Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

It has 3 Controls: Gain, Level and Tone. Nothing too complicated here!

I use this pedal with a '71 Traynor YGM-3, which is very similar to the Fender Deluxe Reverb. The pedal allows me to VERY faithfully reproduce the tone of my cranked amp, but at a much lower volume. The only exceptions:

1)Bass response. The Boss BD-2 is just a little weak on bass - almost unnoticeable. Otherwise, I can easily tweak it to the point where you almost can't tell the difference between the amp and the pedal. I plan to buy one of the mod kits to rectify this. Just a small capacitance increase will bring the bass up a bit.
2)The well known "fizzy" distortion at higher gain settings. Again, the mod kit should takes care of this as well. I rarely crank the gain past 12:00, so it's not really a big issue for me anyway.

Never had to deal with them, but, by all accounts, Boss stands behind their stuff.

I think it's a great pedal for the $70 or so it costs new. Boss has released a Fender Deluxe modeling pedal (at $140 or so), but I honestly can't imagine it doing much better at reproducing that particular amp than the stock Blues Driver. I play Blues, Country and classic rock using a Mexican Strat which I've upgraded with Fender 57/62 pickups (I HIGHLY recommend this upgrade!!), and the afore mentioned Traynor amp. I set the gain of the Pedal around 10:00, which gives me a relatively clean sound for chords, but overdrives nicely when I hit it hard. I believe that's the role this pedal was born to play.
I've been playing about 30 yrs and have developed a very critical ear, so I don't dole out the praise easily. If it were lost, I'd replace it in a heartbeat. When I kick in the GCB-95 wah that I've modded in front of the BD-2, it certainly evokes all the sounds you'd expect from this combo.

I got a Boss Blues Driver which i had modded to a A BD-2 Ultra Fat Mod. Originally the Pedal had quite a " Fizzy " type gain and a low bass sound . When the pedal was returned to me i was immediately Struck by the Brightness and crispness of the Sound the Fizz had disappeared and was replaced by a very Bassy sound ideal for Harmonics with just a simple flick of a switch .

I use a Tweed Fender Amp ( Blues Junior ) with a Fender Strat ( U.S.A ) from the Blues Tones of Hendrix and the overdriven sounds Of Rory Gallagher this pedal pretty much covers all my Blues playing needs

Boss are good quality Pedals and reliable so i don't think i would take or use a backup

With Excellent Communication and a friendly Service from Pedal Mods i was in constant contact pretty much every day through E-mail when i was researching what kind of Mods they do .They offered information on what sounds might achieve the tone i was looking for .
Very Quick reply's to E-mails and very helpful

If it was Stolen i would certainly buy another without hesitation it is a brilliant addition to my other Pedals

Very easy to "use"...

Terribly weak and kind of noisy...

Forget about what kind of music and such... I have played for 30 years, and I love overdrive pedals... This is - by far - one of the cheapest I've ever come close to... Wonder why, because BOSS does have some nice and lasting units...

I am scared of the rating this reviewers give to that unit... It is obscene!!!... Get informed... Do not pay hundreds for silly mods... There are good and fairly priced units on the market.. (Barber, BBE, Voodoo Lab, etcetera...

probably about as easy to use as an effect pedal can be.(3 knobs, battery easily accessible, etc.)I pretty much ignoerd the manual.A lot easier to use than a Marshall Guvnor, although that is also a good pedal.

The sound quality is very good, it doesn't thin out the sound as much as some overdrives. It is very trebly, however, I have to turn the tone knob all the way down, which is something I rarely do on any piece of equipment. It sounds a lot better as a boost/overdrive than as a distortion, the manual doesnt really mention this, but I knew what I wanted when I got the thing.I use it with a Gibson Sg Special and a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10, and it sounds excellent with the more drive channel. I crank the level, turn tone all the way down, drive on 9-10 o'clock or less. I sometimes use a wah pedal with it, but the wah sounds better with the Marshall Guvnor for that harsh, Stooges wah sound.

No piece of equipment is truly indestructible, but this is as close as it gets. You would have to try really hard to break this thing. Would you use it on a gig without a backup? I have, who the **** bothers to bring backup pedals to gigs?

Never dealt with the company, nor do I intend to.

I play rock, influenced by 70's rock, 70's punk rock, 80's hardcore punk, 80's underground rock(Replacements, Husker Du),some heavy metal(Saint Vitus, Black Sabbath)and a few other things. Basically I like the more stripped down, basic rock n roll bands. I've been playing since the 7th grade, I'm 22 now. If it were stolen or lost, I would be really pissed off, but I wouldn't go out and buy another immediately, I still have my Guvnor.(assuming they didn't steal that too!) If I lost it, I'd kick my own *** like in the movie Liar Liar. I love how it doesnt sound like some silly effect, it just gives me more volume and disortion without negatively affecting the overall sound.(the Guvnor, on the other hand, does change the sound somewhat, but in a good way) I'd say it helps me make music, it certainly doesn't get in the way. I compared it to other Boss pedals, but they weren't that great, especially the OS-2, which totally sucks. My other gear is the aforementioned Sg, Deville, and Guvnor, plus a Les Paul DC studio and a Jimi Hendrix Cry Baby.

Three knobs, all do what they say. Straight forward.

My setup is as follows:

fender jazzmaster-Korg DT10 tuner-Boss BD2-Barge concepts BBjr fuzz-keeley RAT2-EHX small stone-EHX small clone-Dr.Scientist tremolesence-Boss DD3-analogman analog delay-Fender Blues Deville 2x12 Combo

Now, this is NOT a blues pedal. That doesn't mean it isn't any good though. I use it for ballsy overdrive sounds: it has a lot of bass and sweet highs, no mid hump (like the Ibanez tubescreamer and to some extent the Boss super overdrive), its VERY responisve to your picking attack and guitar volume: almost like a real amp. Its suprisingly transparent and barely colours the tone at all. Suprising amount of gain too, though it gets a bit fizzy past 3 oclock. A bit more classic rock than I was expecting! Great either with clean sounds or on top of a driven tube amp: piles the gain on and gets very dirty indeed.

I've had my DD-3 for 5 years, gigged regularly and used it almost every day and not a single problem so far. I anticipate no problems.

I wouldn't bother getting in contact with boss directly: frankly I think theyve got bigger fish to fry than dealing with a low end stompbox problem.

I looked into this pedal after falling in love with carrie brownsteins tone on the last sleater kinney album 'The Woods': she gets great, great tone from it and I consider the tones on that album to be some of the best I've ever heard (I recommend you have a listen if you're interested in this pedal, particularly on the track 'jumpers').

I think this is a great pedal and is a major assest to anyones board, particularly if you prefer heavy overdrive to distortion (ie the difference between trail of dead and nirvana). It can go from light to heavy and bassy to nasal. What it wont do is make you sound like SRV, it doesnt have that mid hump and has a lot of bass. Tone is in the fingers, this just gives you the balls to back it up.

EASY!
I bought the pedal from www.theguitartoneshop.com and it is WICKED!
My review is about the modified pedal, not the stock one.
I have a stock pedal and there is no comparison!

I have used this pedal with my 72 StratRI and my 78 Gibson Les Paul Custom and on my Fender Hot Rod Devill (410) and my Blues Junior.
I am finally able to get those tones!
Jimi, SRV, Buddy Guy, Clapton, and so on!
I put my Crybaby in front of it and it makes me want to play all night!

I have had no issues with this pedal (or the stock one) as of yet!
Soundless swithing from clean to effect, even with the monster gain this pedal gives!

Scotty is a great guy to work with, so I know if I have any problems he will take care of it.
I have actually ordered another one of his pedals that I will write a review on after I get a chance to play with it.

Has everything I want in and OverDrive pedal and gives the most unique sound I have heard from a Stomp Box!
It sounds like it is almost another Amp in itself.
If you can, you got to get one of these mod'd pedals!
You'll Love it!
I know I do!

Standard layout easy peasy

One of my favourite pedals of all time. The bd-2 sounds like your amp as it doesn't add much, if any, color to your tone.
I run it before a RAT II with excellent results.
Why anyone would want to mod this is beyond me.

It's a Boss

One of BOSS's best pedals in my opinion. I run the BD-2 thru a Vox ac-15 with a Tele.
I've been playing for about 22 years. Lots of different styles the bd-2 handles most of them. If it gets stolen I'll just get another as they're reasonably priced.

Easy to use. Gain, level, tone.

I play classic rock on a strat, and this pedal has been very useful to me on countless gigs. For amps I either use a Fender Twin or a Roland JC120, both very loud and clean amps which benefit from the Blues Driver adding a little distortion without changing ones basic clean tone too much. Once one gets the hang of this pedal, it reacts nicely to picking hand attack, meaning the more one digs in, the more distortion. Its also come in handy for drawing more volume out of an amp(turning the gain on the pedal up instead of turning the amp up to 10).

I can??t remember it once failing and I??ve played loads of gigs with it.

Never dealt with them.

I think that this pedal takes a little time to learn how to use, because it reacts to the skill of the player more than higher gain pedals, even the tubescreamer style pedals. I bought it because I was tired of seeing and hearing tubescreamers, which to my ear, make everyone sound like they are singing with a sock up their nose. Im glad I did, its been handy.

pedal is very easy to use

the manual treats this pedal like a specific example of a boost pedal getting to overdriven high gain sound and has nice pictures in it

it does decent gain with single coils but best with humbuckers. the sound on this thing is sometimes somewhat limited but with gain and tone set to max it produces a nice satisfying sound.

it isnt on my pedal board anymore because ive replaced it with a crunchbox which is a little more gain than the boost sound i was looking for. but i guess i like higher gain pedals.

boss shell mine is like new

i got a telecaster but played humbuckers through it before. fender deville 212 and various other pedals

im using a metal muff which i wanna replace with some sort of tube distortion in the future. bd2 is kind of an expensive pedal it should be 40-50 bucks. nice blue/yellow color. nice gain ratio in the knob settings. i wanna try an od3 and own one like the same reason i bought this, but im not planning on using this pedal maybe keep it and bring it out later when im bored in the future.

This pedal is so ridiculously easy to use its actually hard to express it. Three knobs. You have to be seriously special to not get the concept.

I wasn't particularly looking for the sound of my favorite artist. I wanted something on the order of decent tone from a small box. This stomper has an almost "tube-like" quality to it that makes it an interesting companion for my English Muff'n, which is my main pedal for overdrive tones.

I'm a Gibson man, and I normally run an SG Standard-->Boss TU-2, MXR DynaComp (original version)-->Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster-->Blues Driver-->English Muff'n-->Holiest Grail Reverb-->Digitech DigiDelay-->Extremely Clean Crate V-Series 5112 (modified and re-tubed for extreme amounts of head room).

I gave this pedal an 8 because nothing sounds quite like a real tube amp experiencing natural overdrive. Not even the most sophisticated modeling devices.

I Play Blues and Classic rock with a little prog thrown in for goos measure. I've ben playing since before most of you were born. I own half a dozen SGs and a few Les Pauls for when I feel like a he-man. I also have a room full of vintage tube amps. I love the tone that comes out of this pedal (its actually surprising). I don't hate anything about it. My favorite feature, other than the tone is the color (I like blue). I compared this to the OverDrive/Distortion, Super OverDrive, OverDrive OD-3, and all the digitechs. I chose this one because it was the easiest to get a tone I liked out of it, and the price was ok too. I wish it had its own little nuclear power source so that I would never have to worry abotu powering it.