timmerman
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Over the last few months I have listened to a lot of distortion pedalsand among them the Boss ones, so I thought I'll let you know what I have discovered, feel free to add to it or give any kind of comments. So here we go
DS1 This is a pedal designed for mild to more extreme forms of dist. Controls are: Tone Volume and Dist. The pedal has a very open feel, and therefore one is able to add a booster to the pedal to add some gain.Overal this pedal does have a lot of different colour in it and can sound like an amp at times. Downside is lack of gain in this pedal, this may not be any concern when used for studio purposes, but for playing live you may want some more gain.
DS2 This one is able to give you more colours of dist. Controls are Tone, Vol, Dist. and Mode 1 and 2. Last control is used for the turbo function, which adds more midrange to the pedal. You are also able to use this pedal as a brightboost: just turn vol. and tone up and do not add any kind of dist. Overal the sound of the dist. is tight, but perhaps a little on the stiff side too.
OD3 A overdrive affair. Controls are Vol. Tone and Drive. With this one you are able to create mild to harder edged overdrive sounds.Pedal sounds very open and will work as a tubescreamer as well! At times this one can take over the character of a valve amp.
SD1 Boss's version of the tubescreamer. It will add dirt and boost to your amp. For best results use a valve amp, this being said, the pedal will work also with other amps, but the colour will be different. Will also work a booster pedal, though does colour your signal, but not in a bad way.
OS2 a overdrive/dist.pedal in one! Controls are Vol. Tone, Drive and Colour. This pedal can go from overdrive to anything in between right up to dist. so you are able to go from very sublte to extreme. Very nice indeed! Will also work as a boost pedal and does clean up too!
MT2 A versatile dist. based on a modified 80s Marshall amp. Controls are Level, High, Low, Middle, Mid. Freq. and Dist. A lot of knobs for a small pedal, therefore you need to do some tweaking Sir, to get your sound. However it should not take too long to get a happening sound. What can it do? Go from early 70s Marshall to a more modern sound. All kind of colours possible. Has a lot of gain too.
BD2 This one can go from mild to more extreme versions of dist. Has a lot of gain, tested this one against an Ibanez ts9 Turbo. The turbo is cleaner and has more options but is more expensive too.
Overal: All Boss pedals have their own kind of distortion, sound nothing like American pedals like the RAt or MXR or Electro Harmonics. Within the whole Boss range there are a lot of tonal variations possible, so you need to look at your own needs.
What is in the name?:
Some of the Boss pedals have names which do not live up to their expectations, for example the SD1, this is called a "Super OverDrive" so you would expect overdrive plus a lot more, well this is not the case. The SD1 has a lot less gain that the OD3 which is an overdrive pedal. The BD2 is called a "BluesDriver". So perhaps people not being into Blues would give this one a miss, however this pedal will also work as a harder kind of distortion. Then there is the MT2 which is called the "Metal Zone", so you would expect distortion and distortion plus, however this one is also able to create sublte forms of overdrive. So do not be fooled by the name as they are more used for marketing purposes rather than anything else.
What did I use for testing these pedals?
Used a guitar with ceramick humbuck type of pick-ups going through a small practise amp, this with the purpose of listening to the pedal rather than the amp. Most pedals put their own character on your amp, so in a way it does not really matter what kind of amp you use. Using different pick-ups does make a difference though, however most of these pedals will work fine with anything.
Some tips to add more gain, grind and colour to your pedals:
Using an eq pedal will bring out more colour out of any distortion pedal. You can put an eq afer the distortion, in this way you fine-tune the distortion. Another option is to put an eq before the distortion, this eq will enhance certain colours in the dist. pedal, and next add an eq after the dist. pedal, this one is used to fine-tune the whole patch.
I know there are people who get there distortion pedals modified to do some of the things I have described above. Perhaps some of you,who have done that, could tells us here what your experiences are regarding this mod. process.
Let me give you here the Boss website: www.bosscorp.co.jp. On this site you can listen to soundsamples of most of the pedals described here. Most of the soundbites do sound very similar, and when I listened to the pedals is reality they did not sound anything like what you here on the boss dem. soundbite. If you are interested in getting one of those pedals, you still do have to listen to them and try it out for yourself.
Good Luck,
DS1 This is a pedal designed for mild to more extreme forms of dist. Controls are: Tone Volume and Dist. The pedal has a very open feel, and therefore one is able to add a booster to the pedal to add some gain.Overal this pedal does have a lot of different colour in it and can sound like an amp at times. Downside is lack of gain in this pedal, this may not be any concern when used for studio purposes, but for playing live you may want some more gain.
DS2 This one is able to give you more colours of dist. Controls are Tone, Vol, Dist. and Mode 1 and 2. Last control is used for the turbo function, which adds more midrange to the pedal. You are also able to use this pedal as a brightboost: just turn vol. and tone up and do not add any kind of dist. Overal the sound of the dist. is tight, but perhaps a little on the stiff side too.
OD3 A overdrive affair. Controls are Vol. Tone and Drive. With this one you are able to create mild to harder edged overdrive sounds.Pedal sounds very open and will work as a tubescreamer as well! At times this one can take over the character of a valve amp.
SD1 Boss's version of the tubescreamer. It will add dirt and boost to your amp. For best results use a valve amp, this being said, the pedal will work also with other amps, but the colour will be different. Will also work a booster pedal, though does colour your signal, but not in a bad way.
OS2 a overdrive/dist.pedal in one! Controls are Vol. Tone, Drive and Colour. This pedal can go from overdrive to anything in between right up to dist. so you are able to go from very sublte to extreme. Very nice indeed! Will also work as a boost pedal and does clean up too!
MT2 A versatile dist. based on a modified 80s Marshall amp. Controls are Level, High, Low, Middle, Mid. Freq. and Dist. A lot of knobs for a small pedal, therefore you need to do some tweaking Sir, to get your sound. However it should not take too long to get a happening sound. What can it do? Go from early 70s Marshall to a more modern sound. All kind of colours possible. Has a lot of gain too.
BD2 This one can go from mild to more extreme versions of dist. Has a lot of gain, tested this one against an Ibanez ts9 Turbo. The turbo is cleaner and has more options but is more expensive too.
Overal: All Boss pedals have their own kind of distortion, sound nothing like American pedals like the RAt or MXR or Electro Harmonics. Within the whole Boss range there are a lot of tonal variations possible, so you need to look at your own needs.
What is in the name?:
Some of the Boss pedals have names which do not live up to their expectations, for example the SD1, this is called a "Super OverDrive" so you would expect overdrive plus a lot more, well this is not the case. The SD1 has a lot less gain that the OD3 which is an overdrive pedal. The BD2 is called a "BluesDriver". So perhaps people not being into Blues would give this one a miss, however this pedal will also work as a harder kind of distortion. Then there is the MT2 which is called the "Metal Zone", so you would expect distortion and distortion plus, however this one is also able to create sublte forms of overdrive. So do not be fooled by the name as they are more used for marketing purposes rather than anything else.
What did I use for testing these pedals?
Used a guitar with ceramick humbuck type of pick-ups going through a small practise amp, this with the purpose of listening to the pedal rather than the amp. Most pedals put their own character on your amp, so in a way it does not really matter what kind of amp you use. Using different pick-ups does make a difference though, however most of these pedals will work fine with anything.
Some tips to add more gain, grind and colour to your pedals:
Using an eq pedal will bring out more colour out of any distortion pedal. You can put an eq afer the distortion, in this way you fine-tune the distortion. Another option is to put an eq before the distortion, this eq will enhance certain colours in the dist. pedal, and next add an eq after the dist. pedal, this one is used to fine-tune the whole patch.
I know there are people who get there distortion pedals modified to do some of the things I have described above. Perhaps some of you,who have done that, could tells us here what your experiences are regarding this mod. process.
Let me give you here the Boss website: www.bosscorp.co.jp. On this site you can listen to soundsamples of most of the pedals described here. Most of the soundbites do sound very similar, and when I listened to the pedals is reality they did not sound anything like what you here on the boss dem. soundbite. If you are interested in getting one of those pedals, you still do have to listen to them and try it out for yourself.
Good Luck,
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