NEW Boss DM-2, BD-2 & SD-1 reissues

not_the_dj

Have these Boss Waza craft pedals landed yet?

Anyone tried the delay?

monquixote

Andertons were saying they had huge numbers of preorders so I imagine they might be hard to get hold of for a while.

EricTheWeary

I quite fancied the delay but they are at a price point where the choice is fairly wide and the Boss starts looking limited. If anyone had one in stock and they weren't charging the full £135 I might have splurged by now but time moves on so my money is probably going elsewhere.

Dave_Mc

^ Yeah, that's my concern too. Don't get me wrong- I'm not anti-Boss. But the reason an SD1 is great is that it sounds great, is reliable, and is £39. At 3 times the price you have a lot more options- which aren't necessarily better, of course, but those options are there, and the cynic in me wonders why I'd pay 3 times the price for something which I may not like any more. And also the cynic in me wonders (1) whether the "improvements" they've made (discrete circuitry versus op-amps) will actually make it sound better and (2) what that little switch actually does, it could be doing very little.

Of course, the price increase isn't as much for the other two, and the delay may be worth it. But I can't shake the feeling that, like Ibanez with the handwired Tubescreamer, it's a way for them to jump on the boutique bandwagon. They know some people have that money to spend and almost want to spend it to feel they're getting something "better", and they want some of that market. ) In my opinion.

EricTheWeary

The DM 2 Waza isn't that boutique as I see it - it adds a longer but more Plain Jane delay into the equation. It also has an exp pedal socket which is something I like on a delay but probably puts me into about 2% of delay pedal users. I am looking at small delays again and knowing this is Boss quality and does a basic delay job well I think it would be a safe buy but they announced them months ago and they don't seem to be in any shops yet.   
:o3

hugbot

I have no idea what the word "boutique" means anymore frankly.

mike_l

hugbot said:

I have no idea what the word "boutique" means anymore frankly.

Expensive copies.

EricTheWeary

^ well, no, but I guess it implies something less mainstream. Doubling the delay length and making it sound less analog makes the DM2 more like every other pedal out there and less 'big company makes surprising niche product.' It still does the classic DM2 stuff so then why not just a standard reissue?

mike_l

My interpritation is more cynical than Mr Theweary's.

Dave_Mc

EricTheWeary said:

The DM 2 Waza isn't that boutique as I see it - it adds a longer but more Plain Jane delay into the equation. It also has an exp pedal socket which is something I like on a delay but probably puts me into about 2% of delay pedal users. I am looking at small delays again and knowing this is Boss quality and does a basic delay job well I think it would be a safe buy but they announced them months ago and they don't seem to be in any shops yet.   
:o3

Yeah as I said, a decent analogue delay is probably going to set you back the guts of £100 in most cases, so the DM2 isn't too bad. It's the other two (and especially the SD1) which look expensive. And where the marketing looks iffy- if the original is so great and uses an op-amp, why does the waza one need discrete circuitry? Similar thing with the HW tubescreamer, the originals which go for crazy money weren't handwired! I've tried a few of the standard Boss dirt pedals which use discrete circuitry, and I'm not sure they necessarily sound any better than the op amp-loaded ones.

Plus with all of them, as you implied, they're sort of trying to have their cake and eat it too- "It still does what the original did, but also does more!" Which is debatable, I guess, if they've changed it that much (yet if the switch does very little, does it justify the extra cost?). Especially with Boss's record of arguably constantly changing things for the worse.

not_the_dj

I'm not at all interested in the drives, but the price for the DM2 looks fine to me, compared to say a new MXR Carbon Copy.

jpfamps

The chips used in the original DM2 aren't in production anymore, so it's unlikely that this will sound like the original.

Regardless it seems keenly priced for an analogue delay, and I'm sure will be reliable as all Boss pedals generally are (unlike some of the competition).

Analogue delays are more expensive to produce than overdrive pedals.

The BD2 is not one of my favourite drive pedals, whereas the SD-1 sounds good.

I think BOSS probably looked at the retail of a TS-9 and wanted to capture some of that market.

ThePrettyDamned

Seems a fine price for a quality delay that offers something that sounds the same, or very similar, to the originals on one setting and adds another setting in with extra time and a cleaner tone, too. 

If it was a booteek builder claiming the same, it would seem a fair price.  

Dave_Mc

^ Agreed- though I quite like the BD2, or at least the digitech screamin' blues which has the rep of being a glorified clone... and which at ~£20 makes the Waza version seem pretty dear!