Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

[Gearjoneser]

Let's talk about Boss pedals, particularly ones you've owned or currently use.
I want to hear which ones you like, dislike, or consider OK.

Please....no parrot info here...post about ones you've used with your rig, not 3 mintues at the store, running through a tiny SS practice amp. :chairshot

 

[barbarianbrute]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

love the metal zone. it's a great pedal with a terrific sound. more versatile than you would think. i don't like the metal core as much and it's twice the price of the metal zone.

i also like their delays and noise gate pedals

 

[wickenspoet]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

I love their DD-series delay pedals.

I also like their Flange and Noise Suppressor.

I didn't care for their Chorus Ensemble or Phase Shifter pedals, though. Seemed to suck all of the presence and tone out of the sound.

That's just my opinion, though.

But yeah, their digital delay pedals are great.

 

[benji657]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

boss sd-1 great for boosting solos and adding saturation to an overdriven amp..works well with other dist pedals too..

mt-2 generally too harsh...through tube and ss, very harsh for me

mega dist- closest one with the fuzzy recto type sag..again, since i'm used to me CM plexitone, it seemed a bit harsh, not as the metal zone though

boss dd-5 delay- neat effect and very transparent for clean delay effects..so so with distortion..

boss ch-1 chorus- subtle but noticeable sweet chorus..not a complaint on this one

boss ph-2 phaser- again, works well on clean passages, so so with overdrive

i still own my sd-1, ch-1, and ph-2

 

[Top Jimmy]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

TU-2 tuner is solid.

DS-1 is a great value.

The GE-7? EQ has worked well but kinda noisy.

I have the Super Chorus, I don't like it much though I guess the stereo output might be handy for some.

Hate my metal zone can't seem to dial in a tone i like. Maybe it's too many knobs for me.

I still want to try some of their OD's, fairly cheap and worth a shot I guess.

I just like their form factor, half the reason i keep buying them.

 

[Gamera]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

DS-1 is great with certain amps.

Didn't care for the buzzy Metal Zone.

Like the GE-7 but it's a tad noisy.

Love the ME-50 multi effects. The Univibe setting is very cool and the "Natural Overdrive" setting is fantastic. I don't think it correlates to any other Boss or other brand OD but it really sounds great. As the name suggests, it's a very natural overdrive that boosts the natural sound of the guitar & amp without coloring it.

 

[beggar_guitar]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

I've had the CE-5 and thought it was a great chorus pedal. Very tweakable. Plus it was my first so it's kinda the standard I have for others. Which may or may not be a good thing.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

SD-1 - My favorite overdrive. No matter how many overdrives I try, I always go back to it, and usually with a soldering iron in hand to make some mods....lol.

DS-1 - I can't stand it out of the box but with a few small changes, it becomes useful to me.

BD-2 - Tried to attach to it and had one for several years but it sat unused a majority of the time. Not a bad OD, just not for me, a little mushy for my taste. Ended up trading it off.

SD-2 (Dual Overdrive) - This one is cool. Really cool. Great classic sounding overdrive and the lead setting gives big cranked type overdrive. I used this one for a long while too. Wish I still had one sometimes. Really versatile with a SD-1 in front of it.

CH-1 - Good chorus, gets the job done. I made one change to it to fatten it up a little. If I end up using chorus again but with an amp that doesn't have it built-in (my AD50VT does), then I'll use it.

BF-2b - The old brown bass flanger. I still have it. To me it works better for guitar than the BF-2 does. It sounds warmer and has that classic VH type flange sound going.

DD-2 - I still have this one too. Probably my favorite digital delay. It's beat to snot but works flawlessly.

NS-2 - Not bad for what it does. Functional. Didn't need it anymore so off it went to someone else.

The only one out of the ones I have that I still use consistently is the SD-1. That's because I've chosen to trim back on the effects I use and stick with what I need. It's on all the time so it sits on the top of my amp.

I'm not a fan of the Metal Zone. That's a serious bag of bumble bees in a pedal right there. Couldn't get any usable tones out of it other than for Enter Sandman or something.

I'm going to admit, the Metal Zone is the only one I've mentioned that I haven't owned. However, since I worked in a music store when it came out, I got to play with loads of stuff every day and ran that thing through every amp we had from SS 15 watters to 100 watt Marshall stacks and got the same results through every one - suckage....LOL.

 

[Tor]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

I am in love with my DD-20.

I like the TU-2. It does the job well enough for me.

I am so-so with the PH-3. Cool sounds and a great range of various sounds, but I feel it steals something from the tone.

 

[baritone]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

My favorite Boss gain pedal is the MD-2. It lets you mix and blend cascaded overdrive and distortion, so it's really versatile.

To me, the BF-3 Flanger is the best modualtion pedal I've ever heard, and it is massively versatile. It effectively covers the sounds of chorus, flanger, phaser, vibrato, tremolo, and ring modulator.

The DD-20 gives almost limitless delays to play with. I think the combination of these 3 is the ultimate effect setup.

The old DC-3 Digital Dimension chorus is pretty cool. It has a little background noise, but the effect is unique. Whereas with most chorus effect, increasing the rate and depth together yields a dizzying vibrato effect, the DC-3 stays smooth and just gets extra shimmery.

I have a bunch of other Boss pedals, but these are the ones I like the best right now.

 

[Kac]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

DS-1 ~ I've owned several and liked 'em, they're also moddable so it's good pedal to have.
TU-2 ~ I've had this one a LONG time, it works very well for me as far as a tuner.

I've owned others, but nothing was spectacular and nothing was so horrible that it turned me off of BOSS pedals forever...

 

[tubeman87]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

CE-2 was always good to me.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

Yeah, I always liked Boss's Flangers, Delays, and Chorus pedals.

Never liked the Distortion pedals or most of the OD's. The best OD they ever made was the original OD-1 with only gain and volume knobs. When they added the tone control for the SD-1, they also changed the chip, and it ruined the nice sound of the OD-1.
I used an OD-1 with Marshalls a long time ago, and always had a great tone. I can't believe the mad money they fetch on Ebay nowadays. They were $55 back then.

 

[Dr.Mavashi]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

The only Boss I REALLY wanna try is the Slow Gear

 

[baritone]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

I haven't tried a Slow Gear, but Guyatone makes a copy called the Slow Volume, which is neato.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

CH-1 and CS-3 are the only Boss pedals on my board. I use the CH-1 mainly clean to give me some Rick-Like 12 string jangle. The CS-3 I use for clean boost solo's. I just did a headroom mod on the CS-3. With my HRD on 3 I get ear bleeding Spanking Clean Tele tone!

BOSS PEDALS I'VE USED IN THE PAST :
NF-1) Noise Gate. This Anal engineer made me buy this B4 I could use a Stratocaster in his Studio. It works, But I resent having to buy it!

HM-2) Got it in 84' when it 1st hit the shelfs. Thought it was the cats pajamas until around 86' (When I became Tone concise)

DS-1) Used it in 95' when I was doing a Top 40 gig. Used it on all the heavy stuff dujour. STP,Offspring, Green day etc. It got the job done. No Love or hate for it.

OS-2) Versatile pedal, But to my ear NOT single coil friendly. Modded it and it got much better. Did one gig with it with my Blues band... It was way over the top for Blues after being Modded.

 

[Rich_T]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

Used the SD-1 for four years or so, was good enough, but lacks in fullness and volume for me. Since been replaced with a Fulldrive 2.

PH-3, used it for about 3 years. Decent, but nothing to write home about. Still my main phaser, just out of laziness. Big drop in volume when it is after a distortion pedal. Versatile, but pretty generic sounding.

TU-2. Solid as a rock. Used, abused, works a charm. Just a good, stable stage tuner.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

I'm not really a Boss Drive pedals type of guy, but what I've owned and played, the Dual Overdrive (SD-2 maybe?) did have a decent tone, the red channel was a bit fizzy, but the green channel had a nice bit of breakup.

The OS-2 was the biggest pice of crap I owned. It was my first pedal and biy did I choose wrong. It was like it could decide if it was an OD-2 or a DS-1, so it tried to do both poorly with a scoop control. One of the only pedals I've ever sold.

The MT-2 is the staple, go-to pedal for the young crowd playing metal. Everyone knows it, what more can you say. I'd like to hear a modded version, I bet it's pretty nice actually.

Fuzzes:
FZ-3 is an interesting take on fuzz, it's very "safe", verry Boss. I bet the FZ-2 was way too wild and over the top (octaves and harmonics, I'd love to get one) so they backed it way down on the FZ-3. I prefer the Tweak Fuzz in the safe fuzz category, but it's always nice to have unique tones available.

FZ-5 is the new modelling Fuzz, the Fuzz Face model isn't bad, it's no Analogman or FoxRox, but it does do a nice, gnarly fuzz. The Octavia and Maestro settings seem like characatures of those pedals, not accurate models. A real octavia is a bit harder to use, but you'll never get the Boss to sound like a real one. Same goes for the Maestro, they modeled it to sound like an over the top, Satisfaction tone. I guess it's fine to play that, but I find it really thin compared to the Fuzz Face mode.

Delay:
DM-3 is one of my top delays, it's got a great, warm tone, and it's the best oscillating delay, bar none. The only two wishes I have for it would be more control in the low end of the repeats area (you get 1 or 5) and a little longer time for my playing style. The DM-2 is great too, it's the darker cousin of the DM-3 which is a little crisper in extended repeats.

DD-3 great basic delay pedal, although it's too sterile for my tastes. If you want a crisp digital delay, it's a solid choice. I think the DD-20, DL-4 and Echo Park are much more versitile, and sound better, but they cost more too...

Modulations:
HF-2 Hi Band Flanger is one of my favorite flangers. Where the BF-2 is a bit overbearing for me, the HF-2 is light and airy. Great for clean and gain, you can actually hear the guitar instead of only the flanger. I wasn't a fan of the BF-3 for the short time I tried it.

I'd love to try an old PH-1r, and I'd also like a Dimension C, and the old stand-by, CE-2.

 

[jony]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

It's just about all covered by now...

The ones I do own and like are the Ce-5 Chorus Ensemble. I have the older non-SMT version and it does sound really good. Liked it more than a CE-2 which is supossed to be one of THE Boss chorus pedals to have.
The Ge-7 is a great pedal as well. People complain about noise but mine does not exhibit any at all.
The BD-2 blues driver. One of the Boss overdrives that are really different. It needs to be modified slightly for the best results, but otherwise it's still really good value
The SD-2 Dual Overdrive. Some have mentioned having this one and liking it alot. I am no exception. Mine is completely stock and I love this thing. Possibly the best OD Boss ever came up with. They go around on eBay so it isn't too hard to pick up one. Prices are still pretty low.

Finally, the DD-5. It's been discontinued and for the life of me I wonder why. The DD-6 cannot compare to it in terms of features, especially the tap tempo ability as well as the sub-divisions it allows you to have. If anone would like to sell their DD-5 please let me know, I want one!!!

 

[tone4days]

Re: Boss Pedals. The good, bad, and mediocre.

i stopped using pedals (all boss) in about '90

i used an chorus - ce2 - liked it quite a bit

i used the octaver - oc-1.. was good but i didnt have an amp that could do it justice on the 2nd lower octave

i had a ge-7 ... liked it alot - was indispensible to me actually