Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

pretty simple, 3 knobs, you know. one complaint i have with it is that the tone and level knobs have been switched places compared to my ds-1 so i sometimes make some mistakes in dialing in sound. kind of annoying, I'm a whiner eh? I think Boss might as well standardize what knobs go where on its 3 knob pedals though. The manual gives some suggested settings, but the guys at the shop are usually more than willing to tell me their favorites, and what it can do.

after trying a variety of overdrive pedals including about all the boss ones, tube screamer and some boutique ones I decided this was one in my price range and good enough for me. I needed a mellow overdrive, something that could give me the same sort of effect as a tube amp just starting to break up. The BD-2 got close enough. I use it mainly to add a bit of character to the clean channel. It's being used with a modeling amp and it adds some warmth to the tone. It never ceases to amaze me how versitile this little guy is, probably the most underrated overdrive pedal. It goes from zero to a very nice fuzzy drive that remindss me off Sabbath. Unlike the DS-1 (one of the most over-rated boss pedals) the drive knob on the BD-2 gradually changes the distortion, no jumps here. It's a very sweet little pedal and I'm in love. Its a really warm light overdrive that can be cranked when needed. Really look into this guy if you're sick of the razor like "overdrives" out there. One problem I have with it is getting a not too bright tone, but not muddy either. There's a sweet spot that takes a while to find.

One thing can be said for Boss, can't break em. I've beaten up the DS-1 gigging and its still ticking. Be careful with the AC input though if you use one, they're fairly fragile I've lost one to this already. I hate batteries, big money wasters. GET A DAISY CHAIN FOOO

Look into this pedal. It's very versitile and.. just check it out, It makes me cry with joy. Could cost a lot less though. Stupid corperations, probably cost 20 bucks to make.

Simple!!! The usual three knob Drive Stomper setup. Start with everything at 12 o'clock and tweak as needed. No need for manual, but the product catalogue boss always enclose keeps you up yo date with the newest pedal revisions and new gear....handy!!!

I bought this pedal in favour of, and to replace a marshall gov'nor II which had become unreliable. I'll explain my setup in a second. To to begin with, it is a great pedal. It is full bodied and raucus like a fender more than a marshall and gives a big wide open sound in comparisson to most drive boxes. It cleans up well when you relax back. I dont particularly like the driven sound with gain after 2 o'clock, a bit sterile and fizzy for me.
I used it as my main rhythm overdrive for a few months until i picked up an Ibanez TS-9. I find the TS-9 has a better quality of sound and sounds even more natural through my AC30. I use the BD-2 as a lead boost now on top of the TS-9 and it works amazingly. Loads of volume power with great tone shaping at hand and plenty of gain to really raunch up your solo sound.

My setup goes like this now:
'69 and '72 Fender Thinline Telecasters, TU-2 Tuner, Crybaby, Marshall Bluesbreaker II (Boost mode for clean breakup - Rhythm), Ibanez TS-9, Boss BD-2, Marshall Vibratrem, Boss DD-3, EHX Holy Grail Reverb all into the Vox AC30TB.
Fantastic sounds from pristine chimey cleans through three stages of drive to rip roaring leads....amazing tone throughout!!!

Boss stuff is great as regards reliability. Built good and strong. A good cleaning and tightening of parts every so often should keep these boxes well in check.

Never needed....touch wood!!!

The BD-2 is a great pedal. I have been playing for about 13 years, i'm 25 now and i have had loads of fx and stompers over the years until i went in search of a mature and professional sound and equipment rather than dilly dallying with toys. My band plays Pearl Jam/Radiohead type rock. The BD-2 can deliver and will remain on my board for a while.......or,until i find something even greater......i love the search!!! The TS-9 and BD-2 is a cracking combination. The BD-2 is quality, but there is no point having a good pedal when your guitar and amp sound like arse on their own....remember, prioritise your buying of equipment (Good Guitar, Good Amp and then Effects).

this thing rocks, i use it as a boost, and although it coulours the tone, it does in in a sweet way, not edgy at all, boosting the mids and lows, while keeping the trebs tight. be creful with the tone control as if it goes too high, you get a keef tone ala sympathy for the devil not, nice at all! the distorsion gets a bit edgy too at high gain levels so watch out, best to run with an on the edge valve amp

i use a variax 500 through a jen crybaby wah into the bd2 and then a copicat into a jcm800. somtimes i run it in front of the crybaby wah to boots the tone as it is a real sucker. works great. mine was silent until i accidentally put the variaxes ac supply into the dc box. mad squeals, burning plastic andfoul language later, i realised that it had improved the initially edgy overdrive, and boosteed the treble a bit, but it does hiss a bit now. as to artist sounds, depends on the amp u r using, but will do much heavier stuff than blues eg. howthewestwaswon immigrant song led zep. a proper classy pedal. not so true bypass, but muchmuchmuch better than my vintage wah

it is built like a tank, so i doubt that there will be too many problems over the years paintwork chips a bit though

never had to

i play led zep and blues rock, and i would repace it if lost without a question, it is an all time classic, wish it had a better bypass. i hate the fact that you have to have witch fingers to acess the tone knob properly, but hey what can you do. an all time classic, and in by opinion beats the ts9 (but NOT THE 808)HANDS DOWN

Easy. Set all the knobs at 12 O'clock and play. I always get a kick out of the fact that centering the knobs on most Boss effects usually does something pretty. The knobs on my boss ce-2 live permanently at 12 O'clock too.

Epiphone ES-335 dot to blues driver to clean channel on a Fender Deluxe. I've been dropping a Boss CS-2 compression/sustain once in a while, and a Boss CE-2 once in a while. Haven't really tried them in combination yet. The Epi tone is at zero, on the bridge pickup.

The really odd thing I did notice when I was trying this thing out in the guitar shop is that it seems to do very different things to different amps. I plugged it into about three different amps and the results were very different each time.

Oddly, I don't get anything remotely resembling a metal OD sound even with the gain cranked all the way on the Deluxe. I can't help wondering whether it's been mod-ed.

What I do get is a really sweet jazz tone with all knobs on 12-oclock. With the gain cranked to max I get a nice light bluesy sound.

Absolute magic for jazz. Not enough distortion to get in the way of big bold jazz chords (maybe a little muddy below the 5th fret), but just enough drive to give my sound a little bite.

I heard Kurt Rosenwinkel playing recently. Rosenwinkel uses a RAT distortion pedal of some kind, with much the same results: chords retain clarity, solos get a little bit of crunchiness. So I decided to pull the blues driver off the shelf and see if I could get it to do the same thing. It did. Definitely going to become a staple for me.

Like a brick.

Never dealt w/ boss support.

Gain for amount of distortion, Tone for enhancing/cutting treble and Level as volume when pedal is turned on. Manual has some suggested settings but I never tried them, I find out mine.

My setup is:
Stratocaster >> Boss BD-2 >> Electro Harmonix BIG Muff >> V-AMP2 >> 50 watt tube amp armed with Weber Alnico Silver Ten and Weber Alnico Blue Pup. A use it : Level 11 o'clock, Tone 9 o'clock and Gain 3 o'clock. Pedal is noisy only a bit. There is enough gain, always. Common, I use Strat with weak single pickups... When you let gain on 12 o'clock it enhances your sound, tube-like. When you turn it to 3 o'clock it turns into little rocking monster.I can almost mimick The Edge's (U2) sound of Until The End Of The World or Beuatiful Day.

common, it is a BOSS :))) I'd never think of backup.

never dealt with them

I can't think of much better OD pedal than this. I might try TS-808 but i guess it wouldn't be dirty enough for me.I play rock, U2 like for few years now. If my pedal got stolen I'd defintely buy it again if I had the money. I love it's blue color and golden tops of knobs. I compared it to Marshall Bluesbreaker 2 and Boss PowerDrive PW-2?? Can't remember. I preffer this one. I only wish I had another one, so I could keep one with gain at 3 o'clock and one with gain with 12 o'clock. I love it, really.

Three twisters, a stomper and an LED. Simple enough?

The manual isn't the best I've ever read, nor is it dreadful. It's useful as a starting point, providing some suggested settings, although I would have preferred a more detailed explanation of how to make the controls interact with those of your guitar and amp. Of course, any decent player will figure that out himself.

That said, most guitarists -- even some very good ones -- simply don't know how to use overdrive/distortion pedals. Too many are content to crank it, counting on the buzz to cover sloppy chops. Besides, playing loudly enough can disguise the uncomfortable fact that no stompbox is going to make your Crate bedroom amp sound like a Marshall stack. So maybe it should be harder to operate?

I got this pedal to warm up the sound of my Strat copy (Ibanez Roadstar) through a solid-state amp (DOD Juice-It), which it does very well. My best results have been in the clean channel. (The dirty channel, like nearly all transistor amps, is useless unless you enjoy the sound of a circular saw cutting through barbed wire.)

I set the pedal's gain around 11 o'clock and the level just above that of the clean amp. I swear, this works like a tube amp. You have an essentially clean sound, but an aggressive attack will clip the signal. This works great for blues and rock. You won't get the glassy sound of overdriven tubes, but you can pull more dynamics out of this pedal than any solid-stater on its own.

Also like a tube amp, the pedal cleans up when you roll down your guitar's volume.

Boss/Roland's reputation is excellent, but I've owned it less than a year -- hardly long enough to form an opinion. It's sturdily built, though.

Never dealt with them.

I've played, off and on, more than 25 years. I haven't gigged out in years, but I'm a serious home and informal jam player. A few years ago, I foreswore tubes -- too much maintenance given their inherent undependability. This pedal makes that decision easier to live with. It doesn't quite nail the smooth, creamy, just-overdriven sound of real glowing glass, but it comes closer than any other stompbox I've ever run a cord through -- and that includes the hallowed Tube Screamer.

Very simple to use....Read the manual for style settings.

I have read many post that refer to this pedal as BOSS' interpretation of the Ibanez Tube Screamer. IMO, the Screamer is the better buy and it sounds a lot better. I do own both and have used both and for the money the tube screamer is better. However, the Blues driver does get a nicer and more mellower sound and when used with other effects produces a nice bite that any guitarist would want.

IT'S A BOSS!!!!! WHAT'S NEXT?!?

Not very "Bluesy" if that's what you're looking for, but it can definently be a useful pedal if you know how to work it right.

Three Knobs, gain, tone, and level. How much easier does it get?

When i first got this pedal i was rather disapointed... i thought it was going to be a smooth overdriven sound but it was very harsh. I then started using it at low setting which was sensible lol and i realise how great this pedal actully is. I run it through a marshall mg250dfx, solid state but still ok, and it gives the clean channel that little bit extra in treble, and makes is bite. The amp was very bassy to start but this pedal sorted it out, and has given it a sharpe edge, it cuts through in a band and gives a simualr sound to stevie ray vaughans ts 808. It is an awesome pedal. I use it with the level on 12:00, gain 10:00, and tone 10:00 and its awesome... very clean when playing soft... give the the guitar a kick and its crispy. When i use it on the OD channel it boosts the sound cuts through better... but i had to lower the gain my amp from 3 down to 1.

Boss nuff said

awesome... not for everyone.. but blues fans must try it.

Three knobs, not rocket science. Getting a good sound out this thing is easy as hell, it's pretty much impossible to get a bad sound out of it. (Unless you play badly off course, this thing does NOT cover up mistakes). I've twisted the knobs thousands of times, and continue to find tones I love.

My setup is an Ibanez RG -> Vox wah -> BD-2 -> Keeley DS-1 Ultra -> amp. Normally two od/dist units don't sound to well together, but these two, mmm.. They compliment each other nicely! The sound from the BD-2 is lovely, it's versatile as hell. You can get everything from a slightly overdriven sound, to a crunchy rock n' roll tone! Either from twisting the Gain knob, or just by picking softer/harder. Very responsive to your picking. It's pretty quiet too, there is naturally some noise, but that's only if you crank it above 3'o clock. But I rarely do that, at 1-2 it has lots og gain !

Throw it into a brick wall and the wall will be more damaged than the pedal. VERY reliable.

Never dealt with them.

Overall this is my favorite pedal ever! I've never tried a pedal I liked more than this. (And don't think I've only tried what's in my current setup, I've tested tons of pedals.. but I'm a student so I can't buy everything..) I will never sell it! I play blues, rock and some metal. I use the pedal for all of them, it's not the best for metal, but it's ok. (Combined with my DS-1 Ultra I can get some pretty high gain tones..) For rock and blues however, it's perfect.
The only thing I don't like about it is it's battery appetite, I always unplug it after use, still I feel like I change batteries constantly!
I'd advise all blues/rock players to at least try it out! You won't be dissapointed!

It's a Boss pedal. How much easier could it be?

I wish I'd had this when I was gigging 3 times a month. I used my Hot Rod Deluxe's internal drive, and was never quite happy with the harshness I was getting. I've since gone to running a three-overdrive line into the clean channel of the HRDx, with this being the middle unit, i.e. guitar (Am.Strat or Tele)->Marshall BB2 in clean boost mode -> BD2 -> Boss OD-3 -> amp. For 99% of what I do, this pedal is on all the time. With the gain set at high noon, tone at about 10:00, and level as necessary to be just a tad louder than the amp's clean, you can get anything from country clean to light overdrive just by picking dynamics. Totally transparent, responsive, and grit-free, in a way that the amp by itself never was. I can't comment on the higher gain settings, because I use this strictly to emulate my idea of a just-overdriving tube amp. If you slam it with the clean boost (or really, just pick harder), it produces a great, singing lead tone. In turn, if I run it into the OD-3 (another great pedal) with both on, the tone of the guitar is still preserved, while producing a pretty massive high-gain sound.

The only way I've found to make it sound bad-ish is to raise the gain much past 12 (too much grit for what I want), or raise the tone up even to 12. As far as I'm concerned, it adds only harshness, not legitimate high end.

I've never had any pedal go bad, least of all a Boss.

No experience.

I've been playing for about 35 years, usually in small-time gigging bands. I cover mainly contemporary country, and basic or blues-oriented rock, from Fleetwood Mac to Clapton to Los Lobos to Dire Straits. I have not found a genre, excepting stuff that requires chainsaw high-gain distortion, for which this pedal is not excellent.

If it got stolen, I'd replace it in a NY minute.