Vintage MIJ Boss CE-2 Chorus Repair and Modification!

[@mattkelley4860]

Whenever someone tells me their vintage Boss pedal isn't working the first thing I ask them is "Did you try it with a battery?" Most people use power supplies these days and aren't initially aware of the Boss ACA adapter.

[@dimitrisking7590]

Thanks (this pedal made it in August-1982)

[@grahamnunn8998]

I two of these for years. I sold the silver button one and modded the other one. The best mod was to rip out the noisy op amps and then mod the rate circuit to make it go faster. When I made a BYOC copy I did these as standard.

[@joepeezy4sheezy]

Yes the old pedals have a “USE BOSS ACA ADAPTER ONLY” tag on them. So you can bypass that circuit to use with modern 9v supplies. Or if you don’t want to, you can leave it as is and many power supplies have a 12v tap. I modded my LM2 and could care less about originality. I’d rather be able to use it.

[@300PercentFlyingV]

Thanks for the walkthrough!

[@t.nieblas2679]

The boss ACA to PSA mod is super easy and worth it in my opinion. I own a lot of MIJ boss pedals and I have done the mod to all of them. It’s very practical

[@MaxPower-js1sk]

It was made in August 1982. That pedal has had an interesting life.

[@Mywheel]

Fantastic Video! Very interesting. Subscribed. Thnaks from Germany

[@serranodavid3247]

Excellent video

[@elvisalivetone]

Good to know about this adapter trick, really unexpected 😓

[@pacificplazacircuits]

Lmao I've been finishing up a video on repairing a (different) chorus pedal this week! Its from the CE family but its not a Boss pedal... Great video as always dude!!

[@graybenchelec]

I'll have to check it out!

[@AndreaAustoni]

Very cool, I learned a lot. Thanks.

[@JackNance22]

Thanks for another great one, Joe.

[@graybenchelec]

Thanks!

[@oscarm4154]

I saw it within the first 30 sec when you connected the 9v😊

[@mattcoen]

Thanks! This was really helpful.

[@greenguitarfish]

I think it would have made sense to investigate more before you took it apart. If you had checked the sound of the pedal and the battery first, you likely would have known the main problem, but you still would have wanted to investigate those large pots and correct that, so….its all good.

[@gregmize01]

THANKS JOE!

[@peterschaefer1665]

Very cool!

[@adeptgopnik]

I see a boss chorus pedal with initials R.Smith and wonder if someone in the past sold it as a Robert Smith owned pedal or something. It is a very common last name though, so maybe not.

[@adeptgopnik]

I made the same mistake with my first boss ACA pedal. Now I take out the dumb resistor and diode in them. Thats at least all I had to do in my chorus and ge7

[@dt9r]

it wasn't dumb back in the days, it was that stabilized power supply for pedal weren't so common

[@adeptgopnik]

@@dt9r agreed

[@sdbanotts]

Very interesting vid. I was just stopping by as I love the Ce-2...What's the thing you used to take the solder away from the lugs on the pot you were putting in? Nifty!

[@graybenchelec]

That's called desoldering wick, specifically Chemtronics #4

[@sdbanotts]

Cool, thank you​@@graybenchelec

[@AlainHubert]

I knew a Boss compact pedal couldn't be defective. 😉

[@graybenchelec]

Haha it does happen on occasion, but they're well built no doubt.

[@michaelanderson5560]

Thank you!

[@hoganshideout]

Another option for the old ACA pedals: If you chain it with a standard 9 volt pedal it will cause the ACA pedal to receive the full 9 volts so it will then operate fine on a 9 volt power supply.

[@traviswaynedoyle]

First off, thank you for putting the time into creating these videos. Very interesting and fun. Second, if I am understanding correctly would you have been able to connect that pedal to a bench power supply set to 12v, instead of the 9v battery, and it would have worked normally? Cheers.

[@graybenchelec]

Correct. The original boss adapters were 12V.

[@raynefaded]

R. Smith - Robert Smith? ;) Useful mod, everyone forgets about the ACA thing. Apparently using a daisy chain also bypasses voltage step down as well, so you could use a 9v power supply and chain it with other 9v pedals. Just curious, why not replace the spliced wire?

[@mpkozak65]

I got burned by the same thing with my HM2. After the jumper mod I put a sticker near the power jack to say 9V so there's no confusion for whomever inherits it.

[@martinreid1740]

Great video and something I was unaware of. Your channel deserves more views, likes and subscribers. Ps. I'm going to be digging out my early seventies MXR script logo Distortion + and if its not working do you fancy repairing it?

[@graybenchelec]

Thank you! Shoot me an email if it's not working: [e-mail]

[@martinreid1740]

@@graybenchelec Great stuff, thanks for your reply, This is the second pedal I bought after a Colorsound tone bender back in the early seventies. I'm in Scotland and willl post it to you as soon as I can. It's still in the original box, Sell it and go fifty fifty with me if that's OK with you. Kind regards from a long time player and someone who really enjoys what you do. Martin Reid.

[@OllieHalsall-ww5xp]

Obligatory pedantic note: the Zener diode is named after Clarence Zener, whose name is pronounced "ZEE-nur," not "Zenn-er". Carry on.

[@Rarebirdeffects]

Hey joe “(where ya goin’ with that gun in yer hand”) But seriously hello. I love your videos and your “work flow.” Very calm and methodical. I’ve learned quite a bit on your channel. I’m in an internal debate about replacing my multimeter. I just used a real cheapie that came with a bad soldering iron for quite a while. It pretty much served my purposes at a basic level. I remember you talking about yours, and can’t remember the make and model. Sounded up my alley. I believe you said it can reliably measure germanium transistors? Anyways if you could let me know (and others I’m sure) what it is, I’d be stoked. I’ve had a hard time deciding. Also wondering if it covers all of the other necessities. I know that’s personal. But your standard must haves. Peak atlas? Cheers. I hope you keep making these videos! It’s a pretty niche thing so your subs I guess will not get to epic prepositions. But the suns you get I’m sure are really dedicated and really appreciate the content.

[@graybenchelec]

Thank you! The multimeter I use is the Fluke 179. Fluke meters are overpriced, so there's no need to spend for that. Check out the EEVBlog meter, can't recall the model, but it's reasonably priced and works well from what I've heard. That said, no DMMs will reliably measure germaniums, that's where the testing methods I showed in this video come into play: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKvbiIqXjNijf68 The peak atlas testers are convenient but expensive. You can get away with a breadboard, a couple components, and a multimeter. Good luck!

[@PuttinOnTheRiffs]

August 1982 to save people the search haha

[@graybenchelec]

Thank you!

[@GuitarMonkey5180]

So, I’ve been trying to sus out what is wrong with my CE-3. Just replaced the busted battery clip, and that works fine. I tried 12v with the original power circuit layout and the pedal would not power up. I tested the power supply on another aca boss pedal, a DM-2, and that pedal worked correctly. I tried the power mod, but still nothing. Any tips for a novice to check? For now I will continue with 9v batteries.

[@GuitarMonkey5180]

For clarity, I did make sure to find the correct pads to jump, which on the CE-3 was 2 and 3.

[@graybenchelec]

I'd recommend posting some pics to /r/diypedals. Very helpful people over there!

[@GuitarMonkey5180]

@@graybenchelec I actually was able to sus it out. I compared it to my DM-2 and found that whoever owned my CE-3 before had swapped the connector out and wired the battery and power to circuit from the dc connector backwards. I swapped the connections to match the DM-2 and it’s all up and working with 9v now!

[@franpinyol8500]

👏

[@moofree]

My grandpa used to engrave his social security number onto his electronics. It seems crazy nowadays but it was recommended at the time to enable unambiguous identification in the event it's stolen. But yeah... that's probably a social security number. Edit: 487... is a very early SSN allocated to Missouri.

[@graybenchelec]

You know it didn't even occur to me, I'm so used to SSN being 10 digits.

[@waynegram8907]

GRAY BENCH, Why did Boss use a 12vdc Unregulated power supply instead of using a 9vdc regulated power supply? any reasons why

[@yaki_font]

Pedal were a new thing... 9v wasn't already a standard...

[@graybenchelec]

My guess, they already had a bunch of these 9VDC(12VDC actual output) unregulated power supplies and didn't want to buy/make new ones.

[@waynegram8907]

@@graybenchelec I think Unregulated power supplies are cheaper but are noisier so the S/N Ratio is higher. I'm not sure what that R52 33 ohm resistor between the two filter capacitors is being used for to balance out.

[@i.shadrin]

Actually all vintage BOSS pedal should be modified this way (as Boss did on reissues) to avoid damaging the pedal by power daisy chain

[@serranodavid3247]

Que Linda....

[@3045mc]

You have lost your reverse polarity protection , no?

[@TheMuffinMan01]

Why remove and then réaliser the yellow and blue cables? Just for cleanliness?

[@TheMuffinMan01]

*resolder

[@blackfishgaming7145]

@@TheMuffinMan01I was wondering the same thing.

[@nihilvoid4112]

The pots are definitely not original, Boss always use Split Shaft pots, and the serial number dates it at August 82’

[@graybenchelec]

Good info, thanks!

[@MaxPower-js1sk]

My 1980 CE-2 works with a 9v DC adapter. I bought it new in 1980 and have never opened it up or had it modded.

[@graybenchelec]

Yes, AFAIK the boss ACA adapter are marked 9V output, but because the pedal draws so little current, the actual output is closer to 12V. This is a "quirk" of linear transformer-based power supplies; the quoted output voltage is given at a specific current draw. Likewise, even if your adapter isn't the boss ACA adapter, it could still be linear and have the same higher voltage output. You could test it with a DMM if curious.

[@michaelanderson5560]

Thank you!