Boss CE-2 Clone

[Andre]

I recently got me a completely stripped CE-2 enclosure, even the bottom plate was missing and it looked like it had been under water for some time.
Since I already built a Tonepad CE-2 and I really like the sound, I decided to rebuild this CE-2 as close to the original as possible.
So I cloned the the PCB by copying it from a picture at www.bossarea.com.
I used the original Japanese transistors and ordered all the mechanic parts from Smallbear including
the right size DC-jack and footswitch.
I made a new bottom plate from doublesided PCB material and now I've got me a nice CE-2 Clone.
It does sound a little different from the Tonepad version, but I guess this is caused by the electronic switching.
Sounds very nice though, maybe a little more subtle than Tonepad's.
I will post some pics shortly.

As my PCB design is very close to the original design, I'm not sure if I can post it here, but if anyone is interested
I can email it of course.

André

[audioguy]

Thanks for those files!!

After looking them over for a minute I have a question: What could be used for the transistors? And why does Tonepad only have 5 while this one has 9.

[alfafalfa]

Just sent you a personal message !


Alf

[Andre]

Thanks for those files!!

After looking them over for a minute I have a question: What could be used for the transistors? And why does Tonepad only have 5 while this one has 9.

You can use 2SC1815 from Smallbear for all transistors, and 2SK30 from Smallbear as well, so you won't have any problem with pin-compatibility,
but you could also use almost any NPN transistor like BC549 or 2N5089 and maybe BF245 for FET.

The original CE-2 has 9 transistors because it uses electronic switching instead of true-bypass switching.
There's 2 transistors for the flip-flop, 1 for switching the LED and 1 FET for switching the effect On/Off.

André

[audioguy]

As soon as I posted that I realized that I forgot about the switching.
Can I use 1n914 diodes?
I'll etch it and give it a try later this week.

[sfx1999]

Yes, that's what is used in Tonepad's version of the CE-2. http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=53

I used 2n5089 transistors, a TL072 for the audio opamp, and a TL022 for the LFO. It sounded great until I screwed it up.

[audioguy]

I've built a few of tonepads and they all have had tick issues.. I dont want to get into it here, but I've cured most of them... so Im looking for a solid layout without any tick and looking at the orientation of things on this layout I think it might be a good candidate.

[Andre]

Here are some pics of my rebuild CE-2,
The outside looks like sh*t, but sounds great.




André

[George Giblet]

Very cool!

[DiamondDog]

The outside looks like sh*t

No, that's just the mojo breaking through... 

[tehfunk]

I think you should do this to the enclosure.