Boss pedal designations....

Voxsupertwin

hi to all.....I’ve noticed that old/older Boss pedals that are for sale are acquiring, to me what seem meaningless, descriptions to justify, I assume, higher prices.
black label, blue label, long dash, short screw etc

what does this all mean?....

help !

english_bob

All the names are fairly logical- they refer to easily visible details that *should* correspond to particular countries of manufacture, or to slight variations in the circuit that may make for a better sounding pedal. 

The "label" designations relate to the colour of the label on the underside of the pedal.
The "short screw" is the thumbscrew that holds the footpedal in place that you unscrew to change the battery
The "long dash" is the dash between the numbers and letters in the pedal number-
eg. DD-3 vs DD--3

Whether these differences are worth the extra money is up to you.

ICBM

Voxsupertwin said:

what does this all mean?....

It means you're paying too much, basically.

You're absolutely right - it's using microscopic irrelevant variations of the casing print or bottom label colour to claim extra rarity value and charge more for the same pedal. There is no case I can think of where there's an actual difference in the sound of the effect.

Oh... and I hate the silver screw, it looks cheap and nasty. I changed all my old ones out for black plastic ones when I could find spare ones. Luckily I did keep a couple for when I sold stuff like my "long dash" CE-2 (or should that be CE–2... ), or the buyer would probably have wanted about £50 off.

JezWynd

I read somewhere recently (can’t recall where), they said that Japanese made pedals may be superior in some cases as the tolerances of key components were checked during manufacture, whereas Taiwanese made were not. I’ve no idea if this is true and I’ve not noticed any differences myself on the few occasions I’ve been able to directly A/B. I started out using Boss pedals some years ago and having gone all around the houses with different brands, boutique etc., I now find I’m back where I started, with Boss.

Sassafras

People equate old with better.

UnclePsychosis

ICBM said:

Voxsupertwin said:

what does this all mean?....

It means you're paying too much, basically.

You're absolutely right - it's using microscopic irrelevant variations of the casing print or bottom label colour to claim extra rarity value and charge more for the same pedal. There is no case I can think of where there's an actual difference in the sound of the effect.

Oh... and I hate the silver screw, it looks cheap and nasty. I changed all my old ones out for black plastic ones when I could find spare ones. Luckily I did keep a couple for when I sold stuff like my "long dash" CE-2 (or should that be CE–2... ), or the buyer would probably have wanted about £50 off.

The only exception I can think of is maybe things like the "long chip" DD3 where there are genuine circuit differences. There's also the CE-5 which was analogue at one point and is now digital. 

I guess the only good thing about it is that Boss pedals are so well documented that a google search will normally give you the lowdown on differences.

ICBM

JezWynd said:

I read somewhere recently (can’t recall where), they said that Japanese made pedals may be superior in some cases as the tolerances of key components were checked during manufacture, whereas Taiwanese made were not. I’ve no idea if this is true and I’ve not noticed any differences myself on the few occasions I’ve been able to directly A/B.

No, not true.

In some cases there are differences in the type of components, eg ICs in some of the overdrive and distortion pedals, but these changes don't coincide exactly with with the move to Taiwan or any of the other external detailing changes, so although in some cases those can be a guide, they're not definitive. (Even if the component changes matter.)

UnclePsychosis said:

The only exception I can think of is maybe things like the "long chip" DD3 where there are genuine circuit differences.

This is one which definitely does make a difference, yes.

UnclePsychosis said:

There's also the CE-5 which was analogue at one point and is now digital.

And the CH-1. These are fairly easy to identify from the colour of the labels, which do seem to have changed at the time the pedals were redesigned - presumably because the later digital ones have to show the 'Class B Computing Device' disclaimer.

Johnnyseven

The analog/digital CE5 & CH1 do sound different, i've had both at the same time. However the difference is so small that it's not worth worrying about.

ICBM

Johnnyseven said:

The analog/digital CE5 & CH1 do sound different, i've had both at the same time. However the difference is so small that it's not worth worrying about.

Although I've never directly A/B'd them, I've used both at different times and my impression is that the most important difference is that the digital ones are less noisy.

JezWynd

I found a very noticeable difference between the early dbx chip CS-3 and the later version. The dbx version is very noticeably quieter, with less background hiss at higher compression ratios.

thermionic

One of the other well-documented differences is the early OD-1s had a 14-pin opamp chip which was a quad opamp chip, compared to later ones which had a dual (8-pin) opamp. Out of curiosity I looked up the schematic and it appears that the additional opamps are used as input/output buffers, instead of single transistor buffers.