bit was using two amps fairly near each other, having the rate lowish and the depth about 12o'clockish I think. I had delay on one amp and I don't remember what the stereo was set to but I do know I got compliments on "that beautiful tone" i think it was also described as "awesome". But ya'know... maybe I'm just really good at playing the guitar :P

yup. seems good. The knobs are impressively well built. I just managed to pull one off after quite a lot of effort and they are very solid. The little black rubber thing is broken a bit but no-where near the end of it's life. my DS-1 black rubber thing is in far worse condition but still usable :)

It's made in Taiwan, I know that has nothing to do woth the reliablity but I didn't want to put anymore writing in the sound quality section.

dunno

It's a useful effect even though it's not the nicest to use because of the slight tone-sucking, but I have an eq pedal to counter things like that and it's not actually very noticable when it's in the effects loop. It is on my pedal board and will stay there with the setting i described befor along with my other chorus and eq pedal.

I've had this pedal for at least a year and have been playing for too long to remember. I build and design guitar effects and have tried out far too many than anyone should lol. so that's my qualifications ;)
I'm also in a gigging band but that's just not that interesting. I play many styles but would describe myself as a blues guitarist based on my usual solo style, quite like pink floyd really.

As a performance oriented guitarist I usually don't look for variatey in a stompbox. I look for versatility surely. but not to the extent that I would twiddle knobs on stage between songs to get that 'other cool sound'.

SO what guitarist would pass up a chance to boast their rig? not me :)
Boss ce-3 (of course), Rocktron Tsunami Chorus, Boss FV500L volume pedal, Boss GE-7 equalizer, japanese Ds-1, NYC Big Muff ??, custom effect switchgear, and hot pink a Guyatone HD2 Harmonic distortion (not on pedalboard at the moment). I have a marshall MG 250DFX stereo 100w amp and use the onboard delay, reverb and distortion. I also have a peavey rage 128 or something practice amp. Oh and I made my own talkbox and distortion (own design), they're not used often tho.

dont need manuals..go find ur own sound out of it...i find mine in like 5 mins

i had the japanese made one..bought it in a 2nd hand shop near my area..i dont know whats the retail price of this but i think got it really cheap(45AUD)..sound?well for me at least all choruses sounded the same..i was gona buy a ce5 until i saw this thing and plugged it in and bang..just what i wanted..compare this to ch1 well il choose this pedal straight away..couldnt get the sound i wanted out of ch1..with the ce5?id go for ce3 still..some people complain about the hiss..well i dont have it in mine..but we'll see..

well i guess i can..its BOSS..

u dont need to..its boss..i trust em

its a good chorus pedal..buy the jap made one if u spot one..=)

Simple to use, i didnt get a manual with it as i got it 2nd hand from ebay but it took less than a minute to work out how to set it up the way i wanted, i go out from output A and use the left stereo setting seeing as i dont yet have a stereo rig. the other TWO (wow, so many, i might get lost) controls are kinda obvious so anyone who doesnt get it must be a US president or something (no offence to jfk, he seemed alright)

electir guitar > dunlop zakk wylde wah > boss CS-1 > boss CE-3 > marshall DSL401

OR

martin D1 acoustic > Boss CS-1 > CE-3 > Ashdown AAR-1

I know that really i should plug this into the fx loop but i cant really be bothered with the extra cables and i get a erfectly usable sound from this route. Most of the time i use a subtle effect to add a shimmer to my clean/crunch but turn both knobs up and you get a great vibrato/chorus effect thats fun to play with! Sounds really nice on the martin, i use it for a lot of picking to add a bit more magic. I had doubts as to how 'warm' this would sound in comparison to the CE-2 but no complaints since i bought it. Ill give it a 9 because i'd still like a CE-2.... or even a CE-1 but only for the rarity factor :p

Well, mines an early Made In Japan one, not sure what year but its battered and is obviously pretty used.... however, NOTHING is wrong with it and as far as i can see from the circuit, its all original so hasnt beem repaired. Then again it is a Boss pedal and theres a reason "8 million guitarists" use them lol

PS, battery life is great!

Never had to use, i take that as a good thing!

My band play alternative rock so main influences are RHCP's and Smashing Pumpkins, add in a bit of john butler trio, guns n roses and fo fighters and thats us really! as said before, i like to use this as a "shimmer pedal" and for that its great, id buy it again or have it repaired if it ever broke.... doubting that tho!

Very simple.......3 knobs,not much to it.Lots of sounds available,for sure though.Firmware revision # is 6-zulu-9ER haha just kidding.

Setup is: Dean '79 reissue Z>Peterson Strobostomp>Marshall ED-1 comp>
Boss SD-1 overdrive>Boss CE-3>MXR Phase 90 EVH>Marshall JCM 800 2210 head>Marshall JCM 800 slant 4x12 w/Vintage 30's....or a Line 6 Spider II 30-watt combo amp.It is only as noisy as any regular chorus pedal.Now here is the weird part:the Taiwan version and the Japan version are RADICALLY different!!!! I originally owned the Taiwan version,and bought a Japanese version on Ebay.Well.....I really HATED that one man! It had this really "clean" sound to it....too much treble response,and it could NOT get the nice "swirly"(for lack of a better word)tone at all.The Taiwan version has a great Small Clone-ish sound to it.....sits over the top of the sound,instead of integrating within it.Gets a much nicer breakup too,since I use it in front of my amp.The Japanese one just had too much chimey character.Seriously,it was like I had 2 entirely different pedals.Here are my settings on it:RATE-6,Depth-10,MODE:Mono.If you do that with the other one,it just don't sound right man.Can't explain it.Anyways,this thing is THE BEST chorus I have ever used,hands down.It is so lush,and gets a really nice sound with cleans,and a MESSY,jacked up tone with distortion!!!Think,like,Nirvana "Come As You Are" sorta chorus.....or any old shit like The Chameleons,The Cure,etc.Really great pedal man,the Taiwan one anyways.But it is a lot cheaper than the other version.....the pots are not as good,the battery terminal is crap also.But the SOUND.....oh yeah.....it's a HUGE part of my sound!

It won't break.....period.No more to say.

UH....I would just fix it myself.Just a simple pedal ya know.If it dies,I'll break out a schematic and a soldering iron.

I play death metal,and experimental progressive rock/noisy shit,like The Cancer Conspiracy,King Crimson,Mr Bungle,etc.I have been playin about 10 years and have owned way too much shit,really.This thing is my little friend that no one cares about.I have tried the most expensive chorus pedals out there,and they did not have the charm of this one,though others were more "hi-fi",less noisy,had more switches....blah blah blah.Buy the cheapo version,it sounds way better!!! Much more unique!!!!! It is one sexy pedal.This and my SD-1 overdrive I cannot live without!!! They are MY sound!