Today’s guest review comes to us from Scott W. – find him on Instagram (@honey.power) and Facebook (Scott Willems) and say Hi!
The CE-5 Chorus Ensemble is another solid modulation pedal from Boss, packed in the typical Boss housing painted a very satisfying baby blue. It features four knobs: level, rate, depth, and filter – the filter being a dual concentric pot for separate filtering of your bass and treble.
A problem I have with most chorus pedals is the usual lack of adjustable parameters. The CE-5 gives you full control over your tone, as opposed to something like the EHX Small Stone, which only has a depth switch and rate knob – the ability to control the dry/wet level is what sold me. A dry/wet allows you to control the presence of the chorus in your tone, which is crucial if you are running multiple effects at one time. I often run an overdrive in to a fuzz pedal with reverb and a little delay, and choruses with out a dry/wet will easily get lost in that wall of sound. On the CE-5 I can crank the effects level and get a very lush but metallic sounding stereo chorus, giving the movement I want and expect from a modulation pedal. Since I like to run so many effects and dirt pedals at once, the highs can get very hissy, and the lows a bit lumpy – especially if run through a solid state amp. I can easily knock off some of those highs and tighten up the lows with the filter, which really sets the CE-5 apart from other chorus pedals. The rate and depth are pretty straight forward, and the ranges are tamed, which is typical of a Boss pedal.
Being a Boss pedal, the housing is built to last and is very durable. Personally, I hate the Boss housing. It is bulky and ugly, but the color totally makes up for it. Mine is in nearly new condition; the color is bright and contrasts nicely with the black lettering.
I think Boss has a few gems in their lineup, the CE-5 definitely being one of them. It is a very versatile chorus for its price. It can be found online in the $50-60 range – a very competitive price in a market full of chorus pedals.
Specs:
Input Impedance: 1M ohms
Output Impedance: 1k ohms
Recommended Load Impedance: 10k ohms or greater
Residual Noise Level: -93 dBu (IHF-A, Typ.)
Connectors: INPUT Jack, OUTPUT Jack A (mono)/ B, AC Adaptor Jack (DC 9 V)
Power Supply: DC 9 V: Dry Battery 9 V type (6F22/9 V), AC Adaptor
Current Draw: 22 mA (DC 9 V)
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