Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble

Easy to get good sounds. The manual also provides good guidance. Still a little confised on what the filter controls do. I keep them at 12 o'clock...seemd to work well for me.

Set up is Les Paul/Tele into CE-5 => Rev Drivetrain => Rat Deucetone into Heritage Patriot amp. This pedal is very quiet. What I wanted most in a chorus effect was transparency. My last chorus was Visual Sound H20 analog chorus. I have to say that the H20 added alot of fat mids/darkness to my tone - even after the bucket brigade chip swap. Very noticeable when I would turn it on. Quite a different story with this pedal - extremely clean with lush, smooth chorus. I also think the vibrato setting is really effective. Overall, a very versatile and high quality pedal. I was turned off of chorus for awhile with the H20 - I'd bring it to gigs and not use it. This pedal has really added to the sonic palette. I think digital is better for choruses and reverbs (uh oh - here come the moans from the vintage enthusiasts!!).

Our band plays all kinds of styles. But, its hard to do the Police, or other eighties/light rock tunes without a chorus. Plus, chorus is a staple effect most guitarists should have, acoustic or electric. I would get this pedal again if it was lost. I did compare this pedal to a CH-1, but this pedal I felt had more width and depth to the sound. More sparkle too. Like I said, when it comes to chorus and reverb, I prefer digital over analog - why? - because digital is more transparent to your original signal. That's my opinion, not a technical fact necessarily. I have an Evans jazz amp with digital reverb on board that is really sweet sounding - better than my Fender spring reverb for sure. Also, the Boss reverb pedal sounds outstanding and its digital. Maybe I'll get that next.

It's hard to get a 'bad' sound out of it, unless you dime everything. For me though, I'm glad they put the various suggested settings in the manual. They really helped me get a lot of different flavors I don't think I would have found on my own and I had them dialed in within an hour. Thanks, Boss.

I use this at the end of a pretty long fx chain: Les Paul with Duncan Antiquities-->535Q Wah-->Arion Tubulator(one of the best overdrive boxes I've ever used btw)-->Marshall Guv'nor plus-->Dano EQ-->Ernie Ball Volume (Jr.)-->Arion Digital Delay-->Voodoo Labs Tremolo-->Boss CE-5-->Traynor YCV80 2x12 or Roland JC 120. Effects are powered by a One Spot power supply for the most part.
I got this after using a so-so DOD Icebox from which you could hear oscillation even when bypassed, a Line6 Tone Core chorus which had the same problem as the DOD in bypass, and when turned on made a whole lot of noise. The Boss is DEAD QUIET!!!
Anyway, over the years I had played around with this and other choruses through the usual shite amps that they plug these into in guitar stores, and had thought that it was O.K.--better than its brother the CH-1(which is too middy, 'tin canny' sounding), the digitech x-series chorus (too cold, and again, tin canny), the Ibanez CS9 reissue (which is too tonally over powering IMO--it took over the sound of the guitar too much). The CE-5 sounded the best of the bunch to me. BUT, it wasn't until I got this puppy home through my rig that I could hear how good this chorus really is!! Call it wish fulfillment, but this thing can produce the types of chorus sounds that I always thought a chorus should--it colors your sound just right, no volume boost or cut, just beautiful "lush" chorus right where it should be in the mix...I really like this beast a lot! It can give me nice variations on a lovely theme. And here's what was a surprise to me, it not only sounds great clean (arpeggios, strumming, comping), it sounds really good with distortion (although it's best after distortion in the signal chain, it sounds good before my Traynor's preamp distortion too)! I thought only my JC 120's chorus sounded good with distortion but now I find I actually like the sound of the two together--something I'd never really experienced save with my JC.
Like I said, this chorus has a distinctive sound which you can tweak for different flavors and uses. Everything from deep, slow swirl to JC 120 vibrato (plus the dimed 'sick' warble--of chorus). It adds a great shimmer and makes the sound, for lack of a better term, more juicy or lush. You can get really nice Andy Summers style chorus tone with this pedal--heck,I can even do a passable faux acoustic for rhythm with my Les Paul (well, if you're not toooo picky).
Anyways, this chorus has actually made me realize why chorus has been so popular throughout the years and become such a staple among fx. I had become pretty bored and jaded with chorus--even with my JC 120's, and that's supposed to be the ultimate chorus experience--but now, I actually WANT to turn the CE-5 on and hear the great sounds it gives.
This a flexible pedal and a great addition to my chain. I think it's found a home for quite a while on my board.

Haven't had it that long. But Boss has a good track record.

I've dealt with Roland in the past and the people were polite, professional and helpful

I play a plethora of styles since I play mostly these days for praise and worship at church, which means I have to cover a lot of different styles/sounds--from Hard Rock/almost metal to country gospel to schmaltzy "lounge cheeze"--the U2 type sound is pretty big in contemporary church music too (that's why the extended pedal board, although I've seen busier ones). In this context, chorus is a must have for the slow numbers especially--I try not to over do it, but what are you gonna do when your playing a Les Paul and your band has no acoustic guitarist? And this particular chorus is a great, fresh sounding one which is very musical and pleasing to me.

it's quite easy to get a good sound out of this. It gives you pretty much whatever tools you could need.
The manual's pretty basic, really just tells you what the knobs do, and if you've ever worked with a chorus in the past you know it's pretty much self-explanatory anyways. It gives some ok sample settings; one of my favorites is based pretty closely on one of them.

My usual setup is as follows, give or take certain pedals at times: '79 Strat->CE-5Chorus Ensemble->MT-2 Metal Zone->AW-3 Dynamic Wah->Fender Deluxe.
My setup clean is about as quiet as a Strat gets without some tone-sucking noise reducer. The Metal Zone of course is noisy as hell, but I don't really care much about noise in case you can't tell - that may be why I bought the metal zone instead of some other high-gain device that somehow doesn't make noise. The other pedals don't make much noise at all, unless you count this occasional flange-like sound that the CE-5 makes [which actually can sound pretty cool].
Regardless, noise isn't what we buy effects for, it's for what they sound like! And yes, indeed, this thing sounds goood. It's a very full sound, and it sounds great clean or distorted. Obviously I don't use it with the envelope filter at the same time, but come to think of it that could be kind of cool to try...
You can very easily get a very deep-sounding vintage chorus, or practically a vibrato, or pretty much anywhere in between.
The filter knobs definitely allow for some better tone sculpting. When I play with the Metal Zone on, I cut the low end of the chorus a bit, because this thing can add some serious chunk to power chords. When you use it for solos it just sounds awesome, it adds a lot of chunk and just overall makes your sound much livelier and more noticeable than just with a massive amount of distortion by itself.

It's a Boss, man...it could survive a nuclear holocaust.

I play a lot of different things, from jazz and blues to thrash metal. this thing works very well for literally any form of chorus sound you could need. I've gotten sounds like those on the Chili Peppers' Freaky Styley album [one of my favorite albums of all time], not to mention a good jazz sound and some much trippier stuff. I'm sure I'll find plenty more uses for it along the way.

very easy to use. not a problem at all. unless your noobish.

im ruuning this in this setup.
guitar>JH-1>CE-5>amp
not noisy at all. actually it seems to stop unwanted nnoise from guitar and feedback from the JH-1. the effects you can get aree awesome. if you turn the knobs all the way round clockwise you can get a amazing cool honky tonk keyboard fairground effect. and this with the dist or od sounds even better. its awesome. make dist and od sound v.cool and metallic.

only bought it toady so i woundlt know but solid metal so cant go wrong.

never dealt. so i dont know.

its cool man. get one if you like chorus effect. you can also get an effect like the effect in the intro and verso to freak on a leash by korn. would def. buy another if it broke. it rules

Very easy to get a good sound out of it if you know anything at all about effects and audio. It takes a little tweaking to get the exact filtration that you want, but I like the versatility of having that as an option.

I am using this with a Schecter C1+ (Duncan Distortion bridge) and an all-tube Crate VFX5112. Other stuff in the signal chain: Boss DD-3, MT-2, and sometimes MXR Phase 100. I've been playing for 18 years, and I always carefully evaluate my gear and sounds. This makes the cut.

I LOVE THIS CHORUS. This is the chorus sound I've always wanted. It's warm and "modern" sounding, I guess. It's very good for swelling out a sound like clean arpeggios, and it doesn't destroy your distortion, though it really doesn't do a doubling sound with distortion, more like it adds a subtle fatness. Very importantly: my guitar still sounds like my guitar. There is no flattening of the bass or mids.

Other stuff I tried in the "Quest for Chorus": Maxon CS-9 Pro: That was warmer, but it never really sounded much like a chorus! More like a doubler. MXR M-134: Much more warm and present than the Maxon, BUT you couldn't turn it up too far, or it did that STUPID Leslie thing where the volume fades. (No offense if you use a Leslie or a Leslie simulator: have a good time with it...what I mean is that it's stupid to think you're buying a CHORUS and then have it act like a Leslie.) Also tried the Digitech X-Series Chorus. When I stopped laughing, I tried the reissue Ibanez CS-9: much thicker than the Maxon, but also kind of muddy. Finally, I tried the Boss CH-1, which has more presence than the CE-5, but a lot less depth to the sound. I did my homework, and settled on this.

Fair Warning: This pedal is DIGITAL. If you read the manual, it says so; there's a disclaimer of compliance with European standards for digital signal processing. HOWEVER...it doesn't sound digital (I used to own a Line 6 Spider 112, I have also a Digitech RP50 for practicing late at night, and I also have the built-in effects in Cakewalk Guitar Tracks 3.) I KNOW what lame digital choruses sound like, and I know what fairly high-end analog choruses sound like. This is WARM, and it feels GREAT.

I know that there are certain things that should NEVER be digital (distortion, mostly, and also in my experience, phasers) and some things that are fine (reverb, delay). I used to think I had to have an analog chorus. Then I got this. Problem solved! It's a lot cheaper, too! And remember, if you're going to CD...it's ALL digital sooner or later....

It's a BOSS. Five-year warranty!

Never dealt with them. I hate that you can't register online without selecting a stupid "free" magazine offer. I send in the cards instead...hey Roland Corp, you do realize that the Return Postage Costs you money that you would have saved if I just filled it out online....hello, is this thing on? Thonk, thonk, test, one-two....

I play rock, and metal with some punk thrown in. I love Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Who, some G'N'R (if you turn the vocals down...) and this is perfect for what I want. If I lost this, I'd go and buy one the same day. I don't say that about any of my other pedals. This is essential to me. I love it. It doesn't distort with my butt-kicking (ahem, "high-output") humbucker, even though the manual says it can happen. (My guitar will overload MXR Phase 90s, Ibanez PT-9s, etc.)
This obviously helps me make music. It sounds better and is more versatile than anything else I've tried.

It sounds very clean, very clear, and it doesn't kill your tone. I looked for YEARS to find the right bridge humbucker, and if anything interferes with my tone, I remove it. (See my review of the Boss PH-3, which I thought was terrible.) In short: I can't believe this is so good for so little money. I love the looks of Boss stuff, and the reliability. (MXR pedals are UGLY and I HATE the switches...) I love the sound of this pedal, it's now ESSENTIAL for me, and I don't say that about very many things. Maybe this isn't what you want, you should always try out different things. But this is the sound I wanted.

This pedal is vert easy to use,the manual gives you some idea of how to use it and some sound examples and what each knob does,it's good enough because the pedal alone is easy to work but tons of pages an a manual is off-putting for some people like me anyway.

My setup is a Fender Strat -> Bigg Muff by EHX -> The Whammy by Digitech -> The Weapon by Digitech -> Boss Wah V-10 -> Boss Chorus -> Marshall amp. The Boss chorus is fairly quiet. The more Rate you put then you can hear a fuzzy vibrato from the amp.The chorus effects are warming to your sound and cancell out that cold mettalic sound, the sounds are very natural and haven't got any roboticness about it, it's EXCELLENT FOR KORN SOUNDS as it's the very pedal they use. you can get the chime replica from falling away from me,all in the family verse parts and for it's on nd freak on a leash you can get a similar flange sound like the electric mistress and vibrato.it's nice for song like the zephyr song by the red hot chili peppers because its warming and has that type of sound.

Yes this Pedal is very reliable, you could set 50 rock weilers on it and it would still be in one piece and i wouldn't find it neccesary to use a backup when gigging.

I play mostly korn and red hot chili peppers and its good for both.ive been playing for over a year and have been into fx pedals since i started and im quite hooked on them.Yes if it were lost or stolen i would by another one.My favourite feature is the chime sound and flange effect but the only thing im not keen on is the design, it's not the nicest looking pedal ive got but i supose its whats on the inside that matters like the sound etc.I compared this with the electric mistress flanger but i prefered this one because this sounds more natural and it's way cheaper.

My first chorus pedal, and it is dead simple. Within 5 minutes I had tweaked the sound to a nice wet warble and was having a ball.

this is my first chorus pedal, so I'm not sure I'm extremely qualified to judge. I found it warm, with a nice shimmery high end. Has a nice range and depth, although beyond halfway the depth can get a little outta hand. Used it with a Dano U1, and a Dano Baritone. Sounded much better with the U1, the baritone's low end gets way too muddy.
Seemed to be a bit of noise coming out of it, but one of my other pedals is acting up, so it's more likely that.

from all of read and seen - yes. absolutely. mine was gently used, and appears to be standing up very well.

n/a

I'll be using this for singer/songwriter solo material and rock. I've been playing for over 10 years, but am just starting to explore the electrical gadgets. So far this is going to be a great tool for adding a little colour to the sound.
I've got a Dano U1, a Dano Baritone (original, no-effects model) and a Yamaha SG500. nothing worth a mint, but all good enough. Pedals = Boss CE 5>Custom Made Dyna Comp>Line 6 Delay Modeler>Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

Fairly easy to tweak the knobs and get different sounds out of it. Has a level, rate, depth, and hi/low cut knobs. The manual is basic but shows some good settings. Anybody with a little effects knowledge should not have a problem tweaking this pedal.

I play a yamaha AES guitar into a Mesa Mark III and a custom 2x12 cab. On my effects board I run a Maxon compressor, Fulltone FDII, Barber DD, MXR phase 90, Fulltone supa-trem, and Digitech Digidelay.

A lot of people will love this pedal and a lot will hate it, just read the reviews below. But heres the thing about chorus...there are different kinds that do different things well and if you understand the limitations of certain pedals you will know how to use them. With that said the CE-5 is not for everyone! It is not and pedal that give a vintage analog chorus sound and people who expect it to be will be dissapointed. But...it gives a great warm, modern chorus sound that can go from subtle to lush to semi-leslie.

I for one am a bigger fan of this type of chorusing because I like to use chorus to fill out my sound rather than as a special effect. I have owned a lot of viontage choruses, Ross, Voodoo Lab, Ibanez, Boss CE-2. Those are great pedals too but the CE-5 is a little different in its own right.

The things I like most about it is it has the mix knob so I can bring down the effect of the chorusing. It also has the Hi-Lo cut so I can tame any upper frequencies that tend to get out of control with a lot of chorus pedals. Lastly, there is no tone loss or volume boost that I can tell when this pedal is engaged. It can go from very subtle chorusing to more lush swirling to a vibrato/leslie type chorus.

Standard Boss...built well!

Never had to deal with them.

Great Pedal...just don't expect it to be a vintage analog pedal. They do their thing and this does its. It will give a good vintage vibe but is probably not as lush and "effectful" as vintage pedal. But like I stated sometimes the vintage thing is good and sometimes it not. It really depends on the music and sound you are looking for and for me the CE-5 fits the bill well for most occasions.

the knobs are labled so if you are familiar at all with pedals then its a no brainer

it sounds great if set right. also, you can cover many sounds with it. i thinkl some people are expecting it to do more than a chorus effect, but it covers many chorus varieties.

when plugged in it was set to that "dying warble" sound thats hardly useful. also, i didnt hear the rich ensemble sound i was expecting. so you really have to tweak it, dont get me wrong, it has alot of very good, usable sounds - but with all the control over this pedal (with the knobs) you have to find them.

you may turn the rate up for a faster warble, but you may might need to fool with the other knobs to make that setting sound sweet.

i mostly use it for the lush, slow chorus effect. i use a strat>fuzz/octace up>boss chorus>tremelo>echo/delay>marshall. i sometimes throw my DOD chorus in line after the delay to get different "warbles" on the repeats. very shimmery sounds, with ot without the added DOD, most of the time its in my closet

its a boss, i'll give it a good review for the fact that its built like a tank.....you wouldnt want me to throw it at you, would ya?

i dont know, i hope i dont have to find out

it sounds great and i usually dont give anything an overall 9, but this pedal is worth it.

like i mentioned ealier, there are alot of great settings that sound sweet clean or with more gain, but you may have to turn more than just the "rate" knob to find them. in other words.......just because you need a fsater warble does not mean simply turning up the rate to speed things up will give you a fast shimmer that is as lush and spacious as the previous setting, you may have to fiddle with the high/low cut knobs........but you will find it!

The controls are pretty self-explanatory, but you need to spend some time fine-tuning to get that perfect sound.

I play a Strat and a Tele with Seymour Duncan pickups, with and without overdrive, into Fender tube amps. Pretty basic. I often use a Boss RV-5 at the end of the chain set for just a slight amount of reverb, which works well with the CE-5 Chorus.

There has been alot of discussion on this forum about the similarities/differences between the Boss CE-5 and the Boss CH-1. I didn't know which to buy, so I bought both used and did my own "shootout" for a couple of days. Here is what I found:

NOISE: Both pedals are as quiet as church mice.

RATE: At the minimum settting, both pedals have indiscernably slow rates. At max, however, the CH-1 runs at about 4 cycles per second, while the CE-5 runs at about 8 cycles per second. This higher rate is actually useful with the depth turned down low.

TONE CONTROL: The CH-1 has a single "EQ" knob which has a very subtle effect. The CE-5 has a dual pot "Filter" control for bass and treble, and has a much greater and more useful effect on the tone. Note that the CE-5 controls are tone "cut" controls, so "normal" is full CW (not mid-range).

DEPTH: With the Depth control full CW, CH-1 has a deeper and richer sound than the CE-5.

GENERAL SOUND QUALITY: The CH-1 has a slightly colder, more "modern" sound than the CE-5 which is a bit warmer and more organic. This difference is subtle, and may simply be differences in EQ.

OVERALL RATING: The CE-5 has more range in its "Filter" (EQ) and Rate controls, making it somewhat more versatile than the CH-1. The CE-5 also has a slightly "warmer" sound. However, the CH-1 chorus efffect itself is deeper than the CH-1. So it was a toss-up until...

MODS: I immediately found a schematic for the CE-5 to try to figure out how to improve the depth of the effect. After several hours of fiddling I found the magic bullet: Change C22 from 5pF to 22pF (or just solder a 22 pF across C22 on the back of the board). Increasing C22 increases the amount of delay through the bucket-brigade IC (analog delay). Increasing C22 to 22pF has a dramatic and wonderful effect on the depth of the chorus effect.

If you fell inspired, try 22pF or other values until you get the sound you want. Radio Shack sells a nice assortment of ceramic capacitors that includes useful values for this mod. (RS part number 272-809). Email me if you have questions.

END RESULT: With this C22 mod, I LOVE the CE-5! It has the great range and versatility in the tone and rate controls plus a great depth in the chorus effect. I am keeping the CE-5 and selling the CH-1.

RATING: Without mod: 8 With mod: 10

Unless you roll over it with your Hummer, it should last forever. Although I have heard of people breaking Boss pedals, so I guess I'm not very athletic.

Never tried, never needed.

Lately, I've been playing alot of Neil Young tunes which can range from heavy overdrive lead to open, clean strummed chords and arpeggios.

I generally use the CE-5 for the clean, open chords and arpeggios. Chorus doesn't seem too useful for distorted lead or overdriven power chords. With a little care in setting the controls, I can get a nice warm or spacey chorus that doesn't call attention to itself. With the rate turned up high and the depth down low, I can get a nice little vibrato-like effect.

If I lost this pedal, I would definitely get another one and do the C22 mod.