BOSS pedals revisited.

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Caffeine_VampireCaffeine_Vampire Frets: 3479
I’ve found myself rediscovering BOSS pedals lately and having tremendous fun with them. They’re a funny brand, never quite in or out of fashion but, in a market increasingly dominated by boutique pedal manufacturers, you can’t write them off either. 
'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'
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  • sgosdensgosden Frets: 1993
    Boss - the working musicians brand
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  • impmannimpmann Frets: 12649
    Boss - killing your bypass tone since 1973
    Never Ever Bloody Anything Ever.

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  • sgosden said:
    Boss - the working musicians brand
     Yeah, and I’m happy to support that. 
    'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'
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  • impmann said:
    Boss - killing your bypass tone since 1973
    Never had that issue with them. Always been puzzled when I hear people say that. 
    'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'
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  • MayneheadMaynehead Frets: 1782
    impmann said:
    Boss - killing your bypass tone since 1973
    That’s the reason I’ve never used any boss pedals. I only use pedals for the occasional embellishment, so prefer all true bypass, with a good quality buffer at the start of the chain.
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  • menamestommenamestom Frets: 4641
    impmann said:
    Boss - killing your bypass tone since 1973
    Never had that issue with them. Always been puzzled when I hear people say that. 
    Probably just a few bad ones give the whole range a bad rep, SD-1 has an issue for example.
    Personally I'd be happy with most Boss pedals from a bypass perspective.
    I’ve found myself rediscovering BOSS pedals lately and having tremendous fun with them. They’re a funny brand, never quite in or out of fashion but, in a market increasingly dominated by boutique pedal manufacturers, you can’t write them off either. 
    Don't forget they are cashing in themselves in that market with the Waza range and most people would consider a DM-2W as good as any other analog delay offering.

    I think much of the issue with Boss is they exchanged some great sounding pedals with not so great sounding digital variants and players wanted the old Boss tones they no longer offered, so in a way, they helped create the boutique market.


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  • JD50JD50 Frets: 651

    Love Boss pedals.... never given a second thought to buffers .... never had a Boss switch fail me.... wish other pedal manufacturers would use that design, I know Digitech/Dod did & a few other less well known brands Axl/Johnson.

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  • WhitecatWhitecat Frets: 5378
    Fun fact: no successful record or live show has ever been recorded/performed with Boss pedals, if perceived online wisdom is to be taken at face value.
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16254
    I did a bit of reading on the killing your bypass tone thing ( stuff on forums, hardly authoritative but there you go) and I think the answer is simply that  Boss pedals have been made over many years and many factories and specs have changed/ drifted so you get examples that are problematic and ones that aren't. But I guess it's only a problem if you hear it and are bothered by it.    
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • munckeemunckee Frets: 12255
    My Boss FRV1 was brilliant, had I not bought a princeton with built in spring reverb I would have (and maybe should have!) kept it.
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  • munckee said:
    My Boss FRV1 was brilliant, had I not bought a princeton with built in spring reverb I would have (and maybe should have!) kept it.
    Yep. Sold mine and instantly regretted it. Great pedal. 
    'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'
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  • Whitecat said:
    Fun fact: no successful record or live show has ever been recorded/performed with Boss pedals, if perceived online wisdom is to be taken at face value.
    I gotta check this out. Hard to believe. 
    'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'
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  • sgosdensgosden Frets: 1993

    Whitecat said:
    Fun fact: no successful record or live show has ever been recorded/performed with Boss pedals, if perceived online wisdom is to be taken at face value.
    I gotta check this out. Hard to believe. 

    Prince infact had boutique pedals built into boss enclosures, he was a big fan of everything vertex but boss paid out more in endorsement money.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    impmann said:
    Boss - killing your bypass tone since 1973
    It's absolutely true that the Boss buffer has a very slight volume loss - perceived as a tone loss, but it is actually volume. You generally don't notice it with only one, but string a few together and you do.

    The solution is simply to turn the amp up slightly, or if you're really bothered, add a fixed level boost on the pedalboard to restore the original level. Using an LS-2 or modifying a GE-7 to give a fixed boost are simple ways of doing that.

    munckee said:
    My Boss FRV1 was brilliant, had I not bought a princeton with built in spring reverb I would have (and maybe should have!) kept it.
    Yep. Sold mine and instantly regretted it.
    Same here, when about a week after I sold mine for £70, Boss discontinued them and the price almost doubled overnight!

    These days I won't use anything other than Boss or something else with the same sort of reliable buffered switching... I've fixed *way* too many other types of pedals with broken switches.

    Although not long ago, the number of Boss footswitches I've replaced in over thirty years of professional repair work shot up drastically... from three to four :).

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • meltedbuzzboxmeltedbuzzbox Frets: 10337
    I'd love to see the demographic for all the users that was lyrical about boss.

    I honestly think most are over 40
    The Bigsby was the first successful design of what is now called a whammy bar or tremolo arm, although vibrato is the technically correct term for the musical effect it produces. In standard usage, tremolo is a rapid fluctuation of the volume of a note, while vibrato is a fluctuation in pitch. The origin of this nonstandard usage of the term by electric guitarists is attributed to Leo Fender, who also used the term “vibrato” to refer to what is really a tremolo effect.
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  • TeetonetalTeetonetal Frets: 7801
    I'd love to see the demographic for all the users that was lyrical about boss.

    I honestly think most are over 40
    Not sure about that. I regularly watch bands play who are under 40, lots and lots of boss pedals on show.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    I'd love to see the demographic for all the users that was lyrical about boss.

    I honestly think most are over 40
    Probably because they've had enough time to find out that reliability is more important than trendy boutique pedals, and they're old enough to remember why Boss became successful in the first place, replacing all the crap bypass metal click switch pedals the first time around...

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • dogloaddogload Frets: 1495
    edited March 2019
    I've always had a CS-1compressor and PN-2 Tremolo/Pan on my board, and then the FRV-1.

    Now I'm a bit surprised to find I have SEVEN Boss pedals on my pedalboard (CS-1, FZ-2, LS-2, TW-1, PN-2, DD-6 and RV-5). 

    I really don't like their phasers, flangers and choruses though. The BF-2 in particular leaves me cold. 
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  • My current all Boss board, I've used it for quite a few rehearsals and gigs, tbh it's the happiest I've ever been with a set-up, just waiting for some further 2019 Boss WAZA announcements  
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  • Dave_VaderDave_Vader Frets: 359
    I very much like my Boss pedals, the only issue I have with them is the sudden drop and return when switching in and out. My PS-5 super shifter is a bugger for it if I'm quickly adding a harmony for half a bar, and the DD-7 does it intermittently.
    Okay if they're on for the whole song.
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