Andy's Vintage Picks Video: The Boss CE1 Chorus Ensemble

Over the past few months, Andy has been digging into his collection of classic pedals and pulling out some neat vintage noiseboxes to showcase here on Reverb. So far, we've seen him demo the first distortion box he ever bought—the famed ProCo Rat 2—and a vintage tape delay that's had a place on his board since he was 15 years old, the Maestro Echoplex EP-3 Solid State. This week, Andy has pulled out a very special chorus pedal from his collection that many of you will be familiar with, the Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble.

Arguably the mother of all chorus pedals, the Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble was modeled after the Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120 and even contains the same analog stereo circuit as the amplifier. With the CE-1, Boss intended to give players the same 3D experience as they'd get sitting in front of a Jazz Chorus, but by way of their own amplifier(s).

Unique to this vintage box is that the chorus side is controlled entirely by one knob—Chorus Intensity—that combines the rate and depth parameters into one control. The pedal features a vibrato mode triggered by the right footswitch, similar to the JC-120's except featuring separate speed and depth controls.

Also like the JC-120, the Chorus Ensemble was designed to work with multiple instruments beyond guitar, and features a high and low input gain level control. As Andy suggests, set the left LED of the effect so that it just lights up when you're playing your hardest. Be sure to check out the full video above to see Andy dig into the sounds of the Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble, and click here to look one of your own right here on Reverb.