Boutique OD’s v Boss OD’s etc

builttospill

Ok I’ll admit my head has been turned by the likes of the Lightspeed Broadcast, Duellist, Dane etc but apart from hand-made build process/labour and higher quality components are these drives really any better than what I currently use namely Boss SD-2, OD-1? Just wanted to see what your thoughts were on this. Have been down the boutique path but then sold everything and reverted to Boss and have been really happy. Personally I found the boutique stuff to be really finicky and fussy with my setup and amp (but that may have just been me)
On a different note I saw a recent picture of Robert Smith’s board from their recent tour and it was all Boss in a Boss carry case.

Teetonetal

If boss make you happy don’t change what you have, the other devices aren’t going to necessarily be better, maybe different voice or offer different functionality, but not better.

i think more interesting is to seek out pedals that give you new sounds and add and compliment what you have.

chasing tone is just a path of unfulfillment

theflyisback

I've found (the long, hard, costly way) that Boss drive pedals are as good as anything out there.  If only they had top mounted jacks!

I think more importantly (for me anyway) that if you can have a good 'always on' compressor before and a good clean booster after, you can stick ANY drive pedal in that sandwich and get a premier tone out of it.   

builttospill

Great responses @Teetonetal and @theflyisback.
On the subject of Boss OD's I was playing around with my £45 OD-2, it may have been subtle but I preferred the sound and feel of the OD-2 to my OD-1 and SD-2 but these are still incredible drives. A bit sad I know but the other reasons for reverting to Boss are that a lot of my guitar heroes used them Mark Linkous, Ronald Jones, Robert Smith, Kevin Shields, James Dean Bradfield, Neil Halstead amongst others.    

Sassafras

I think Boss pedals are better than boutique.
Their enclosures are the most practical and functional.
They don't go in for that true bypass nonsense.
They might not look as fancy but who looks at your pedalboard apart from geeky guitar players?

Teetonetal

builttospill said:

Great responses @Teetonetal and @theflyisback.
On the subject of Boss OD's I was playing around with my £45 OD-2, it may have been subtle but I preferred the sound and feel of the OD-2 to my OD-1 and SD-2 but these are still incredible drives. A bit sad I know but the other reasons for reverting to Boss are that a lot of my guitar heroes used them Mark Linkous, Ronald Jones, Robert Smith, Kevin Shields, James Dean Bradfield, Neil Halstead amongst others.    

Music is not about which pedal you have but what you do with it. If owning boss inspires you and you like having what your hero’s had, then you are golden.

its probably a better reason than capacitor x is better than y

Winny_Pooh

I find the boss circuits to be a bit vanilla. I've not heard any boss pedal aside from the angry driver than can do things like my Blackstone Mosfet or Buffalo TD-X.

You'll only know if you try.

Buy and try a Thorpy gunshot. If that doesn't open up things for you then your BOSS drives will be just fine.

preston61

Rumour has it that you're only allowed to like Boss if you're over 40! If you're under 40 then we're going to need you to sell your Boss pedals and stick to the boutique ones. Thank you

JezWynd

Winny_Pooh said:

I find the boss circuits to be a bit vanilla. I've not heard any boss pedal aside from the angry driver than can do things like my Blackstone Mosfet or Buffalo TD-X.

There’s definitely a ‘Boss sound’ when it comes to drives (and modulation) and it’s become more noticeable with the latest range of digital circuits imo.

That said, i’ve never found a drive pedal I like as much as the SD-2, despite trying some highly regarded pedals (Hudson, Barber etc).

Sassafras

JezWynd said:

Winny_Pooh said:

I find the boss circuits to be a bit vanilla. I've not heard any boss pedal aside from the angry driver than can do things like my Blackstone Mosfet or Buffalo TD-X.

That said, i’ve never found a drive pedal I like as much as the SD-2, despite trying some highly regarded pedals (Hudson, Barber etc).

I'm like that about the OD-2.
No other drives have managed to replace it.

builttospill

Sassafras said:

JezWynd said:

Winny_Pooh said:

I find the boss circuits to be a bit vanilla. I've not heard any boss pedal aside from the angry driver than can do things like my Blackstone Mosfet or Buffalo TD-X.

That said, i’ve never found a drive pedal I like as much as the SD-2, despite trying some highly regarded pedals (Hudson, Barber etc).

I'm like that about the OD-2.
No other drives have managed to replace it.

The edge of break up light crunch on the OD-2 is fantastic! 

Mark1960

In my experiance overdrive pedals fall into two catagories:-

First catagory - When you switch them on they sound like your Amp & Guitar, just overdriven.

Second catagory - When switched on they sound like anybody making an overdriven sound.

Unfortunately the pedals in the first catagory (which is presumably what you want) are more expensive. The best I have tried for keeping the original tone are a Thorpy Gunshot or OCD. Try and "borrow" either and try them with your setup. If they improve it get one, if not stick with what you have got.

Gadget

preston61 said:

Rumour has it that you're only allowed to like Boss if you're over 40! If you're under 40 then we're going to need you to sell your Boss pedals and stick to the boutique ones. Thank you

I always thought that was the other way around.

monquixote

I've found there are plenty of boutique drives that sound both great and shit and the same is true of mass produced stuff like TC Electronic, Boss, Hardwire, MXR etc.

ICBM

When boutique makers start building pedals with proper buffered switching and a well-designed casing that incorporates a large-area, robust treadle to operate it I might consider trying one again.

Winny_Pooh

ICBM said:

When boutique makers start building pedals with proper buffered switching and a well-designed casing that incorporates a large-area, robust treadle to operate it I might consider trying one again.

I think after reading your ME-50 posts they've given up on winning you over

Johnnyseven

I had a revolving door of boutique drive pedals for years. Using different studio amps meant pedals would sound great 1 week and terrible the next. I switched to Boss (the BD2 is what swung it) and have never looked back. May not be the best tone but they have very decent tone which, most importantly, remains consistant across the many studio amps I have used.

ICBM

Winny_Pooh said:

I think after reading your ME-50 posts they've given up on winning you over

I could also have said, when anyone (including Boss) makes a stand-alone overdrive pedal that sounds as good as the Natural Overdrive on the ME-50, I might be interested .

The Mesa V-Twin does, actually - although no better, which is why I sold it. 

thomasw88

  I currently have 2 - an od3 which is very good, and a os2 which i got slightly modified.    the od3 is on one of my boards, and the OS-2 currently isn't.    

I have had fecking literally 100's of drive pedals  including other Boss ones, and the boss ones are ok but nothin special in my book apart from the OD-3 which is excellent.

The  one pedal I cannot replace is my rat.   Had it for about 12 years, and nothing has outlasted it

Samgb

The real question is why do i currently have 4 drive pedals on my board(all of which i like very much in isolation): Boss SD1W, BD2W, JHS Morning Glory, Tube Screamer Mini BUT i have them all set up so that they sound as close to one another as possible?

I concluded last night that i am mildly f$#ked in the head and should flog 3 of them for something new. Which i can then try and make sound like something else i like.    

I loathe myself.

thermionic

Time to post this photo again:

https://i.imgur.com/nRabHRR.jpg

The one I have on my board now is the OD-3 because it doesn't cut the bass like the SD-1. If I played live it might well be the other way round. The OD-1 is something else though, and has been modded so that its frequency response at unity gain and with drive at zero is more like the OD-3 than the SD-1. I've owned it for 37 years so I can't imagine not having it now!