I just took possession of a Boss DC-2. One of my favorite chorus's of all time was the Boss CE-300, but I could never work a rack into my rig and there were some other quirks to it that made me give it up. I recently started thinking about trying to clone one in pedal form when a fellow DIY'er pointed out that the DC-2 was the same circuit, but with presets instead of knobs. I checked out the schematic and realized he was right and then I saw what they sell for . . .
Then one popped up on ebay at a decent starting bid and I bid on it for the heck of it - turns out I was the only bidder. Two minor dings, but otherwise looks like it was delivered by a time machine from 1986 . . .
The sound is everything I remember - what an amazing chorus. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of running it in stereo . . . truly amazing. It sounds good in mono, but it completely opens up and becomes very present in stereo. So the quesiton now is how best to run a stereo rig - I'm thinking either getting a Vox Pathfinder to get some spread or just buying another head, like a Micro Terror, and running my 2x10 in stereo (my main amp is a Mesa TA-15).
How much does spread matter? Has anyone run stereo out of one cab like this?
deals with: -Juggernaut-; Shooto; CicadaSilence; Cheebus; 59Vampire; hivedestruction; dotlikeimpact; xjordanx
seifukusha wrote:
Yup..its gorgeous in stereo...maybe the 2nd out is inverted?
I don't recall the details of the DC-2's circuit design, but that's a fairly common way of creating a second, "stereo" out on chorus pedal. And chorus nearly always sounds even better when running in stereo. 
As far as which amp to get - any ~15W head or combo would be a contender - and there's a lot of choices in that power range these days. As far as what to do with the speakers... I'd personally recommend adding a second cabinet (or getting a combo amp) to go with your existing rig, instead of trying to wire your 2x10 cab up for stereo. Depending on the speaker impedance and the requirements of the amps, you could probably do so fairly easily (if it isn't already wired for stereo), but there are bound to be times when you want to spread those speakers further apart... and yes, where you place the speakers (and where you, the band, and the audience are located, relative to the two speakers / cabinets) can and does make a considerable difference in how you'll all perceive the sound. Placed close together, the stereo field will be narrower. Move them further apart and it gets wider and more dramatic... but if you go too far, you can start to get a "hole in the center" of the soundfield.
The DC-2 (and CE-300 and Dimension D) are dual delay line choruses - basically two choruses running off the same LFO, but the LFO is split and inverted so that one line is going "down" while the other is going "up." The result is the whooshiness of the chorus effect is cancelled out so you get the effect without the pitch variations being obvious (i.e., no seasickness). I'm guessing the reason it sounds even betterin stereo is because the singals are split, so there's no (or less) cancellation going on.
There are a few new pedals out there that use the same technique - the Mr. Black Double Chorus (actually uses four delay lines) and the Pigtronix Quantum (details still sketchy), but they appear to be mono pedals.
My 2x10 is already wired for stereo and getting a little head like the Miro Terro is pretty tempting from a convenience point of view, but I suspect I'll want a little more stereo spread - I guess a Pathfiner is cheap enough on Craigslist where I can get one, experiment a bit with spread and using it as a head and see which works best. Or I could get both a head and a little combo and run a double stereo rig, splitting teh delay singal off the DM-2, modulating that and going to wet/dry/wet . . . or . . . . sheesh - I think this is why I stopped running stereo a few years ago - the possibilities are endless!
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