Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

Let's think...three knobs...input...output...switch. Not too tough. Easy to get a great sound out of it. I picked it up...plugged it in, played a blues riff...laughed at how good it sounded with everything set to the middle without any tweaking.

I run an stock Epiphone Les Paul Custom (white is nice) through an older Peavey Tube amp that just rips and has the nicest clean I've heard. This pedal gives me all the blues od/dist that anyone who plays blues could want. Bottom Line. Only thing is...I wish it could be a little more powerful on the high end...sometimes solos are a little weak. Other than that...perfect.

Gigging for a year...hasn't failed me once. The only damage after a 150 pound main speaker dropped on it was a little scratch in the finish.

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I play blues and pretty much everything else that isn't extreme thrash or modern crap rock. It works well for all of the sounds I need besides hard rock and metal. Stick it in front of my Metal Zone and push the volume and I get all the Randy Rhoads I'll ever need.

Bought it on the way to a gig. Dialed in the preferred tone, done.

I run this pedal through both a tube and a solid state amp. Primarily and a volume boost for leads with the tone knob at 10 o'clock, gain at 4 and the volume at 10. I does the job without altering the tone of the amps and works seamlessly.

I've gigged with it for two and a half years hot glued to a piece of plywood no problemo. I was told that if you run pedals in front of your amp , as apposed to an effects loop, it helps prolong the life of your tubes. Maybe I should thing about changing em soon.

Never dealt with em so I can't say.

I play 50's,rockabilly,Surf, Blues, all with this pedal.Been playing electrics for 10 yrs.and the thing I like best about this pedal is I don't have to worry about it.

Very easy to use, basic manual (but works). Not the sound I'm looking for, but gives a good distinctive bluesy crunch.

IF ANYONE KNOWS WHAT PEDAL CAN GET ME A METALLICA SOUND PLEASE E-MAIL ME!!

Unless this pedal is used loudly, it bites. I am searching for a metallica sound but stumbled on this pedal cheaply. Good crunch, distinctive noise.

Very good, BOSS rules.

None needed.

I am searching for a metallica sound, for this obviously it sucks, but I got it cheaply and it is pretty cool.

a little harder than it looks to get the right sound.But preaty easy to figure out.

Good sounding pedal if you turn the Level up all the way it becomes fuzzy.I use this pedal sometimes as a feedbacker by hooking it up with my other distortion pedals.I love distortiuon.Noisy-quiet.

I dont depend on it.I could do without it but its addictive to use.
It never failed me.

no problems

Its a good pedal to own for a distortion lover.

Very easy to control. Has a volume knob, a tone knob, and a distortion level knob. Manual is simple but effective.

After reading the positive reviews in this location I was disappointed to find that the BD-2 which I purchased DOES filter tone quite noticably and adds hiss. I have a '58 strat with original setup (i.e. it hums), a recent Les Paul studio, and play them through a Fender Hotrod Deluxe with Sovtek tubes. The BD-2 deadens the warm liquid tone of the amp, and also filters the bass frequencies. The distortion from this unit is crunchy and grainy, unless turned up very high, but the Fender amp does this sound better with its overdrive channel and without the filtering effect or the noise. The distortion of the BD-2 comes reasonably close to approximating the real tube distortion of the fender, and might be satisfactory for use with a solid-state amp.
The volume feature is useful in that it can add enormous boost to your volume, if desired. Unfortunately the tone filtering occurs even with distortion turned right down.

I'm not in a position to have an opinion on this.

No experience with this either.

I'm a professional cellist who loves to play electric guitar to 'bust loose' from the painstakingly precise and controlled world of classical music, so my concept of 'tone' comes from a different place. I like the sounds of Hendrix, Dimeola, Joni Mitchell, Billy Gibbons, Collin James, Clapton, swing, jazz, and play a lot of blues as well. I haven't gigged with electric guitar since the mid 70s (I traded my Marshall 100w lead head for cello lessons), but may again. I wanted an overdrive that would give me the kind of sizzle that Al DiMeola gets on his "Tour De Force - Live" album, without tampering with the luscious sound of my Fender amp. The BD-2 affects the tone too much for my taste. I plan to try the Boss OD-3, which is purported to have a more transparent sound and less filtering of the bass frequencies. Finally, the BD-2 makes the already irritating hum of my old strat much worse. People covet these old strats (bought my bashed up strat in '71 for a pittance), but they have definite drawbacks for practical use. This effect would be an asset to anyone using the kind of sold-state amps that I'm used to, but I can't recommend it to users of good tube amps.

Very easy to use. Just, level, tone and gain.

I am using a Fender Stratocaseter 54 reissue and a Fender RocPro 700. The sound is fantastic for blues. However for heavy sounds it doesn't work so well. It isn't made for that. You can get a big tonal range using the pedal at the same time you are using the gain of the amp.

Very important to me. I can't play without it.

For blues this is a very good pedal. I think is the best. I have been playing for seven years and I really like it. If you wanna play blues, go to a musicstore and buy.

It's three knobs - level (aka volume/crunch), gain and tone (aka treble). Couldn't be much easier. Don't have the manual since I bought it used. Matter of fact, I just sold it again.
I think it's !overrated!

When I first got the BD and had dialed in, I thought it was... great. With some more time (some days) I realized there was something 'wrong', i.e. I wasn't really getting the tones I like. Intensive Testing revealed that this unit actually cools down my tone. Don't get me wrong, this thing does quite a good job, you get nice crunch & gain and even some bluesy touch out of it, but IT DOES NOT ADD WARMTH TO YOUR SOUND, ON THE CONTRARY! (sorry for shouting). If you are - like me - into vintage/warm/southern tone, then this one is a no-go.
The folks from H+K did a marvellous job getting warm tones into my current solid state amp (H+K Edition), and I won't let that be killed by a simple effect unit. Besides, this thing is not comparable to a real gain channel, some people called it gain channel simulator, but that is totally unreal. Compared with the preamp of my amp, it simply gets toasted. Get real!
However, if you do not need that special warmth I'm talking about - yes, it does a good job for the dough.

Built like it should be.

Im into Alternative w/ Funk&Blues roots. If an FX-unit sucks warmth from my tone, that's not tolerable. No way.
I checked the BD with the H+K Edition and my 1979 Ibanez Studio 100 ( 2* V2 Humbucker). Obviously I wouldn't buy it again, I guess I'll try some real valve overdrive.
The BD is especially useful if you have an amp which is already slightly crunching, so that you can mix the BD's crunch & gain with the amp's crunch. The BD is a good unit for the price, but it's definitely not high quality, and it especially doesn't deliver the tones I want. Too bad.

I Don't think you could make it sound bad.

I am using the Blues Driver in front of a Digitech RP-7. I am a full-time professional musician and play MANY styles of music including swing, ska, rockabilly, jazz, rock, club date, fusion, and studio work andhave found this pedal to be the first distortion pedal to sound far superior to any amp distortion I have heard. I am playing it through a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10 primarily although it is also used with a Matchless or Polytone Mini-Brute. This pedal does not significantly change your clean tone but simply adds a GREAT overdrive to your sound (assuming everything is at 12:00) and can be tailored just enough to be helpful yet not confusing. This thing sounds great with any of my guitars including a Carvin T60(with humbuckers, Standard Strat(with EMG SA's), Custom Built Franken-Tele(with EMG 60neck-85bridge), Gibson 347, and even with my L-5 for a great Brian Setzer tone. In all situations it is my only overdrive and my overdrive effect on my RP-7 is used strictly as a clean volume boost. By the way, it is REALLY quiet!!!

I have used it exclusively for the last year (aproximately 320 gigs) and it seems to be ultra durable. I dont even think it has a paint chip yet. and one battery seems to last about 3 gigs (12 hours of use)

Don't know.

Works well in all styles as previously stated. Gives everything from a warm touch sensitive drive needed for Blues and Rockabilly as well as a great over the top DISTORTION I use in a hard rock band. I have taught guitar professionaly for the last 16 years and as a result have spent alot of time in music stores (trying crap out when I get stood up for a lesson) and heve never heard any overdrive for any price that was more perfect than this. If you want something to completely change your tone buy a Boogie pedal or a Metal Zone but if you just want to get the tone out of your existing setup you always wished you could BUY THIS PEDAL.

Really easy to use, just 3 knobs, Level, Tone and Gain. Really great pedal, its very versatile. The manual is great, it illustrates a few settings such as American Blues, British Blues, Crunch, Distortion etc.. and gives you a few blank spots to write in your own settings.

Im using a Yamaha Pacifica 412, and a Peavy Express 112s. I usually put my guitar on the middle pickup for the best sound. The pedal really boosts the volume, so I recommend a 12 inch speaker in your amp, or two 10 inch ones if you're going to play really really loud. I usually turn my amp down to 4, and my guitar volume to 2, and thats plenty loud for practice. The nice thing about the pedal is that the sound differs depending on your style, if you want to sound clean, then pick softly, and its clean, pick harder, it gives it a more blues sound.. and if you want to play chords, theres even a chord setting in the manual that sounds excellent.

Very dependable, I use mine all the time and its still going on the original battery. Ive even left it on a night or two. I can safely say that I'd use it for a gig without a backup..Its really sturdy, but I might want a spare battery in my pocket.

Never had to, but the manual provides lots of places to send it if it ever does break.

Its a Blues Driver, but don't let the name fool you, its more like a vintage tube amp emulator. I play a lot of blues, all kinds of blues, and so far Its been great for that. The nice thing is, when I wanna play something BESIDES blues, I still use it. It can create a wide variety of sounds, from crunch to hard distortion. I strongly reccomend this pedal to those of you that are just starting an effects collection, because it does so much, and its definitely worth your money, unlike those death metal distortion pedals, that give you nothing but feedback if you turn the gain over 1.

3 knobs level, tone and gain. Gain is the overdrive and tone gives you how sharp the sound will be. Level is what makes the sound bluesy.

I use it with a Vantage guitar and a Vantage amp, cheap stuff but sounds nice. Comes close to many blues musicians like B B king but gotta add another pedal, just can't figure out what. Wah Wah would sound good on it.
Just too good to be true.

I'll depend on it as a single pedal on a gig. No backup? that's ok, just have a new batt inside.

never.

I play blues, and that's why I bought a blues driver! I would always buy another one of these if it were lost... it's the blues player's buddy :)I love it's blue paint job, and anyways, it'a great pedal to be with.