Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

Easy if you got fingers

Excellent
Either solidstate or tube it retains the quality of sound
unlike Govener 2 - which got too muddy with Bassman 59
especially for rhythm the Guvnor was poor whereas with solidstate amps the Guvnor was excellent
now, BD-2 perfomred with equal results both with solidstates and tubes
I sold the Govner and kept BD-2 and a proco rat-2 for my distortion needs
these are the best,
as to ts-9
it's okey but no real distortion here

10

-

10
just play it
buy good guitar, amp and cables
that's all boys
just guitar and cables
and bd-2 for instance to push it
taht's all

but buy a GOOD guitar and AMP

like everyone else says three knobs, level , tone , gain... it preatty easy...

I use my bd-2 with a couple of other pedals with my gibson les paul std. and a marshall dsl 50 head with stock 1960a marshall cab.I find this pedal works best with tube amps,I previously used it with a marshall avt100 combo and preatty much put the pedal away but since i bought my tube amp it sounds amazing.Really really great rhythem tone.. as long as u hold off on the gain.. even with my equipment i can get a somewhat close SRV tone with this.. a strat would help ofcourse (soon hopefully).. it works great with my other pedals dunlop crybaby and ibanez dE-7, i plan on teaming it up with a ts-808 in the future! overall i rated this an 8 becuz with the right gear and tweaking u can get a great sound out of this from a classic rock tone to a blues one i love this pedal!

I can depend on this pedal totally without backup! boss makes a good pedal!

Never Dealt with the company cuz you ushually don't have problems unless your careless.

I play blues,classic rock,modern rock,pop and i can find a place for this thing everywhere.I've been playing for four years its not much but i know my stuff.if it were stolen or lost id buy another but id definitly upgrade to the keeley model mostly because these pedals arn't perfect, boss is a huge company that sells millions of pedals the gotta keep crankin em out, its shouldn't be expected of them to have super high quality gear.The thing i love about it the most is that it gives me a really great not to heavy rhythem tone.. its not for leads really thats why i want the ts-808 to boost it! when i bought it i actually compaired it to a ts-9 Reissue and im glad i went down this road because the ts-9 wouldn't of given me enough gain back in that era of my playing(don't wanna talk about it.. punk ewww) but now im super glad i have it. it truly is an inspiring pedal. so if it sounds like this pedal fits you chances are it will !

This pedal is awsome. The first time i plugged it in i didn't even
screw around with the knobs and i got a crazy sound.

when i use this, i setup my fender studio reverb with my gibson SG
and there was no kind of a buzz or anything. The effects are not weak
at all, that's why i love this pedal. The tone is so warm. I play a lot of jeff healey and it's awsome.

It's a boss pedal what more could i say.
I would definitly use it without a backup.

really friendly. Boss is just a wonderful company. The Blues driver was my first boss pedal and i never turned back to any other companies.

I play a lot of blues rock and this pedal is perfect. I also own countless Boss pedals.(SD-1,DS-1,DS-2,TU-2,MD-2).
If this pedal was stolen i would definitey go buy another one.

Three knobs, very easy in that regard. Knobs seem to have a wide range of values in terms of sound.

This pedal is very finicky about what amps it likes and doesn't, and also with guitars. It seems to dislike all my humbucking guitars (high output), but really adores the single-coils (low output). With higher output pickups or certain amps, it is thin thin thin, brittle as glass, and fuzzy. Unusably so. With the right combination, it sounds truly incredible. I've never encountered a pedal with such diverse sounds.

And never, EVER go straight to a mixing board with this in the path. The worst sounds you've ever heard. It literally made people cringe and turn their heads. On the other hand, playing out with a Behringer GX212 solid-state and a cheap strat clone, people came up afterward to ask how on earth I was getting "that sound." I guess it's a 0 or it's a 10.

See above.

It's a Boss. Shoot it with a shotgun - it'll still work.

See above.

SUPER, SUPER, SUPER EASY TO USE. THREE KNOBS.

this is a great sounding little blue box. i find that after 9 to 10 o'clock on this little monster's tone knob can sound a bit trebbly...but aside from that, i love that the gain is very usable! shockingly so, i was able to get sooo many sounds by keeping the tone knob low, and dialing up whatever amount of gain i wanted or was appropriate for the song.

its a boss, so far i have yet to have a boss pedal dissappoint me in this category.

i bought this guy about 5 or 6 years ago and used it extensively for the first 2 and half years of owning it and was very pleased....BUT....along came a boutique pedal named the fulldrive 2

for a long time was using the fulltone fulldrive 2, and yes it was warm, but with that warmth came lots of mud...after having used it for about 2 years plus, i realized that i was never fully satisfied with it and came back to this faithful little booger. what everyone is saying is true, more money doesnt necessarily mean better sound...it took me a long time to come to grips with this, because many of us want our pedal boards to be unique or full of boutique pedals. but in the end it always come back to your tone...if that cheap dano pedal makes your tone sound better, then go for it. i found the blues driver to be very forgiving of me having forsaken it for so long...

oh one more thing...i just played a praise and worship session at church and my tone never sounded better.

3 knobs is NOT the same as ease of use; I find the EH Big Muff Pi and its 3 knobs to be a real bear to work with. That said, though, with this thing it's pretty much what you see is what you get. Does its thing in under a minute.

Couple of points knocked off for hum at the upper gain registers and more treble than is really necessary on the tone knob.

I've been using this pedal between an Epi ES-335 copy (stock pickups) and a Vox Valvetronix tubestate emulating amp, and I've really been enjoying the snot out of it. I never push the gain past 12 o'clock, and with the tone knob at around 10:00 it makes my neck pickup sound crisp, clear and a little raunchy. Works really well for the Hendrix/ SRV "blooze" axis kind of sound (a guilty pleasure if ever there was one), responds well to pick attack and guitar volume changes. Muddies up lower- voiced chords a bit, but I'm into that myself.

For my rig this thing provides overdrive with a little stank to it... just what I wanted.

Haven't had it long, but it looks fine to me and I've never seen a Boss pedal bite the dust... should be good to go.

Haven't the foggiest.

Mostly what I prefer to play is edgy, sort of spaced- out postpunk with just a taste of blues thrown in for spice. This pedal's sound is a little too easily identifiable as blues/ blooze so I think I'll probably stick with my Rat, Muff and a loud amp for that.

However, I love noodling around the house with it and if I was ever going to put on a fake beard and head down to the local blues 'n' brews joint, this is the pedal I would take. Big fun.

pretty easy...3 knobs
level, drive, tone

bossarea.com has some general settings

I have a Fender Strat mexican, I run this through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.
it's chained with my Digitech BadMonkey and Behringer EQ700 graphic equalizer.
sound quality is pretty good, responsive to volume and picking.
I recommend that you get it modded with Germanium transistors, the silicon ones that are stock means distortion is either very heavy or completely off; you can't really get a light distortion or rather it's difficult with stock.
Keeley swaps in germanium transistors in his Phat tone mod.

definitely.
I bought it used off Ebay, and it's been through many gigs.
still sounds great.
metal case

n/a
never dealt with them

christian worship, rock, punk
I might buy another one; for the price it is good.
I might get a Nobels Natural Overdrive instead though...
however, my friend has a modded one, and it sounds awesome
I might just buy a brand new modded one from Robert Keeley

The Boss BD-2 pedal is nice and straight foward to use right out of the box, with only 3 knobs to choose from which include:- 1. Level 2. Tone 3. Gain.Manual is uneeded if you are an experienced player most boss pedals come with an instruction manual with a couple of sample settings.These may be of some use or interest if you are just starting out and this is your first venture into buying an overdrive/distortion pedal.

I have a mixed group of amps and guitars that I use this pedal with and find that the pedal performs well with any of the combinations that I tried so far.I have not noticed any unacceptable levels of noise with this pedal except for when you start maxing things out.Then you have to allow for the amp, the guitar,the pick-ups single coil/humbucker, the power source batteries v's 9 volt wall wart etc.
So many people I find, are so oft to blame just one peice of gear without fully investigating all the possibilities of the noise source combined.Just remember
this though,when you start linking things together that send and recieve electrical/sound signals anything can happen,including all sorts of noises etc.The BD-2 excels at its chosen path creating great sounding and very convincing tube driven like overdrive that responds well with with your amp be it solid state or tube at just about any volume settings that I have tried so far.It also responds well to pick attack and playing nuances and rolling off of the volume knob it cleans up quite reasonably. I have way too many amps to just play this pedal with just one, but I really like the way that it responds to my Gibson Les Paul Jnr GA-5 re-issue amp. Wether I use the BD-2 as a level booster with the gain virtually off and the level maxed,yes you will notice some background noise here but live it's more than acceptable but for recording you would definately need some noise reduction.With this setting it gives any good tube amp a nice kick in the arse and sends it into overdrive even when the amp's volume is set quite low.When you have all the knobs set all at 12 o'clock and the amp set to clean be prepared to be pleasantly suprised at the nice thick sounding overdrive you will attain. I don't really use effects pedals to sound like my favourite artist but I am sure with a little bit of tweaking with the knobs on your guitar,amp and the BD-2 you may get close or similar approximations of your favourite guitarist , depending on circumstances etc.To conclude this pedal is a one trick pony and I think for my tastes and style it excels at it's choosen trick, I am extremely fussy about distortion and personally this pedal blows me away.Please see below a list of guitars and amps that I use and if you have any questions no matter how dumb or trivial you may think it to be please don't hesitate to email me as I am always happy to try and help other people in their tone quest.

Guitars include 1 x Gretsch 6121 Round-Up re-issue heavily customized with recent DeArmond Y2K 2000 single coil pick-ups,1 x Gretsch 6118 Anniversary stock, 1 x 1968 Fender maple cap Telecaster,1 x 1987 Gibson Les Paul Jnr, 1 x Tokai Les Paul Jnr dbl cut copy.

Amps include 1 x 94 Vox AC 15 re-issue Eminence loaded,1 x 1964 Fender Tremolux head thru a 2 x 10 Celestion loaded G -50's box,1 x recent Gibson GA-5 Les Paul Jnr point to point tube amp, 1 x recent Vox Pathfinder 15 watt solid state practice amp,1 x 1994 Fender tweed Blues Jnr,1 x Fender 1974 Musicmaster Bass converted to head and box with a single 12 Celestion like a cool mini piggy back set-up, 1 x recent George Dennis Blue Beetle 15 watt amp converted from a head to a cool looking 2x12 GT-75 Celestion loaded Matchles style combo.

Can you really depend on anything? From your car to your dishwasher that question is just way to broad. In all fairness though I have to say that I have had nothing but good results from all the different Boss products I have used over the years .Yes I would use it at a gig without a back-up and if it faled well you know the old saying if life gives you lemons then make lemonade.But in all honesty if you consider yourself a professional or a semi-pro muso then you should always have a back up plan no matter what , and just remember like the boy scouts say "Be Prepared".

I owned a Boss BR- 8 digital recorder which I thought had a shorting/grounding problem with the inputs as I was recieving small electrical shocks from mics when they were plugged in.The unit was purchased 2nd hand so of course I was not entitled to any kind of warranty so I rang Roland in Australia they said bring it over and we'll take a look.They kept it for 3 days replaced the entire input section free of charge with no question's asked regarding warranty etc.so what can I say Roland Australia rocks but I can only speak for myself for every good experience many other people have suffered crap at the hands of Roland.I guess when you talk to anybody no matter who they are but especially if thay are going to fix something for you, play nice you may just be rewarded. But if you still haven't gotten satisfaction after a coulple of vists then by all means mow them down an take no prisoners.

1.The styles of music that I play are as follows:- PUNK ROCK OLD SKOOL,SKA,SWING,JAZZ, JUMP BLUES,GUT BUCKET HILL COUNTRY BLUES (aka Jnr Kimbrough RIP),ROCK-A-BILLY,INDIE/ALT POP,COUNTRY AND PYSCHOBILLY.
I have found the BD-2 to be a very versatile and adaptable pedal to my syle of playing thus making it a great match.

2. PLAYING FOR OVER 20 YEARS SEMI PROFFESIONAL ETC.

3.KORG D1600 MK II SET UP IN A HOME STUDIO SCENARIO WITH ALL THE USUAL SUSPECTS IN THE WAY OF GEAR MICS,PRE-AMPS ETC.

4.IF IT WAS LOST OR STOLEN I WOULD DEFINATELY BUY ANOTHER (LIKE THE ONE THAT I AM USING AT PRESENT)AS MY FIRST ONE WAS BORROWED/STOLEN BY A FRIEND FOR A GIG AND I HAVE'NT SEEN IT SINCE AND NOW THE SCUMBAG HAS LEFT TOWN.

5.I AM NOT TOTTALY IN LOVE WITH THIS PEDAL BUT IT GOES ALONG WAY TO SATISFYING MY NEEDS IN REGARDS TO DISTORTION AND OVERDRIVE. I AM EXTREMLY FUSSY ABOUT EVEN AND UNEVEN ORDER HARMONICS AND AS A NOTE STARTS TO DECAY I ABSOLUTELY HATE WHEN A PEDALS SUSTAIN WAVERS ABOUT INCONSISTANTLY.THUS MAKING THE NOTE SOUND RASPY,NASAL,THIN AND MUSHY.WITH THE BD-2 TRY THIS QUICK TEST, DIAL IN A CLEAN TONE ON YOUR FAVOURITE AMP,DIAL IN A SETTING ON THE BD-2 YOU LIKE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THEN PLAY A BIG FAT G BAR CHORD. NOW LISTEN TO THE NOTE AS IT DECAYS AND STARTS TO DIE OF AND IF YOU DON'T HEAR ONE OF THE MOST EVEN AND NATURAL SOUNDING FADE OUTS, THEN YOU MUST HAVE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR EARS.I USUALLY ONLY ASSOCIATE THIS UTLRA SMOOTH NATURAL ORGANIC SOUNDING FADE OUT WITH A GREAT TUBE AMP MAXED OUT OR SOME THOUSAND DOLLAR BOUTIQUE HAND MADE PRE-AMP/PEDAL ETC.

6.IF I HAVE TO FAULT THIS PEDAL AT ALL IT IS THE FACT THAT THE TONE CONTROL IS VERY LIMITED I WOULD HAVE LIKED IT TO BE A LITTLE BRIGHTER. BUT PERHAPS THE BOSS DESIGNERS AVOIDED THIS AS A WAY TO AVOID THAT NASTY THIN FLY IN A JAR TONE WE SO OFTEN ASSOCIATE WITH SOLID STATE DISTORTION. SO YOU CAN'T HAVE EVERTHING AND AS IT STANDS THIS IS A VERY SMALL CONCERN WHEN YOU CAN CONTROL THE TREBLE ON YOUR AMP AND GUITAR ANYWAY.

7.DID I COMPARE THIS TO OTHER PRODUCTS YES AND IN OVER 20 YEARS OF PLAYING NOTHING HAS EVEN COME CLOSE EXCEPT FOR MAYBE MY BK BUTLER TUBE DRIVER PEDAL THAT WAS LOADED WITH A 12 AX7 TUBE IN A STOMP BOX SIZE. BUT I STILL THINK BD-2 IS STILL EVEN SMOOTHER THAN THE BUTLER, I REALLY DON'T KNOW HOW BOSS DID IT BUT THEY DID.I HAVE PREVIOUSLY OWNED IN MY QUEST FOR DISTORTION NIRVANA THE FOLLOWING PEDALS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:- AN ORIGIANL PRO CO RAT,A DOD CLASSIC TUBE PEDAL(NOT A BAD TONE BUT LET DOWN BY CRAPPY WORKMANSHIP I SMASHED IT TO PIECES AT A REHEARSAL)AN ORIGINAL BIONIX EPANDORA,VARIOUS BOSS OD- 1'S ETC,A CURTIS TWINTONE (AUSSIE GUY SIMILIAR TO VOODOO LABS TWIN SWITCH SPARKLE DRIVE)AND FINALLY I HAVE BOROWED AND TESTED COUNTLESS AMOUNTS OF PEDALS FROM MY FRIENDS IN MUSIC STORE'S PLAYED EM' LIVE AND AN THE STUDIO ETC. SOME OF THESE INCLUDE ALL OF THE FAMOUS TUBE SCREAMERS TS9'S 808'S ETC.

8.ONLY THING I WISH IT HAD WAS A LITTLE MORE BRIGHTNESS AS MENTIONED ABOVE.

9.DOES IT HELP ME MAKE MUSIC? DEFINATELY IT IF ANYTHING CAN INSPIRE YOU TO PLAY BETTER OR TO TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT BECAUSE OF A SOUND THAT IT CAN MAKE THEN BRING IT ON I SAY EXPERIMENT I SAY LIVE DANGEROUS TRY NEW THINGS WHENEVER YOU CAN.

10.FINALLY I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY OPIONS ARE LIKE BUTTHOLES WE'VE ALL GOT ONE AND THIS JUST HAPPENS TO BE MINE .SO WETHER YOU THINK THIS PEDAL SUCKS OR ROCKS ONLY YOU CAN MAKE THAT DESICION.THE REASON THAT I WAS INPIRED TO WRITE SUCH AND IN DEPTH REVIEW WAS THAT AFTER READING A FEW OF THE OTHER REVIEWS PEOPLE HAD POSTED RECENTLY (SORRY I AM NOT READING ALL 10 PAGES OF REVIEWS)I MUST SAY I WAS A LITTLE DISSAPOINTED AS I GENERALLY FIND HARMONY CENTRAL AN EXCELLENT PLACE TO HELP ME MAKE MY PURCHASING DESICIONS. MOST RECENT REVIEWS WERE ONLY KINDA SCRATCHING AT THE SURFACE OF THIS EXCELLENT PEDAL AND IT'S CAPABLITIES. I KNOW WAY BACK IN THE PAST THAT IN MAYBE SOME OF THE FIRST REVIEWS THAT WERE WRITTEN, THERE ARE PROBABLY SOME EXCELLENT IN DEPTH REVIEWS AS WELL.THANKS FOR TAKING TIME TO READ THIS DRIBBLE HA! HA!

11.NO REALLY FINALLY I THINK BOSS SHOULD REALLY RECONSIDER RENAMING THIS PEDAL AS THE I FEEL THAT THE BLUES MONIKER IS WAY TO WAY INACCURATE AND MISLEADING I MEAN C'MON. I PLAY HARDCORE OLD SKOOL PUNK WITH THIS THING AND IT RIPS PAINT OF THE WALLS. PLEASE TELL ME THE LAST TIME YOU HEARD JOHN LEE HOOKER WITH A TONE LIKE THAT, WHILST IT CAN EASILY DO THE JOHN LEE THING IT CAN ALSO DO US BOMBS JUST AS EASILY. MAYBE ALL THE OWNERS WHO AGREE WITH ME SHOULD LOBBY TO BOSS TO HAVE THE NAME CHANGED TO SOMETHING LIKE THE OSD -2 OLD SKOOL DRIVER OR HOW ABOUT THE OC-2 THE ORANGE COUNTY (COULD YOU IMAGINE THE LAWSUITS FROM A CERTAIN TV SHOW). AS THE AMOUNTS OF GAIN ON OFFER HERE ARE MORE THAN JUST POLITE BLUES TONES AND THE LIKES THERE OF. AND AS FOR MR TUBE SCREAMER AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED YOU ARE SUCH AN OVERATED ,OVERPRICED BLOW HARD THAT FRANKLY I VERY WELL MUCH INDEED THINK THAT YOU HAVE FINALLY MET YOUR MATCH IN MR BLUES DRIVER 2. THANK YOU COME AGAIN

It is easy though it took some tweaking to get what I wanted from it. 3 knobs. Never saw the manual.

I'm using it more as a clean boost with a bit of hair. It's not noisy at all. The controls are sensitive and it took some tweaking. I'm using it with a BF Twin and 68 Super, with the BD-2 set output-10o'clcok, tone-10'clock-10:30 and gain-11o'clock. When set like this, Single coils sound like there almost on the edge but not distorted. Clean with some sassyness. Nasty yet soulful. I'm also using a unity/gain buffer in front of my whole board.
Can get very dirty if you dial it in that way. It doesn't color the original signal but rather adds on to it. As far as working with other effects, it does, however it is isolated in it's own loop.
My favorite artists proabaly don't nor will ever use it. I love it. It has replaced my TS-808 after 20+ years.

It's a BOSS

No idea, never needed them. If I need another one, I'm sure I can find one

I play everthing except inaudible sounding guitars. It is a perfect match.
It is just another tool to get inside your head. If it was stolen it would really suck because it's fixed to my board. I like the fact that after trying RC's, BB's, LTD's, Klon's, TS', Tim's, Fat Boost, etc. that
I didn't expect much out of it and got what I wanted. It helps
my musical expression big time.
Probably not for everyone but definitely for me.

you see the knobs you turn the knobs you hear what happens

this is the most solid state sounding pedal i have ever used in my life.
i have no idea why anybody should say it simulates a warm tone.
the coldness of the crunch channel in my hughes & kettner tour reverb
seems like hot hot heat compared to the bluesdriver.

at higher gain settings noisy and very very fuzzy.
so as an overdrive useless.
buy a new amp if you want crunch sounds.

we know it's boss

I tend to sway a little to the blues thing but more in the
bluesrock kind of way, i've read here that this pedal is a godsent
to solid state amps,
forget it.