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A question out of curiosity

#21
Not all Boss (or from any builder for that matter) are all gonna be good/great/or even decent sounding sometimes. Its all up to your ears but here is what I own from Boss that rocks my socks off! :eek:

Boss LS-2 Line Selector:
this thing is a damn swiss amry knife. 2 loops with independent volume controls, two basses, two amps, bypass loop..just about anything! I use it to keep almost all my pedals in the effects loop of my Groove Regulator AND use them independently... :hyper:

Boss OC-2 Octave:
want to make just about anything REALLY FAT? here is is. all analog (also means monophonic) octaver that can do -1,-2 and your direct with volume control over each. I did the synth mod to mine for a pure squarewaveform. Mostly use it with the OCT-1 full on, direct at 9:00 and OCT-2 dimmed.

Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz:
2 fuzz modes AND a dirty boost? WIN! Fuzz 1 is way more low-end friendly than 2 BUT I use the LS-2 to blend in some clean signal or run it through a T-REX Bass Juice to blend it with the Juice's very versatile tone and gain.

Boss PS-3 Digital Pitch Shifter/Delay:
I'll just list what it can do and you use your imagination. up to 2 secs of digi-delay with controllable pseudo-oscillation, single and dual-voiced detune for chorus, harmonies selectable with -1 through +1 and every semitone in between. Also can do -2 and +2 with direct thats 27 intervals! Also can use an exp for a very custom whammy, reverse pitch-shifting, harmonies with pitch shifting....AND ITS BLUE! :rollno:

Roland RE-20 Space Echo:
tech a Boss but a VERY nice replication of the old school Roland RE-201 Space Echo but at 1/4 of the price, better bypass (use an isolated power supply or youll get some nasty LED oscillation noise), dedicated tap-tempo footswitch that can also do the tape-twist madness. And you can hook up an exp pedal to control rate,intensity,echo volume or the tape twist. Beat out my El Capistan! :eek:

Honorable mentions:
PN-2
DM-2
DM-3
DD-3/5/6/7
BF-2
CE-5
modded CS-3

ok thats enough :D
 
#22
ga_edwards said:
I bet most of them aren't stock though! Which brings me to....

This is my problem with multifx units, esp Boss. It seems the consensus among experienced musicians is that most Boss effects are ok, not great, but ok. But with a little modding, some of them can be fantastic, the famous Keely DS-1 for example.

With a Boss multi, yes you can a ton of Boss effects in one unit, great bang for buck. But they're modelled on stock tones. As one would expect from a Boss multi. I believe that it's for this reason that I've never been overly impressed by a Boss multi, as they can only ever sound average, not great.
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I'd be willing to bet you that the great majority of them ARE bone stock. For the same reason they use Boss in the first place. If one goes bust in the middle of a tour, they can pop on over to Guitar Center and get a new one. If they're using some fancy modded Boss, that's a lot harder to fix between shows.
 
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#25
Pros use mostly Boss pedals? I find that hard to believe. Personally the only Boss pedal I've ever liked was the DD7.
I know quite a few pedal junkies like myself and rarely see a Boss product on their board. It's entry-level stuff and for a little more money you can get some much better sounds... EHX, MXR, etc. Or you can go the boutique route if you're really selective about your sound and have some extra $$. The type of pedals that do one thing very, very well but are quite pricey.
 
#26
That's the thing though--there is a vast difference between the majority of professional touring musicians and the handful of pedal enthusiasts we know or talk to on the internet.

It is a 100% solid fact that touring musicians use pedals that can be easily replaced in any large town. This rules out almost all of the "cool" boutique pedals.

Pedal enthusiasts, especially the snobby ones, tend to not be so busy with a touring schedule.

As far as reliability, I have seen EHX pedals fail all over the place. As far as quality of sound, it's only quite recently that MXR has stepped up to a high level of quality. For most of the decades they've been in business, their quality was exactly the same as Boss.
 
#29
bongomania said:
That's the thing though--there is a vast difference between the majority of professional touring musicians and the handful of pedal enthusiasts we know or talk to on the internet.

It is a 100% solid fact that touring musicians use pedals that can be easily replaced in any large town. This rules out almost all of the "cool" boutique pedals.

Pedal enthusiasts, especially the snobby ones, tend to not be so busy with a touring schedule.

As far as reliability, I have seen EHX pedals fail all over the place. As far as quality of sound, it's only quite recently that MXR has stepped up to a high level of quality. For most of the decades they've been in business, their quality was exactly the same as Boss.
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+1 preach oh lord bongo!! preach!!
 
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#30
Wow. Looks like the OC-2 has a bunch of fans. I like mine too, and it has never needed to get repaired since I bought it used around 1990.

Recently I have started using a PH-3. So now there are two Boss pedals I really like mixed in with my other ones.

On the opposite end of the spectrum for Boss, I recently picked up a DD-5 as part of a trade with a buddy. It is already getting worked on just to get it working at all. I called Roland Corp. for parts and they were backordered on that particuar chip. Worse yet, my signal is going through a chip when I am supposed to be bypassing the pedal. That's not cool. My PH-3 probably does the same thing, but I am not hearing any noticeable signal degradation. And I tried pretty hard before sticking the PH-3 on the pedal board.
 
#32
bongomania said:
As far as quality of sound, it's only quite recently that MXR has stepped up to a high level of quality. For most of the decades they've been in business, their quality was exactly the same as Boss.
Click to expand...

Interesting fact. Again, in my limited experience, I've grown to think that among non-boutique pedal brands, MXR is the best in terms of reliability and hassle-free effectiveness. Products that go to the point with not so many bells and whistles and definitely work.
 
#33
thigmotaxic said:
Pros use mostly Boss pedals? I find that hard to believe. Personally the only Boss pedal I've ever liked was the DD7.
I know quite a few pedal junkies like myself and rarely see a Boss product on their board. It's entry-level stuff and for a little more money you can get some much better sounds... EHX, MXR, etc. Or you can go the boutique route if you're really selective about your sound and have some extra $$. The type of pedals that do one thing very, very well but are quite pricey.
Click to expand...

There's a reason you see most (not all) pros using gear like Fender, Gibson, Boss, etc... and a decent portion of that has to do with your ability to replace it if it ever goes bad on a tour.
 
#34
Alvaro Martín Gómez A.;12179450 said:
Interesting fact. Again, in my limited experience, I've grown to think that among non-boutique pedal brands, MXR is the best in terms of reliability and hassle-free effectiveness. Products that go to the point with not so many bells and whistles and definitely work.
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I'm not disagreeing with you! :D The point I was trying to make is not that MXR was "low quality", but rather that it was the same working-class reliable quality as Boss, neither better nor worse.

The "recent" jump in quality includes their bass-specific pedals from the last two years, e.g. the newer compressor, filter, etc. are much better than Boss.
 
#36
KJL said:
I don't use any Boss pedals for my bass - I ALWAYS go straight into my amps - but for those of you that play guitar - the Super Overdrive SD-1 is an AMAZING pedal for $40. I also use a DS-1 Distortion on occasion. The Boss tuner sucks my tone away...KJL
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So I was looking over some older posts and I have to amend this old statement I made - I now use this chain: Bass --> Korg Pitch Black Tuner --> Bassballs (EH) --> Chorus (Carl Martin) --> Amp. I am not sure if I am in love with this arrangement, but it is getting the job done for now.
 
#39
I remember in TB that some folk posted a really great analisy of a buch of Boss pedals and how they worked their bypass with an spectrum frequencies and the losted range of frequencies . He did a picture of the curve signal or everyone for showing like some of them was better and another ones was really bad.

It was really interesting.
 
#40
I've used a TU-2 for the last 7 years and it's been solid (knock on wood).
Had the OC-2, loved it.
Had an ODB-3, it was ok...more of a sizzling fuzzy thing than an overdrive.
Heard lots of great things about the Line Selector, Harmonist, CS-2 and the Delays.

I think Boss does a good job of making affordable products that are readily available. As well as actually coming up with some innovative products that really do push the envelope.
 

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