What are your views on Boss pedals - specifically the more "Vanilla" ones?

SquireJapan

I'm certainly guilty of thinking "more is more" when it comes to pedals (and kit in general). For some reason lately, I've been fancying getting a nice basic bunch of Boss pedals. Specifically the more "vanilla" type "meat and potato" variety.

What do you guys think? I'm thinking more in terms of practicality for gigging, rather than trying to achieve specific tones.

I was thinking:

• SD1
• DS1
• Compressor
• EQ
• Blues Driver
• Phaser
• Chorus
• Turbo Distortion

I was actually about to put a request out on the classifieds, but thought I'd ask opinions here first (the above pedals are all about £25 on eBay, so long as you don't mind them being a bit battered.

mike_l

I have an SD-1 and a DS-1, both are decent pedals, and pretty reliable.

I didn't like the Blues driver as much, and IMO there's better phasers and Choruses available.

The EQ (GE-7) I had was pretty useful as a boost in the loop, but didn't get used too much. I did also try it as a mid/treble booster in front of a clean amp, and got a nice Who-type tone.

guitarfishbay

I like the SD1. It is sturdier than the other TS types at the same price point and I slightly prefer the tone when boosting an amp. Though you have to watch the tone control as at higher levels I find it quite bright. It has a 'hard' tonality to it, seems to make artificial harmonics easier to achieve.

monquixote

I'll tell you what I think about the ones I've tried:

The SD-1 is a nice basic OD similar to a Tube Screamer. If it was me I'd probably plump for a Bad Monkey (which can be had for less) or a Hardwire OD (which can be had for slightly more) because of the bass control.

DS-1 is a very classic distortion sound. Not at all ampy and a fizzy "bee in a tin" type sound. Works quite well with low gain as an overdrive into a distorted amp for a shreddy sound. Sounds really nasty into bright Fender type amps. I'd look to getting a RAT instead personally which should only be slightly more.

Compressor - CS3 is a decent comp if a bit noisey

EQ - No idea

Blues Driver - Interesting one this. Not a blues pedal IMO. Actually quite similar in gain to something like an OCD/DLS or other medium gain distortions. Quite a nice rock crunch, but does have a slightly harsh high end. Works well being goosed by something else overdrivey.

Phaser and Chorus - Old analogue ones are fab, first gen digital ones were balls. Current gen digital ones are good.

Turbo Distortion - no idea.

Another Boss Distortion to try is the Power Stack which is a decent rock drive (though I only tried it in a shop)

Dave_Mc

From memory (and, er, cheapo clones I have from the likes of daphon and digitech) and in my opinion:

SD1- great (though apparently bleed in bypass at some settings, depending on the one you get)
BD2- pretty good
DS1- good for certain things, a lot of people hate them though
CS3- not bad but noisy at higher settings (though that's squashier than a lot of compressors, so :-S)

too long since I've tried the others.

jellybelly

Great, simple boss pedals you'll get for less than £50:
BF-2
BD-2
TR-2
SD-1
DS-2 (the extra mode takes it above the Ds-1 in my book. Instant 'In Utero')


EHX are another brand where you'll get a lot for your money and easily replace stuff, especially their modulation pedals. My Small Clone and Small Stone are the only pedals of their type I feel the need for.

Also, I HATE the CS-3. It felt like someone was actively trying to change the volume of my guitar to make me sound as shit as possible.

EricTheWeary

I don't like the Blues Driver, very harsh. I know someone who uses it quite well but pretty much just as a clean boost. I've heard people use it as a blues distortion and it's not nice. The EQ (GE7) is famously used by Slash as a boost. I had a Boss compressor but found it hard to dial in, but that may have been my bad. Yes, it was a bit noisey too. Billy Duffy used to use an SD 1 so that's a classic rock thing into a Marshall and he uses the BF 2 as his flanger now IIRC.

Adji

Boss is hit or miss with me, I either like it, or hate it, very little middle ground.

Boss stuff I liked:
TU-3
CS-3
OD-1
Blues Driver
HF-2 Hi Band flanger (tres cool, wish I still had it)
CE-2

Had an NS-2 as well and thought it was okay, seemed to do the job but then I;ve never actually been a fan of noise gates to be fair.

Had a bunch of other Boss and didn't think much of them.

xSkarloey

Have a Daphon SD-1 clone: great. Drives other pedals and amps well but nice as a standalone low gain OD

Have the Digitech Screamin Blues which is a Blues Driver Clone. I bought it because of the heavy gain on tap when you wind it up, the part some people dislike it seems! FWIW the SB is described as an overdrive/ distortion pedal which is right. 

I have a Heavy Metal pedal that was my first ever pedal, so it's staying but even so I can't get rid because it is very useable (for me at least) so ignore all the abuse people give it. Besides, Gilmour used one in the 80s so nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh to all the naysayers. (I believe Clappo used one for a time too). 

The old BF-2 Flanger is currently my favourite pedal after I got a nice one second hand earlier this year. @erictheweary Billy Duffy still uses one. It's his "She Sells Sanctuary" pedal and he'd be lost without it I guess. There's a pretty good Rig Rundown where he goes through his rig. No SD-1 on the board now. He's gone over the the green side and runs a TS.  

The only one I didn't like was the CS-3 which like other people found can take a lot of getting used to and which to be honest I never got used to at all. Needs a lot of adjustment to get right. 

To be fair the CS-3 in that respect is like the BF-2 and the HM-2: four knob pedals where there's a lot of variation so you need to experiment. 

ICBM

I like Boss pedals better than most, and if I had to build a one-make pedalboard there would be no other choice, for me.

SD-1 - classic TS-like overdrive, better for pushing an amp than as a stand-alone overdrive into a clean amp, great for forced harmonics as guitarfishbay said. It does have a problem with bleed into the bypass signal, but it's cured by running another buffered pedal in front of it. so put your compressor there (you want to anyway).

DS-1 - classic basic distortion pedal, it sounds great into the right amp but can be buzzy into a bright one. The 'window' of useful tone control settings is very narrow. It sounds *great* pushed by an SD-1, so put it after that.

Compressor - CS-2 or CS-3. The CS-2 sounds better to me, but isn't as clean as the CS-3.

EQ - GE-7. Stock ones are very noisy, you need the chips upgraded - why Boss have never done this is a total mystery to me, as it spoils an otherwise good pedal. You can get kits to do it.

Blues Driver - a bit of an acquired taste for me, I find it quite harsh. Not as much as the DS-1, but it won't do as good a crunch either. More a 'pushed Fender' type of sound than a 'Marshall' type of sound (although neither of them sound like amps).

Phaser - PH-2, or if you can find one, PH-1R AKA The Best Phaser Ever . The PH-3 is poor, avoid.

Chorus - I'd probably go for the CE-5. The CE-2 is the classic 80s chorus, but I always found it slightly sickly and the rate doesn't go fast enough. The CH-1 is good too, a bit more open-sounding and not quite as rich.

Turbo Distortion - like the DS-1, but with a mid-boosted mode. Kurt Cobain in a box. John Frusciante uses one too. If you only want one DS, buy this and not the 1.

Dave_Mc

Skarloey said:

Have a Daphon SD-1 clone: great. Drives other pedals and amps well but nice as a standalone low gain OD

Have the Digitech Screamin Blues which is a Blues Driver Clone. I bought it because of the heavy gain on tap when you wind it up, the part some people dislike it seems! FWIW the SB is described as an overdrive/ distortion pedal which is right.

Yeah I have those two. ) (I also have the digitech hot head which is a glorified ds1 I think.)

The screamin blues can get a bit harsh on the treble (and also doesn't seem to like being boosted by another drive pedal), but for ~£20 these days it's hard to beat. I use it as a boost basically.

ICBM said:

SD-1 - classic TS-like overdrive, better for pushing an amp than as a stand-alone overdrive into a clean amp, great for forced harmonics as guitarfishbay said. It does have a problem with bleed into the bypass signal, but it's cured by running another buffered pedal in front of it. so put your compressor there (you want to anyway).

That only works if you have a buffer (or buffered pedal) to put in front, though, surely? It's entirely possible that you might want the SD1 to be first in your chain (or at least that other pedals you might put in front, like tuners, might be true bypass), and having to put another pedal or buffer there ups the price on what is a reasonably-priced, great-sounding pedal.

It's a shame. I've said it before but if they didn't have the bleed I'd probably have the Boss SD1 now. I went with the Daphon (£13! ) ) on the basis that if its buffer were no better at least I hadn't spent much. In that instance it actually did lose Boss a sale.

I haven't noticed any bleed with the Daphon's buffer but I haven't exactly done scientific tests either.

UnclePsychosis

If you're looking for meat and potato pedals get yourself to Amazon and buy a digitech bad monkey for £20. Really decent tubescreamer.

I'm trying to resist the urge to buy one despite having absolutely no need for one. It's just too good a deal!

thermionic

The BD-2 is very different to the typical Boss OD-3 or SD-1. Not a bad pedal, but I couldn't get it to work with my AC15. The idea was to get a Fender-type drive out of a "British" sounding amp, but I think the amp and the pedal are just too different. Might sound great with a Fender amp, or even a bright Marshall. Plenty of mods around to cure any supposed harshness etc.

ICBM

Dave_Mc said:

That only works if you have a buffer (or buffered pedal) to put in front, though, surely? It's entirely possible that you might want the SD1 to be first in your chain (or at least that other pedals you might put in front, like tuners, might be true bypass), and having to put another pedal or buffer there ups the price on what is a reasonably-priced, great-sounding pedal.

That's why you would put it after the Boss compressor in this case .

It is a minor annoyance otherwise, I agree. That's why I stopped using mine and eventually sold it - I wanted it as a stand-alone boost pedal (or with a DS-1, but no more - and the SD-1 has to go first out of those two) and not need to have it on a board with something else in front.

Johnnyseven

I love Boss pedals. Ones I still have that I think are brilliant:

FZ2 Hyper Fuzz - so good I have 2
CE2B - great for guitar and more versatile with a mix knob
TR2
DD7
BF2
HF2

Ones i've had that I really liked:

BD2
CE2
DF2
FB2
HM2
OD3
DC3
Power Driver
ODB3 for guitar

The one I hated:

Power Stack

richardhomer

IMO modern Boss choruses are nowhere near as good as older ones. I have a CH1 Super Chorus which sounds really poor compared to my mid-80s CE-2.

Reverend

I like the SD-1 a lot. The DS-1 gets a lot of stick but has been used on more great albums than any high price boutique pedal.
Same with the HM-2. Not very versatile but the sounds on Left Hand Path and Like An Everflowing Stream remain untouchable.

juansolo

Boss' stuff can vary quite a bit. It's usually well made (using seriously on the limit voltage-wise ICs in a compressor that I had to replace a while back aside), and sometimes can have a bit of a shitty buffered bypass. But there's some great circuits there.

mike_l

Dave_Mc said:

From memory (and, er, cheapo clones I have from the likes of daphon and digitech) and in my opinion:

SD1- great (though apparently bleed in bypass at some settings, depending on the one you get)
BD2- pretty good
DS1- good for certain things, a lot of people hate them though
CS3- not bad but noisy at higher settings (though that's squashier than a lot of compressors, so :-S)

too long since I've tried the others.

Yes, the Boss pedals I have all bleed a bit (SD-1, SD-2, DS-1)

If you're looking at a DS-1, try a Vox Satchurator, as it does the DS-1 sound, and a load more, and without bleed (As far as I can tell at home volumes.)

ThePrettyDamned

@mike_l The satchurator kicks all kinds of arse, I really enjoyed using one. The boost is nice, too. There used to be a dude on YouTube who was a satch fan who used one into his peavey classic 50 and the sound was really amazing, which is why I got into it.

I love the ds-2 - use it with a strat or tele and you've got slane castle chilli peppers, which is a great, great lead tone. My favourite of all time in fact - I think he's running it into a big muff, or a muff into the ds-2, I don't think it's just the ds-2. Could be wrong! Plenty of speculation over his tone, he's a massive gear head.

I love my mates od - 3 (I think that's what it is - I made a thread on it a while back). Can push a valve amp, but also has nice od tones of it's own, apparently derived from the bd-2 circuit (another I like, but is a bit harsh - plenty of folk like keeley mod them).

Ph3 sucks balls, avoid, it sucks tone even when bypassed. And I'm normally not *that* bothered! I've used a ce-3 and really liked it, so I'm hunting for one as well as a Russian or USA muff and ds-2.

And money for the above.

ICBM

mike_l said:

Yes, the Boss pedals I have all bleed a bit (SD-1, SD-2, DS-1)

The interesting thing is that the vary from one example to another. The last couple I had - a very early Taiwanese SD-1 with a MIJ board, and a true MIJ DS-1 - the SD-1 was better than most but still annoying, and the DS-1 was silent. I've had another SD-1 which was basically unusable in bypass though. I've never quite got to the bottom of what causes it.