Just like every other Boss pedal its well built and great quality sound.I wanted an overdrive pedal to run into my Blues jr. amp.....this fits the bill perfectly. Even sounds wonderful when I play a cigar box guitar through it. I have also found it to be a perfect pedal for stacking with another overdrive....plays well with others.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This is a very good sounding pedal out of the box, but for good measure I sent it to Fromel Electronics to have it upgraded.Stock it can go from subtle overdrive to raspy distortion, it does lack some definition however. That's why I sent it to Fromel, he added higher tolerance caps and resistors which give it a cleaner tone and more dynamic range. Personally I think it's more versatile than my Ibanez TS808(whom I sent to Fromel as well), but I found they both work better for me when used sparingly. I use them both still, but this guy can go over the top and achieve a distortion quality the Tube Screamer cannot. For the price it's a very good pedal and would recommend it! It's built solid and should last if taken care of properly,so I will give it a B+ for build quality( I don't like the under the footswitch battery compartments personally); it's Boss/Roland so it's a reputable company who will stand behind their product(until you mod it like I did...DOH!)!All in all a very good pedal if you are looking for an overdrive!Read full review
I must say that I was wanting to get a little more hollow sound like you'd get from a hollow bass Electric guitar. What I did get was distorted chord and picking sound. I tried playing around with the knobs a little to get that old bluesy sound but it's more like a distortion box. I can hear a little difference but not exactly what I was looking for. I'm playing an Gibson sg standard thru a fender hot rod deluxe. Maybe someone can help me to get that Lee Hooker sound I want in the near future
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The Boss Blues Driver - Your either here because you are interested in this pedal or you already know what this baby can do. If you are considering purchasing this pedal, let me tell you as a giging guitarist of 10 years you will never regret it. First off, let me tell you what this pedal is not, its not the metal zone or zakk wylde. If you need extreme this is not for you. (Although you can get a hi-gain sound with this, its not the modern sound but more of a fender tweed sound with way more gain then those amps could produce.) This pedal is however, the perfect bridge between clean and your heavy distortion sound. As you can see all you get are level, gain and a tone nob. The large gain knob is where this pedal gets its magic. Set at the lowest, its barely present at all, moving up slightly it gives you a nice warmer sound that doesnt rob your tone, just makes your head feel a bit hotter than usual. Start adding more gain and you'll go through a wonderfully colored overdrive thats totally there for the taking, responding to you attack. (The harder you pick the more crunch you get). More gain from there will get you a full on overdrive, and you can adjust with the rest of the available gain to try to get that perfect sound you want. What I love about this pedal when you get it really overdriven is that if you keep it low enough (the gain) you get a nice overdrive where your tonality really still comes through. If you make a bar chord and pick some individual notes within the chord, they are all still voiced well and ring out and doesn't just become this nasty fuzz. On the opposite end of this, you can get a pretty punk sounding O.D. from maxing the gain and playing through some humbuckers. With all this in mind, I think its cool the pedal is under $100. Dollar for dollar this thing stacks up with my Marshal Guv'nor for my most used distortion, and its a Boss so it will last FOREVER! Its a great value and a really nice pedal for the money in my opinion. Like I said, it can't do everything, but its got the soft stuff covered well! And by all means, if you've made up your mind to purchase this pedal, check out the Keeley mod. (you don't even know!!!! xD )Read full review
This pedal sounds really nice. It's very bassy. But it's not muddy at all. It's got more gain than most overdrives but it's not really high gain. It's a hair less from being a high gain distortion pedal. I has driving mids and sounds very robust. The tone control is very useful. U can color the tone from a smooth overdrive to a cranked distortion pedal kind of cutting high gain for leads. I'd say it's pretty versatile compared to a super overdrive perhaps. It's also good for boosting an already dirty channel to endless sustain territory. Sorry the picture seems a bit blurry since my camera is broke.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
I bought it because it sound so good on youtube. But after I bought it and used it for awhile, I don't think it is the best way to get a blues sound. It's a poor mans way of getting a blues sound without buying a good blues amp. But if want a real blues sound, get a Fender Blues Deville or a Fender 65 w/15". I've used BD2 on a few gigs and it does ok! It is built like a tank! So it should last. A lot of pickers get mod kits for them and they sound better with the mod by Keeley. Hope this helps anyone thinking of buying one.
I've owned an original Boss BD-2 as well as a couple of popular mod'ed versions. My suggestion is to just go with the original BD-2 ..... in some cases, an original pedal can be improved by a thoughtful designer, but in others, modifying an original like the BD-2 misses the point, and the mod ends up changing the character of the pedal so it ends up sounding MORE like everything else, and LESS than the original. IMO, this is what has happened with the BD-2. The BD-2, frankly, doesn't NEED to be modified .... it just tastes great the way it is! Give the BD-2 a "taste test" against 2 or 3 mod'ed versions, and I bet you too will agree .... though modified versions have their own vibe, the original BD-2 is special, and is worthy of the crown. Long live the Blues.
Verified purchase: No
When I bought this pedal it was a stock BOSS unit. This pedal is a great sounding OD as it is. It has a tremendous gain range (some would even say too much gain on tap) and has a fairly wide range in the tone circuit. I was impressed. But much like many BOSS pedal owners, I opted to have this pedal modded. The work was done by Modest Mike's Mods and Mike modded it to the Keeley Phat Mod spec. I have to tell you, that the pedal is now one of my favorite OD (and I own quite a few). It can easily go head to head with many of the "Boutique" pedals out there. In short, even at full price/new, this is a great pedal for the money. BOSS pedals are known for their reliability and build quality. I assure you it will be money well spent. There are a number of mods/mod kits that can be applied to this pedal to bring it in line with some far more expensive pedals on the market (for a considerable savings if you manage to score one used at a decent price). I would definately recommend this pedal, stock or modded, to anyone looking for a good open OD. Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Modest Mike's Mods. I am just a guy that had him mod a few pedals and I think he does awesome work. He is my first choice in mod services now. I reconmmed him to anyone that wants to unlock the full potential of their stock pedals.Read full review
This is a great pedal. I play a lot of blues and was in need of a pedal that had overdrive but didn't make me sound like I was confused about what style of music I was trying to play. This pedal is perfect. It can give a very distorted sound if you want it to. But it's also great at giving just a little bit and it's sensitive to how hard you play, meaning that you can get a crunchy distorted sound on the notes you want while still having the other notes sound relatively clean. I also use it to give my guitars a brighter sound by turning the gain all or most of the way down and turning the volume all or most of the way up. Lastly, I use the pedal to boost the overall level of my guitars. In short, this is a very versatile pedal that is perfect for people looking for a bluesier, smokier kind of sound. Goes great with a little bit of reverb (which is easy for me because I have a Twin Reverb).Read full review
Where to start? I sold a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 to purchase this and several other overdrive's to add some flavor to my rig. The full tone was excellent, but not what I was looking for. I tested this pedal through several amplifiers including a Fender Bassman, Epiphone Valve Jr, Vox Valvetronix set for clean, and a Fender Pro Reverb. It performed admirably on all amps. It can really get an Orange crunch tone going. This pedal really shines in its sensitivity to the picking hand. You can lay off and get a completely clean sound or roll back your volume control on your guitar for a full clean sound. This is a very important feature that a lot of overdrives lack. The tone sweep on the pedal is also impressive. It can really alter the sound instead of being a high sweep. I set it at about 10 o clock and I can't get a bad sound. All my guitars react well to this pedal. I've used a Gretch Tenn. Rose, Fender Deluxe Tele 72, A Harmony Bobkat, and an Ibanez...thing. (not a very metal guy) I would not recommend this for metal. It's definitely a rocker and a low gain driver. The only drawback is the lack of true bypass, but if you have several true bypass pedals in your chain and a lot of cable you could really use the buffer in the pedal. I didn't notice any tone loss.Read full review
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