Boss AW-2 Auto Wah

Great pedal. Manual knob know might be confusing at first - takes 15-30 minutes to figure the whole thing - tweak away and you will get cool sounds. No manual needed, presuming this is not your very first pedal and you know what pedal knobs do. Once you get the tone (not too bright not too muddy) - adjust the speed and you get that 70's sound ready on demand. I keep deph all the away to max, speed at about 75%, manual at low(fuller sound), sensitivity - at max. I give it a 10 for an experienced pedal user, 7 - for a newbie.

I use it in my own custom effect loop device to throw effects onto Martin Acoustic Electric going into PA. My sound is similar to french band Air - clean acoustic sound that goes crazy and effected then needed.
Yes this pedal is noisy if left turned on - you will hear woosh-woosh. Depending on your settings noise can be loud or not. not the case for me. I engage for a few minutes for wah-wah touch and never let it sit idle. Sounds great with DM-3 put after in a chain. I put a CE-2 before to get a warmer and dreamier sound. Works well with SD-1 in front w/mild overdrive sttings you get a dirt wah. Could work for solos but settings must be diferent - my settings won't allow notes flow - I use it for chords in a way you'd use tremolo on a open chord. Any 70's sleazy soundtrack wah is doable with this one. I tried Aw-3 and hated it. Yes very clean but the rate couldn't be dialed in - only tapped. With AW-2 you can adjust rate to tremelo-like stutter fro a weird sci-fi effect - can't be done with AW-3. AW-3 is keyboard pedal in my opinion - great for sweeping keyboard signal.

Boss does break, however they are still one of the best.

Let's just say parts are impossible to find.

Let's say this if you're serious rock guitarist - get a Buddha or Vox wah - but if you want funky lo-fi "treatment" once in a while - get AW-2. I love it! I wish it was less noisy, but hey for $45.00 it does job well. Not sure about studio use - I probably would do teh real wah... But live it saves me so much time and enrgy for those little funky moments... I would replace if stolen. I would also ty it with keyboards, but avoid with bass - there are better filters for bass out there. Great pedal overall - get it for under $50.00 - you'll love it!!!

I've had one of these beauties for about 7 years now. As you can see from many of the other reviews, without a manual, it's difficult to get the most out of this product. Nevertheless, any amateur can still get some varied and interesting sounds in the first hour playing it.

I'm sort of a gear junkie, with far too much stuff to list here, but a basic setup for me might be Squier Supersonic or '81 Strat > Morley Wah > Boss AW-2 > Rocktek Vibrator > Boss PH-2 Phaser > Boss DD-5 Delay > Vox Cambridge (I usually max out the gain for overdrive, otherwise, I'd throw in a Danelectro Fab Tone or Daddy-O between the vibrato and phaser). For bass, Gibson Eb-4 > AW-2 > DD-5 > Crate 100w.

I can get a ton of great sounds from this little pedal. Of course, it takes a lot of experimentation to appreciate all of its nuances. Here's a primer for folks having trouble figuring it out:
MANUAL - Obviously, this seems to be the most confusing knob to most folks. As best as I've figured it out, you can disengage the manual sweep by turning the depth all the way down to zero. Once you've done this, the Manual knob allows you to dial through the sweep of the filter (from fully up to fully down), just like if you used a real wah pedal and rather than rocking it back and forth, put it in one position and left it there. (This trick works on the BF-2 Flanger, and possibly the PH-2 Phaser as well)
SENSITIVITY - This regulates the Envelope Filter mode on the pedal. I know that most folks like to have all their knobs set to something, but trust me on this one, unless you want the Envelope Filter effect, leave the damn thing off. The higher the sensitivity, the harder you have to hit the strings to trigger the effect, which means that you're getting a much higher ratio of dry signal to wet.
RATE & DEPTH - pretty self-explanatory. One extra hint, though. To achieve that trick with the MANUAL knob I described above, it also helps to lock in on the part of the sweep you want with the DEPTH - i.e. if you want a bassy sound, quickly turn DEPTH all the way down when the signal is in the trough of the sweep.
I don't often use the pedal for the typical chicka-chicka wah sounds. Instead, I use it for either a nice creamy, swirly chorus effect or as a filter/selective boost - either boosting the highs for a cutting, wobbly lead sound or dropping the highs for a great churning effect.

One last comment to those who complain about the constant wah-ing sound. Don't get mad at the pedal for doing it's job. If you have noise in your signal, then the effect is going to color it. Turn the damn thing off if you don't want to hear the wah! While Boss pedals aren't true bypass, I've had little trouble over the years with added noise when the pedal was turned off.

Yeah, yeah, it's Boss . . . well, believe it or not, I actually had some problems with the input jack on this box that I was able to fix myself, so we'll give them an 8. I would definitely play live without a backup.

I know Boss has a bad reputation for acting like discontinued pedals never existed in the first place (I mean, fer chrissakes, just reissue the damned Slow Gear so we can all be happy). Now that the AW-3 is the auto-wah heir apparent, I wouldn't expect much help from Boss on this old unit.

This is one of the first pedals I ever owned, handed down by both guitar players in my first band when neither of them could find any use for it (of course, the bass player is like Mikey in the LIFE cereal commercials . . . he'll try anything). It's definitely my favorite pedal, my "desert island" pedal - with just this and the overdrive on my Vox, I could happily play for ages (quite a statement coming from someone with 20+ stompboxes). When I saw that it was discontinued, I bought a second one, sort of as a backup, but more so because I wanted to see what sounds I could get from running two in tandem.
I play just about everything from Johnny Cash to John Cage-style abstractions, but my main style falls into the realm of Sonic Youth, Pixies, Radiohead, Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Weezer, Neil Young, Velvet Underground, etc.

Easy to use- instantaneously sends u 2 pimp heaven.

Everyone says it's noisy! Well, that's what effects pedals are MEANT to be- not like those crummy tc electronics things where you can't even hear the effect because it barely alters the clean sound. I would and DO use it to record with! Does some things my MuTron III, DOD Envelope Filter (the green one) and MXR envelope filter don't do. You can never have enough envelope filtration! I swear I hear it on the Saint Etienne track "Erica America" on the "Good Humor" album (on Sub-Pop in the US). If you play constant strokes on it you can get some of those cool Isaac Hayes type 70's sounds as well.

Reliable indeed.

Hasn't needed a reapir.

I play experimental electronic music that is hard to categorize with elements of disco, funk, soul, death metal, black metal, classic rock, ambient, power electronics, industrial, punk rock, hip hop, gangsta rap, new wave and lounge.It's Ostomic. I love its abilty to pimp out at command. Nice companion to the aforementioned envelope filters.

Really no manual needed
The rate knob gives the speed of the wooshing, the depth knob determs the amount of woosh that goes to the amp, the sensitivity knob determs how strong you have to play to activate the effect. And the mysterious manual knob is said to be a kind of filter ("Oh yes, now that's an interesting information !!!") For me it's just a "knob that you can turn from the left to the right or from the right to the left, depending on your mood"
It has little effect, you just have to try it out. I think it affects the amplitude of the woosh wave (i.e. the range between the 2 extreme high and low frequencies - think of a manual wah pedal, fully pressed and fully released)
My major discrepancy is the rate knob beeing hard to adjust. The range is to wide and fine tuning is difficult

Honestly, it's worth less than 5 . The pedal is damn noisy, the woosh-woosh fills the air when not playing. It sucks the tone between guitar and amp, even when the effect is turned off.
But OK you just have to turn it off when not playing and besides, most pedals affect the tone quality even when turned off.
IMO, the only interest of this pedal is delivered during gigs (see below)
The WAH-TONE that comes out of this box (besides noise and wooshwoosh) is not so bad
Due to the principle of constant wah-wah-wah-wah sound, the effect is way to predictable to use it for a long time.
But for short uses, it fits the bill

Boss pedal !

No information on their web site
They should keep an archive for old pedals ! At least a digital owner manual for each pedal they made

It all depends .....
Don't expect it to do anything - it will certainly not replace the sensitivity and response of a manual wah pedal (here, you only have a constant woosh-woosh-woosh that will raise or lower the level of your notes constantly, whatever you play).
The quality of this pedal is damn poor. I would never use it for recordings. Also, the woosh-woosh gets very annoying if you abuse from this pedal. But for gigs, it works perfectly - I can concentrate on the show and not on my foot and it certainly adds to the feeling of the audience. the noise generated by the pedal is absorbed by the background noise
I use it only as an additional effect during half the solo of one of our songs - that means about 1 minute/night (on a Jimi Hendrix alike part)
I prefered the AW-2 wrt the AW-3 (even if the effect is less deep than on the AW-3), mainly because I have no use for the poor vowel like tones from the humainzer part of the AW-3. Also, the AW-3 is more expensive....
So I don't know ... it perfectly fits my needs and does what I expected it to do, but $50 for using it 1 minute/night ..........

I don't know what everyone is bitchin' about. I found TWO sounds I liked in under 10 minutes. 4 knobs; rate, depth, manual, and sensitivity. I must admit though I don't know exactly what the manual knob does. great features.

I currently run an ibanez RG320 with a dimarzio evelution bridge in the neck and seymour duncan invader bridge in the bridge position into a boss metal-zone into the AW-2 into a boss dd-5 all housed in a boss bcb-3 carrying case into a peavey 1988 solo series bandit. this is a great setup. I tune C-F-Bb-Eb-G-C. i plan on getting another bcb-3 and the bass synthesizer, pitch shifter, and tremelo. this setup sounds great!

QUOTE "it's a boss." UNQUOTE
-by hundereds of people

with a boss you shouldn't need customer support

I play industrial death pop. It's sort of a cross between orgy/rammstein/coal chamber/steve vai/joe satriani. it fits perfect. If it were lost or stolen i'd find the guy, kill him and buy another so i had two. a great pedal for the money.

Medium ease. The manual is good at explaining it...without the manual it would be hard.

This pedal is extremely annoying and noisy. I have other Boss pedals and they aren't like this at all! No matter what amp, guitar, or settings I've tried this with, there is always a big constant whooshing sound. This aside, it basically just does what its supposed to, but its not worth it.

Its reliable, but I ended up selling it pretty quick. I would never play a gig with it. I decided to go with a good ol' dunlop crybaby wah instead which I would recommend any day over this auto-whoosher.

This is not something I would use for any music besides funk (and I don't play funk). After using it, I realized that the whole concept of an auto-wah really isn't very good. It sounds way too predictable. The control and randomness you have with a regular wah makes a much more unique and desirable sound than this. Also the whooshing sound is the last thing you want coming out of your amp even when you're not playing anything.

Not good. Tweaking for different sounds is not very intuative.

Noisy. Sounds like a pissed off rattle snake.

I don't know. I couldn't bring myself to own it long enough.

I play Indonesian fusion and Cuban Polka tunes mostly. The frequency range of the filter sweep is narrow and muddy, like my Aunt Connie's undies.

I use this item with my bass guitar and it sounds great with my tone control all the up.
easy editing
i bought it used from a pawn dont know
i have no idea about firmware

I use a rogue 5 string /auto wah/noise reducer/kb80 bass amp
since i use a bass amp the low tones can get a little loud but get the boss noise reducer it takes all the noise away
the sound is up to you to have it strong or weak with the depth knob
Kustom kb80 is the amp i am using
i can get an old style retro wah or a teckno sound the four knobs make finding your sound very easy

This product is very dependable
i play at a church where i use a universal adaptor(you dont have to buy a boss adapter you can pick up a universal adapter at walmart for about 12 dollars. I take very good care of my equipment so i would not know if it could take pounding but mine was kick hard once and fell and there is no damage.

i havent dealt with them

I play a lot of gosple new flavor such as mississippi mass
and others
i have been playing for about a a year and a half
if it were stolen or lost i would immediatly by another
I love the selection of sound i can get from this pedal
i really cant think of anything i hate about this product

Put a battery in, try out some settings, find the ones you like, understand why they are happening so you know how to get them back, and then leave in your effect chain, turn on when you want the desired effect.

I'll give it a 6, but a 6 is good. seriously. This pedal has less to sound quality, then it does with sound unquality. If you want a quality wah by a fulltone, vox or budda. This pedal has a continuous whoosh that you can control the speed of and the sensitivity for the sound of the whooshing as the sound of your strings go into it.
I think of this as a treble booster, or a sound thinner, which is very useful for the style of guitar I play. There are times when this pedal is on for an hour because I forget its there, it just makes my tone thin, nasaly, like a 3/4 pushed wah that trembles in the wind.
I also enjoy using right before a digital delay because for long delay times you can make more varied drones then use a wah after that to give those varied drones a lift up and a suck down. I can't decide if i like my auto-wah before or after my main wah, so I put it in between 2!!!...It's a nice pedal, but not an essential pedal. I got mine used for dirt, and I have grown to love it, as a tone wobbling treble boost.

BOSS, man, ..

Boss man...

This is a cool little treble boosting feedback fun wacky pedal that sits to the left of a tremelo pedal and a chorus pedal and to the right of a delay pedal and a wah pedal, and says, whoosh-whoosh waaah, waaah, and it actually has a lot of that to say. It is cool for lead tone and chord chunk, and great for on the ground knob turning feedback lift-ups and suck downs...It won't hurt you, so get one, and fiddle with it.

One more thing I forgot to mention...This pedal is absolutely worth it for guitar playing fools who like Tremolo pedals. If you put this after, or in between tremolo pedals you with get much more varied, and exciting tremolo sounds. Instead of the same old NEH-NAH of the tremolo, you get a NEWAH-WHOO-NAHNAH that flips around like a fish on the floor of a boat. This pedal also sounds wonderful when drenched in analog delay and reverb. If you have an analog delay pedal after the digital delay that is after the Boss Auto-Wah, you get, ''Help me Mommy, I'm scared of my E.T. Poster sounds''...which can be good for those times when you aren't even sure why you are using a pick?

Overall this Pedal is nice, very nice, and nicer...it's small, it fits in your hand, and it cost about as much as taking your girlfriend out for pizza and a movie, so buy one, and make some chips in the paint...chips in paint are really cool.

OK

The Boss AW-2 is easy to use, except with a change of rythmspeed or sumthang like that. In that case you'll hove to adjsut the speed of wah-wah'ing, or not if you like it noisy ;)

I'm using Boss AW-2 with a Squier Venus guitar (1 humbuckie, 1 single coil) and a 60's Orange Pre-Amp with a Fender 4x50 speaker (don't know the serialtype, it's a very old 2nd hand box).
The great thing of the AW-2 is that if you open the rate-knob 100%, you get this really weird waterdruppin' sound, and that's why I've eventually bought the pedal. It can be used for very Sonic Youth alike sounds. Too bad the pedal doesn't work well in combination with any distortion. Mixed with my ARIA-chorus it creats a really neat sound, which I love most...

I always use this pedal with gigs of my band, and it works quite well on stage, I've never got serious problems with it (except an empty battery on stage, but that's my own fault ;)

With my band (and at home also) I play Alternative Noise Sound. Which is inspired by our favourite bands Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Blonde Redhead etc... And it really fits into this style!!!
If u like, u can visite my band's homepage; http://jump.to/cocohaely
And if u really want it, you can also see a pic of me, I'm the only girl in the band, so u can recognize me without searching...
Bye bye!!!