Modifying a Boss CE-5 for more headroom ?

[mthibeau]

I have two 90's analog Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble pedals, I love the mellow stereo chorus they produce.

But they have little headroom, a humbucker strength signal causes it to distort. It even seems that the buffer distorts when the Chorus is off.

What is interesting is that my 80's CE-3 doesn't seem to have the same clip problems, but I am not a fan of that Chorus as much as the CE-5.

Any ideas or Tips on squeezing some more bandwidth out of these chorus pedals?

The service manual has the schematic - http://www.eserviceinfo.com/downloadsm/41772/Boss_CE5T.html

- Thanks

[mistahead]

Dirty hack around the buffer - make sure its not the only thing causing the issue - if it is bypass it/replace it.

[Mark Hammer]

Sometimes, it's not the circuit, as such, but the switching FETs.  They DO have their limits.  As it is, looking at the schematic, it seems to provide some attenuation before going into the delay chip, and a little more gain recovery than usual, in the output stage.  Seems to me you're sort of stuck here.