The Famous Harshness of the Blues Driver

monquixote

I got a BD2-W today.

I'm making a Waza board just for a laugh or I probably wouldn't have bothered.

I've had a standard BD-2 before and I didn't like it at all. At the time I had a Fender amp and it sounded super harsh and didn't have enough mids for lead.

I ended up going for the OD3 which is a lot smoother. 

The BD2-W sounds great with my DSL. From what I've heard the famous harshness is not removed from the Waza version so I'm not sure if it just suits the Marshall a lot more.

It has a really great presence that makes it really pop. The funny thing is if I listen carefully especially on axis it does sound a bit hard in the top end but somehow its good.

Love it or hate it forum folks?

Johnnyseven

I do like the BD2 and used them live for some time but find them a bit thin in the mids. Running the Angry Charlie into the BD on an Angry Driver fixes that though and sounds great, my favourite drive sound.

monquixote

The Custom mode on the Waza fattens it up a bit.

It sounds great with a Klon stacked into it to push the mids.

tekbow

I should probably get a BD.

Have an SD1 and TS, Should complete the set

munckee

The keeley mod blues driver (I had the mooer blues pedal which is a clone) is really good with fender amps is great, never found it harsh 

SquireJapan

I never liked the blues driver, but accidentally found it was good into an SD1 (into a Princeton). 

It was so good I look a photo of the settings in case I’d found some magic combination 

TINMAN82

SquireJapan said:

I never liked the blues driver, but accidentally found it was good into an SD1 (into a Princeton). 

It was so good I look a photo of the settings in case I’d found some magic combination 

Makes you wonder if lots of boutique pedals are based on simply combining the circuitry of basic stalwarts like these.

monquixote

TINMAN82 said:

SquireJapan said:

I never liked the blues driver, but accidentally found it was good into an SD1 (into a Princeton). 

It was so good I look a photo of the settings in case I’d found some magic combination 

Makes you wonder if lots of boutique pedals are based on simply combining the circuitry of basic stalwarts like these.

I think 90% of boutique drives are a slight variation on a: TS, SD1, Rat, Guvnor, Bluesbreaker or Timmy.

From what I understand the BD2 doesn't get cloned all that much because it's quite a complicated circuit.

It did however win the Andertons blind shootout of overdrives.

thermionic

TINMAN82 said:

SquireJapan said:

I never liked the blues driver, but accidentally found it was good into an SD1 (into a Princeton). 

It was so good I look a photo of the settings in case I’d found some magic combination 

Makes you wonder if lots of boutique pedals are based on simply combining the circuitry of basic stalwarts like these.

Both the BD-2 and the OD-3 have several very different clipping/overdrive stages in series, unlike say an SD-1/ TS (diode clipping in the feedback loop of an opamp) or a Guv’Nor/OCD (diode clipping on an opamp output). They’re also somewhat unconventional as they have an opamp formed of discrete components rather than an integrated circuit.

EricTheWeary

I remember doing a gig and the guitarist in the other band we were on with had one as his OD into, I think, a solid state Fender combo. Just the harshest, nastiest sound, so that put me off them for a long time. 

Like a lot of the classic ODs probably best used subtly and not as a main source of gain. 

Whitecat

munckee said:

The keeley mod blues driver (I had the mooer blues pedal which is a clone) is really good with fender amps is great, never found it harsh 

I think the Keeley BD is sonically superior to the Waza version, just slightly smoother in tone. Not a tonne in it, but if it wasn't a themed board and I was just looking for the "best BD" that would probably be my first choice.

Emiel

I had a Keeley BD-2 for quite some time and only liked it with the tone control at 10:00-11:00 o'clock. Below it would be too dark and above too bright. A lot of folks seem to crank the tone controls for some reason...

UnclePsychosis

It's the only 'popular' Boss dirt pedal that I haven't tried. I actually picked one up on eBay at the weekend so looking forward to it arriving.

It'll have to be pretty good to displace my Smallsound Mini but we'll see...

For what it's worth, I think the sd-2 is the best of the boss drive pedals, and I say that as a fan of quite a few of them. 

Dave_Mc

monquixote said:

TINMAN82 said:

SquireJapan said:

I never liked the blues driver, but accidentally found it was good into an SD1 (into a Princeton). 

It was so good I look a photo of the settings in case I’d found some magic combination 

Makes you wonder if lots of boutique pedals are based on simply combining the circuitry of basic stalwarts like these.

I think 90% of boutique drives are a slight variation on a: TS, SD1, Rat, Guvnor, Bluesbreaker or Timmy.

From what I understand the BD2 doesn't get cloned all that much because it's quite a complicated circuit.

It did however win the Andertons blind shootout of overdrives.

You forgot about the klon! Although I guess they usually admit what they are as it's an even bigger selling point...

I have a digitech blues driver, which is more or less a bd2, I think. It was pretty nice (as you said, probably better into a marshall-style amp) , but I prefer the timmy- IIRC the blues driver (not sure if the boss has this problem) didn't stack very well with something else into it (I like a tubescreamer or sd1 into a more transparent drive for leads).

noisepolluter

I had the BD-2W briefly - I just found both settings too raspy for my setup (clean fender amp). 

meltedbuzzbox

monquixote said:

The Custom mode on the Waza fattens it up a bit.

It sounds great with a Klon stacked into it to push the mids.

Have you turned 450 quids worth of pedals into a 90 quid tube screamers there? (Assuming it's a ktr klon)

monquixote

No it's a klone.

ewal

Like so many of these pedals, it all depends what you're combining it with. Definitely worth experimenting - try stacking it and see what comes out.

smudge_lad

One of the best guitar tones I ever remember having….before I really started getting into pedals properly, was a Franklin Modded BD-2 into my Marshall AVT150 w/ 4x12. Similar to the Keeley mod I’m sure. At the time I was considering buying it, Rick talked me into buying his version of a modded SD-1 and to stack it into the BD-2 for extra dirt. 

As I say, it was before I was really into pedals and obviously valve amps. But, I do remember thinking the BD-2 sounded bloody brilliant on its own, and being pushed!

ICBM

Like a lot of drive pedals with plenty of top-end, it can be harsh into Fenders with the standard reverb mixer section, because there's a cap in the signal path which accentuates highs - unless the amp is really cranked up into power-stage overdrive, which smooths that out again.

It's probably rarely copied because as thermionic said, it's a fairly complex circuit - it's effectively an op-amp but built with discrete transistors rather than just using an IC.

As smudge_lad says, it stacks very well with an SD-1 as well (SD-1 into BD-2).

Probably the biggest thing I don't like about it is the name... I don't really like my gear to tell me what sort of music I should be playing. But I saw one recently which had been creatively modified by its owner by carefully removing two letters, and I nearly bought it.

B u s Driver .

monquixote

ICBM said:

Like a lot of drive pedals with plenty of top-end, it can be harsh into Fenders with the standard reverb mixer section, because there's a cap in the signal path which accentuates highs - unless the amp is really cranked up into power-stage overdrive, which smooths that out again.

It's probably rarely copied because as thermionic said, it's a fairly complex circuit - it's effectively an op-amp but built with discrete transistors rather than just using an IC.

As smudge_lad says, it stacks very well with an SD-1 as well (SD-1 into BD-2).

Probably the biggest thing I don't like about it is the name... I don't really like my gear to tell me what sort of music I should be playing. But I saw one recently which had been creatively modified by its owner by carefully removing two letters, and I nearly bought it.

B u s Driver .

I've always thought the name is not great.

It's a mid gain pedal that works well for rock into a clean amp. For a "blues" pedal I usually think of a mid pushed boost/OD like a TS or a Klon.