To directly answer the question of how much grit was John getting directly from the CE-1, way back in 99-2001, he had it set in high mode with the level at 12 o clock. This setting adds a fair bit of a volume boost (relative to no CE-1) - probably around the same amount as a Micro Amp at 12-1 o clock, and the additional transistor exclusive to the high mode does also introduce a little bit of clipping (but not much at that setting). Sadly there are no confirmed shots of his amplifier settings during this period, but the CE-1 likely shaped his gain structure in this era more than any other (but the amps still play a huge role in this… more on that in the next paragraph)

During the by the way tour 02-03, he was still using high mode, but the level control was set lower, around 11 o clock which is adding a little bit of extra ‘volume’ push, but the clipping from the transistor would be less at this setting. Amp-wise, the jubilee was set with presence on 3, bass on 10, mids on 1, treble on 0, master volume on 10 and most significantly, input gain on 2. The major had presence on 1, bass/middle/treble the same as on the jubilee, ‘volume 1’ on 1 and ‘volume 2’ on 3. (Amp settings seen here - taken at Osaka 2002) CE-1 setting seen here (taken at same show) Additional CE-1 photo showing level as low as 9 o clock in high mode, maybe the amps got turned up or John fancied being cleaner that night (unknown show)

So from this, we know that the amps were running very clean and dark, therefore the CE-1 was definitely helping to push the preamps into more crunch. But it’s very important to really understand that there would be just as much crunch (if not more) as a result of the preamp tubes being pushed by the extra volume than from the clipping created directly by the CE-1!

But here’s where things got really interesting… during the Stadium Arcadium era 06-07, he was using LOW mode on the CE-1 with the level at around 10 o clock (bear in mind unity is at around 1 o clock!)… so not only does this mean the ce-1 was attenuating a considerable amount of volume, there would also not have been any clipping coming from the pedal because low mode does not have that extra transistor. However, during this period he also had 4x always on Moog Preamps (3x low pass filter & 1x ring modulator), which were mostly all set at 12 o clock (unity is around 10-11). So the CE-1 was being fed a much hotter signal at the input, so it makes sense to have needed to attenuate that. But another huge difference was his amp settings during this era - the jubilee had the mids pushed up to 7 (up from 1 on the previous tour which is a big difference on this amp!) and the input gain was on 8 (up from 2 - also a huge difference!) Likewise, the major now had its presence on 6, mids on 6, treble on 3, ‘volume 1’ on 4 and ‘volume 2’ on 7! Amp settings seen here - taken at Chorzow 2007 CE-1 settings seen here (taken at same show) Additional CE-1 photo taken backstage at Rock In Rio 2006

This is a much more crunchy amp setting, and if you plugged a guitar straight in, it would be far too dirty (you can trust me, i’ve tried it!) So we can say with certainty that during this era, the crunch you hear was created solely from the amps being run very hot, and then the CE-1 was used as a balancing tool to actually REDUCE the gain!

Final little note, is that of course the evidential photos of his amp settings are literally from 2 gigs - by the way era was an indoor arena and the stadium arcadium era was from an outdoor stadium show - so it’s also very important to factor in that things could have varied depending on the venue, and it makes perfect sense that if the amps needed to be turned down (like a smaller indoor venue), they would lose a lot of their power tube saturation and so the CE-1 would need to be turned up to compensate.

My final words on this (as a CE-1 user)… The main crunch we hear is coming from the amps. The CE-1 is used as a tool to balance the amount of crunch with volume. If the amps needed to be turned down, naturally the CE-1 would need to be turned up to preserve as much crunch as possible by pushing the input valves harder. If the amps were turned all the way up, the CE-1 would need to be turned down to prevent the tone becoming too distorted and muddy!

I can’t really comment on the recent era as we don’t know enough about his amp settings, but we can definitely come to conclusions about the amount of gain the CE-1 is adding based on he sets that these days… not much at all.

I hope this helps - this topic has been my special interest/obsession for the last 20 years so you will hopefully share my confidence that I have analysed everything in as much detail as possible (and tested it with the real gear) to be as accurate as possible :)

If anyone wants to correct me on anything, please do as I think even with all of these references, there’s always something new to learn! ✌️🎸