Boss CE1 vs BOSS CE2

by Spaghettivintage May 24th, 2012

Hello guys,

today I want to talk about two stomp boxes who have characterized the music of the past 40 years: I’m talking about the legendary Boss CE1, the first chorus / vibrato pedal of the history and its successor CE2.

Having both pedals available and having tried a lot in recent years, I can trace similarities and differences, but one thing immediately jumps to the ear, both are head and shoulders of the rest.

The Boss CE1 was the first stereo chorus pedal to be realized (1976) and it’s has a very warm but detailed sound, fantastic on both the clean side that on overdriven one. You could hardly find a better sound ….

On CE1 we have 2 switches, one inserts the effect and the other changes from chorus to vibrato, then there is an input selector high and low, a knob to adjust the chorus and two for vibrato, an on / off switch ,one input and two mono/stereo outputs.

The pedal has a great analog tone, almost three dimensional, a lot of headroom, and has a terrific vibrato / leslie, the best I’ve ever heard.

I’ve often heard 70 and 80’s chorus pedals playing dark, almost phaser like, without thickness, hopelessly dated in sound…well, CE1 is something else and his quotations prove it … .

If you find one do not let him escape, believe me, you might regret it bitterly …

PS also try it on the bass, there’s nothing better around!

Now let’s talk about the Boss CE2, small size and less functionality compared to its predecessor, only 2 knobs, Rate and Depht, operating only in mono. You could say why comparing two so different objects?

Simple, even if they’re different sounding both sound great and it’s impossible to replicate them.

Try the new and less new Boss choruses, no way……

The CE2 has a dynamic and phenomenal heat and this was the most used chorus by musicians all over the world, famous or not: this is the world’s most popular compact chorus!

One last very important thing: often we read about people with chasing only Japan black label Boss pedals because they think they’re always better than Japan or Taiwan green labels, nothing more wrong, the japan blacks are just older and I’ve often heard Taiwan sounding better and / or the same than the others.

Always try the instruments before giving your opinion,

do not be fooled by the bar talk and above all ….

listen to the sounds with your ears, not with your eyes!

See you next time

Luigi Mitola

Spaghettivintage™