Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble

I bought this pedal off Craig's List, so it it didn't have a manual. But it's so easy to use, you don't really need the manual. Controls are clearly labeled and pretty self-evident as to what they do. The tone controls are real useful to have. After doing the mod, it's real easy to get lots of great chorus and vibrato tones from the pedal.

Note: This is the original CE-5 pedal with the regular through-hole mounted components, which makes it relatively easy to mod. The later version pedal, sometimes referred to as the CE-5T, uses a DSP chip (the ES56028S) - which means it really is digital - and also surface-mount construction.

In its stock form this pedal doesn't have a great sound - I'd give it a 5 at the most. It's chorus effect is mainly a light shimmer, with a lot of brightness at the high end. Very processed '80s kind of sound which I don't much like. I prefer a deeper, thicker sound, more like the EH Small Clone, which unfortunately is pretty noisy and said to have reliability issues.

However, after the mod it's really a 10! For the details see
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Effects/product/Boss/CE-5+Chorus+Ensemble/10/3
(page down a little to read it). I used a 20pF cap in place of the 5pF for C22. Beware that it's a fairly tricky soldering job, due to the PCB tracks being real close together.

It gets real nice, thick, chewy chorus and vibrato sounds, which you can really use for anything from Nirvana to Rush. I just roll down the Treble control and keep the Bass all the way up to remove the brightness and increase warmth. So I've given it an 8 to allow for the fact that it needed the small mod.

Like most Boss pedals, the CE-5 is built like a tank. This one is an old well-used pedal and it's still going strong.

I've never needed to get any support for this pedal, so I can't comment here.

I play through all-tube amps, such as the Marshall 18W, and don't use pedals much. Those kinds of amps don't need any pedals getting in the way of their pure tone. I'm also not too keen on chorus pedals generally, and haven't used any for years. However, I finally conceded that several of my favourite bands at least used some chorus at times. So I decided to buy one - but it would have to be something exceptionally good. I found all I could want from a chorus pedal in this modded (original version) Boss CE-5.

If it was ever stolen I would have to look for another original version one I could mod, or else buy a CE-2, which are currently pretty expensive.

Note: So far I haven't been able to find a schematic for the original CE-5, so I don't completely know what the mod is doing, or to see what the equivalent would be for the CE5-T version. Looking at the CE-5T schematic I suspect that altering the values of the 10uF caps C47 and C48 might have a similar effect (in common with the Boss CH-1). However, surface mount boards are real tricky to solder or de-solder components from without special equipment. http://www.eserviceinfo.com/downloadsm/41772/Boss_CE5T.html

I found this pedal to be near impossible to get a subtle warm sound to use when recording with a Martin acoustic guitar through the effects loop of a BBE acoustimax. After about 3 hours I was able to get a passable chrous, but you could still tell it was digital! Very Cold!

I will say it's not noisy at all. If you don't mind the digital sound I'm sure it sounds as good as most other pedals in this price range. I would guess a lot of distortion would help cover it up somewhat if using it live.

I will say it is built like a tank, which is the only reason I gave it a 5 here.

What a joke! I called their customer support before the purchase and was told, "It must be analog as I see no mention of a DAC in the specs." After the sale I talked to a manager and he basically said most people love it, so I was being too picky about my sound and nobody could tell it was digital anyway!!! And true stereo meant 1 wet/1 dry signal, just like the old school Boss chorus have alway been.

I have played guitar for 43 years from classic rock to hair band live, before retiring. Now I am recording classical in a home studo. I just picked up a $15 FAB analog chorus that sounds much warmer than this until I can find the one to make permanant!!!!!!! Needless to say this is DEFINATELY the LAST Boss pedal I will ever buy!!!!

It takes some time and experiments to get used to the controls and understand what they do. The instruction sheet gives some sample settings but I suspect thet resulting sounds depend greatly on your guitar and amp settings. When you know what sound you are looking after it takes a few minutes to figure out which setup will do it.

Typical BOSS quality, no noise, no scratchy pots, clean output whether you use it in line with the guitar or through an effect loop. It seems that many reviewers complain about this pedal not to be effective enough. This is not a distortion or metal pedal! Chorus sounds are *added* to your guitar sound rather than completely change the basic sound waves. I use it with a Strat-like guitar and a small solid-state Crate amp and it works well.

Can you rely on BOSS pedals? Yes. Use the A/C adapter during gigs! Batteries run out at the least expected moment.

Never had to contact them.

It does what I want. I play mostly world music accompaniment. I owned a few Digitech multi-effects pedals but they all produced lots of irritating noise and the chorus effects were not as nice as this one. You get what you pay for, it's worth buying quality gear. BOSS pedals live up to their reputation and are worth every penny you spend on them.

This thing is deceptive, if you just go max or min or half way on the levels, rate, etc. it seems pretty boring....try the settings on the manual and you will be suprised....lots of choice...i fumbled around for a few days then finally used the settings they suggest...a very good place to start...Need to work on it to get something good out of it. But it is worth it...but the real changer is the mod...see below.

OK so i gave it an 8...but it really is a 10 if you do the mod suggestd in this HC review of the CE-5 by another user (11/22/2004 by Dan Wiley)

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Effects/product/Boss/CE-5+Chorus+Ensemble/10/3
(click the link then page down a little to read it)

.....just take the c22 (5pF) capacitor out and replace with a 22pF. I went to the store and they had no 22's so i just paralleled a 7 and a 15....Whoah! what a change...now it really sounds much more organic and full....

I like Boss pedals...this seems just as tough as the others i like.

They seem great....broke off knob off my BD2 and they sent me new one right away.

So its an 8 (pretty darn good) for out of the box stock chorus pedal. but do one little tiny mod (the C22) and man it is great - a def 10!!...a world of diff. If you can't solder, then get someone to do it for you...well worth it. just make sure you get a total of around 22pF (can try other capacitance values, but i didn't...might be even better!!) Radio Shack is not going to have a 22pF, but they have an assortment that will give you a 15 and a 7...so you are good to go (in parallel, not series)...have fun out there!

EFFECT LEVEL, RATE, DEPTH, FILTER. Pretty simple, could be difficult at first but you can play around with it. It won't take long at all before you get it.

But the knobs are a little small so you have to have everything preset, don't be touching things when you're on stage with it, casue thats gunna be difficult.

SG>>Fender Blues Deluxe
(I use my effect send and return on my amp for the effects) AS far as singal chain goes. Simple.
Boss- OS-2>>Boss CE-5, Bodd DD-6>>Dunlop Original Crybaby.
Don't ask about my choice in pedals. I've made some bad decisions.

This pedal would be an OKAY choice. Not the warmest chorus out there. For it's price, I excepted more. A cheaper one, EHX Small Clone for example, would be a better choice.

The vertaslity on this pedal is very limited. The depth doesn't go too far, except the rate. You can get almost a vibrato sound with the chorus. Like a modulation tremolo, but muddy sound quality. This pedal, like other boss pedals, doesn't take things over the top. It's only a light chorus, you can't even tell the chorus is on until things hit around 12 o'clock.

There although is one setting I love, which gives me a vintage, warmish, chorus.

Don't except a beautiful, WOW, chorus whenyou get this pedal, just DESCENT.

Although, the cool feature on this pedal is the Ffilters. This knob controls the

Boss pedal= TANK!

I can live it for now, but I regret buying it, I would have gotten something else.

But don't get me wrong, this pedal is WORKABLE.

this pedal either works or doesn't work for you, depending on what type of sound you're after. It is extremely clean, somewhat buttery, smooth. It doesn't sound complicated or very lush. Great for rhythm, limited for lead I would think. If it's the sound for you, the setup is easy. If it's not, no amount of tweaking gets you there.

I've been testing my new pedals on "the bench" before commiting to keep them. The boss pedals I have are far, far cleaner than the digitech lines. Zero detectable noise on the ce-5, even engaged. OTOH, it's so clean that you can actually hear it "working," you can tell it's sampling the sound and oscillating its playback because the tones are so accurate... which was not what I was looking for.

boss...

Compared to digitech CF-7.

Digitech was noisy. CE-5 was quiet.

Digitech made it a lot easier to find the chorus I wanted, a mild lush chorus for lead saxophone work; the CE-5 just couldn't get there.

Plug in and go. Level, rate, depth, and the EQ filter are all easy to understand and use. It's not hard to get what you're looking for out of this pedal. The stereo out option is a nice feature. Boss pedals aren't true bypass, but they aren't too bad when it comes to tone-sucking.

As others have said, this is a vey subtle chorus effect, even with the effect level all the way up. It is a pleasing effect, although not the warmest chorus you'll hear. It's definitely a digital effect. It sounds equally good clean or overdriven; my favorite application is using this for solos - it gives the overdriven lead lines a little more power. I almost always run this through the effects loop in my Peavey Ranger 212. It sounds fine out front if you don't have an effects loop, but it's preferable to place it in a loop.

There is one problem with hum on this pedal. My pedal hums like crazy if you use any adapter besides the Danelectro ones that say "zero hum" on the box. Boss adapters don't kill the hum, and neither does any other kind of adapter I've used. The Dano one, at least in my case, is the only thing that keeps it quiet. With that adapter, it's silent.

I've had this for ten years. Boss pedals are made to last.

They answer their email.

I like this pedal, but since I don't use effects all that much, there really isn't a reason for me to replace it, even if I were to lose it. If I had to replace it, I would probably go with something like the Small Clone for a warmer sound. But come to think of it, I've got the MXR flanger, and that can put out a great chorus-style sound. Anyway, this is a constant in my effects loop, and I'm happy with it. If you're not looking for a crazy effect, then this might work well for you.

Not very complex to use, just plug it in. It??s possible to have stereo output - one dry, one effected, but I always go mono. At first it appears fiddly, with the high and low cut knob, but I don??t screw with that much as the basic sound of the pedal is what I want. A definite advantage is the ??mix?? knob which allows you to dial in just the right level of effect,which really helps to keep things subtle, as chorus can be such an overpowering effect.

To my ear, this pedal delivers the sound of a slow rotating speaker. It??s transparent(for a chorus pedal!),which is why I chose it - the sound is not too thick. I play rock on a strat and have found the pedal useful for these tunes:
The chordal riff in ??Sultans of Swing??.
The last few bars of the intro of ??Little Wing??(that nice bit where he slides into the chords).
Any Police tune(bridge pickup with a bit of gain).
There are many other tunes which I don??t play live that this pedal is useful for, eg. ??Waiting on a Friend?? by the Stones. Also, Cream??s ??Badge??.

I have confidence in this product. I??ve had it a couple of years, and it hasn??t let me down. Besides, I can??t afford to buy two of them!

I??ve never dealt with them.

I play ??Classic Rock??- Hendrix, Clapton and so on. I may seem uncritical of this product, but I like it, and that??s why I bought it! It can give the full slow rotating speaker sound, or a very subtle shimmer. Works well with or without distortion. It??s a flexible pedal, which is so important for a chorus effect. Let??s face it, chorus is almost like a disease - too much of it, and everybody sounds the same! I like Boss pedals and own a bunch of them, and this one has been very useful to me.

4 knobs.......

I started listening to early Pretenders and the Police again in honor of their reunion (great Bands) and decided i needed to run out and buy a chorus pedal. I haven;t used the effect in 15 years and like most guitar players i know, am impatient and impulsive with gear purchases. Anyway, My local Sam Ash carried exactly three chorus pedals. The digitech x factor multi chorus, boss super chorus and ce 5 ensemble. Of the three, the digitech sounded best (and was the cheapest)so, of course they were out of stock. Knowing i had to immediately have the chorus pedal or i may die, i chose the ce 5 . Here's my thoughts... I play strats,teles, and les pauls into a variety of fender tube amps. The ce 5 is a very subtle effect for a chorus. It doesn,t do the warbly or vibrato type sounds most look for in a chorus. It primarily " sweetens" chords a bit and adds a thin, high end digital "sheen" when strumming. not necessarily a bad pedal, but it won;t give a fat warm sound either. If your'e looking to add a little "sparkle" to your chord work (think a live eagles type of sound) it;s fine. If your'e looking for the sounds of couldn;t stand the weather, badge- (live,) teen spirit,etc...shop around a little more. Used with a Boss dd-6 delay and playing along with zenyatta mondatta (or whatever the hell it's called) i found the sound just o.k....and a little thin sounding. Hope this helps...

Boss pedals are usually very reliable

I play a little of everything, and have been playing for 25 years. If this chorus was stolen, I doubt i'd replace it. It;s not a terrible pedal, just adequate that;s all. Considering the price and competion, there are better chorus pedals on the market in the same price range.

pretty damn easy to use. not to crazy about the added hi/lo cut knob, kinda found it to be useless.

its a decent chorus for the money. i have heard some guitarist use them and they sound great, but to me it just wasen't working. used mine for 4 years then switch to an older ce-2 model that i have had modded by robert keeley. much better sounding then the ce-5.
the ce-5 sounds lifeless and sterile to me. it doesn't have that nice smooth chorus sound that im after.

its a Boss! these things are like little tanks. they only surviving things after a nuclear war would be cockroches and Boss pedals.

i wouldnt know.

Like I said, its a decent chorus for the money. But if your after that nice lush chorus sound, then try something more along the lines of the MXR Stereo Chorus or the Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus... or a Keeley modded ce-2