CE-1!!!!

[Leevibe]

I wish I could say this is mine. I've recently become friends with a cool guy who owns a ton of old gear from his gigging days in the '70's-'80's. He is in a position of needing to sell some of it off for cash and is having me get some of the non-working stuff back up and running. I was just finishing up getting his very cool Clavinet model C working when he brought this by.

It actually does work... part of the time. I'm not sure what's causing the intermittent not powering on, but it's somewhere after the transformer. I will probably recap it as a matter of course, but it really does sound good when it's running. I thought you all would enjoy a few pics.



















As a thank-you for the work I'm doing for him, he gave me an ADA 2FX. It's (I understand) an early '80's rack unit. It's all digital. It sounds OK. The chorus is pretty uninspiring and the delay has some nasty artifacts that I will need to try to troubleshoot, but the flanger is very cool!!! He is also going to give me the footswitch that goes with it. I will probably end up getting rid of it, but I may just keep it and put it in the rack with my Ibanez UE-400. It will depend if I can get the delay issue solved.

[midwayfair]

I should bookmark this image for the next time someone on TGP asks "Why does everyone clone the CE-2 but I can't find a CE-1 clone?" Because it's a frigging monster even if you can find the MN3002, that's why.

[cooder]

Really neat to see that CE-1 and the insides....! Yum!
I recently (September this year) organised the first ever 'Gearfest' here in Nelson and one of the guys, known for having a massive collection of over 50 vintage guitars dropped this on the floor:



Look at the mint condition! He plays that pretty much most of the time in his live setup!
Sounded fab, he played it through two Fender Vibro Kings in stereo..... sigh....
And he also brought over 30 of his guitars along and a trailer load of amps and goodies like a Roland space echo etc...
Here's his 'corner' (you can see the CE-1 just on the floor).

[selfdestroyer]

Man, I have wanted one for so long to pair up with my Fender Rhodes. Looks pretty clean also, best of luck troubleshooting.

Cody

[alanp]

Bloody hell... going down to a gearfest in Wellington this sunday, should be good fun.

[cooder]

Bloody hell... going down to a gearfest in Wellington this sunday, should be good fun.

You missed the one in Nelson, mate...
I was amazed at what gear turned up in our small town (50.000 for you outsiders...).
There was an original and lovingly restored 1938 Gibson 'Charlie Christian' modell on display 



Wellington should be great fun too I guess, take photos and post them, Alan!

[Leevibe]

I should bookmark this image for the next time someone on TGP asks "Why does everyone clone the CE-2 but I can't find a CE-1 clone?" Because it's a frigging monster even if you can find the MN3002, that's why.

So true.

While I have this, I'm going to put it in a chain with my analog CE-5 and see how close I can get that one to copping CE-1. Should be a fun experiment.

Bloody hell... going down to a gearfest in Wellington this sunday, should be good fun.

You missed the one in Nelson, mate...
I was amazed at what gear turned up in our small town (50.000 for you outsiders...).
There was an original and lovingly restored 1938 Gibson 'Charlie Christian' modell on display 


Wellington should be great fun too I guess, take photos and post them, Alan!

Yes. Definitely take some pics.

[aion]

I fixed one of these for a guy here in town last year. They're super cool, and they definitely have that 70's mojo vibe going on, but honestly I like the CE-2 better soundwise. It's just a little too dark, and the bypass is not transparent at all (it pretty much just cancels the LFO if I remember right).

[Hogharry]

Ah that takes me back! I have a Roland Jet Phaser, which was the last generation of Roland pedals before Boss was born. They could be brothers, even down to the brown paint. I love the way at some of he components are sitting up on their legs at a jaunty angle. Thanks for posting this.

[lars]

Whenever someone says they're going to "recap" vintage gear as a matter of course, I cringe. I would suggest you get an ESR meter to test these things out before changing them. Despite the marketing hype that you have to change your electrolytics after 20 years are so, that is simply NOT TRUE. You can youtube guys testing caps from 50's tube amps that rate perfectly fine on an ESR meter, which is really the only way to determine the true health of a capacitor. Just going by it's age is folly. Some brand-new caps are junk right from the factory and will make your vintage gear sound worse. It's much more likely to be a problem with the wiring, the stompswitches, the potentiometers, the jacks, or a trim pot out of bias.
I recapped a vintage polyphase and wasted a bunch of time and money, when it turned out it was just a voltage bias issue. Don't trust that people know what voltage it's supposed to bias at either. All the schematics for the polyphase were incorrect for mine.

[Leevibe]

So I should check ESR but not capacitance???

[gordo]

I sold my ce-1 about 78 in a horse trade that lost me a 50 watt Hiwatt for a JC-120. I wish I still had all of them. The ce-1 sound is instantly recognizable and I'd love to get a legit clone. But in response to the real issue here: as opposed to the normal tube amp mantra...don't assume caps are shot. They MIGHT be, but not a given even at that age. I've worked on 50's Gibson amps that had great caps and I've worked on Blues Jrs that needed a complete recap and only 5 or 6 years old.