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I have other brands, but my df-2, dd2 and ph1r will never go. The Ds2 is here for frusciante moments, but I could see myself getting bored. I doubt I'll bother selling though - it does a really good mid gain crunch too.
Quality - Well, some Boss pedals are exceptional, some are very good, but some have problems with components. I have the GE-7 (EQ) and CS3 Compressor Sustainer on my board They are both pretty decent pedals but both share the same issue in that they are a bit noisy. I'm aware that there are mods available to quieten them down and improve their tone, but I don't see why I should be inconvenienced and have to pay extra for something that should have been done right in the first place.
So you've got to be quite careful when choosing a particular effect as to which version best suits you. Sometimes it's a compromise. For example, from a tonal and control perspective I much prefer the CS3 to the CS2 that I used to have - but the CS2 was quieter.
So, overall, I'd give Boss 7.5-8/10 - good, but not always 'Carling'.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
That is irksome.
Also, some of their best pedals are marketed all wrong. The metal zone should be the parametric death fuzz. The od-3 should be the bd-3.
And they really should make the ph1r or ph2, fz2 or fz3. The way the ds-2 was marketed was awful, too - basically shown as a metal pedal, when it's a two mode pedal - loose, slightly scooped mid gain crunch and high gain, very middy sustaining fuzzy lead tone. It can't do anything even approaching metal!
That aside, they do innovate. The new digital dirt boxes are all good - I love the da-2 for a really responsive drive that can even act as a totally transparent clean boost, and the ds-1x is a monster of a high gain pedal for modern rock.
I like the BF-2 because it's a sound on a lot of records I like and because its got a great variety of sounds in it.
I love the CE2 style chorus sound, but I have a cheapy Super Chorus because it has more high-end sparkle in the sound and it's quite a subtle effect, which is me all over when it comes to chorus: some but not too much.
What else? SD1 because I love Marshalls and they go really well with them.
And the Space Echo, because it's like a musical instrument in its own right.
edit: oh and the GE7 graphic , which although it's more Milky Bar than Smarties coloured, is a great secret weapon pedal to have. That's saved my skin on quite a few occasions.
Feedback
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
To be fair, they have fixed a few things- I think they fixed the volume drop on the TR-2* (after I bought one, of course ). But there's more stuff that they really should fix too, and if they did, a lot of us would be eating out of their hands.
* Plus a cynic might say that a volume drop in a tremolo pedal is probably noticeable (i.e. not fixing it might cost them sales), whereas most players won't notice iffy buffers, at least at the point of sale... and even the noise thing with the GE7 and CS3, maybe they have half an eye on selling more NS2s.
The BD-2 though, now that is a noisy little herbert. Well, mine is.
The SD-1 bleed thing, doesn't that only happen if the gain is maxed? So not that big a deal really? I'd say most people use it level up gain down to kick a clipping amp. That's how I do and I've never noticed this bleed problem. I'll experiment and try find it
New to me is the NS-2 which I've only had for a couple months. Never really noticed how much noise my stuff was making till I got this, it's a pretty cool trick
Nearly forgot, another great utility Boss is the LS-2, how useful is that thing for trying out all sorts of stuff? Answer, very very useful, very cool pedal.
Yeah, you need the gain up. I used to use it pretty much everything at half way and no problems at all.
The ls2 is awesome!
You don't need to have the gain maxed, over roughly halfway will show it up. I tend to use them more like that, I never do the gain-down/level-up thing really. The odd thing about them is that even when they're set for unity volume into a clean amp as a pure overdrive pedal, they still boost an overdriven one... not sure how that's possible but it works!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein