Boss - CE-3 Chorus Ensemble  [schematic]

All about modern commercial stompbox circuits from Electro Harmonix over MXR, Boss and Ibanez into the nineties.
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indyguitarist
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Post by indyguitarist »

BOSS-CE-3-SERVICE-NOTES.pdf
(386.47 KiB) Downloaded 2069 times

At aron's I found this link

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

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Boss CE3 Chorus Ensemble schematic
Boss CE3 Chorus Ensemble schematic
Last edited by modman on 25 May 2015, 10:55, edited 1 time in total.

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puppiesonacid
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Post 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.


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Post 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
In the interest of full disclosure, I am Animal Factory Amplification.

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kaluablue
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Post 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 :-)

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Post 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.

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Post 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 :-)

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Post by abfackeln »

Gut shots as promised.....
This appears to be an "older" unit - uses the ACA (12v) adapter.
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003.jpg
019.jpg
010.jpg
014.jpg
016.jpg
017.jpg
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Post by Rocket Roll »

From service manual:
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Boss-CE-3.jpg

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Post 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

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Post by abfackeln »

You know us yanks can't handle metric!

Length = 8.9cm
Width = 6cm
Image

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Post 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.

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Post 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?
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Post 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
Image

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Post 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:
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Post 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.

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Post by whosyourdaddy »

Cheers, any progress here? :|
Has anyone redrawn this? [smilie=a_ohyahbaby.gif]

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Post 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:

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Post by batteryacidtea »

I need to true-bypass one of those. Can anybody explain how do I remove the buffers?

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Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

KindaFuzzy wrote: Image
As that a crack on that 4558?
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

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Post 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.

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