Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

Easy enough to work with. Three knobs.

I use it with a Roland Jazz Chorus and it's good for any style of music, as long as it's blues. I use this with an Ibanez AF-85 and play through a Crybaby Classic, an MXR Dyna Comp, and a BOSS Chorus Ensemble set permanently on a Leslie-type sound. Not good for metal, but I don't play metal, so it works out nicely. Gain up 3/4, tone up half way and kick up the volume, and you've got yourself some nice overdrive. Nice in front of a distortion too, for a bit of fuzz.

Don't have any problems with it.

Don't have to deal with them.

Pretty darn good. Cheap too.

Simple dials.

Brian Moore i8>Dunlop Custom Crybaby>Boss BD-2>DeArmond Dual Volume>Boss GE-7>Boss CE-2>Line 6 DL-4>Fender Twin Reverb ('65 reissue).
It doesn't generate noise. it might accentuate some that's already there.
You can get bad sounds out of it. It's really raw so I keep the tone toward about 8-o-clock. It sounds ok before a Roland Jazz Chorus but with a tube amp, it's really meaty.
I like a more classic sound and love the pedal. Even though I like harder stuff, I don't need all of the gain on this. I guess that's what harder picks (1.5mm), and strings (10-52) and louder pickups (Duncan JB and Alnico 2) are for. I usually keep it at 3 or 4 o-clock.
Of course I like it. It's a good overdrive pedal in front of a Fender tube amp. To solid-state or direct it sucks, but that's not what it's for. I get a sound I like out of it. It's nice and fat and has more gain than I use regularly.
I have no qualms about the bypass.

No problems thus far.

I play rock and it fits my style. I've been playing for about 4 years. I am a musician and listen to my sound. If stolen, I would use my friend's. He liked my sound and got one. I'll probably also get a tubescreamer because it's smoother and I like variety. With knobs on my guitar, I can get a number of sounds, but more pedals would yeild to more diversity and flexability.

three knobs - ultra simple. Gain, Tone and Level. If you can't manipulate these with ease, you have major problems and should probably take up the flute.

With that in mind, it's very very easy to get a great sound out of it.

I don't understand any of the poor quality reviews below. I absolutely love this pedal - the highs *I* get are NOT ear-destroying, the bass is tight, the gain is just sizzling. It's the best overdrive pedal I've used, and I've owned at least 30 over the last 15 years. Boss really put the lights out with this thing.

However, I think a really big factor is 1) what kind of pickups you use and 2) what kind of amp it's feeding.

I actually get the best sound with a solid state Behringer amp set on a wonderful plate reverb. It results in a completely amazing sound. I could not possibly improve on it.
However, the pedal doesn't respond to any of my tube amps in quite the same way. It just isn't as "full" or "round." I'm not sure why.

Also, it definitely likes humbuckers and other high-output pickups MUCH more than single coils. I guess it likes being fed a real hot signal. This is just from practical trial-and-error experience. AND, I should also say that I can still get great tones from it using a vintage strat and tube amp. It's just not as skillet-hot as when using humbuckers and a solid state.

Tone is so subjective, it's impossible to predict what some people like and don't like. My blues listening friends love this thing. My metalhead friends even appreciate it the nasty breakup it can deliver to an amp perched on the verge. However, people who like really muddy mellow tones hated it. So did people who played mostly jazz. Go figure.

It's a boss. I could shoot it with my 12 gauge and it would probably somehow break the 12 gauge. Boss is Boss. They never break, ever, EVER.

No idea

This is the best overdrive pedal, bar none. I've had three different Tube Screamers, including an original, and it just wasn't the same. Amazing little blue pedal. I recommend it to anyone who wants to add some bluesy bite to their arsenal.

But don't just take it from me, or any other reviewer. Make your way to the nearest Boss dealer and play it yourself. Bring your favorite guitar. Try several amps. It's the only way you'll know for sure.

easy

Uh, I borrowed one from guitar center and it hurt my ears. The high frequencies produced from this pedal are ear piercing. Definitely full range! Tight bottom. Punchy even. Could sound good if the gain is all the way down but when even half way up the higher frequencies are lethal and probably causing hearing damage even at lower volumes.

I used a 2000 Fender American Series Strat and a 2004 fender Champion and do wonder if the Blues Driver would have sounded better on a tube amp...tube amps being less high fidelity [oh, shut up, they are too!]

I noticed that a tube screamer sounded good on my solid state amps but went to mud on a tube amp.


I figure Boss pedals are designed to work with tube amps and Les Pauls. Just the way it seems.

I like my Boss O/S-2 a lot more than this ugly blue box.

It's no wonder Keeley mods so many of these boxes. They have potential but just don't quite live up to their potential.

There is no support

I like metal and grunge.
I've been playing electric guitar since 1975.

I think the Boss C/S Compressor is my favorite pedal Boss makes.

I own about 20 Boss pedals.

I like the HM-2. MT-2, DS-2, DS-1, SD-1 and especially the OS-2 pedal. With a CS-3 in front and my DD-2 Digital Delay in back I can make any dirt box sound EXCELLENT!

But the BD-2 is the worst I've heard from Boss.

Fender 1970 Strat w/ Fralin 69' Pickups + Gibson SG. This pedal is not a blues driver. It has way too much treble, too much bass, and impossible to level and balance out. To give it credit, it does have a nice crunch on low gain with high volume with the tone all the way down. Other than that, lets just say it doesn't make me want to get up in the morning and say "Hey! I can't wait to use my Blues Driver!"

Don't get this pedal if you are looking for a vintage tube sound. You people are crazy for giving this pedal good reviews!! Although I have heard that the older japanese models are very sweet, but haven't tried it yet. I your looking for a nice tube sound, try the Fulltone Fat boost, or if you can get ahold of an older japanese Boss Overdrive, those are pretty nice as well, but i do have to say that i have been disapointed with the reccent Boss stuff.

The overall control arrangement is very straightforward and easy to use.

I use this with my Strat (SCN pickups, S-1 switch) and my dual humbucker Tele. The amp is a Blues Junior or Hot-Rod Deville.

The BD-2 is fairly quiet although there is some hiss which I consider typical for overdrive pedals. The quality of the sound tends to be a bit more harsh than the "Blues Driver" name would suggest. In my humble opinion the sound of this pedal is well suited for classic rock when the "drive" control is turned up and more suited to a Blues sound when used as a signal booster with the drive set low.

Like all Boss products, this pedal seems bulletproof.

I've spoken to Boss customer service in relation to tech support for another Boss product and i was greatly impressed. These guys are OK if you ask me.

I play Jazz, Blues, Classic Rock, Oldies, C&W and on and on and on. The BD-2 is a good and versatile pedal although it has its limitations. I would suggest this and a Boss SD-1 to cover the spectrum of overdrive pedals needed for the music I play.

As a clean boost or very slight crunchy sounds this Blues Driver
is OK,no more than that.But it ends there.The more you turn that drive knob the more
you're about to dislike it,this ain't a good overdrive pedal,at least
compared to what you can get today.To all of you guys that gave that
pedal such stellar reviews i say:WAKE UP NOW!HAVE YOU EVER TRIED
ANYTHING ELSE?Let's get real folks.If you still drive your Ford Pinto
and like it to death doesn't mean you have to convince us it's a great ride...

Skip those Boss overdrive and distortion pedals.Really not worth
buying nowadays unless you want to sound like shit.Have a great day.

Easy to get a great sound out of this. Beware if you use cheap gear, because you will get a cheap sound. Set the knobs at 12 o'clock and go from there. It is not a standalone distortion unit, it is an overdrive unit, so use it that way.

Used with a good strat and a fine tube amp, this thing sounds great. Not particularly noisy. Best used with an amp setting that is on the verge of breakup. Really smooth distortion, in fact, you might want to roll the highs back some on your amp. Anybody who complains about this pedal is likely using cheap gear to begin with.

It's a Boss. No need to say anything else.

Never needed the tech support.

Good pedal, good bang for the buck. To fully appreciate this pedal, you need to use it with good equipment. If you use this pedal with sucky gear, expect sucky results.

All pedals are easy to use.

I play a strat, tele and Korean Hamer (like a cheapo PRS) through a SF Deluxe reverb, SF Bassman head or a Rivera 30-12. I bought this pedal for a lo-gain rhythm sound ala "castles made of sand". The pedal has a huge gain range but the upper range sounds almost like a fuzz and is useless for what I want. At first I thought the pedal was great because it had more bass than a Tubescreamer and a flatter midrange which definitely made it better for rhythm tones. However I soon found the hi end to be harsh, the mids were a bit too scooped and the distortion sounded a bit fizzy. Worst of all the decay on sustained chords and notes had an unnatural transistorized sputtering quality. I found directions for the Keely mods on the web and after I soldered them in, the pedal had more lo-mids and slightly less fizz. Unfortunately the lame decay was still apparent and seems to be a basic function of the circuit that you cannot dial out or mod away.

Its a Boss

Has anyone ever needed their customer support?

I had heard many good things about this pedal being excellent for low gain OD. In particular the clips on Jason Barker's web page were a deciding factor in my purchase. However, even with mods, the BD-2 did not live up to its billing. The deal breaker was the really unnatural decay that just started to drive me crazy after a while. Tubes and amplike pedals decay from OD to clean in a fairly smooth and musical manner. The bluesdriver does not. In fact I went back and gave a listen to those Barker clips again and sure enough I heard the tell tale sputter. Boss seems to make OD pedals (DS-1, SD-1, OD-3) that are ALMOST GREAT but tend to suffer from an achilles heel that eventually drives players to look elsewhere. The BD-2 is another ultimately unsatisfying addition to the line.

This is oddly, the most simplistic piece of equipment i own, and yet it has the widest range of sounds (if that says anything) The tone and gain controls are very, very responsive and it doesnt take much of a turn of either to stray from the sound you had. It doesn't take much at all.

I'm using a Faded les paul with a peavey bandit 112. I could never achieve a high standard of sound with the amp itself. When I plugged up with the BD-2 I immediately noticed a difference. The sound from this thing is amazing. I can achieve hard-cruncy zeppelin tones to a very slight clean crunch. I'm telling you that you can get any sound from this (EXCEPT METAL HEAD SOUNDS) and probaly more. This pedal is very very basic and easy to use. For instance if you want a clean crunch just turn the gain to 0 and the tone to 5-10 and SHAZAMM. Or if you want a good 80's sound turn the gain to about 3 o'clock and tone to about 1:30 or so. Everything is very sensitive so its sooooo easy to switch sounds with a little turn of the dials. Just play with the settings and trust me, you'll find the sound you want.

Seems as sturdy as a Sherman.

Never dealt with em.

I play classic rock, blues, anything with a good vibe and feel (new age? hah!!) This pedal if for a musician, not some punk who wants to write about how his girlfriend broke up with him so he plays powerchords even faster and faster. I pity how music is now. anyway, if it were stolen or lost I would find who stole it and beat him to death with the pedal itself! (it seems rugged enough to do so) I didnt compare this with any other products or even tested it before I bought it. I read alot of reviews on this very page. some are good, some bad (idiots.. this product is RITCHEOUS). If your looking for that classic rock/bluesy sound. Your on the right page to research it. It's here and its good, do yourself a favor right now and buy it. You'll love it. TRUST ME.