CE-2 clone

[ampman50]

I finally finished my CE-2 and played it for two hours Friday night. NICE REALLY RAELLY NICE.

I want to thanks the guys at Tonepad for the PCB. Great job. The only problem I had was that I wired the Millenium Bypass wrong.

[Mark Hammer]

Didja do any of the mods,or is it a stock 2-knobber?

Adding some mods helps to turn it from an "Okay, enough already.  I get it.  It's a CHORUS!!" to something you don't mind using in different ways in different  contexts.  You'd be surprised what being able to make a chorus subtle does for its usability.

[jonathan perez]

using a 100pF cap in place of the 47pF, with the depth rolled all the way off, makes for a really cool, but usuable, filter type tone. i use it all the time...i got the idea after listening to the solo breaks during In My Time of Dying by Led Zeppelin...i wanted that cool "nasty filter" tone, and just experimented with effects until i found it...

i love my CE2...

[ampman50]

I built it stock.

[Mark Hammer]

Okay, then you're halfway there.

Being able to mix the wet signal in the background is great.
Being able to produce vibrato is great.
being able to cut the bass out of the wet signal for a more wobble-free chorus is great.
Shifting the clock range a bit up or a bit down is also great.

[jonathan perez]

Okay, then you're halfway there.

Being able to mix the wet signal in the background is great.
Being able to produce vibrato is great.
being able to cut the bass out of the wet signal for a more wobble-free chorus is great.
Shifting the clock range a bit up or a bit down is also great.

how do you cut the bass?

[Andre]

I also finished my Tonepad CE-2 clone. No mods done yet.
I sounds really nice but much more subtle then other choruses I built like Zombie Chorus and Small Clone.
Also the speed range is much smaller than the other ones.

Is this normal CE-2 behaviour ?

I did find some soundsamples, but I cannot really compare the speed and depth range.

André

[Unclerny]

I built one also and I'd have to say that the standard build is a smoother less in you face chorus.  I like it.  I used the heavy chorus mod and the vibrato mod and did it with one switch!!!  Mouser has a DPTP on-on-on that will let you do the three settings from the one switch.  Cool!

I have to say I don't like the vibrato as it's not even in it's wave more of a hump on one end of the sweep.  I won't build that mod into anymore of them if I build any more of them.

I really love the chorus.  It really blends into the sound rather than dominates it.

UE

[jonathan perez]

mine is incredibly in your face....im not complaining, but subtle is an understatement.

[lowstar]

yeah, it should not be subtle...especially compared to a small clone...maybe somethings not right...

btw i love mine...built it with bass mods (fx blend pot + cap switching), and it´s my no1 stage chorus...with fretless bass in ce-2b mode, it just kills !
it kicked my t.c. right off the board !

cheers,
lowstar

[Mark Hammer]

The subtlety, or lack thereof, stems partly from variations in the small-value clock cap.  You'd be surprised at how much a simple shift of 2-3msec in the sweep range of a chorus can do to the apparent "thickness" of it and how in-your-face it is.

The other thing to consider is the wet-dry balance.  The CE-2 uses a pair of resistors to mix the wet plus dry, and with all those 5% tolerances in there, variations in balance can occur that undermine the intensity of the effect.  That's one of the reasons why I like to install a "mix" pot that consists of a fixed resistor a bit less than the stock value, in series with a variable resistance.  In this case, that would be the next common value down from R22 (47k) that you might have in your parts bin.  I do this because it provides a range of adjustment of wet from just more than dry to much less than dry.  This allows me to dial in a perfect 50/50 balance, plus assorted degrees of subtleness below that.

how do you cut the bass?

That is listed as the wet bass cut on the Corrral document.

[Andre]

Thanks for all your replies and sorry  ampman50    if I hijacked you thread.

I will try the wet/dry mix pot and fiddle around with the  BBD clock  cap tonight.
I will record some before and after soundclips too.

André

[Andre]

Here is a soundclip of my unmodded CE-2:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jvcn0028/CE-2%20Demo.mp3

The clip has 3 fragments. Depth is max on all three.
Speed is min, mid and max.
The second fragment sounds very nice I think.

Adding the dry/wet trimpot results in some more depth, but increasing the clock cap to 100pF really makes a difference,
so I will definately add the depth mod with a 47p cap.

Since it was too late to record another soundclip with the mods done, that will have to wait until later this week.

André

[Andre]

While listening the soundclip again, it's not that subtle at all, just little less deep than the other ones i built.

BTW I increased the speed range by changing R32 from 1M to 470k, which was mentioned in one of the CE-2 build comments over at
Tonepad.

Since I just came home, it is again too late (00:42) to record a soundclip of the now modded CE-2.


André

[jonathan perez]

i decided to dump the idea of having a pair of 47pF caps in parallel...

and instead have a bunch in series.

i think ive got 4 in series. and, with the switch up, just one 47pF.

anyways, the flanging sound isnt above par, by any means, but DAMN! i built a chorus/flange!!!!

it sounds pretty cool, and its usuable. i mean, it wont knock off my ibanez DFL, but it will do PERFECT for certain solos...

i need an on-on-on switch, eventuallly....so i can go from flange, to chorus, to deep vibrato thing...

anyways, i thank mark hammer for that information!

ill post soundclips on my wah page tomorrow morning...

[Mark Hammer]

Series switching of caps is desirable because it avoids the popping that comes from having a "hanging" cap with nowhere to drain off.  The only down side is that sometimes the standard cap values on't let you dial in *exactly* what you want as easily as they do with parallel caps.

In your case you may want to consider a 68pf and 100pf in series, wired to a 3-position on-off-on toggle.  Together (centre position), you get roughly 40pf, which is a bit shorter delay range than stock.  Shunt the 100pf, and you have 68pf.  Shunt the 68pf and you have 100pf.  Those 3 settings will make for nice "character shifts" in a chorus.  If you want the shortest delay range to be more like flanging, then go for 56pf + 100pf.  In series, they'll give you 36pf which will moved the CE-2 closer to slow Leslie range.

[jaman]

Does anyone know how to give more speed to CE-2 ? I would get a "lesslish" sound

[jonathan perez]

R32 to 470k

[Andre]

This is a soundclip of my CE-2 with depth and speed mod.

I tried to create a leslie like sound.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jvcn0028/CE-2Demo_Leslie.mp3

André