Boss AW-2 Auto Wah

A very unintuitive pedal. Perhaps because it tries to do too much, which means all the controls interact greatly.

As others have said it's possible to get a decent sound out of the AW-2 but you have to persist with it. The biggest problem is that the sensitivity knob is too sensitive. Even with a low-output guitar like a Strat once the sensitivity is set above 9-o-clock every single note is wah'd aonce the guitar volume is set above seven.

The "manual" knob which sets the basic frequency of the effect (kind of like where you would put the pedal on a foot-wah to control the lowest point of the filter sweep) is also very sensitive and has a very narrow band. If it's good for the middle pickup it'll be too bassy for the neck. This control in particular seems to need constant fiddling with.

It does a decent touch-sensitive picking wah (with the rate and depth set to zero). The sound is a bit thin though and lacks the kind of fullness you get from an old Cry Baby with a Fasel inductor. It's also thinner than the EH DR Q.

At low volumes there's a definite volume drop when it's switched on (this can be countered a bit with the manual control). At gigging volume the drop isn't as noticable.

Doesn't like being run into distortion pedals much, it can thin out the sound until it's too brittle.

The AW-2 can be very noisy indeed and is inclined to hum lots when used with a power supply (including the Boss PSA series).

BTW - Fender guitars, Orange amp, Ccelestion speakers, Fender valve reverb. A mix of pedals usually including 1970s Jen Crybaby, RatII, VoodooLab Chorus, T-Rex trem, MXR Super-Comp, Line6 Echo Park (though not in that order). Put the AW-2 before compressors or distortion or the compression caused by the first pedal will keep the AW-2 constantly wha-ing every single note, and you probably don't want that.

Mine's very old and I got it second hand. It still works perfectly well so in that sense it's reliable.

On the other hand it is very susceptible to interference from electromagnetic background. At last night's gig for example it was unusable because the house lighting dimmers made it hum at incredible volume - even when run off a battery. Nothing else used by an entire band was in the least bit bothered, nor was my 1970s Crybaby.

No, it's not reliable enough to gig with because of the noise problem.

The noise issues and the complexity reduce the overall rating quite a lot.

If you know effects units and how they work, it's a snap. If you're new to guitar effects, it might seem complicated.

I'm playing Gibsons and Fenders through a 1968 Vox AC30TB. This pedal is not noisy compared to wah and autowah pedals. This is a very misunderstood pedal judging by the other reviews. Boss designed this box to do three different effects and it does all quite well. Some reviewers have complained that they can hear a "swooshing" sound when the pedal is on, but they are not playing. They probably have it after a distortion pedal, and this is to be expected. When mine is on, it's very quiet. If you want to completyely eliminate the "swooshing", just turn the rate knob down all the way, it's that simple.

Here are the three different effects this pedal produces:

- For a standard Wah sound, turn the rate knob all the way down and this box is an autowah pedal. It's very easy to adjust and sounds great before a distortion pedal. Use the Manual control to adjust the wah tonal range. The sensitivity adjusts how loud you have to play to kick in the wah. The depth adjusts the...depth.

- For a fixed Wah sound (just like the Dunlop Q-Zone pedal), turn the rate and the sensitivity knobs all the way down and use the manual to adjust the boosted frequency and the depth for...you guessed it, the depth of the effect.

- For a modulated wah sound turn all the knobs halfway up and experiment from there. You can get anything from vibrato to pseudo-chorus to cyclic wah tones. there is a lot of range on all of the knobs and a lot of different effect possibilities.

I've been through literally hundreds of vintage and boutique pedals and honestly, most pedals do not work great in a band situation. I've recently gone back to a few Boss pedals for modulation, delay and autowah and am using a Carl Martin HD'NB Mk II for overdrive and a Wolftone Chaos for fuzz. The Boss pedals are quieter, more rugged and sound better in a band context then most of the stuff out there. Boss has made many lousy sounding pedals IMHO, but this is not one of them. This pedal does a few things very well and it sounds great in a full band situation. There is nothing else that has ever been produced that does the Autowah thing this well. It replaced an EH Tube Zipper on my pedalboard.

Very roadworthy.

I've tried Boss CS a while ago for schematics and they wer completely unresponsive, the worst.

I think this will be one of the sought-after Boss pedals in about 15-20 years, like the Spectrum and the Dimension C. It is weird and can go way over the top unlike most Boss pedals which are more conservative. at $50 it's a bargain. I have had a Fulltone Clyde Deluxe (hated the notchy sweep, but nice overall tone), Teese RMC (very nice) and TDK and Fasel inductor vintage Cry Babies (great tone and value). The Boss AW-2 does not have the drippy vintage tone of the above, but it does sound great and works perfect with a full band.

A bit complicated- I don't think the manual is up to speed. I learned more by experimenting than by reading it.

62 reissue strat/Jap strat->George Dennis wah/o'drive->Tubescreamer 10->Boss OD2 turbo o'drive->MXR micro-amp boost->Boss BF-2 flanger->George Dennis tremolo/volume->Ibanez DL-10 delayBoss CH-1 chorus->Fender Super 210 all-tube combo.

I didn't think I'd need this pedal given that the George Dennis wah is amazingly good and not tone-sucking. BUT I had been thinking of getting a Dunlop Q-zone which is like a manual wah that you can hold any position in the wah sweep BUT this does that and with much less (ie none) tone sucking. That's mainly what I use it for. But the autowah is good except for a weird digital-sounding noise on some settings.

Boss...

Boss... If it's not still made, they don't want to know you.

I really don't don't use it for auto-wah but for the q-zone effect. I love it (used sparingly, of course) and it's going to be a part of my setup for years to come. We play indie and this pedal makes some tones that you simply cannot get anywhere else.

After reading the manual carefully, the setup process was easy. At first I din't plug it correctly. I purchased the pedal from Ebay and downloaded the manual in PDF.

settings 3.4.4.7 with a 1952 Les Paul played through twin Marshall Stacks. ALso setting 0.3.3.7 using my Gibson ES-175 through any of six VOX amps the group currently owns.
THe quality of the sound is worth it. There is no noise, even at Hotel room levels. My favorite artist is Matisse.

No comment. My pedal configuration is tended to by my tech.

I have called Boss numerous times regarding my ideas on Waveform modification. The engineers said they would consider my ideas, if backstage passes were offered.

Grunge, Jazz, Classic Rock, Disco, Childrens Music.
45 years playing. Marshall, Vox, Fender Amps. Fender Strat, Telecaster, Gibson ES, LP Junior, LP, SG.
If it were lost I would throw a fit. Heads would roll.
I mostly like the flesh-colored box.
Creatively speaking I would be up shizt creek without it.

Well, I've never really tried to use it in the auto-wah function - like one of the other reviewers, I bought this thing to use as an envelope filter, so it was just a question of finding the right sensitivity setting.

Ibanez Roadstar, or Epiphone Bully SG and Peavey Special 130, more recently, Fender Princeton 65 and Marshall 5212. Generally, I use this pedal without any distortion, and in conjunction with a DSD-2 delay. Very closely approximates the mid-late 70s Jerry Garcia sound, and that's what I got it for. It can be kind of noisy.

At the risk of repeating what's been said many times, it's a Boss - I've never had to call them.

It's a Boss.

I play mildly psychedelicized blues-rock. I've been playing for 25 years. I've been very happy with this pedal - it does exactly what I want it to do - I also use a Crybaby (not on the same songs!), so I never saw this as a replacement for a "real" wah-wah, so I don't have issues with that aspect of it. I would probably replace it, or get something similar.

Great with the manual, without it there is no problem getting great sounds, but the fact that there is the possibility to use it as manual wah, as modulation wah or as combination of both is hard to get.

Best autowah i've ever had. I used to have two AW-2s one in front and one after my overdrive (boss sd-2), but I sold one on eBay, because I have only five 9volt plugs on my pedalboard and i needed other effects. Today I replaced the remaining AW-2 by my relativly new Crybaby from hell, but not for reasons concerning the AW-2's sound. Autowahs generally limit the possibilities. I use my wah mostly in solos, manual wah always reacts on picking a string, modulation wah works with a setted rate, usually it fits not really the speed of the song. So a pedal wah gives more control for speed or pronouncing certain wahed parts. The AW-2s extreme settings are more subtile than a standard crybaby, but anyway the AW-2 is powerfull enough to replace a pedalwah if you like. Perfect solution for lazy people.

No Probs ever with bossfx

?

Great thing, very flexible autowah. Only a slight and volumedrop (any wah without booster does this). I love it, i would prefer it to standard morleys or crybabys, but not to my dimebag darrel signature wah.

not necessarily intuitive to get a good sound out of this pedal. four knobs, so you will get it eventually. rate, depth, tone (lo/hi), and "sensitivity". you want minimum to get the most wah for your buck.

i use vintage tube amps and speakers - sg guitars with hot humbuckers. i keep the rate between 10 o'clock and noon, it will give a wild tremolo flutter sound past that, the depth circa noon, the tone at about 10 o'clock (deep wah without bass), and the sens control kept at "min" for maximum wah. gets that cool porno sound baby yeah!

boss is built to last and makes a good weapon when the club turns ugly. use a power pack and batt. as a backup.

don't call if it don't break.

this is the lazy man's wah, but bad if you want to control it. for rhythm that is straight ahead 4/4 this is great, can do the rage v. machine and porno wah stuff. real basic. i like it for that, esp. to wig people out by turning the rate up to the suicidal trem setting. that will really piss people off.

I got this one used, no manual. No manual is needed.
Set the dials to 12:00 and you get a usable sound right away. Play with them one at a time and you figure out what does what. Then just mix it to get the effect you desire. It ain't rocket science.
btw- There are some good setup tips in these reviews.

I keep reading in some of these reviews how noisy this pedal is. Mine is very quiet. Sure, you can here some of the effect when it's turned on, but I only turn it on when I use it, doesn't everyone?
Currently using it through a Peavey amp, with OD-2, FL-2, PH-3...Stratocaster, Les Paul Custom, and Les Paul Junior, pickup on Washburn accoustic.

I've never had a backup BOSS pedal on a gig. NEVER NEEDED ONE!
And I don't mean one night a month reliable, I mean 5 sets a night, 6-7 nights a week, 52 weeks a year. So far, the AW-2 seems to be as reliable as all BOSS pedals I've owned.

I don't honestly know. I've never had a problem which needed their help!
Never had to repair a BOSS pedal.
Upgrade is just; eBay the old one and buy the latest one.

Been playing for decades. The AW-2 is very useful for funk and rock stuff, and to add a little spice to the blues. I don't like the newer AW-3 as much, because I don't like the human voicing thing.
This is the fourth auto-wah I've owned....and the best. Although I loved my old Electro-Harmonics "Doctor Q" back in 1978 (one knob and a great sound), it was waaaay to fragile for stage use.....flimsy even. The Ibanez and DOD versions I had were more stout, but with less control. The AW-2 is stout and has good controls...I like it! But hey, opinion varies.

Took a little tweaking to figure out, but only 4 knobs.

Can be a little noisy, but I bought it for one thing only. Not as a auto Crybaby, but as a Jerry Garcia sound emmulator. Set the first 2 knobs to 9:00 and the other 2 knobs to 3:00. To further the effect, drive the AW2 with a tube screamer in front. Play this on a clean amp setting. Everyone notices immediately. "Nothin shakin' on Shakedown Street..."

as with all Boss pedals....very sturdy

n/a

I play a Gibson SG Special > TS9 > Crybaby > Blues Jr. I use the Autowah just to mess around with Jerry / Grateful Dead sounds. This is not a cheat for a Wah-wah pedal. There is no way for expression in that sense.

"...California, I'll be knocking on the golden door
Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light
Rising up to paradise, I know I'm gonna shine...."

I am pretty good when it comes to effects, so I have to say this pedal actually is pretty complicated. That is a good thing of course. Its more versatile. Depending on your guitar, you should adjuct the pedal so it will "wah" in sync to your playing. Thats the SENS setting. Depth is done to your liking but its best to equal the highs and lows to your liking. Manual is set to how "interactive" you want it. ANd rate is for speed of course. So, you gotta actually, hehe, take time and make sure the settings are correct to your liking. You cant just plug it in and play like a od or ds box. Easy when you get the hang of it...learning to operate it the first time takes patience and experimenting.

Sounds awesome. I never liked it in the beginning. My wife, then girlfried, bought it for me. It was my first gift from her when we started dating so I thought that alone made it a keeper. Sappy stupid huh? Anyways, I didnt like it much...thought of it as a one trick pony. But later found it to be a great tool and even a cool volume, or treble, boost perfect for solos. Makes a telecaster sound toooo bright and tooo high. Tooo good in my opinion. Bring on the hiss and hum and all that beautiful noise.

Yup. You know what they say...so I aint gonna repeat it.

I am beyond the impersonate your idol phase of guitar playing. I am more into my own sound and this gives me a cool signature sound..yeah as if i was a rock star or something. Anyways, I love it and its perfect for recording and live and everything else. They is no wrong way to use a pedal. Hiss is something that sould be appreciated. You listen to old recordings and you can even hear the messed up wire fzz up during old blues records. I love it. Makes it sound raw, unedited and make the player count the most. You get what I am saying? No, oh well. I play a tele through a roland jazz chorus. I use it with a delay and dist/od. I am getting a HM2 and cant wait to try it with it. I play alterna tunes I guess. Mellow soundscape stuff. I listen to Mogwai, Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Sparklehorse, SFA etc etc so you can get an idea of my flavor.

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!!!

Don't let those four little knobs fool you. Read through the manual once and then put it back in the box. The way to check out this pedal is to experiment. Every guitar and amp combination will be a bit different, so there are no "dial in and sound like Hendrix" settings.
Play around with it. I was not to impressed at first, but after spending some time with the pedal I found some cool settings.

I play Peavey Wolfgangs through Peavey Ultra tube amps and run this with my other effects through the effects loop. When on and not playing it makes a "whooshing" sound, sort of like an old flanger pedal. I never have it on when I'm not playing, so this is not a problem. I play in a cover band that does 50-90s rock. I am horrible at using wah pedals, (OK, I suck) so I bought this to get a wah sound on some of my solos. Having said that, the positives: 1. Sounds great when I kick it in for the solos on "Foxy Lady", "Sweet Emotion", and "American Band". 2.I can concentrate on the solo and not see-sawing my foot. 3.Can still move around while soloing 4. Since I don't use a wah that much, it is smaller and takes up less space on my pedal board 5.On/Off switching is a breeze. The negatives would depend on the player and his/her expectations. My friend G is a wah master, and has several vintage as well as new units. He has it down. So, the lack of control while playing would not suit him, plus, he likes the physical aspect of using a wah. I gives me a similiar wah sound, not as good as his, but better than if I was using HIS gear. And finally, 99% of the crowd doesn't know the difference, if not 100%. (Although our bass player says I'm "cheating"!)

Here is a big advantage. The reason my before mentioned friend G has several wah pedals is that the old ones are not reliable. Everyone is aware of the Boss reputation, so enough said.

I can't say, as I have never dealt with them.

Overall, I would say an 8.5. I use it as a coloring effect, just something to use on few solos to set them apart tone wise, since we might play 50 songs in one night. I like it, as I can get a wah sound better with this pedal that I can a Crybaby. If you have a good wah and are accomplished at using it, you probably will be happier with that set up. I got one used for $50.00, and it certainly has been worth that. I think new at $90 or $100 would be a judgement call. I see them used alot, though, so look around before you buy new. I think people expect the pedal to give them the perfect Clapton, Hendrix, Hammett, etc. tone, and are disappointed. It won't do that, but with a little time on your part, you can come very close.

It takes some time to find a good sound, especially with the 'manual' knob ( Boy, it takes a lot of patience to handle that little knob ). It's hard to find the GOOD starting point of the wah sound. And about the 'sens' knob, it DOES sensitive! I never set the pedal with the 'sens' knob more than 1/5 position. I would like to replace the pot with the smaller value, because beyond the 1/4 position it's hard to spot the wah sound.
The manual does help, but it need some more experiment of your own to find one that suits you. Afterall, it's an auto wah -not manual.

My guitar is a Mexican Strat with S-S-H pickup configuration and I use Peavey 208 Studio Chorus for the amp. The wah sounds amazing with both the clean and distortion channel on my amp. On the distortion channel, I can play Hendrix's Spanish Castle Magic with it. But I do notice a wah-ing sound even when I'm not playing on the distortion channel. I guess it's because the channel gain's too high and creating a noise and the pedal is wah-ing the noise. So, I suggest turning it down when you're not playing.

The metal casing is perfect for gigging. I use it live for several times and it's very durable - because I -accidently- kicked it hard once - and it sounds perfect on the stage.

Never deal with'em

I play Jazz, Rock, and Pop. It really suits me when I play funky jazz chords and even on rock guitar solo. I've been playing guitar for 5 years and it's the second effect that I own. My first effect is BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone and I usually use it to play rhytmn, I use the distortion channel of the amp for solo. If it's stolen-I would be deeply shocked and after a week of recovery, I buy another one. What I love about this pedal is the wah sound, it suits my playing especially the depth control. I hate the 'sens' knob because it's too sensitive, I wish BOSS would replace the pot with the smaller value 'cos nobody pick a string with an AXE. I've never use other auto-wah pedal so I can't compare it with another. I recommend this product for you who want a wah sound on your guitar with low price. It's not a manual pedal, but after you find your setting, you'll love it...trust me!

The manual gives some cool settings, but just screwing around with will get some mad effects going.

I got an esp f-205 bass, a peav amp, and some other pedals. The sound range is amazing, I've gotten straight wah to a completely weird sound, the only problem is the constant vibrato going on.

BOSS pedal

Dunno

It's a phat pedal, I play metal/hXc, and it manages to sound good, rare for a wah pedal to do so.

It's a stompbox! I keep the Rate set to Zero (or just a hair up), Depth set at about 1/3, Manual set just above Zero, and Sens at about a quarter - produces a nice warm sound (not quite the MUTONE by electro harmonix, but it works for the price).

Very clean and responsive, see my settings in the first section

As long as the battery is good, so is the pedal.

Don't know

If you are looking for a good, warm envelope filter, but don't want to spend $200.00 or more, this is the way to go.

Its one very confusing pedal. Very hard to figure out what the knobs do to your tone.

I got this because this is one noise maker. Combine this with heavy distortion and you get this awesome feedback sounds. If used alone its sounds good also. It wah's up your guitars bottom end really well. But The constant wah gets preety annoying sometimes. And Dont expect it to do hendrix tunes though cause this one wont do it. Get a real wah for that one.

Its a BOSS. Built Like a Tank.

If you want to create some weird and interesting effects, include this pedal on your setup. Get a Crybaby if you want a basic good sounding wah tone(for hendrix/zeppelin/clapton etc. tunes) For funk, i think this is a good pedal for it since i dont play funk that much. This is a good pedal if youre looking to create your own tunes. Combine it with other effects and youll know what im talkin about.

The manual comes with some good examples to choose from but it doesn't really do a great job of explaining what each knob does. I still don't know what the MANUAL knob does! Once you play around with it a little you will be able to adjust it how you want it to sound. There are basically to modes that I use: modulation wah, and automatic wah. Everything else is pretty much just variations or combinations of the two. You really need to give this pedal a little time though because it is definately one of the more confusing BOSS pedals but it will come eventually.

I personally really like the way it sounds. I thought that it might just have modulation wah but you can set it so that every single note you play will automatically be wah-ed. It is noisy when you use the modulation but the cool effect makes up for it. You can also control how deep you want the wah to go. The mod is definately a cool effect but I wouldn't use it for long time periods, like a whole song becuase it does get kinda annoying. Sounds GREAT if you use it sparingly. The mod wah will sound great with distortion but the automatic wah doesn't sound so hot with my distortion (BOSS OD-3, BOSS FZ-3).

Of course this pedal will never fail you-except maybe the batteries.

Must be good if I never have to call them!

I play rock/ska but I like to add this effect every once in a while to get a more funky effect. Works great for playing disco/funk and everything in between. I have been playing for 2 years and so far I have three pedals: BOSS FZ-3 Fuzz, BOSS OD-3 OverDrive, and BOSS AW-2 Auto Wah. If any of these got stolen I would call up the music store and order the exact same items and I would gladly pay full price. I always loved the "wah" effect but I didn't like playing tricky rythms on the manual foot pedal. My favorite part of this pedal is that it does all the work for you. The only thing I hate is that it uses batteries pretty quickly and as the battery gets weaker, so does the effect. I listened a little to the Ibanez Auto-Wah but that seemed to have a little distortion to it. The only thing this wah may do to your sound is increase your tone a little when it is on. It has everything I could want and more. It gives me a lot of new ideas for songs and sounds great in solos.

Very weird to use if you are looking for an envelope filter. 4 nobs, speed (a sign this is a REAL automatic Wah wah), depth, manual, and sensitivity. I got it used so I didn't have a manual to work with, but I tried it out at the store and found the sound I was looking for. I use it as a modualtion effects with the speed set high. Some of the nobs seems as the really don't work, or don't do what they should, but I found my setting for it an I am happy. Others who use this as an envelope filter might have a hard time with it.

For the way I use it, it gives me a full on weird effect. I am not sure what noisy exactly is, but it will definietly change your set-up tone (but that i swhat it is supposed to do). I am into Sonic Youth, Garbage, Mudhoney, Devo, Pixies, Ramones, and this pedal really is used for my more Sonic Youth type stuff. I have it in my set up in this order: customized strat style guitars - DOD FX90 Analog delay - Ibanez CP-9 Compressor - Arion Stage Tuner - BOSS AW-2 - Sovtek re-issued Small Stone phaser - Big Muff - Fender Bandmaster Reverb amp. It sounds great in this order, but it really depend swhat you use it as. I noticed an lot of change by simply moving it around in my effects chain.

Its used, so maybe some of the nobs are a bit fried, but it still works.

I HATE BOSS!!! There are only a few pedals that they make that are actually good in my opinion. I would trust them with any help. I had a used PS-3 that didn't have a manual, so I called them and asked if they could photocopy one and send it to me. They seemed irritated at my call, but said they would do it in the next week. At the end of the call, the person then told me that it would cost $12 fo rthem to do it. $12 for a sheet of paper!!!!!!!!! T

I play more experimental music+old alternative stuff, and this pedal is weird enough for my effects loop. Like I said before, it is really dependant on position and how you use it, but for my weird use, it sounds great. Like i said before, mine might be a little out of wack, because I can't really hear to much of a dfference with my manual nob, and the sensitivity has to be set below 8 o-clock on the dial to really work. mayb ethey are all like that, I don't care, I got my use out of it.

I bought my AW-2 used and as a result didn't receive any instructions. The unit isn't particularly intuitive - unlike many of the other BOSS pedals, so some guidance is definitely required. I checked out the settings suggested in the BOSS Effects Catalogue in order to get an initial feel for the pedal - however it took me a long time to discover the various sounds that can be achieved using the AW-2.
There are four controls for Rate, Depth, Manual and Sensitivity, but I guess finding the right settings is in some ways a case of trial and error. Depending on your playing style you can create a variety of wah sounds, but the most common ones are picking wah, modulation wah or a combination of the two.

To be fair to BOSS, they really produced this pedal for use with electric guitar. I bought the AW-2 for use with a bass guitar though because BOSS suggest the AW-2 can help create a 'modern bass' sound in their catalogue. I had previously had a go at building my own Auto-Wah unit because I love the sound and wah-wah is back in fashion again.
When I first started using the AW-2, I was extremely disappointed with the adverse performance when used with a bass. However, I later discovered a faulty connection with my BOSS PCM-5 Power Supply & Master Switch was responsible and once this was sorted out, I started having fun with the AW-2.
Used alone, the AW-2 can produce a rich bass sound when fingered, and when slapped the wah effect is awesome. Even better, is when I connect my CE-2B Bass Chorus after the AW-2 - this really brightens up the sound and really does give the 'modern bass' sound which BOSS describe in their catalogue. I also play keyboards and I've had a lot of fun when using the AW-2 together with the guitar sounds on my Rola