Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

It's a Boss Pedal...thay never take much science: Gain /Volume/ Tone.

As with any opinion about sound/tone, it's best to know what equipment I play and in what genre. I play a 1979 Neck Thru Greco Speedway with DiMarzio Humbuckers and Single Coil . I use a JH-1 Hendrix Wah, MXR Super Comp, Digitech Whammy, Boss Phase Shifter(Now sold, didn't like that one!) into a Line 6 210 Spider. My Dimarzio's have a very hot sound to them(especially the bridge) and the pedal really makes them stand out and sing. I typically have the gain somewhat pass three o' clock and the volume closer to 9 o'clock.My tone has ALWAYS been no higher then 9'o clock or else I find it too harsh.though it's no High End Tube Amp, I enjoy the Line 6 for it's clean amp setting(I adjust my eq's to acheive a good tonal balance) and it's "Crunch" ("Marshall Plexi")setting(With the right adjustments, you can get early Santana tone...trust me, I have fooled many!!)and it's DEPENDABILITY(no broken tubes, blown tubes,or expensive maintainence)Even so, the BD-2 is pretty essential to my sound(This amp does have some pretty stale distortions though. The Plexi is the only exception to me, and just for solos for that matter) I play funk/blues/Jazz Rock and would rate my distortion as Sustain/Overdrive heavy, which the pedal has done wonderfully since day 1. On the "Plexi" setting, I use the pedal as a Volume Boost and end up holding notes for a loooong time. Superb sustain. In my clean amp set(I use it most often) the pedal delivers great crunch to contrast my clean rhythm strums.
As you have read, your guitar's volume makes great differences in the distortion's attack and tone. Vol on 10, Strong Overdrive On 7-8 Crunch but articulate enough for chords. On 5 I can strum open chords with a pleasant break up. That's the great thing about this pedal. As for what it lacks, I would say a little more tinal control would be good, but I get a good eq from my amp and my p/up's.
Also, I have ALWAYS used a 9V in this pedal. I have heard of certain guitar greats that prefer batteries to weaken some to get a warmer tone and have found this to be TRUE! This pedal ALWAYS sounds more spongy when my light starts to dim. Try it for yourself....you may be suprised.
BOTTOM LINE: Great Overdrive/ Easy To Find Tonal Characteristics when you watch your guitar volume

People, I brought this pedal used six years ago and honestly have used it AT LEAST Three times a week, EVERY week since thenand have had not one malfunction. The pedal has been so used, that it is even starting to show it's original grey, metal casing, works the same as day one.
My only advice, be sure to always check your input/outputs for loose nuts, they can produse horrible noise if you forget to tighten them, but that's a small case of maintainence. NO ONE BEATS BOSS FOR DURABLITY

Couldn't say, never had to call

This pedal is a valuable purchase that you would not regret, reguardless of your style. I have shown up for recording sessions/shows without my amp and just my pedals on several occasions and was always pleased with my results. The BD-2 is a great stand alone distortion unit and EVEN BETTER when mated to another HIGH-GAIN Distortion pedal as well!(I have personaly used a HM-3 Hyper Metal with it for a while and pulled out some Great Mesa-Like Crunch (a la 311's "All Mixed Up" /Rage's "Vietnow") From my perspective, using an excellent Humbucker Guitar and an "alright" amp, it has proven to be invaluable. I only give it an Eight because there are some INCREDIBLE Overdrive pedals that really are Perfect Ten's, but they also make you pay for it.....you can find this thing for 50 dollars on Ebay and get it either modded or get another High Gain Pedal and have a World of tone at your disposal for a fraction of the costs......choice is yours and I have never regretted mine!

Like someone else said, it's a distortion pedal with three basic knobs...if you can screw that up, heaven help you.

I have a Fender Roc Pro 1000 combo, and that gives me my dream distortion (it's got a tube preamp, solid state power amp, so best of all worlds), plus the unparalleled Fender clean. but i was looking for something in the middle - just a little grit, that breaks up more the harder you play, or cleans up in response to your right hand technique. After trying a few things out (ok, a lot of things - i'm very picky), I tried the Blues Driver. Spot on what I was looking for. It's fairly transparent, as well.

I wrote it off as being a weak distortion pedal, until we went into the studio for our last record. When we were doing scratch tracks along with the drums & bass, and I think i needed a longer cable to reach from the iso room, as well as needing distortion, and i was lazy and wrote what i was playing off as "scratch track, it'll get deleted anyway". Whatever the reason, i plugged this in and switched it on and off as needed, after cranking everything appropriately. I was blown away. It's still definitly an overdrive, and a lesser-gained one at that, but it had SO MUCH BITE to it that i never realized. we ended up keeping that track it sounded so good cranked. (check out Talking to Walls / www.talkingtowalls.com - "Naked" - first song, "Cut Out" to hear it - i think most of the distortion is that pedal. at least, the base of it is...we did like 8 guitars on that song!)

so try this pedal out. there is a lot going on there. people who have heard it in my rig often covet it. nowadays i use it in-line, parked on top of my amp, next to my wireless, everything else is in my effects loop.

it's boss. i have seen one dead boss pedal in all my years playing, and it was someone elses, so for all i know, they tossed it into a pool.

it's boss. who needs customer support? actually, i bought this used, and missing all the knobs. i called the company and they sent me new knobs with no hassle for a couple of bucks, cheap, but worth fixing up a pedal i'll never sell.

I think i've written enough here for you to know how i feel. I play pop-rock/modern rock, think the Cure with the Replacements. I've been playing for...longer than i'd care to think, and i know gear (perhaps more than playing guitar). this is one of the single best pieces of gear i've bought, and if i lost it, i would defnitly replace it with only the same. EQ, Tuner, Volumes, even delay...all those pedals I could probably find a comparable replacement. but this is unique.

This pedal has Gain, Level, and Tone controls. It is extremely easy to use and get a good sound out of it.

Sound Quality. Hmm that is an interesting aspect of this pedal. IF you play it through a solid state amp the sound sucks. It is harsh and rough and lacks warmth. It just sounds like what it is: a digital distortion pedal.
But there is a glimmer of hope. I run this through a Seymour Duncan SFX-03 Twin Tube Classic and a Crate thirty watt amp. Before I bought the Twin Tube I didn't know what tubes sounded like so I thought that this pedal gave out a great sound. When I bought the Twin Tube I plugged this in and realized how much I have been missing. When played through tubes this pedal sounds insane. No matter what the settings you can get awesome sounds out of it. When I turned off the Twin Tube was when I really learned how thin the sound was. The difference was like the difference between hot water and cold water. The 8 that I rated this at should be looked at as an average. Through solid state the sound quality is probably a 5, but through tube it is definitly a 10.

It is extremely reliable. It is solidly built and feels like it will last forever.

Haven't dealt with them.

I play anything from Classic Rock and Blues to Worship to Hard Rock. This pedal works for all of these styles and even more that I don't play.
If it were stolen I would definitly buy it again.
If you are considering buying this make sure you have a tube amp. If you don't then get a tube amp and then buy this pedal. It is a great pedal as long as it is set up and played right.

This pedal has three control knobs: 1)level, 2)tone, 3)gain.
The manual is good and describes the features and includes some setting suggestions. However, great tones are to be found by experimenting with the control knobs. This pedal has a great feature that is very rare: you can set the gain control high and then obtain varying amounts of gain by simply adjusting the volume control on your electric guitar. Try it!

This pedal maintains the great tone of your guitar over the full range of gain settings. Using a Gibson Les Paul guitar and Fender tube amp I am able to get the classic Aerosmith overdriven tones. I would say that this pedal is well-suited to get blues-rock tones such as Doors, Free, Who, and Aerosmith. In some reviews here, people have mentioned that there is too much treble, and then they go and pay more money to modify the pedal. Why don't they just go buy another pedal that gets the sound they want? There certainly are enough of them on the market. The high treble setting is needed for classic early-sixies tones such as Freddy King and others.
Also, be sure to try this: set the pedal's gain control high and then adjust your guitar volume control. It will allow you to get your lead tone with your guitar volume set at maximum, your crunch tone with the volume rolled off to 7, and your clean tone is achieved simply by turning off the pedal.

It is a well-constructed pedal, I have owned it for several years and it has not failed.

Not needed / not used.

This pedal is ideal to achieve late sixties and early seventies blues-rock tones. The guitar's tone is not lost over the range of settings. I like the range that is covered by the gain and tone control knobs.

Stock BD-2, no mods. Easy to set up and play around with to get the "right" sound. This pedal is not complicated.

This pedal seems to get a wide variety of sounds. If you're in to heavy metal, you may need more distortion than this thing can dish out, but that's to be expected. It's called a BLUES driver. It does this job very well. My main setup is a Fender Roadhouse Strat with Texas Special single coils, TU-2 tuner (also used as a silent cut-out when changing guitars during a set), BD-2, and finally a CE-2 Chorus into a Fender Twin Reverb (Pro Series). I can get a non-driven volume boost with the gain set low. Turn up the gain a little, and you begin to hear the amp break up a bit. A little more, and you get a little SRV, Clapton sound. With gain at about 2 o'clock, I'm playing "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" by Georgia Satellites. I can get an AC/DC tone as well, but not much more than that. That's ok, because SRV-style blues is what makes me tick. I'm giving it a 9, because nothing is perfect. I've been reading about all the after-market mods that are supposed to improve the sound. I'm not sure if I am going to mess with a good thing or not.

I have several Boss pedals (Chorus, Blues Driver, Tuner, Flanger, Auto Wah), and I have never had any problems with them.

I have never had to deal with them.

I've had this pedal for several years, but kept reading all the fuss about the TS-9. So ... I stopped at Guitar Center (Man, I hate that place) to "test drive" a TS-9. I brought home the TS-9, and played with both the TS-9 and BD-2 side-by-side for several hours. While both are great pedals, I think I like the BD-2 sound better. It sounds a lot "warmer" to me than the TS-9. In all fairness, maybe it's because I'm used to the sound. I may try out the TS-9 at my next gig just to give it a fair chance. But, I'm pretty sure I'll be paying another visit to GC to take the TS-9 back. The TS-9 did not have as much drive, and sounded a lot more "tinny". Plus, it's butt ugly and doesn't feel as robust when switching as the BD-2. I'm not knocking the TS-9, since it's a staple in the blues world (SRV, LLB, etc), but I just like the BD-2 sound just as well, so I don't need to shell out another $100.

I play in a Classic Rock & Blues cover band, and this thing is with me all the time. It works great for all the styles my band plays (60's & 70's rock, and a lot of Blues). I have been playing for about 24 years. I would surely buy this pedal again if I had to for some reason.

ias easy as any i guess

mine is the stock BD-2 not modded and i use a dyna comp >>> boss BD2 >>> ross 10 band EQ >>>> DOD fx65 chorus (dont laugh has nice flange on right setting) into a Fender VIBRO CHAMP (single 6v6gt) into a 4x12 cab - I have the vibro champ vol almost dimed and the BD-2 vol turned to about 9 oclock and gain bout 2 or 3 depending on how loud i want to get and the vol control on my guitar (w/one retro fit p90 raised up for min pickup hieght and max pickup output) the compressor dials in the right amount of sustain i need and ta-dow - i got black face type tone with sweet harmonics AND picking dynamics everything i ever wanted ITS A BEAUTIFUL THING! It's nice and mellow so i still need to use a fuzz & wah for more extreme rock - but thats it - most of the time its just what i said - i guess i will get the keeley mod someday - just to see - BUT if you like overdriven fender amp sound - i can't imagine a better pedal for the money - i sold my maxon 808 tube screamer NO CONTEST!

never a problem

wouldn't hold my breath

this is BLUES DRIVER hence the name - if you have a low wattage fender amp cranked overdrive it with this pedal you can get down to the business of the blues - no joke even stock - it's not true bypass .. so your probably not going to use it in conjuction with too many other pedals - less is more when it comes to this pedal but w/ a decent compressor in front and a decent eq in back of it - you can get a very dymanic blues sound - thats ALL it does but it dose it SO WELL / transparent and doesn't color your tone FANTASTIC VALUE yes

3 knobs, on off switch, if you screw this up you got problems...

I used to own most of the 1998-2001 boss line up, plus a few older favs (PH2, HF2). And this (along with the TU-2 Tuner) are the only two pedals I still own from my 'Boss days'. In fact, I purchased the BD2 four times since I originally sold my collection...

The sound is why I've always came back. Being my FIRST ever pedal when I was a kid, the sound of this box through my Fender Twin has always been the basis for overdrive tones to me. Sure my tastes have evolved, simplified, and moved on, but the BD2 has rentered my line up, and I'll tell you why.

First off, the tone. It's transparent (once you get rid of some of the tone sucking resistors found on the input and output sections of this little box) and has a lot of play. I'm not one on the search for high-gain solutions, I need something a bit beefier than a Maxon OD808 Tube Screamer, smaller than a VoodooLab Sparkle Drive, but something that retains the top end. The BD2 is currently my solution.

It's tone is thick, and inviting, but not messy and missunderstood. I'm running this through an 1970's AC30TB/6 and I'm very happy how it can get a smilar tone to the amp being overdriven on it's own. I turned up the tone control to 3:00, the gains sitting just around 1:00, and level around 12:00. The tone I got is semi-growly, just on the verge of breakup with 'normal' playing. When I start digging it it really provides some good dirty breakup. This is great because I find I'm a dynamic player that demands a pedal that can respond to picking dynamics.

The best part is when playing more complex chords higher up the neck (being raised as a keyboard player I can't stand playing powerchords and think of the guitar the way a keyboard player thinks of a keyboard) the tone never gets muddy or congested. It's thick, but bright, and ever note rings through.

My basic setup with this is: Gibson SG Supreme or ES-335 -> BD2 -> AC30TB

My more complex setup: Gibson SG Supreme or ES-335 into Sennisher G2 wirless -> Radial Dragster -> Voodoolab amp switcher -> BD2 -> Alesis MEQ230 -> AC30TB

Both setups give me the tone's I want, the first is more a jam session rig, the second is just a small part of my live/recording rig.

Pedal gets a 7 because it's noisy, and sucks tone when bypassed. I also find it seems to naturally compress my signal, and take out some of the high and low frequencys. The BD2 also has too much lowend to really use this pedal without boosting top end. (hence my EQ in my main rig)

My last two BD2s died on me. I'm probably one of the few that have had bad Boss pedals. I often have been in contact with failures with various peices of their gear. Give me a Crowther Audio, Maxon, or MXR pedal anyday for reliability over this Boss stuff

Being friends with people within the company helps. I've been to Rolands BC facility a few times and have leared a lot about their products. Before this it was murder getting replacement parts or other supplies to fix these pedals.

Now they just toss me a replacement when I need. Or when I gig in Vancouver and I need a flanger, I'll just ask them and deal with one of the worst Flangers I've ever used. :P

Out of all the boss pedals I've owned the BD2 and TU2 are the only ones I can currently say i'll be hanging onto for a while. But when I find an Analoug Delay I'll be picking that up... I reget ever getting rid of the damn thing!

The only pedal I'll be purchasing to replace this box is the Maxon OD808 that I sold a few weeks ago. Now with my EQ's I'll be able to get the bottom back that I've wanted for a while.

Level, Tone, Gain controls. Everyone knows how this works, right?

I dont know why anyone would need to mod these.

I use this as almost like a preamp for couple of different heads.
Level @ 3oclock, Tone @ 1, Gain @ 2. Perfect sound - roll back the
volume to clean up, hit it harder to get even more crunk. Dynamic
overdrive that seems to cut through anything. Goes from a nearly
clean boost to almost fuzzy distortion. I don't understand the
complaints about the tone control. Sure, it can get bright, but
thats a good thing. I'd rather have something be too bright and have
to dial it back than have it be too muddy. Definitely has enough
bass. Perfect with any of my guitars, no rolloff at all. Works well
with my J and MM basses, but not my P or 5's.

I don't believe in the Boss=indestructible cliche, but it IS a Boss.
I've broken a couple, but I'm also very hard on my gear. Lets say
that they arent easy to kill.

Never dealt with Boss directly. They are a big multinational
whatever, so they shouldnt be entirely trusted.

I've been through more TS clones and variants than I care to
remember, most of the boss product line, Proco Rats, and some of the
more expensive ODs (Klon, Fulltone, a few LovePedal), but I always
come back to the BD-2. I dont know why anyone would feel the need to
mod these. I've tried some of the mods and they all get too muddy or
lose some of that touch sensitive thing that makes the stock version
so great. Definitely the best of Boss' OD offerings, and a great
first pedal for someone just starting out. Even better last pedal
for those of us that have been around, and know how to listen with
our ears and hear something other than hype.

very easy. It came with a manual that was ok. In the long run I found my settings ( gain fairly low ) and leave it alone.

MY SET-UP IS:

I plug my guitar into a s**tload of pedals which I change around all the time. Then I plug these into a guitar amplifier.

Mostly I use a clean strat sound ( just a tiny amount of compression using a Carl Martin box ) - but I need something to make my bridge PU thicken up when I'm using my tweed bassman for rock covers.
( with my lower watt class A amp I don't even need this ) - anyway this Boss pedal has been my favorite - I tried TS9, TS10 ( both Keeley moded ), Maxon 820, Budda Phatman, real tube, voodoo sparkle drive, fulltone distortion plus thing, and others - the Boss is my favorite - not noisy - I leave my gain at 8:00 and volume up to give slight increase overall - I sent it in for a Keeley mod but it was pretty decent straight up.

more than a year - heavy use

OTHER GEAR I OWN:

everything - my kitchen cabinets are stuffed with pedals.


Have played 40 yrs - past 10 in cover band - gig twice per month - this is what I need for that bridge PU.

I play electric violin.
As long as I don't use too much gain it's not too hard.
It's nice to experiment a little.
I'm sure there are still some hidden treasures to be discovered.
It's versatile enough for that.

I use it with a Yamaha 60W solid state amplifier for strings.
Bd-2 is capable of providing beautiful crunch.
Most distortion pedals use too much compression for a violin.
This one is very well useable!

I play pop/rock/jazz/fusion.
I only use reverb, delay and bd-2.
I Play the violin for almost 25 years.
Almost 15 years of them electric.

Bd2 helps me to make music. Chicken skin when I hear it.
For violin it's the best boss distortion pedal I have tested (o3, ds2, you name it).
I only didn't test the ds-1 by the way, but I trust the bd2 to make a better match with my way of playing the violin.
I've also tested some boutique pedals and a lot of modeled distortions by different brands.
What works for guitar doesn't always work for violin.