Boss CE-2 Chorus eats sustain

[Nuts]

Hi,
My chorus pedal decrease the sustain of my guitar .
Is there anythig that I can do to bring the sustain back, by changing something ?
Thanks,
Nuts.

[alanlan]

Does it sound distorted?

Have you checked your battery?

Has it been modified?

[jimbob]

I really like/love my ce-2 but Im planning to send it to Keeley to have it modified  ect... Ill tell ya how it turns out. If u do choose to make some changes you might consider changing out the electros while your at it. Im doing this cause I like the idea of the speedy control and needed the electros replaced anyways.



According to the info on his page

-High Fidelity Upgrades with over 12 changes to the BOSS CE-2 circuit!!! -
All electrolytic caps replaced, they get old just like in a tube amp!

* Pair of electrolytics swapped out for Metal Film to reduce 3rd order harmonics and distortion.
* Maximum performance, Gold-Socket Burr Brown (same company that brings you the finest D/A converters) op-amp used to decrease noise and increase fidelity.
* Power supply filter modded so that standard power supplies work better. Higher voltage leads to better headroom.
* 2 version of the mod available--Standard HI-FI and the SPEEDY CE-2.
* SPEEDY CE-2 has much increased rate control. Get crazy pitch-bending effects like the Clone Chorus!
* The SPEEDY CE-2 still gets super slow rates, so nothing is is lost, just speed to gain!
* In the Speed mod, you get all of the hi-fi mods, plus we make a circuit board with additional upgrades and a small potentiometer to have a MASTER speed control. This allows you to have full control, from slower than stock speeds, to zany pitch-bending weirdness! All with a super fine tone of the Hi-fi modification.


Of course  I COULD mess with it my self, but Id rather spend that time on new effects Im building and more likely/easier to replace if i mess something up.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

The only way it could decrease the sustain, that I can think of, is if it has a noise gate 9or downward expander) in there. Which acts as the reverse of a compressor.

[Nuts]

It's realy tiny tiny, almost unheard overdrive.
I'm using it with a power supply...
I did some changes, but the sustain problem was from the start...


jimbob, to double the chorus rate, you only need to replace the 0.1uF capacitor (in the upper left corner) with a 0.047uF capacitor.

[R O Tiree]

I've had this a couple of times - a tiny bit of distortion where there shouldn't be any, particularly as the note is dying away, and notes do not sustain as normal. So, get yourself a jeweller's loupe like this:- http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=32331&criteria=loupe&doy=15m2.

Your beautiful soldering will now look like craters on the moon, but you will instantly spot bad joints, pads where you forgot to solder, whiskers of solder between traces, etc, etc.

Hard to diagnose without seeing it but, assuming your PCB layout is correct, then it must be either a short between 2 traces, or a bad joint. Or something is in the wrong way round, like a diode, perhaps.

Check, re-check and triple-check. You'll find it.

[Mark Hammer]

One of the difficulties with the CE-2 is that it uses the MN3007 BBD chip.

  Why is THAT a problem?

Simple.  When the bias voltage is set juuuuuuuuuussssst right on a BBD, the delay sound is clean.  Set it a little high or a little low, and it gets distorted.  The CE-2, and other chorus pedals of its generation that used an MN3007, would take the 9v battery supply, and divide it down with a trimpot (or sometimes a pair of fixed resistors), and use that for the bias voltage.  If the power supply was a steady 9vdc, then whatever you set the bias to would likely work optimally when you plugged in 2 months, 8 months, 2 years later.  If you ran the thing off a battery, though, over time the battery voltage would start to drop, and the original factory trimpot setting would become invalid, or at least less valid.

Enter the MN3207, that could run fine off 5vdc.  Boss and othermanufacturers would then feed the 9v battery to an onboard 5v regulator, and feed that steady-as-a-rock 5vdc to both the BBD and the bias circuit.  Set the bias once, and fuggedaboudit!

So, if the distortion you hear is there with a regulated 9v supply OR a battery, then you have other problems (perhaps only a simple rebias is needed).  If using a PSU cleans it up then the odds are very high that the bias-drift from a lower battery is the source of the problem.

Note as well, that when the bias is set really wrong (i.e., higher or lower than what merely generates distorted delay sound), the BBD won't pass ANY signal.

Can a chorus reduce overall sustain?  Sure.  How?  Hold a note at high volumes and the sonic feedback from the speakers keeps the strings in motion.  Stick some modulation in there that breaks up the feedback into little bursts of energy and you won't get the same  outcome.

[R O Tiree]

Serves me right for assuming it was a home-built and not a commercial one...

[finkfloyd]

Dont mean to steal the thread but I bought one of these, it dosent have a label on the back but it uses the 4558 ic, so i dont know whether its a black or green label, but is this effect meant to be a very mild chorus?

I mean I can hear it etc.. but it isnt as thick as most other choruses i have tried, it seems to be a very transparent effect, its hard to explain, the effect is there etc but it isnt as defined and prominent as other chouses.

[george]

try twiddling the big plastic trimmer on the pcb