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Boss - CE-3 Chorus Ensemble  [schematic]

Posted: 29 Aug 2007, 13:08
by indyguitarist
BOSS-CE-3-SERVICE-NOTES.pdf
(386.47 KiB) Downloaded 2071 times

At aron's I found this link

Not a valid link anymore, anyone have this schem?
Thanks,
Brian


Re: Boss - CE-3 ( Chorus )

Posted: 22 Feb 2009, 20:17
by puppiesonacid
I speculate that the way huge blue hippo chorus is a modified CE-3. this is based on an interview I read with Jeorge Tripps (that I can't remember) that some semi famous artist brought his CE-3 to him and he modified it. short thereafter Way Huge came out with the blue hippo chorus pedal. Just speculating but hey who knows... maybe we could look into it. briefly looking at the blue hippo gut shot I would say its a close match.


puppiesonacid

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 27 Oct 2009, 05:34
by flood
i have a CE-3, didn't think all that much of it. will take gutshots and upload.

never taken gutshots before... any resolution i should be aiming for?

maybe i can shoot the pic with my dad's eos ds1 mkIII :D i don't think we'll have any resolution hitches then!

will take a decent pic... in the meantime, here is some info for you:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/sho ... ?t=2267693

http://www.synthdiy.com/files/2007/bossce-3.jpg

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/sho ... p=30667465

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 27 Oct 2009, 09:37
by kaluablue
Hi
Beto Crazy posted a bunch of Boss schematics and service manuals including the CE3:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6088&hilit=boss#p63964
I think the CE3 is underrated ... There are some tricks built in: it can do that vibrato thing, it has a volume compensation and provides some more low frequencies. Features, people were asking for regarding the CE2 ...
Stock it doesn't sound very interesting, so that's the reason to mod it.

- Do the speed mod: either reduce C28 to .047 or reduce R52 to 470k (the latter is much easier to do, because the .1 cap is glued to the TL022 chip). Both will double the max speed of the modulation.
- increase the delay time: change R40 from 150k to 180k. This will increase the depth of the modulation. (just play with that, perhaps put a trimmer in at first. The delay time also influences the overall voice of the effect.)
- Aditionally you can tailor the bass response to your liking with C21. For me it sounded too boxy, so I reduced that to 0.033 - original CE2 value. (the bass choruses CE2b and CE3b both came with 0.012 stock ...)
- alter the volume compensation R18 (when the effect is on, this resistor is parallelled to R19 in the feedback loop of the first opamp stage, thus reducing the gain of dry and wet signal.) Make this one bigger to get a slightly stronger effect signal, or just remove it completely.
-Finally replace the electrolytic caps C3, C7 and C8 with quality film caps and the 4558 opamps with NE5532 or OPA2134 or or or ... for more hifi.

At least this is what i have done to mine ;-) and it's a very tasty chorus now.

Have a nice day :-)

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 27 Oct 2009, 10:36
by cpm
i got one CE3 in for minor work: lifting the diode to ground, the power supply issue with early adapters

the fact is i liked how it sounds, so i bought one cheap off ebay, it on its way right now.

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 28 Oct 2009, 07:55
by kaluablue
... a little more on topic than my previous post :oops: ...
There are two good pics, both sides of the board, on http://bossarea.com/forum/ in their 'Internal Pictures of Boss & Other pedals' thread, page 2.
But I think anyone here would appreciate more pics :-)

When searching for information about the CE3 myself some time ago, I was a litttle disappointed about finding almost nothing here on FSB.

Have a nice day :-)

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 28 Oct 2009, 10:31
by abfackeln
Gut shots as promised.....
This appears to be an "older" unit - uses the ACA (12v) adapter.

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 28 Oct 2009, 21:12
by Rocket Roll
From service manual:

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 28 Oct 2009, 22:54
by himister
Good job Rocket. Thanks :wink: One small thing..I would like to know exact width and length of the pcb..if it's not much to ask. Metric please... :oops:

x-ray copy.jpg

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 28 Oct 2009, 23:48
by abfackeln
You know us yanks can't handle metric!

Length = 8.9cm
Width = 6cm

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 29 Oct 2009, 00:11
by KindaFuzzy
Finally a pedal I have, that I can share gut shots. Mine must be newer, I bought it in the late '90s for $50 at the hock shop.

Image
Image
Image
Image

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 29 Oct 2009, 00:49
by rocklander
abfackeln wrote:Gut shots as promised.....
This appears to be an "older" unit - uses the ACA (12v) adapter.
I have the same model (so if any more pics are needed I'm happy to do some too), but what's the deal with the 12V supply?
why can it take a 9V battery, but DC from adapter needs to be 12V. it's the main reason I don't gig mine and am building a small clone instead :?

can they be tweaked to take the 9V supply?

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 29 Oct 2009, 01:00
by abfackeln
rocklander wrote:I have the same model (so if any more pics are needed I'm happy to do some too), but what's the deal with the 12V supply?
why can it take a 9V battery, but DC from adapter needs to be 12V. it's the main reason I don't gig mine and am building a small clone instead :?

can they be tweaked to take the 9V supply?
Looks like it....

The early compact pedals was designed to run on either a 9V DC battery or 12V DC adapter. Because of this the ACA adapter was a 12V adapter. The voltage was reduced to 9V internally by using a 470 Ohm resistor and 1S2473 diode between the minus input on the power jack and ground. The resistor diode pair was later removed and at the same time the ACA adpater was redesigned to output 9V instead.
Taken from this page:
http://www.bossarea.com/other/aca.asp

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 29 Oct 2009, 01:09
by rocklander
abfackeln wrote:
rocklander wrote:I have the same model (so if any more pics are needed I'm happy to do some too), but what's the deal with the 12V supply?
why can it take a 9V battery, but DC from adapter needs to be 12V. it's the main reason I don't gig mine and am building a small clone instead :?

can they be tweaked to take the 9V supply?
Looks like it....

The early compact pedals was designed to run on either a 9V DC battery or 12V DC adapter. Because of this the ACA adapter was a 12V adapter. The voltage was reduced to 9V internally by using a 470 Ohm resistor and 1S2473 diode between the minus input on the power jack and ground. The resistor diode pair was later removed and at the same time the ACA adpater was redesigned to output 9V instead.
Taken from this page:
http://www.bossarea.com/other/aca.asp
nice.. that mod would make it more usable for me at least.. thanks :applause:

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 29 Oct 2009, 05:10
by cpm
rocklander wrote: nice.. that mod would make it more usable for me at least.. thanks :applause:
locate the (-) connection on the board from the DC jack. the pad right besides it is GND (fro the battery), so just put a small jumper.

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 10 Nov 2009, 12:30
by whosyourdaddy
Cheers, any progress here? :|
Has anyone redrawn this? [smilie=a_ohyahbaby.gif]

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 10 Nov 2009, 12:59
by himister
whosyourdaddy wrote:Cheers, any progress here? :|
Has anyone redrawn this? [smilie=a_ohyahbaby.gif]
Maybe someone would like to try using this technique.
Corel or Inkscape would be the answer.

Komšija dali si zainteresovan?
:wink:

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 09 Dec 2009, 03:41
by batteryacidtea
I need to true-bypass one of those. Can anybody explain how do I remove the buffers?

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 09 Dec 2009, 18:06
by Dirk_Hendrik
KindaFuzzy wrote: Image
As that a crack on that 4558?

Re: Boss CE-3 Chorus

Posted: 09 Dec 2009, 20:29
by KindaFuzzy
No, not a crack, good eye though. I opened it up and it was just a hair or something stuck to the chip.