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So I take it boss pedals arent that great?

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dra6n

Jan 18, 2011
24
0
Az
#1
I currently have the Boss GT-6B and hate it.. actually trying to sell it off. I made a short list of the pedals I want to get and Boss has them all.. but I havent seen many TBers talk about all their Boss pedals... are they not that great or is there just such a wide variety out there that they dont use them?

The Pedals I wanted to get were:
• Chorus CEB-3
• OverDrive ODB-3
• Flanger BF-3
• Wah - AW-3
• Chromatic Tuner

all paired with a Voodoo Lab PP2
 
#6
Some are good, others not so much. Overall they are pretty average. A lot of pros use boss pedals for those sort of effects that are not integral to their signature sound, yet they need the effect occasionally anyway.

For touring musicians theres a lot to be said for a product that you can pick up in any good music store anywhere if for some reason one fails you.

So use your own ears, try it and if it gets the job done to your satisfaction might as well use it. There's no reward for having a board full of the most rarest, most expensive boutique pedals.

Well, ...unless you need those sort of things to reassure the individuality and worth of your own ego.
 
#8
Boss effects pedals have been around for a while... I started playing in 1980 and my then guitarist had a Boss OD1, so 30 plus years, so they must have some fans. I think they make reasonable pedals for guitar sounds, but I don't see much love for them from bass players.
 
#10
awesome thanks for putting some perspective on them. I've only had my Boss GT-6B and I hate it.. so any pedal will be better. I found pretty much all the pedals I want on craigslist for around $50 each which is really good (about half the price) so I will at least start with them, and when new ones show up in my local music stores I'll play with them and see if I like them more or not..

thanks again!
 
#11
they are great and depends on what you are looking for there are some gems among them. my favs that I have are:

Boss LS-2: Line Selector: can us it for 2 effect loops, a blender, can daisy chain other pedals off it.

Boss OC-2 Octave: best analog octaver out there hands down. has -1 octave which can is really synthy and can really bring out the anger of a fuzz. Also sounds great when you mix 50% direct (has a direct knob) for some good overtones.

Boss PS-3: Digital Pitch Shifter/Delay: This beast can do many many things, it can do digital delay from 50-2000 m/s. can do pitch shifting from -2 to +2 octaves with 12 semitones between clean and -1 and +1 oct. can do harmonies extremely well. can be used with an expression pedal for a polyphonic whammy. also it has reverse pitch shifting which sounds AMAZING!

Boss BF-2 Flanger: this is an analog flanger but not the warmest out there. if jet planes and strong aggresiveness sopunds good in a flanger than this one has it in spades!

Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner: it s atuner for bass/guitar and can tune to anything with pretty good accuracy. can also daisy chain otrher pedals.

I've owned/tried a lot more than that but these really shine! Heres is what I've tried/owned:

SYB-05 Bass Synth
AW-3 Dynamic Wah
DS-1 Distortion
CH-1 Super Chorus
CE-5 Chorus Ensemble
CEB-3 Bass Chorus
PH-2 Super Phaser

I miss my old RV-3 but not enought to go out of my way to get one
 
#16
Not a fan of the ODB-3. It produced an awful amount of noise and it wasn't worth it to use. Worked great with guitar, so I gave it to our guitarists and purchased something else for myself. If you decide to go with ODB-3 try it first, and try to yank your bass off the wall if you can try it at a GuitarMart.
 
#17
IME, Boss pedals don't hold up. Like you, I just didn't like the ones I tried. Then again, that's been years ago and I couldn't even tell you which one they were. I just remember I didn't keep them long. After so many pedals, you kinda loose memory of details and only remember what sticks out. For me I remember I didn't like the tone and the switch shorted out rather quickly. I think I tried a compressor and a distortion of some type.
 
#18
Boss is like the "Honda" of pedals. They have a bunch of models, reasonably priced, and great for what they are. They are not a Peterbuilt, Lamborghini, Harley-Davidson, or a chicken sandwich. They are great at being average.
 
#19
I had a GT6-B - Jack of all trades and Master of none.

It is a good place to start and identify the effects that you want / need - but after that, I'd look to bag the individual units. I've got a mixed board of MXR, EHX and EBS and each one performs well above any Multi-FX unit I've tried.

In the distant past, I also had a Boss Bass EQ and Compressor. Both noisy as hell and just not up to the job.

Having said that - I do have the TU-2 tuner, that works fine for me, but its running from a dedicated tuner out from my amp - so isn't featured in my signal chain at all.
 

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