The Fifth Course

Thanks to my wife I was able to replace the old Digitech Stereo Chorus/Flanger with a pair of Boss pedals that fit better into my Boss pedal board. She got me a CE-3 chorus unit and a BF-3 flanger unit.

So the signal chain goes:
1) input to BCB-60 pedal board
2) TU-12H tuner
3) SD-1 overdrive unti
4) CE-3 Chorus
5) BF-3 Flanger
6) RC-220XL Loop Station
7) output to Ampeg J-12T

The board is cleaner and prettier (the metalic blue chorus and purple flanger are an aesthetic improvement over the dull gray Digitech unit). And sonically these pedals are more powerful than the Digitech unit. I think the circuits are wired to be hotter and that makes the calibration a bit more drastic in comparison to the Digitech unit. So I have back off the settings on the Boss units to get effects similar to what I was gettign from the Digitech unit.

Both these units have stereo output, but I'm only using mono.

The Chorus is pretty much (in mono) just rate and depth. Getting a smooth sounding effect on the Mando(la)bird is a bit tricky. Subtlety is called for here. I use it only for chording, and stay away from it when playing single notes.

The Flanger is a whole lot more fun in mono. The switch settings are its best feature: Standard, Saturated, Gate/Pan, and Momentary. Standard and Saturated are fairly self-explanitory.

Gate/Pan is a gated setting in which I can set the tempo. Oh this is fun! Instead of whooshwhooshwhoosh I get a wahpwahpwahp, almost a tremelo effect.

Monetary is just that: hold the switch down = effect on, let the switch up = effect off. Nice for getting weird on a solo.

Again the watch word is subtlety. I've backed off the setting relative to the Digitech and the effect is till more pronounced.

I might still add a EQ unit to the front of the back end of the chain, it would give me a signal boost when necessary, and allow me to avoid modifying the amp for a while. (The amp has no master volume.)

Gonna go play now!

Daniel