Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

pretty simple, 3 knobs, you know. one complaint i have with it is that the tone and level knobs have been switched places compared to my ds-1 so i sometimes make some mistakes in dialing in sound. kind of annoying, I'm a whiner eh? I think Boss might as well standardize what knobs go where on its 3 knob pedals though. The manual gives some suggested settings, but the guys at the shop are usually more than willing to tell me their favorites, and what it can do.

after trying a variety of overdrive pedals including about all the boss ones, tube screamer and some boutique ones I decided this was one in my price range and good enough for me. I needed a mellow overdrive, something that could give me the same sort of effect as a tube amp just starting to break up. The BD-2 got close enough. I use it mainly to add a bit of character to the clean channel. It's being used with a modeling amp and it adds some warmth to the tone. It never ceases to amaze me how versitile this little guy is, probably the most underrated overdrive pedal. It goes from zero to a very nice fuzzy drive that remindss me off Sabbath. Unlike the DS-1 (one of the most over-rated boss pedals) the drive knob on the BD-2 gradually changes the distortion, no jumps here. It's a very sweet little pedal and I'm in love. Its a really warm light overdrive that can be cranked when needed. Really look into this guy if you're sick of the razor like "overdrives" out there. One problem I have with it is getting a not too bright tone, but not muddy either. There's a sweet spot that takes a while to find.

One thing can be said for Boss, can't break em. I've beaten up the DS-1 gigging and its still ticking. Be careful with the AC input though if you use one, they're fairly fragile I've lost one to this already. I hate batteries, big money wasters. GET A DAISY CHAIN FOOO

Look into this pedal. It's very versitile and.. just check it out, It makes me cry with joy. Could cost a lot less though. Stupid corperations, probably cost 20 bucks to make.

Simple!!! The usual three knob Drive Stomper setup. Start with everything at 12 o'clock and tweak as needed. No need for manual, but the product catalogue boss always enclose keeps you up yo date with the newest pedal revisions and new gear....handy!!!

I bought this pedal in favour of, and to replace a marshall gov'nor II which had become unreliable. I'll explain my setup in a second. To to begin with, it is a great pedal. It is full bodied and raucus like a fender more than a marshall and gives a big wide open sound in comparisson to most drive boxes. It cleans up well when you relax back. I dont particularly like the driven sound with gain after 2 o'clock, a bit sterile and fizzy for me.
I used it as my main rhythm overdrive for a few months until i picked up an Ibanez TS-9. I find the TS-9 has a better quality of sound and sounds even more natural through my AC30. I use the BD-2 as a lead boost now on top of the TS-9 and it works amazingly. Loads of volume power with great tone shaping at hand and plenty of gain to really raunch up your solo sound.

My setup goes like this now:
'69 and '72 Fender Thinline Telecasters, TU-2 Tuner, Crybaby, Marshall Bluesbreaker II (Boost mode for clean breakup - Rhythm), Ibanez TS-9, Boss BD-2, Marshall Vibratrem, Boss DD-3, EHX Holy Grail Reverb all into the Vox AC30TB.
Fantastic sounds from pristine chimey cleans through three stages of drive to rip roaring leads....amazing tone throughout!!!

Boss stuff is great as regards reliability. Built good and strong. A good cleaning and tightening of parts every so often should keep these boxes well in check.

Never needed....touch wood!!!

The BD-2 is a great pedal. I have been playing for about 13 years, i'm 25 now and i have had loads of fx and stompers over the years until i went in search of a mature and professional sound and equipment rather than dilly dallying with toys. My band plays Pearl Jam/Radiohead type rock. The BD-2 can deliver and will remain on my board for a while.......or,until i find something even greater......i love the search!!! The TS-9 and BD-2 is a cracking combination. The BD-2 is quality, but there is no point having a good pedal when your guitar and amp sound like arse on their own....remember, prioritise your buying of equipment (Good Guitar, Good Amp and then Effects).

this thing rocks, i use it as a boost, and although it coulours the tone, it does in in a sweet way, not edgy at all, boosting the mids and lows, while keeping the trebs tight. be creful with the tone control as if it goes too high, you get a keef tone ala sympathy for the devil not, nice at all! the distorsion gets a bit edgy too at high gain levels so watch out, best to run with an on the edge valve amp

i use a variax 500 through a jen crybaby wah into the bd2 and then a copicat into a jcm800. somtimes i run it in front of the crybaby wah to boots the tone as it is a real sucker. works great. mine was silent until i accidentally put the variaxes ac supply into the dc box. mad squeals, burning plastic andfoul language later, i realised that it had improved the initially edgy overdrive, and boosteed the treble a bit, but it does hiss a bit now. as to artist sounds, depends on the amp u r using, but will do much heavier stuff than blues eg. howthewestwaswon immigrant song led zep. a proper classy pedal. not so true bypass, but muchmuchmuch better than my vintage wah

it is built like a tank, so i doubt that there will be too many problems over the years paintwork chips a bit though

never had to

i play led zep and blues rock, and i would repace it if lost without a question, it is an all time classic, wish it had a better bypass. i hate the fact that you have to have witch fingers to acess the tone knob properly, but hey what can you do. an all time classic, and in by opinion beats the ts9 (but NOT THE 808)HANDS DOWN

Easy. Set all the knobs at 12 O'clock and play. I always get a kick out of the fact that centering the knobs on most Boss effects usually does something pretty. The knobs on my boss ce-2 live permanently at 12 O'clock too.

Epiphone ES-335 dot to blues driver to clean channel on a Fender Deluxe. I've been dropping a Boss CS-2 compression/sustain once in a while, and a Boss CE-2 once in a while. Haven't really tried them in combination yet. The Epi tone is at zero, on the bridge pickup.

The really odd thing I did notice when I was trying this thing out in the guitar shop is that it seems to do very different things to different amps. I plugged it into about three different amps and the results were very different each time.

Oddly, I don't get anything remotely resembling a metal OD sound even with the gain cranked all the way on the Deluxe. I can't help wondering whether it's been mod-ed.

What I do get is a really sweet jazz tone with all knobs on 12-oclock. With the gain cranked to max I get a nice light bluesy sound.

Absolute magic for jazz. Not enough distortion to get in the way of big bold jazz chords (maybe a little muddy below the 5th fret), but just enough drive to give my sound a little bite.

I heard Kurt Rosenwinkel playing recently. Rosenwinkel uses a RAT distortion pedal of some kind, with much the same results: chords retain clarity, solos get a little bit of crunchiness. So I decided to pull the blues driver off the shelf and see if I could get it to do the same thing. It did. Definitely going to become a staple for me.

Like a brick.

Never dealt w/ boss support.

Gain for amount of distortion, Tone for enhancing/cutting treble and Level as volume when pedal is turned on. Manual has some suggested settings but I never tried them, I find out mine.

My setup is:
Stratocaster >> Boss BD-2 >> Electro Harmonix BIG Muff >> V-AMP2 >> 50 watt tube amp armed with Weber Alnico Silver Ten and Weber Alnico Blue Pup. A use it : Level 11 o'clock, Tone 9 o'clock and Gain 3 o'clock. Pedal is noisy only a bit. There is enough gain, always. Common, I use Strat with weak single pickups... When you let gain on 12 o'clock it enhances your sound, tube-like. When you turn it to 3 o'clock it turns into little rocking monster.I can almost mimick The Edge's (U2) sound of Until The End Of The World or Beuatiful Day.

common, it is a BOSS :))) I'd never think of backup.

never dealt with them

I can't think of much better OD pedal than this. I might try TS-808 but i guess it wouldn't be dirty enough for me.I play rock, U2 like for few years now. If my pedal got stolen I'd defintely buy it again if I had the money. I love it's blue color and golden tops of knobs. I compared it to Marshall Bluesbreaker 2 and Boss PowerDrive PW-2?? Can't remember. I preffer this one. I only wish I had another one, so I could keep one with gain at 3 o'clock and one with gain with 12 o'clock. I love it, really.

Three twisters, a stomper and an LED. Simple enough?

The manual isn't the best I've ever read, nor is it dreadful. It's useful as a starting point, providing some suggested settings, although I would have preferred a more detailed explanation of how to make the controls interact with those of your guitar and amp. Of course, any decent player will figure that out himself.

That said, most guitarists -- even some very good ones -- simply don't know how to use overdrive/distortion pedals. Too many are content to crank it, counting on the buzz to cover sloppy chops. Besides, playing loudly enough can disguise the uncomfortable fact that no stompbox is going to make your Crate bedroom amp sound like a Marshall stack. So maybe it should be harder to operate?

I got this pedal to warm up the sound of my Strat copy (Ibanez Roadstar) through a solid-state amp (DOD Juice-It), which it does very well. My best results have been in the clean channel. (The dirty channel, like nearly all transistor amps, is useless unless you enjoy the sound of a circular saw cutting through barbed wire.)

I set the pedal's gain around 11 o'clock and the level just above that of the clean amp. I swear, this works like a tube amp. You have an essentially clean sound, but an aggressive attack will clip the signal. This works great for blues and rock. You won't get the glassy sound of overdriven tubes, but you can pull more dynamics out of this pedal than any solid-stater on its own.

Also like a tube amp, the pedal cleans up when you roll down your guitar's volume.

Boss/Roland's reputation is excellent, but I've owned it less than a year -- hardly long enough to form an opinion. It's sturdily built, though.

Never dealt with them.

I've played, off and on, more than 25 years. I haven't gigged out in years, but I'm a serious home and informal jam player. A few years ago, I foreswore tubes -- too much maintenance given their inherent undependability. This pedal makes that decision easier to live with. It doesn't quite nail the smooth, creamy, just-overdriven sound of real glowing glass, but it comes closer than any other stompbox I've ever run a cord through -- and that includes the hallowed Tube Screamer.

Very simple to use....Read the manual for style settings.

I have read many post that refer to this pedal as BOSS' interpretation of the Ibanez Tube Screamer. IMO, the Screamer is the better buy and it sounds a lot better. I do own both and have used both and for the money the tube screamer is better. However, the Blues driver does get a nicer and more mellower sound and when used with other effects produces a nice bite that any guitarist would want.

IT'S A BOSS!!!!! WHAT'S NEXT?!?

Not very "Bluesy" if that's what you're looking for, but it can definently be a useful pedal if you know how to work it right.

Three Knobs, gain, tone, and level. How much easier does it get?

When i first got this pedal i was rather disapointed... i thought it was going to be a smooth overdriven sound but it was very harsh. I then started using it at low setting which was sensible lol and i realise how great this pedal actully is. I run it through a marshall mg250dfx, solid state but still ok, and it gives the clean channel that little bit extra in treble, and makes is bite. The amp was very bassy to start but this pedal sorted it out, and has given it a sharpe edge, it cuts through in a band and gives a simualr sound to stevie ray vaughans ts 808. It is an awesome pedal. I use it with the level on 12:00, gain 10:00, and tone 10:00 and its awesome... very clean when playing soft... give the the guitar a kick and its crispy. When i use it on the OD channel it boosts the sound cuts through better... but i had to lower the gain my amp from 3 down to 1.

Boss nuff said

awesome... not for everyone.. but blues fans must try it.

Three knobs, not rocket science. Getting a good sound out this thing is easy as hell, it's pretty much impossible to get a bad sound out of it. (Unless you play badly off course, this thing does NOT cover up mistakes). I've twisted the knobs thousands of times, and continue to find tones I love.

My setup is an Ibanez RG -> Vox wah -> BD-2 -> Keeley DS-1 Ultra -> amp. Normally two od/dist units don't sound to well together, but these two, mmm.. They compliment each other nicely! The sound from the BD-2 is lovely, it's versatile as hell. You can get everything from a slightly overdriven sound, to a crunchy rock n' roll tone! Either from twisting the Gain knob, or just by picking softer/harder. Very responsive to your picking. It's pretty quiet too, there is naturally some noise, but that's only if you crank it above 3'o clock. But I rarely do that, at 1-2 it has lots og gain !

Throw it into a brick wall and the wall will be more damaged than the pedal. VERY reliable.

Never dealt with them.

Overall this is my favorite pedal ever! I've never tried a pedal I liked more than this. (And don't think I've only tried what's in my current setup, I've tested tons of pedals.. but I'm a student so I can't buy everything..) I will never sell it! I play blues, rock and some metal. I use the pedal for all of them, it's not the best for metal, but it's ok. (Combined with my DS-1 Ultra I can get some pretty high gain tones..) For rock and blues however, it's perfect.
The only thing I don't like about it is it's battery appetite, I always unplug it after use, still I feel like I change batteries constantly!
I'd advise all blues/rock players to at least try it out! You won't be dissapointed!

It's a Boss pedal. How much easier could it be?

I wish I'd had this when I was gigging 3 times a month. I used my Hot Rod Deluxe's internal drive, and was never quite happy with the harshness I was getting. I've since gone to running a three-overdrive line into the clean channel of the HRDx, with this being the middle unit, i.e. guitar (Am.Strat or Tele)->Marshall BB2 in clean boost mode -> BD2 -> Boss OD-3 -> amp. For 99% of what I do, this pedal is on all the time. With the gain set at high noon, tone at about 10:00, and level as necessary to be just a tad louder than the amp's clean, you can get anything from country clean to light overdrive just by picking dynamics. Totally transparent, responsive, and grit-free, in a way that the amp by itself never was. I can't comment on the higher gain settings, because I use this strictly to emulate my idea of a just-overdriving tube amp. If you slam it with the clean boost (or really, just pick harder), it produces a great, singing lead tone. In turn, if I run it into the OD-3 (another great pedal) with both on, the tone of the guitar is still preserved, while producing a pretty massive high-gain sound.

The only way I've found to make it sound bad-ish is to raise the gain much past 12 (too much grit for what I want), or raise the tone up even to 12. As far as I'm concerned, it adds only harshness, not legitimate high end.

I've never had any pedal go bad, least of all a Boss.

No experience.

I've been playing for about 35 years, usually in small-time gigging bands. I cover mainly contemporary country, and basic or blues-oriented rock, from Fleetwood Mac to Clapton to Los Lobos to Dire Straits. I have not found a genre, excepting stuff that requires chainsaw high-gain distortion, for which this pedal is not excellent.

If it got stolen, I'd replace it in a NY minute.

how difficult can this thing be! just whack a few knobs around so sort out ur tone, dist. and level and ur away! sometimes the tone knob can be a bit fiddly but im nit-picking.

setup=marshall avt50H and cab, boss ce5, bosstu2, boss bd2, boss dd3, boss ns2, yamaha pacifica.it sounds grt through any half decent tube amps-better thru the fenders than the marshalls though i'd say. sounds good bith a tad of chorus, and is definately more effective using open chords rather than barre-so if thats ur flex than this is the pedal for u!

boss-nuff sed

9/10. cant really fault the thing-sounds even better using a better guitar the the one i have-a tele for instance sounds grt with this pedal. go buy!

As easy as it gets! Just use your ears, when it sounds right it is right! Don't let some jumped up "guitar expert" tell you any different....

My setup : Epiphone Les Paul Classic Plus (Gibson Humbuckers)-> George Dennis Wah Switch+ -> Boss Tu-2 Tuner -> *Blues Driver* -> Boss Phase Shifter -> Peavey Classic 50. I play in a 60's / 70's rock style band (think Zep, Purple, Skynyrd, Grand Funk, Sabbath etc etc...).

I first tried this pedal in the shop through some Line 6 Amp and everything sounded wrong. I managed to get them to wire me up to the only vlave amp they had (Marshall slp) and then it was a different story. It probably wasn't the pedal at fault but this thing definately sounds way better when paired with a good set of valves.

I find the pedal to be very quiet, not silent but hey this is an overdrive pedal after all. It's unrealistic to expect something that raises the signal gain to impart no noise. The noise it does introduce is certainly not a problem and is virtually silent when the gain is below about 10 o'clock.

I tried a bunch of pedals before buying and this one really stood out. It has a very wide range of very useable sounds. Low gain settings produce a lovely warm break up (think Peter Green) and high gain settings can produce weighty thick distortions (think Tony Iommi). And everything in between totally is useable. This is quite rare, most overdrive/distortion pedals seem to excel in one area and suck at everything else. Don't let the name put you off, whilst this thing can produce some truly classic blues tones it's certainly not all it is capable of! However, if you want to sound like slayer look elsewhere!

Bought a used Boss HM-2 about 18 years ago and it still works perfectly. This pedal is basically the same metal box so I have every faith in it! I've gigged Boss pedals without a back up for about 14 years and never had any trouble.

No idea what customer support is like, never needed them.
The only thing I'll say is that the UK supplier is a pain in the arse. On a number of occassions I've been after a particular pedal and shops have said "it's on order should be in this week..." 6 weeks later they actually turn up. I know the guys in my local guitar shops and they all say the same things about Boss UK, stuff like - order 30 pedals 2 weeks later 1 turns up, the next week 4 then nothing for a month etc.... SORT IT OUT BOSS UK!!!

To sum up I'd say this pedal is pretty damn good. I played a few boutique pedals costing twice as much and this kicked their arses! Cheap, reliable sounds great - what more do you want?!

Well theres not much to say about a pedal that only has three knobs. Level, tone, gain. When i got it i didn't have any instructions (ebay) but i dialed into the tone that i wanted in about 2 min. Yes its that easy.

Right now my set up goes as follows: 1976 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe >> Carvin wah(see my review) >> Boss Metal Zone >> Boss Blues driver >> a Fuzz Face >> into a Kustom tube 12(practice) or when i want to make noise my 60wt fender hotrod deville. Right now i use the blues driver for a sightly overdriven sound, depending on how arrgesive i play, thats what i love about this pedal. i play almost everything rock from every era, classic rock to modern day rock (in my opinion is all just rock n' freakn' roll) so when i what a hard distortion i use my metal zone but when i want th mellow out and play some Clapton or some Stevie Ray i just step on my blues driver. it gives me that sound i want. great pedal!!!

it a boss....of course!

but NEVER....i repeat NEVER play live w/o a back up!!!!!It's just the smart thing to do.

never delt w/them!

well as i said above i play all rock. and this pedal can get you from a very light singing distorion to some classic hard rock distortion and eveything i between.I've been playing for going on six years now and let me tell you, I've gone throught more effects and guitars and amps then i care to list, but tis is a great pedal and i wouldn't trade it,and if for some reason it was stolen i'd kill who ever did it. well i guess i'd just buy another one.

Very easy to use. Everything is well labeled and does exactly as it says. With three knobs and a light it's not all that technical.

Very impressive tonally! While it isn't totally transparent in the chain the noise to the signal it does add is pretty much accepted if you were using an amp at such a gain level. I guess it's authentic but not perfect, for whetever that's worth.

Most pedals are very much one-trick ponies. I always had a Tube Screamer around because it gave me that nice little extra push on a driven amp to get "that sound" and a Distortion pedal for a clean amp to get a high-gain sound. This pedal does both, and it does it exceptionally well.

A good ear can hear the difference between the real deal of a cranked amp and a pedal, and this unit is no different. However of all the pedals out there it probably has some of the nicest sounds that way. After awhile I've even begun to like that sound for certain things.

One very cool thing is that the Tone knob really gives a nice high-end lift to amps that are generally pretty muddy. I tend to be a bit of a Fender Blackface amp addict and am always looking for more Mids and Highs; the Tone knob does a good job of adding those frequencies and gets the signal to cut through.

It's a Boss...I used an HM-2 as a hammer once and played a gig with it later that day. Built like a tank.

I've had very positive experiences dealing with Roland on other things.

I use this pedal with my Strats (Clapton, 73', MIM), Teles (first-year Squier with EMGs) and my 73' Les Paul Deluxe into a Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue, Peavey Classic 30, Hot Rod Deluxe and Princeton II.

I can't get it to sound bad with any of it.

I play Blues and classic rock; it has enough clarity for just a touch of warmth on a clean channel and enough gain for ZZ Top riffing.


If lost or stolen I'd probably replace it without thinking twice.

I've played a bunch of pedals over the years. So far this is the one I keep coming back to the most often and I find sounding better than everything else.

It's a great little Blues pedal for low dough. I wouldn't hesitate to take this over a Tube Sreamer if I had to pick one.

Simple, really. Gain, tone, level. A check light lets you
know when it's on.

I use this with a Reverend Slingshot Custom and a 50's RI
Strat into a Peavey Classic 30. Very versatile little pedal.
Not true bypass but it doesn't seem to mess with your natural
tone very much if you turn it off. I can get some Cream-era
Clapton with the Reverend (P90s) and Stevie Ray Vaughn type tones
with the Strat.

The gain pot is very logarithmic. You're cleanish up to 4 o'clock
(with 6 o'clock being max) and you're Live at Leeds by 4:30. Very
transparent overdrive, not the muzzy mask of distortion that other
pedals impart. It's probably a bit polite, and low end really
gets underrepresented by the pedal, but you can get a mod switch
from Robert Keeley or someone else and take care of that if it
bugs you. Or just run up the bass on the amp. Works for me.

I play rock and country-ish stuff, and have delved into jazzy
stuff. I can get the tones I want for each genre.

When the world ends, alien lifeforms will attempt to
discern human existence from cave etchings, fruitcakes and
Boss pedals.

Haven't tried. Haven't had to.

I like it. It likes both my guitars, it's very versatile,
it's very adjustable and I don't have to sweat for hours to
try to get a sound I like.

It's on or off. This is the biggest problem for most. When should it be on? When your playing a lead? The answer is no, and I'll explain below.

It's great with a fender setup. As a matter of fact the whole tone stack is a fender based tone stack. Use this with a two channel fender tube amp and your golden. Here's the trick for you stomp box fatheads. Play with the knobs on your clean channel and match the output levels and tonal sound. Now when you step on it it doesn't seem to do anything. This is perfect. Now switch to you favorite lead sound and crank it up a little. Now when you step on the bd-2 you want to cut the volume by a decibal or two. If you don't like the sound of your amp then buy a new one. Don't use these pedals and expect miracles. If you plug one into a stereo or a set of powered speakers they sound awful. Check out Motherbogart.com and listen to our version of "Love removal Machine".

Can't beat boss in this category.

Single coils into a fender amp all day long. I'm an American all the way. If you have a three channel amp you don't need it unless you wan't a different colored sound at your disposal.

Its fairly easy to use, I'd say. I don't use lots of stompboxes, and this one was simple to figure out. Still, you can do a lot with it that may or may not be in the manual, and it seems to behave quite differently depending on the amp you are using.

I have simple jazz/blues/roots setup. Ibanez Artcore (semi-hollow)->MXR MicroAmp->Vox Wah->Blues Driver->Behringer Vintager amp.

One thing about this pedal, it rolls off the low end. No doubt about it. Actually, I had to add the MXR Microamp to the setup to have a gain boost on the low end. I will be sending this to Keely for the fat mod, after which, I expect to love the pedal. Oftentimes, I just use the Microamp to overdrive my amp, not touching the BD-2.

I also have found that this pedal sounds best in the moderate settings. Once you get into the extremes, it sounds like the effect is separate from your guitar tone, not integrated.

A great pedal, useful in many ways. Lots of great tones possible as a stock unit, just be ready for a bit of your low end to be sucked away. Maybe there is a way around this that I have yet to discover...I'm not a seasoned player. But I know what sounds good...I wouldn't buy this new. Get it used and see what you think.

One of the easiest to use and get a good tone out of, no matter what kind of ax you're using. The manual is pretty useless, but you don't need it anyway. Plug and play...adjust on the go.

With minimal adjustments, you can get some great sounds as many previous reviews have indicated. I am most impressed with it's versatility. I use a '62 Strat RI, '52 Tele RI, and Gibson Les Paul Standard through either a Fender Blues Jr. or Gibson Goldtone GA-30RVS. You can use it with anything and it sounds great.

I think BOSS should have a patent on indestructible. I haven't found a way to break it yet.

Never dealt with them, but I've only read good things about them. BOSS pedals don't break anyway.

I play blues, classic rock, rock, and a little dash of country for a bit over 5 years now. Obviously I'm no expert, but I'd die without this pedal. It is absolutely my favorite and I'd replace the day it disappeared. I love it's simplicity, versatility, reliability, and let's face it, all around great tone. I can't imagine not having it. Simply one of the best ever.

It's a pedal, not rocket science. Plug in, turn knobs until you find that sweet-spot, play... Very easy to use, manual included, not necessarily needed.

Fender American Tele Plus and/or Epiphone Les Paul Standard through a Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb reissue amp along with Boss CS-3 and DD-5 pedals. Awesome sounds easily found with this gem of a pedal. My deepest thanks and gratitude to the people at Boss for blessing our world with this great treasure.

Never had a Boss pedal die on me yet... Very sturdy, no backup required. Might get a second one and set it differently so I can switch between my 2 favorite settings so I don't have to turn knobs between songs. Only distortion/overdrive pedal I use...

Has 800 number for customer support, but never dialed it...

Play in a typical Texas bar band which means George Strait, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Bon Jovi, Judas Priest, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Merle Haggard, Jack Ingram, you name it, we play it (except Lynyrd Skynyrd or Pat Green)... This pedal works for all of the above and then some...

Pretty self explanitory, Tone, level, gain, play around. I just set the level to match my clean level but U could use this for a solo boost if the band is quiet enough

Not too much color when in bypass. Im a big stickler for clarity, I run a Fender American Double Fat Strat>blues Driver> classic Crybaby (true bypass)>hughes and Kettner Duotone combo. I have tried all my pedals and compared going through them vs. going direct. this didn't seem to do anything to the tone. I use this to acheive a single coil sound since I have 2 humbuckers. The only single coil I have is the inside neck coil and its a Seymour Duncan 59' so its pretty thick through the amps drive channel. I set the gain and level at about 11 o'clock. I get a pretty good SRV tone when using the split neck pickup and the 2 inner coils combined sounds like a single coil bridge pickup. Not as good as the real thing but it's a good 60$ solution. Cheaper than buying a single coil strat and switching guitars.
At times when I use my bridge pickup and the clean settings are set just right I can get a good hard overdrive. But after about 12 oclock on the gain it gets to fuzzy for my taste. But the amp gets about the best overdrive sound out there, but thats another review

No probs. throw it in my tote after every gig so it takes a lickin and keeps on rockin. I play 3 hour gigs and can usually get through 5-7 gigs before the battery dies. Sounds best when battery is full power. (tried doing the Eric Johnson theory of using 1/2 power batteries but not very clean. )

never dealt w/ boss

Not a tube screamer but what else is? for the price its a great pedal. As w/ almost all pedals, as long as U have a SUPER clean channel to go through it does well. (fender, Hughes & Kettner)Ive tried it on my solid state crate, not very good.

easy as can be . three knobs. tone, gain, and level.

this seems like boss's answer to a tubescreamer. it took me awhile, but i finally found a good setting for this thing. set the level at 11 o'clock. set the gain at full and the tone either at the lowest setting or about 9 o'clock. i get a nice smooth distortion with that setting. if u turn the gain and tone to full , you don't get that good of a distortion, at least in my opinion.

its a boss. so its good. haven't had a problem with any of my boss pedals yet.

hasn't messed up yet. so i don't think i will be using CS yet.

if i lost it, i would buy another one. but more than likely i would get an actual tubescreamer instead. its a good pedal overall though.

It's a pedal with a footswitch and three knobs - it's the easiest piece of equipment you'll ever use.

It is VERY easy to get a great sound out of this pedal; it may just be the best sounding pedal Boss makes, as far as distortion/overdrive goes. It doesn't sap your tone at all - in fact, with the even-ordered harmonics it enrichens it. On a clean channel you can get everything from a great thick overdrive to a simple boost, which really makes the guitar sound alive. The manual is necessarily sparse - but I would expect that with so simple a pedal as this one.

I use the Blues Driver mainly to thicken and enrich my distortion channels... I play a multitude of guitars (from a custom shop Strat to a homemade metal solo guitar with humbuckers, to everything in between) through a Behringer Ultratwin and a Peavey Backstage 110. This pedal runs totally silent unless you use it to boost the signal on a high-gain channel on the amp - then the amp will further distort an already heavy signal, and you'll get tons of background hum and fuzz. That said, I still managed to dial it out with some careful listening and attention to tone. It is easy to get piercing, bassy overdrives like Hendrix, Clapton, early Santana. It is impossible to get sounds like Marty Friedman or Kerry King, so don't even try. This is NOT a case of putting the pedal to the metal. Lastly, the blues drive is REALLY good on batteries.

It's a Boss. Therefore, it is immutable, and will last forever. I could easily drop this off the roof of my house onto the driveway and expect it to still work, minus some paint.

Never dealt with Boss/Roland, but I hear they have a good reputation. Their website is fantastic.

For anything from fusion, rockabilly, rock, country, even some pop, this pedal is a fantastic addition. It doesn't alter your tone while adding its own dynamics to the mix. I've been playing 13 years, and gone through tons of analog and digital distortions, and this is clearly one of the best. It took my amp's already good distortion and made it even richer and more full. If I lost it, I would most certainly replace it. It compares favorably with a TubeScreamer, any DOD pedal, etc. One of a kind, and it shows.

Could this be any easier to use? Three knobs: level, tone, gain. Do you really need anything more? The manual is skimpy, but then again this pedal is so easy to use you really don't need a manual, so it suffices

I have a Heritage 150 LP clone (for my money the best LP copy around) and a Ventura ES175 copy. I play them through a Carvin Bel Air 2x12. The Bel Air's "Soak" (dirty) channel is usable but bot outstanding, but with BD-2 I can get many great tones through both guitars, particularly the Heritage. A great clean crunch and very nice bluesy ODs with both guitars. And this thing runs very quietly! I hear SRV, Neil Young "Down by the River" and Stones tones with this pedal. I have it for two days and I realize that this is the sound I have been looking for.

OK, can't really judge the dependability of this unit after only two days, but it seems to well constructed and can probably take a good beating.

Haven't dealt with Boss yet, but you really should visit their website!!!

I love blues, jazz, classic rock, punk (not EMO) and garage bands and this pedal would be work well for all these except jazz. I have been playing for 12 years and this is the first pedal I have ever bought, relying solely on the guitar and the amp to this point. If it lost it or damaged it I would definitely get another one.

Three knobs, what can I say. You already know the drill by now.
My point being: When you only have three knobs, you really don't need a manual.

I play a Gibson Les Paul through a Marshall half-stack i.e.
ROCK N'ROLL! I've tried millions of boxes with my setup including a Marshall Jackhammer, an Ibanez Tubescreamer, Big Muff's (both Russian and American) and even a RAT2 along with legions of other brands.
This one tops them all! The reason for this is NOT that the other brands doesn't sound good, but I play in a band with two guitarists and I'm The lead guitarist and my rythm partner is ripping loud so really need to cut through the mix at high volumes(and quite often at small venues), live as well as in the studio. The BD2 does that without comparison. I can turn this one really far up before it starts feedbacking on me, and though I owe it to say that I could do that with the tubescreamer too, that one really never got dirty, at least not for my taste. And don't be fooled by the name, this kicks ass regardless of your playing style.

No backup required.

With this box there really is no bullshit and for that it deserves a ringing ten, because in world with so many crappy(expensive) options it's nice know that there is still a tool you can fully rely on.

this pedal is very easy to use not to put down the quality of the pedal.
the manual is useless so throw it away

the quality of this pedal is something exepcional it has a rather odd sustain to say the least its not your average sound unit normaly u buy a distortion but with this unit your taking your guitar to a next level of sound!
if your expecting a sound from the 60's 70's rock than thats what your gonna get with your blues driver
i use this thing with lots of amps but fenders seem to stick out with it.
well u can't expect to get the sound of an artist by the effects u use u gotta make your own sound cos when your on stage u gotta make your mark not cast a shadow of someone you like
this pedal is a must have if you want a dist or just want to make your amp sound better.
my gear is my guitar into my ds-2 boss than into my blues driver boss than into my jackhammer marshall than effects like delay and chorus
if i put all the dists together i get the what you might describe BIG MUFF sound what would resemble a harsh hard spanking of distortion in your face its a matter of love or hate it but keep the box no matter what!!!

yah shure can always dependend on it
backup what do u think i am?!?!
ent gonna waste my money in the same effect it wont brake trust

no problem

To get tone out of this little blue pill (box really) my sister can do. Tone comes along with a selection of overdrives and distortion, from a light, grilled, to the heavy stuff, and everything in between.

I am using this with a crate gx30m and a godin sdxt, running a dunlop crybaby in front of the blues driver sometimes. It makes no noise at all. Classic blues (both US and UK) overdrive of that warm overdriven tube amp are easy to dial in with any amp/guitar ived used the pedal with, including a fender hot rod deville, and a marshall tsl50 combo, a fender us strat, a '70 guild starfire IV, an ibanez rg (sorry i forgot the number) and a few others.

This box doesnt fail as long as u have a somewhat fresh battery or if you are using an ac adapter you are fine, gig with no backup, just check before you go....

I play blues and classic rock and am getting into some funk, and this pedal does it all. I have been playing for a year know (more actaully) if this was taken or lost, it would be replaced quickly. I like the simplicity, and it is just an overall great product.

The Holy Trinity of Level, Tone and Gain - Boss are great for limiting the numbe knobs you get on an effect pedal. Ideally, you shouldn't need any more then three on any pedal that distorts sound. Too many options make customising your sound take forever.

If you ever only have one effects pedal as a guitarist, it should be a distortion/overdrive unit like this. If you can't get a decent sound that you like out of the BD-2, you shouldn't own or play a guitar. Boss pedals are great, but the Blues Driver is one of the best ones I've used.

Any once can dial up for Overdrive, Turbo Overdrive, American and British Blues, Crunch and a whole lot more that the detailed, but unecessary manual dictates. I was able to get a brilliant subtle overdrive from the BD-2 in less then thirty seconds when I trialed it at the guy I got it from.

I understand there are mods available for this unit online, but I'm not very electronically minded and prefer not to mess around with stuff like that - I couldn't imagine it sounding much better anyway.

I play rhythm guitar/fills/sing vocals in a 5-piece indie-rock band with three guitars. I use the following gear with my BD-2:

'95 Epiphone G-400 SG > Boss DS-1 > Boss BD-2 > Danelectro DJ-1 Pastrami > Ibanez SC-10 Stereo Chorus > Danelectro DJ-11 Pedal Tuner > Peavey Blazer 158 or Rola 12" SS 40w.

The BD-2 is the current star of my lineup. It makes NO NOISE wherever it is placed in the lineup and when played in conjuction with DS-1, it gives a gritty, wailing tone that is great for just about anything. I usually run the BD-2 on a subtle distortion and add the DS-1 to beef up the sound on chorus' and it sounds MINT.

The Blues Driver sounds great on it's own and I play it with the mild overdrive on most of songs. It's brought my two solid-state amps to sounding more tube-like and gives a warmth the DS-1 can't match. I generally keep it on the basic overdrive setting but occassionally crank it to Turbo Overdrive by shifting the gain from 11 o'clock to 3 o'clock and use it without the DS-1 - gets a thumpier tone.

It can easily make my backup guitar, a Squire Bullet Strat with three single coils sound very Clapton and I'm very impressed by how responsive the Level dial is - the slightest turn with increase of decrease the volume very significantly - more so than any other pedal I know of.

Ideally, this is best used for an Overdrive effect and subtley colouring your tone - whilst it can go hard as metal-esque effect, I find it's best kept for what it was designed for - blues and rock. The only thing that could make it better would be if didn't lose so much treble coming into the higher levels of Gain, but that can be adjusted eaily using the tone controls on your guitar, though I tend to find it works better with humbuckers over single coils so if I had to use my Strat with it, the sound quality would not be as nice.

Give this baby humbuckers and listen to it howl and purr.

Boss quality is A+. Second to none.
Have my DS-1 as backup, so not a problem.

Never dealt directly with them, but Boss has a good website and I've heard they are quick to reply and well-knowledged.

I've been playing guitar since I was 18, about seven years, but only seriously in the last eighteen months. I play indie rock and alternative lo-fi and this pedal works a charm for those. Having said that the BD-2 is probably the most versatile pedal I've used and I've sampled a few.

I got it second-hand from a guy who was consolidating his guitar gear (his wife left him because he spent more time on his guitar!) and it was about 3-4 months old when I got it - had the box and manual and had barely been used. It was a spur of the moment buy, but one I have been very happy with.

I've compared it to other overdrive and distortion pedals from Boss - namely the Overdrive, Super Overdrive, Overdrive/Distortion and Hyper Metal - this one has a far warmer and more solid tone and is far more versatile. If I were to have this stolen or lost, I would probably buy another one despite the huge $249 price tag in New Zealand as it has opened up my sound setup so much more.

If you only ever buy one overdrive pedal, it's either this or a TS-9.

Super easy.

Nice warm tone, broad range of possibilities; subtle to severe...

THE BYPASS IS JUNK. It definitely colors my tone (MCI D-10 Pedal Steel, into a Session 400 LTD). I've gone through an A/B/Y switcher to deal with it, and that seems okay, but it shouldn't be necessary to achieving an un-altered clean tone, which is most of what I'm using. Hence the 7: when it's on, all is right with the world, when it's off I'm irritated if it's straight through the signal chain. Hence the 6...

No trouble yet... seen it's share of "chuck it in the trunk" punishment without a whimper

Not a clue. Never broke on me.

I use this box for lap steel and pedal steel guitar, for a change in complexion; that whole "variety is the spice of life" thing. It adds the swampy bottle-neck slide tone on top of the clean crisp country and jazz sound.

Wah pedal through the switchable effects loop, for the same reason, otherwise straight clean playing into a super-clean 115 combo. Have to do some tapdancing around down there to turn things on and off, but it's cool. The only thing I detest is the crummy bypass, which I can't understand Boss not eliminating. Thus the 7. I dig the tone, and with an extra $50 in gear (A/B box), I have built my own bypass... but that's inexcusable. I would recommend this one, though, definitely.

Very easy to get good sounds out of this thing. What more does one need except LEVEL,TONE,DRIVE ?!

Im using a Gibson Les paul standard,Gibson SG special faded,Epiphone LP standard(w/tony Iommi pickups)going through a Fender Hotrod Deluxe 1x12.First off let me say I tried this in two different stores and i got the EXACT SAME SOUNDS! both were being played through small fender champs (the deluxe is at home) . THIS PEDAL IS WITHOUT A DOUBT BOSS' BEST OVERDRIVE/DISTORTION UNIT. why?? let me explain. First I sized this pedal up against the DS-1 Distortion, the OD-3 Overdrive, the MT-2 Metal Zone, the SD-1 Super overdrive ,the OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion,the PW-2 Power Driver and the MD-2 mega Distortion. Well my friends the BD-2 Blues Driver SMOKED them all on every level of judgment. The Volume on this thing is AMAZING, I tried all these pedals with there level on 5 0'clock and the BD-2 on at 12o'clock...the BD-2 was WAAAAY louder than them on half volume!! BUT not noisy at all...at least to me. Also the tone knob is better than all as well... why? the BD-2's tone knob really is versitile. Not like all the rest that sound razor sharp past 12o'clock and all fat bass below 12o'clock...this thing really can GRADUALLY get brighter or darker as you turn the knob right or left. Finally the drive is the best as well. You CAN actually get a boost,mild overdrive,or flat out distortion...(natural distortion that is). To me this pedal can handle most metal bands ala' black sabbath,COC,DOWN,BLS ,some metallica,early Van Halen, and espially classic rock and blues.

hell yeah...its boss

Please realize BOSS really advertised this thing VERY POORLY. It can be used for ALL types of music...really. I tried all of boss' Overdrive and distortion pedals, this thing ruled all! Dont get me wrong all the pedals i listed i think are fine( i own the DS-1 myself and love it...this is better) Myself , i play all types of music but mainly tuned down southern styled METAL. this thing rocks hard. great sustain...not as good as my proco RAT but still great, tone on this finally gives me the natural distortion sound i've been looking for I.E. van halen,frank marino, some-what Zakk wylde . just good hard natural distortion. I plan on using this as either a boost for my DS-1 or vise versa...either alone or as a boost this thing is wonderful. If you want to sound as the great ZAPPA put it "an electric ham sandwich" then get something like a metal zone or mega distorion, if you want to sound like you,your axe and amp... get this thing. i cant believe I didnt try this out before...like i said poor advertising. By the way BOSS says when you roll down you guitars volume pot you get a nice clean sound...there right...BUT! they and all who have made a submission for this product failed to mention this thing is LOUD (in a good way however) Need volume and natural distortion?? the BD-2 is the best.

Easy

this is definitely one of the boss' most organic sounding overdrives. i use it with Gibson LP / Fender Am Strat + shitload of other boss pedals into Peavey classic 50. i don't really understand why people keep complaining about how it lacks bass - it has tons of low end, enough for Deftones, probably. if you want even more bass, you'd have looked into basses ;))
anyway, it sounds quite smooth, set all knobs to 12 o'clock and tone to 10 o'clock - instant Robben Ford tone. it sounds fat, doesn't have much compression, or sustain for days - just enough of each to keep you fighting for each note, just how it is supposed to be. just pay more attention to your picking / fretting technique and you'll be find.

Usual rugged design by Boss, very good. mine has a little faulty gain pot, i don't know, may be it just needs to be cleaned

no opinion

a very nice and smooth overdrive / distortion sound that doesn't cover up your mistakes, doesn't impose its own character over your tone, and doesn't ruin it with ridiculous amounts of compression, very natural sounding and easy to use. works nicely as a solo boost - boosts volume and mids (a little). your alternative to TS9.
recomended.

Easy as it comes! 3 knobs.

I've owned/own several boutique overdrive pedals but have always been interested in the Blues Driver and bought one this week. I've practiced with it for a week, A/B it with a Keeley Mod'd TS-9 and a Pharaoh Amps Rodea Drive and gigged it (blues rock covers band playing a Tele). I'm writing this review to tell you that this pedal sounds as good as pedals that sell for a $100 more!

In use, the pedal is quiet with both battery and mains power. The controls do what they say and the tone control doesn't seem to color my sound to any noticeable extent.

It's a Boss, I'm sure it will be fine.

Never had to deal with Customer Support at any major guitar or effects company

Great blues overdrive! If my pedal board was stolen, this would be the first (maybe only) overdrive pedal that I would replace.

A VERY GOOD OVERDRIVE.

Easy to use.
Adequate battery life (compared to digital Chorus).

Fabulous sound quality - for blues only.
Settings will need to vary, a bit, when switching between single coil and humbucking pickups. Also, when switching between tube and solid state amps.

Bought it in '97.
I always gig without a backup.
Danger is my middle name.

I never call the company.
I don't want them to call me either.

This pedal is quite adequate for me. I play blues, oh, for about 35 years. I use a home-made strat, '77 LP, '99 PRS McCarthy. I gig thru
a '77 MusicMan 210-65, or 2 Fender blues Jr's in stereo (1 if it's a small venue). I use the BD-2 into an Boss Chorus, then into the amp.
I set the amps to have a 'brown' tone, i.e., gain around 6~7, Master
around 3~5, treble at 6, middle at 3~4, and bass at 2~3.
The BD-2 Vol and Gain at around 10 o'clock, its tone control at 9 o'clock. The chorus' leftmost 3 knobs are at 12 o'clock and the rate knob ist at 3 o'clock.

If it were lost or stolen I'd steal another lost one.

I compared the BD-2 against Cheezy-Poofs and Snacky-Smores.
Neither Cheezy-Poofs nor Snacky-Smores passed the On/Off tests.

I do wish that it had a built-in keg tap.

Three knobs, it doesn't get any easier.

I play a Strat that I put together myself featuring a Warmoth swamp ash body, '63 Jazzmaster neck, and Joe Barden pickups. I also play a '81 dot neck re-issue Gibson ES-335 and a '80 Gibson Heritage Series Les Paul. All of these guitars go through a '68 Fender Super Reverb. I have not found this pedal to be noisy at all and I have not found that it sucks tone as other users have experienced. The beauty of this pedal to me is that it doesn't color my tone at all but instead provides a little bit of gain for solos. It is probably more noticable to me, the player, than it is to the audience. In addition, this pedal is touch sensitive so even if it is on if you play lightly the natural sound of your amp and guitar is preserved.

I have never had a problem with a Boss pedal and would not hesitate to gig without a backup. In fact I don't bring backups to my gigs.

Never had to call them.

I play blues and jazz music in an organ trio. For blues, this is a wonderful pedal. I was going to buy a Tube Screamer. So many people love them that I thought that I was missing something and perhaps I am but I feel that this is a better pedal tone wise than any of the new or modified TS 9's that I tried. I have been playing for 25 years and I also own a Russian Big Muff, an old Chandler Tube Driver that the Blues Driver replaced only because the Tube Driver just got too many miles on it and became unreliable in live situations. I would replace it if it were lost or stolen. I set the volume and gain at about 10 o'clock and the tone at about 9 o'clock. This seems to give me the gain that I want without coloring the sound. This is an underrated pedal in my opinion which will certainly help a player make music. It's not for metal at all but why would anyone think that it would be?

Absolutely self-explanatory. Just 3 knobs and a switch that do exactly what say exactly the way you expect them to.

Duh! This thing like totally sucks, man. Like I turned everything up full and my axe still sounded, uh, y'know like a GUITAR, man! - er, yes, so certain contributors would probably say. But seriously, that is where this little blue box really scores - transparency! At all gain settings (and there's plenty enough there for serious wailing when you want it) you always still hear the dynamics of your playing style and the tone of your guitar and amp, NOT the pedal.
My own set-up varies as I am lucky enough to own quite a collection of quality gear, but typically I play a Strat or Tele (both seventies models, but much tweaked and improved to undo CBS's "product development" efforts - whatever some people will pay nowadays, mid/late 70's Fenders are NOT serious vintage instruments, simply old ones and not particularly good ones at that in standard fettle!) and either a Gibson Lucille or a 1964 SG Special (totally original and absolutely lovely!). Amps are Orange (70's Overdrive 80 model) or Fender (pre-CBS "Blackface" Super Reverb or "Silverface" Princeton Reverb). Other FX are Dynacomp, Expandora, Crybaby, Univibe, Vox flanger, HH tape echo and Orange stand-alone spring reverb (extremely rare!) - all with bypass mods where necessary to preserve the basic guitar/amp tone.
I use my fx sparingly, and my number one priority in a main overdrive booster for solos is to preserve natural tone as far as possible. Previously I was using a DX9+ Tubescreamer that fulfilled this function pretty well, but imparted a hint of nasal muddiness and slightly "artificial" sounding compression when added to clean-ish amp settings. The BD-2 does none of this, but simply has a similar effect to cranking the amp full-on, except with the addition of subtly enhanced sustain (and the facility to control the boosted volume of course!). Excellent! - and a bargain too at not much over half the price of the Tubescreamer. And the natural-sounding way the BD-2 allows the player to boost or soften the drive through picking dynamics is really like not playing through a pedal at all.
However I can't give a full 10 because, as other reviews have said, there is a very significant level of background noise. Facing away from the amp a few feet away it isn't too bad and is OK for most live situations, especially on moderate gain settings. But this aspect could prove to be a pain for recording. Overall though, a great little pedal (unless you actually WANT to sound like a chainsaw underwater - nu-metallers beware!).

Too early to say, though it is sturdily built and Boss do have a good rep for durability.

Who cares? When it does eventually die, it's probably cheaper to replace than repair at this price anyway.

I've been playing for over 30 years, using a variety of good, bad and indifferent gear, playing various cover and original rock/pop/blues/prog etc. Nowadays I play mainly blues and blues-rock (Hendrix, ZZ Top etc.), where style and expression are all-important. And this pedal suits that purpose near-perfectly. In the UK these retail typically for around #65 (but SoundsLive in Newcastle turn them out for #56 by mail order), which is an absolute bargain. Would I buy another if it was lost/stolen? I think the answer to that is pretty obvious from the rest of this review!

3 knobs, turn it in every way and you will always get a good sound. The manual are two pages, the most interesting part is "how to change the battery"

I'm using it with sucking amp and veeeeeery good guitar (Gibson SG voodoo) and I always get a good sound. I played with my bd-2 on sucking guitars, and they sound good. TIS PEDAL HAS NO SUSTAIN! IT ONLY CRUNCHES! If ya want to play like Angus young or Ritchie Blackmore, forget this pedal. If ya want to play like Clapton, take it.

How can I broke a pedal? To broke my bd-2 I will have to jump on it or throw it to my fans, so it will hit the ground...

Good.

This is a stupid question, 3 knobs.

I use a variety of guitars, a fender jagmaster, fender startocaster and an acoustic electric. I use this pedal for a booster really, it does have that bluesy tube amp sound and I like to use it for that.
It can growl like a mofo though. I run it through my amp with the amps bass all the way up and everything on the pedal on 10 and look out it's nasty and BIG!!!!

Well as far as reliability, let me tell you this.
Currently it has some random replacement knobs on it and it looks like shit all scratched and dented. Blemished is not even an educated thing to say here. I have dismantled it many times and have used the box and circut in all different ways. I finally put it back together and I installed a new switch cause I lost the real one. Anyway it still sounds as nasty and ballsy as the day I got it even after all I put it through. Now if you can send a pedal through hell, and destruction and it's still alive and kicking, doesnt that pedal deserve a 10?

Never needed them its a boss duh!!

This is a monster I could never trade it in or sell it, I just have that much respect for what it's been through and what it still dishes out.

If you can turn a knob youre set.

This was my first distortion pedal. With my strat and little practice amp this thing was just blindly crunchy. However, when I ran it through a Princeton Twin it was just magnificent. Plugged it in, set the knobs offhandedly, and played. Now that Ive toyed with it a lot Ive noticed a few things. It really picks up the noise off my mexistrat bridge pickup and makes the hum Really obvious. However, in the middle positions its just great. I like to play it with the distortion and tone most of the way up through my bridge and middle pickups to get a really hot and creamy SRV type sound. Also, through a marshall head with the tone all the way down, this pedal gives a very crisp but mellow lead sound.

Boss. Nuff said.

For the sort of rock/blues I play it gives a great tube screamer sound without making people deaf. Id be hard pressed to play without it, as its an integral part of my setup. A good trick is to run it after a DS-1 type pedal with a tinny crunchy distortion and use them both at the same time. If you've ever heard 'One' by metalica, the DS-1 on its highest tone setting is a great solo tone... but the BD-2 on top of it gives the low end some serious bite.

3 knobs level, tone, gain.
It seems as though the way to get distortion from this pedal is related to how you use the tone and gain knobs. And of course if you want more fullness you can turn up the level knob.

I use this pedal with my washburn strat copy through a peavey rage III. I don't really know any blues songs, but it sure sounds like I'm playing the blues when I am jamming along with a blues cd.
The ad that Boss has for the blues driver says that the bd-2 is for playing blues or for full on distortion. If you crank the gain on the bd-2 to get the full on distortion it will sound like crap. If you want full on distortion buy another pedal.

Boss pedals are pretty reliable, but I've had some problems with them. Yes, I would gig without a backup.

Like I have read from other reviewers, customer support is what you expect for the price you pay for these very well made, but low priced pedals.

This pedal is a great match for blues players. I have been playing seriously for about three years. The other guitar equipment that I own is a boss ds-1, and a Boss tu-2, and a boss bcb-6 pedalboard. If it were lost or stolen I would definately buy another bd-2. I love the ease of use (hint to Boss: 3 knobs.)
It definately helps my creativity when jamming.
I gave this little devil a 10 because of the quality you get from Boss pedals even though you can get them at such an inexpensive price.
One more thing try it unmodified before you pay to have it modified!

Easy 3 knobs. Like all boss pedals not making the fabled 29 day boomerang back to guitar center.

This thing is as good as a transistor box gets. Use It with a strat and a boogie nomad plus a wall of celestion speakers. Good boost sound with gain on 5 and the level at 10, It gives a very heavy metal distortion sound with the gain at 10 and the level from 5 up. Yes I said met. This pedal lacks the goofy midrange that the other boss distortion/od pedals have. The bypass blows, as you can hear the bypassed sound change as you turn the tone knob. Sounds best hitting a tube amp set on crunch. If you don't have a tube amp, you are foolish to be wasting cash on pedals.

Let me say this as a warning to potential buyers. If you are looking for thick sustain and compression THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT THE PEDAL FOR YOU!. The thing I like about this pedal is its lack of compression, thats why it maintains pick dynamics, which is what I really like about it. Plus, the gain is highly agressive. At high volumes through a tube amp, sustain is really not a problem in any event. As a boost its pretty transparant for single coil guitars. As a distortion effect It will give a very agressive mean distorted tone, but no lower midrange thikening (which I like like, as will most strat or tele players. I don't have any humbucker equipped guitars anymore to try it with.)

For beginning players looking for a distortion box, this thing won't cover your butt like a big muff or tubedriver will. Rhythmic inaccuracies will be magnified, as will poor technique. However if you have a very dynamic pick attack and solid rhythmic chops (or just like to shred) you will love this thing, as it will play to your strengths. This thing will punch your guitar into the high midrange where you will be free from much of the frequency interference of the bass and rhythm guitar. Basically it will scream rather than sing, and bite rather than chew.

One of the output jacks nuts was a bit loose. It gets a nine. Old boss pedals would get a 10.

Never Dealt with them.

Overall a good hassle free pedal. Recommended for players:
a) looking for a dirty crunchy rhythm sound
b) a brutal metal rhythm sound in concert with an amp with some gain potential.
c) Single coil players looking to maintain the character of their instrument distorted or boosted.
d) experienced lead players looking for an agressive hassle free distortion that doesn't mask or interfere with their chops.

A note on mods: I haven't played a modded version of this pedal, but the mods as they are described (more bass etc), would completely destroy the reasons I like this pedal. However they obviously work great for some players, so more power to them. My advice with any stompbox is buy it from GC and keep returning them until you find one that works. But a good guitar and tube amp are far more important to your tone than any effect. Of course chops are the most important, but the better you get the more picky you will be about your gear (and the less effects you will probably use.)

3 knobs. A switch. That's IT.

OK, before I continue, I have to mention the fact that this is a MODIFIED BD-2. It isn't an actual Keeley pedal, but it has all of the Keeley mods. If you have no clue what the heck I'm talking about, you can go here: http://robertkeeley.com/audio6l6/KeeleyBD2.html. That should give you a good idea.

My main set up is a Telecaster through a Hot Rod Deville...throw in a Boss DD-5, a Boss equalizer, an Electro-Harmonix Small Stone, and a Boss Tuner, and BAM!...you've got my rig.

Now, I've never actually heard a stock BD-2. From what I understand, they're pretty good on their own. However, I would have a *TOUGH* time believing that they sound THIS good. I'm not a tone professional, and I haven't been playing since dinosaurs ruled the earth, but I KNOW what sounds good and I know that I've gotten a TON of compliments from other people on how good my sound is. I highly recommend getting in touch with the man who made my pedal...Steve Dudley ...I don't think he'd have any problem drumming one up for you too. He recently told me that he's adding ANOTHER switch aside from the "phat" switch that will allow you to choose between the stock symmetrical clipping and asymmetrical clipping.

I've never looked forward more to playing my guitar than since when I started using this pedal.

It's a Boss pedal...built like a tank.

Steve is a GREAT guy. Responds quickly to emails. Plus, he sells this pedals for a LOT less than Keeley does...thats why I bought mine. Contact him to find out...

I know I'm gushing, but I really love this pedal. Contact Steve and buy one.

3 knobs. Easy to use just everybody else has said.

TONE TONE TONE TONE!!! I've been playing through a Boss SD-1 (Super Overdrive) and an Ibanez TS-9 Re-issue, and borrowed the BD-2 from a buddy of mine. All I can say is TONE TONE TONE!!! This pedal brings out a whole new dimension to my playing and Tele tone. In fact, I like it so much that I sold the SD-1 on eBay! Yes, it's more costly, but for the extra $30ish that the BD-2 costs, I think it's WELL WORTH IT!

I play lead rhythm guitar in my church's worship team and have been looking for a pedal that allows a good bluesy/overdrive sound while simple rhythm strumming - as opposed to a "marshall distortion" sound that the SD-1 produces. This BD-2 sounds fantastic! It really brings out an incredible clean tone, but still with that crunchy bluesy overdrive! It's pretty fantastic! Combined with my TS-9, it offers a pretty decent palate of overdrive tones. I'll likely re-purchase an SD-1 at some point just to offer some more flexibility, but for now, the BD-2 and TS-9 combo is great for me.

It's a boss pedal. Not much more needs to be said.

n/a

I play primarily clean tones (Fender Twin-ish) but like to have the option of having some mild overdriven tones in there. Combined with the TS-9 and a Boss CS-3 compressor, it sounds fantastic. I did end up needing to buy an NS-2 to take care of the buzz that the CS-3, TS-9 and BD-2 create (especially when they're all on at the same time), but it's great still. I'd certainly keep this pedal on my rig full-time. It really does a great job at creating that bluesy overdrive as opposed to the SD-1's more "Marshall-ish" tone. They're both great, but when you're on a tight budget, I'd choose the BD-2

This great distortion box sounds great at most settings. It's way easy to use with just three knobs: Level, Tone, and Gain.

I have used this stomp box with everything from a Marshall stack to a small solid state practice amp. Even used it in front of a Zoom 505 II (a small multi-effects box best used as a cheap recording direct box or as a headphone amp (dubiuos value in front of a loud amp but good with a small practice amp)). In every case the Blues Driver performs well.
Here is the bottom line... any effect box, especially a distortion/overdrive type needs to be transparant. By that I mean that it retains the sound of YOUR guitar. It should not add its own personality. This does that in spades!!! Fantastic! My Strat sounds like a strat not like a generic overdrive or distortion sound. Your guitar and set up is not changed except for the added overdrive.
Here is the next most imporant thing that you need to evaluate in an overdrive/distrortion, is it dynamic. Does it respond to touch and your guitars' volume setting?
I can easily set this box to give great sustain and overdirive with the volume knob full up. When I turn the volume down it cleans up real nice and sweet, all the while keeping the inherent sound of my guitar intact. It also responds well to your picking attack. Pick hard and it gives you the grit you want. Pick softly and its nice and clean. This is one of the main benefits of a tube amp turned up loud. This box emulates these characteristics better than any other distortion box I have used. An Ibanez Tube Screamer does this as well but what I like about the Blues Driver is that it can deliver a lot more gain if you want it.
If you use a box like this as a clean boost than this one cannot be beat. It keeps the sound of your guitar intact and just boosts the level to your amp to get a bit of extra preamp distortion.
I have been playing guitar for over 40 years and I cannot think of ANY overdrive pedal that performs better. It is my favorite stomp box and can not imagine playing with any setup without it

I have used this pedal since it first came out... 7 years ago?... and iyt has never needed any more attention than changing the battery. Boss boxes are as sturdy as they come... almost indestructable!

Never needed it.

If you can't tell from my other comments I think this box is the best of breed. If I lost it I would run out and get another the next day!
It does not need other features it is perfect.

If you are in the market for a great overdrive that wont mask your playing run out and buy one today. This is an essential pert of my setup and I think you may feel the same.

Three knobs for volume tone and drive. Very easy to use.

Better than the Marshall pedals but maybe not as good as the Maxon pedals. It does sound like an old tube amp, but its a bit bright and harsh and the tone knob needs to be kept down low at around the 9:00 setting. At full drive the pedal has more gain than the Maxon OD-808. Good volume boost available- I found unity gain at around the 10:30 setting on the volume knob!

Built Boss tuff.

Boss is Roland. Roland is Boss. Boss is good.

This pedal is great value. I also like the Boss SD-1 very much. I play Strats and Pauls into tube amps.

It doesn't get much easier than this. Three knobs. If you need help stop reading this.

I mainly play a fender strat through a Rivera R55 combo. I was never much of an effects pedal user until, while looking for a boost pedal, I stumbled upon this from another guitar player in my band. Well what a surprise. It sounds great. I keep the tone all the way down because it seems to retain the original tone of my amp this way. The gain is at about 11 o'clock. I find myself leaving it on most of the time now. It gets a "9" because I don't think "10" exist for sound unless you are Stevie Ray.

Boss is great quality, unlike my experiences with DOD.

Tube screamers, SD1, Guv'nor original, Fulltone fulldrive, to name a few that I have tried including "boutique" pedals. This is one of the better ones. I've been playing for 32 years. All of these pedals are good and serve their purpose. For rock/blues this is for me. P.S. the secret to the "holy grail" of tone is right there in your fingers.

It's pretty easy to use. Has 3 knobs.
The booklet has some good info on each knob but isn't really needed to use the pedal.

This has a really nice overdrive sound. It has a nice warm distortion, when used in a moderate gain level (the gain knob about 12 o'clock to 2 o'clock) in this setting the pedal is not noisy. As you turn the gain up past 3 o'clock it starts to become a little noisy (but 95% of all distortion / overdrive pedals I've played get a little noisy when the gain to cranked up).
This pedal works really great as a clean boost (having the gain off and using the volume just to push the level up for solos).
The tone knob really doesn't do much unless you move it past 12 o'clock.
I've used this pedal with strats, teles, Les Pauls, etc. going through a Peavey Transtube 112 and an Ampeg Superjet.

I've used this pedal for years and have always been happy with it, but ever since I've been getting into tube amps, I wanted something with a little more tone control (plus I like to have different overdrive sounds for different songs).
But overall this pedal is 100% reliable.

They have a great website ... but I've never had to contact them about anything.

Overall a nice overdrive pedal. Really great for blues playing and classic rock type of guitar playing.

3 knobs. Sometimes I think it's TOO easy to use... :)

I use an Epiphone Explorer through this stomp box which goes straight in a Marshall 8100 head and a Laney 4x10 cab. Settings on the Blues Driver:

Level and Tone: 12 o'clock
Gain: All the way up

This pedal sounds like both a valvestate and an all-tube amp at the same time. Amazing how Boss was able to achieve this with a simple pedal effect.

A noiseless distortion device doesn't exist. Personally, I DO need the noise that comes out of it as I use it with a flanger or a phaser to create ocean-like sound effects.

Whether you play metal, punk, grunge, rock, blues, jazz, or only need a sound boost, the Blues Driver is for you. It fits all kinds of music.

I own several Boss stomp boxes and I NEVER had and trouble with them, and God knows how rude I can be with my gear at the end of a gig...

This is now my main distortion device until I can get my dream amp (won't name it for now).

Never needed to.

For someone like me who plays in an alternative rock/grunge band who needs a very dirty and kick-ass crunching distortion, this is the perfect stomp box distortion to use. Before, I was using the distortion of my Marshall 8100 but the Blues Driver has a juicier, dirtier sound that fits my musical style better.

When I listen to my favorite artists such as Slayer, Silverchair, Creed, Fear Factory, STP, Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Chuck Berry, their distortion all lack something... they need the magic touch of a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver!

Very easy to use - no manual needed.

I have gone through hundreds of overdrive/distortion pedals, ranging from boutique to dirt cheap (many times cheap doesn't mean cheap sounding). This Blues Driver pedal is EXTREMELY impressive. My gripes in the past have been that "distortion" pedals generally don't have enough mids, and "overdrive" pedals are almost ALL mids with attenuated highs and lows. The Blues Driver seems to be right in the middle, with plenty of lows, mids, and highs (I guess that's what you call full frequency response) which I believe is perfect. You can use low gain settings for mild boosts that really sound transparent, or higher gain settings that are really "juicy" and rich. I usually don't go past about 2 o'clock on the gain, though, as it will start to mush out. Also, the pedal is on the bright side, so I usually have the tone knob down around 9 o'clock (sounds great). This pedal is so versital that I am considering getting another so I can run one as overdrive (low-gain setting) and one as distortion (high-gain). Sounds even better when the battery starts to die (???) I gave it a nine because I can't bring myself to give anything a ten in the "sound quality" category. A "ten" is the sound I hear in my head.

Seems totally reliable - BOSS, you can drive nails with it.

I have played professionally for 13 years. Rock, Jazz, Funk, Reggae. Way into Steely Dan, Old VH, Beck(Jeff), Eric Johnson, Danny Gatton, Kenny Burrell, Marley, lots of classic rock. This pedal can cover just about all of these styles - legitamately. Go get one.

Three knobs, one for Volume, one for gain and one tone knob. Just like any overdrive pedal. Extemely easy to use.

Today I use a tele into a Laney amp with a colorsound volume pedal, Blues Driver, DOD Grunge, Vintage Rat, Boss DM2, MXR Blue Box & an EH Frequency Analyser. My effects change a lot but I don't use too many, just a selection of fuzz's and subtle delay or ring modulation. I don't get on with most effects.
This is a great overdrive pedal. It has lots and lots of gain. I use it as a boost, last in my chain and I pretty much leave it on all the time. You can add a slight amount of grit & sparkle to the boost too which is nice. I use it to get a pavement-ish boosted clean sound and to make my distorted sound better. It does make everything sound better and makes me stand out more. It's got plenty of gain and you can boost it more than with EQ pedal. I prefer it to the other OD pedals I've owned because I've found them all to be too grainy or trebley. Unlike the SD1 & the others this pedal sounds full and responsive. When I used an SD1 or tubescreamer as a boost my sound became too thin and trebley so I had to put the overdrive first where it got lost.
You can get distortion out of it too which sounds good with a band. It actually has all the distortion you actually need, if you don't use amp distortion you will only get a good tone from something mellow like this. At high distortion levels this pedal does get a bit fuzzy. I prefer my RAT for general distortion/fuzz though. It sounds fuller and has more character. If you use this pedal for distortion it can sound a bit flat.
As a booster it is a bit noisy but anything where you boost the sound will result in some noise. It's much quieter than an EQ or SD1. I think it's the quietest boost without going into zvex SHO territory.
The tone knob doesn't do that much.

Boss pedal. It's solid and you can step on it and it feels good.

Never tried but I very much doubt they would help.

I play all kinds of music, mainly in the alt rock/noisy side of things. I love this pedal and I leave it on nearly all the time to boost and enhance my sound. I can also step on it to turn it off between songs and I get quiet to stop me feeding back. This is my favourite overdrive pedal and it's a great booster. It's quieter and more useful than an EQ pedal and it's not grainy like all the other overdrives I've tried.
As a distortion pedal it's pretty good, but I prefer my other pedals. I normally prefer FUZZ to distortion/overdrive. But you can get a good tight defined distortion sound from this.
Great pedal and a MASSIVE and fantasic boost. A Fair distortion. You can easily add 25bd to the sound with this. Good pedal.

The blues driver is a straightforward overdrive pedal, one knob for gain, one knob for volume, one knob for tone.

I use this pedal with an Epiphone Dot (Semi-hollowbody guitar with humbuckers) and a Fender Twin. It gives an excellent overdriven sound through the clean channel at lower settings (I cant really crank my twin up to naturally overdrive in small clubs). I should mention that I liked the sound of this pedal when I first started to use it, but it seemed too grainy at high volumes. My friend and I spent an evening resoldering about 15 different components (given below). This made the most amazing sound difference . . . as far as I'm concerned, this is the best overdrive pedal that I have ever heard after the mod. It really lets your guitar tone shine through.

(This is basically the mod that Robert Keely does. I think he throws a switch in for a fatter sound? . . . if you have this pedal, go to your local electronics shop and do this 10$ mod yourself!!!)

D3 -> Change this 1SS133 to a different (1N4002) diode for asymmetrical clipping. This adds second order harmonics. This adds to the tube type sound. I like the sound of this change.

D7 and D10 -> Change these diodes from 1SS133 to 1N4002. More second order harmonic distortion. Although the change is slight, I like it.

C1, C7, C6, C12, C13, and C15 -> Change this electrolytic capacitor to a 10uF tantalum. Tantalum capacitors sound better than electrolytic capacitors. It would be best to have a non-polarized cap here. I like these anywhere there is signal coupling at this high a value. Tantalum capacitors are easy to find in this range.

C14 -> Increase input coupling capacitor value to 0.1uF for increased bass response from your guitar.

R1, R2, R18 and R19 -> Here is some magic. Change the resistors to carbon composition. These old resistors probably have some frequency dependent component, which means that there is a capacitive element to the resistor. This is because of the spacing in the material. Add these for vibe, MOJO, and magic.

C100 -> Here is where we can affect the tone control. I prefer a little more lower-midrange and bass frequencies through the tone section. You can increase the lower frequencies by increasing the capacitor value to 0.033uF.

Well, I did modify it . . . however I still think that the heavy casing should keep this pedal in good condition. Never had any problems with it after two years of the mod . . .

Dont think that they would help me after I screwed around with the guts of the pedal . . .

I play blues, rock, surf, punk, and even some metal. After the mod, this pedal can accomodate a WIDE avriety of tones very well. It can give an exact Ckuck Berry sound to a good Dick Dale to Jimmy Page to a fair Randy Rhodes (it's not quite creamy enough for metal). If it was lost or stolen, I'd get another pedal and do the mod again. It is cheap, easy, and makes a huge difference.

Also . . . CHEAP!!! To get even close to this kind of sound you could easily be paying in excess of 100$ . . . wouldn't you rather be playing than paying?

Everyone familiar with overdrive/distortion devices should have no problems with this pedal. It takes some time to uncover the pedal's full potential though. It's NOT a one-trick pony.

I've used this pedal with a number of setups, my current setup includes a Strat, a Tele, about ten other pedals and a reissue Fender Twin.

I play everything from George Harrison to Slash, and this pedal is probably the most versatile overdrive/distortion device I own. It works well as a gain booster (although a Super Overdrive is better at that), but really excels at medium to high gain sounds. It actually sounds pretty amp-like - lots of touch-responsiveness and great tone - and with the gain at max, it gives a totally convincing high gain distortion (with a powerful input signal).

I've owned both the JMP-1 and V-Twin in the past, and, honestly, I sold the V-Twin because the BD-2 actually sounds better at what those preamps is supposed to do.

I don't at all see the need to modify it. Fizzy? No, not at all, but remember it's NOT a Super Overdrive/Tuber Screamer type of pedal. Those pedals contain separate distortion/clean circuits running in parallel, and are far more middy than the BD-2, which gives what I'd call "true" overdrive, with no clean signal mixed in. Thus it's my main overdrive/distortion unit, and my SD-2 is used in front of it to boost it.

It's been reliable so far like the rest of my Bosses. They're a far cry from the Russian-built E-H pedals I reviewed for a musicians mag, which were broken on arrival.

Roland Scandianavia are helpful, but I have never approached them with a guitar-related problem.

A great, versatile pedal which can sound really expensive through a good amp. Just don't expect it to be a TS-9, because it really is of a completely different breed.

It's really easy: Either use it as an overdrive or use it as a
clean boost. Couldn't be easier.

I give nine, but to get good tone, you need to have a tube amp.
I have a Kustom 10W practice amp at home, and with that, this
pedal sounds really cheap. And I don't mean just the clean boost
thing, also the overdrive sound is crappy.
But with my Marshall, this has really nice crunchy sound.
I could probably use it for hard rock, too.

I have never broke a BOSS pedal, and I don't have backup for
any of my pedals.

Have never dealt with them.

It's worth 50 euros (=dollars). If you want an affordable
overdrive pedal, then this is your choice.

Three knobs- how hard can this be to use? Volume, tone and drive.

This is easily Boss's best pedal. Their SD-1 isnt bad, but its a little harsh sounding compared to this Blues Driver. At full throtle the pedal does a heavy convincing distortion, and at lower drive settings it does the cranked amp tone thing. Anyone thinking of getting this pedal modified with one of the popular mods out there being offered by various technicians, be warned- you are wasting you money having this pedsal modified as it sounds just great right out of the box. These mods are perpetrated upon the pedal buying public by technicians who are just seeking a paycheck. Anyone who has had a Boss pedal modded has wasted their money and is a fool. Only problem with Boss is that the bypass is no good, and no mod addresses that problem. The last thing I want is for some amateur wannabe to open up my mint condition pedal and fiddle around with the insides, loosening things up and destroying my confidence in the pedal- no sir, I want a pedal fresh from the factory without some self-exaulted technician screwing around with the insides of my pedal. They can make it sound better by charging you money to mess around with its insides? - well no thank you on that idea. The pedal isnt good enough for you right out of the box? - hey, how about learning HOW to play the guitar first instead of seeking a magic bullet.

Boss is pretty solid.

Dont expect support on an inexpensive item like this lame pedal.

I used this pedal a few times and was sort of impressed before packing it up in its original box and shelving it, as I have much better overdrives to use, such as the Austone Millenium, Maxon OD-808 and Maxon OD-820. Id break it out as NOS in 20 years if I thought the value would increase, but the value wont increase unless Boss discontinues this model and comes out with a new version with four knobs, like they like to do- they like to ruin pedals by adding too many knobs.

very easy to use...

i like this pedal, however, there are better pedals out there. its got a good overdrive but as ive found with most boss pedals, it has a bark but not bite. if you know what i mean. it is good for screaming stuff but if you are looking for something a little more full (theres the word i was looking for) this pedal will not do it for you. i found that the marshall bluesbreaker (the old one in the black shell) has more fullness, compression than the bd-2. another thing, this pedal is better if you play your amp at louder volumes and the pedal at lower settings. like most boss pedals if you have the pedal settings too high, they tend to eat up the tone of your guitar. some good tones ive gotten out of it are at the following positions volume-depends on how loud your amp is set, tone--1 o'clock, gain--11. my favorite setting is using it as a boost volume-always relative to amp vol., tone-3 o'clock, gain--just barely on. it actually makes your guitar shine a bit.

i have never had any problems with boss pedals other than the pedals not sounding like i want them to.

this pedal is very versatile. it has good overdrive but when you turn the gain nob up, it starts to sound like a real low-quality fuzz box. it was my first good boss overdrive/distortion pedal ive owned. ive owned the od-2 (honestly, a terrible pedal) and the DS-1 (it completely stole the soul out of my guitar whenever i turned it on.). it is probably the best boss overdrive out there but to tell you the truth you are better off with other overdrive units. the overdrive pedals i have now are way better than this one, i own a marshall bluesbreaker (the old black one) and a fulltone fulldrive 2. also, the route 66 pedal is way better. try any of these over this pedal. if it were stolen, i would be upset that someone stole one of my pedals but then i would forget all about it as soon as i clicked on the fulldrive 2.

3 Knobs. Tone Level and Drive.

I just did the Robert Keeley mods...at least part of them anyway. I replaced D3 with a 1N4001 and replaced C14 with a 0.1uF cap I stole from another pedal. WOW, I'll explain later. I used a 83 JV (Japanese Vintage) Squire '62 Reissue Strat, and a Historic Collection '59 Les Paul Custom (3 pup Black Beauty) modified with a blend pot for the middle pup. I used a Peavey Delta Blues 115 on the clean channel.

I have used the BD-2 quite a bit with this setup. I always found it a little brittle at the higher gain settings. This forced me to keep the gain and the tone low. Much like others, the pedel was just a volume boost at that point. Lot's of gain but brittle and very clipped sounding...almost like transistor distortion.

Well, after performing the two mods mentioned above, the BD-2 is much more creamy. (Can't wait to do some of the other simple mods). The pedel has a smoother (even harmonic) tone and allows you to crank the tone and the gain up as much as you want. Along with the coupling cap change, the strat sounded beefy, sweet and crisp. It was a form of that clean distrotion that I have been searching for since hearing Clapton. With the les paul I was able to hear the strat like qualities provided by the middle pup while getting a lot of crisp top end. It was very cool. Allman Bros. tones abound. And the less abbrasive top end let lester speak with all the bite you could want.

Beacuse of the even order harmonics that the pedel now puts out, singing single note sounds (like you might find in your favourite Steely Dan tune) are easy to get. There was definitly a sweet spot for me and the sound I was trying to get. You know, that smooth creamy allmost clean sounding distortion that,based on pick attack, still allowed for crisp biting notes. With humbuckers you can put the gain all the way up and it is very overdriven but crisp. With the strat the gain was better backed off to 3 o'clock. This allowed the strat tone to shine with a nice bit of sqare wave added for that good time mojo. By changing the tone control you got a very fender tweed champ type tone with the strat.

The mods are not too noisy so far they do certainly sound much better than the original pedel. The modified BD-2 now sounds better that my TS-9dx (on the ts-9 setting). The TS sounds very boxy in a side by side comparison. Interesting...

When I get the necessary parts, I will perform the rest of the mods and report back.

As long as the solder holds we should be good.

Dunno?

I know, 10? Well, for the type of stuff I like, ranging from Train type tele's to LA studio overdriven tone to classic rock (Faces, Stay With Me) this pedel has it's place. If I needed to I would get another and modify it the same way. I might try a line 6 DM though. (156 distorion tones at your disposal). But for now the BD-2 has just been bumped up a notch or two on the kewl pedel scale. It is responsive and musical instead of brittle and dry.

Thank you Mr. Keeley...and Boss.

Three nobs, no waiting

Using a telecaster through the bd-2 and a dyna comp, into a peavey classic 50. I role the tone a little left from noon. About 10:30. The drive and level are both around 2:00. I'm not trying to sound like anyone famous, we play all original music, and I love this pedal. I'm sure you can make a good SRV or Clapton tone if you want. I love it!

Never had a problem in 3 years, and never thought of a backup.

never needed them

I play Americana music like Jack Ingram, Cross Canadian Regweed,etc. This is the best overdrive I've had including ts9's.( I've had two)Jack Ingrams guitarist uses one also. We've opened for them before in the South Texas area. It WAS stolen about 2 weeks ago so I'm getting another one real soon!!!!

Plug in and play really. It's extremely simple, as are most distortion pedals. There's a manual for different tones and the such, I thought that was nice of them to show you how to get some great sounds out of it.

GREAT SOUND! Sounds sooo nice! Give this baby a good chorus/flange/anything and it sounds good really vintage sound. Pretty quiet. It always sounds great on any setting really.

Extremely dependable... its a boss what else?

Never had to deal with em!

I have been playing for nearly 5 years, I play mostly stuff like tool, and this sound compliments their's quite well if I am ever in a mood mimicking their tone. I own many other boss pedals, and have never wanted any other. If this was lost I would be extremely saddened and would definitely try to recover one. I love the sound and everything. I compared it to the other distortions I have, and I love this one for its tube sound. It's a great pedal with great distortion.

3 Knobs Level, Tone, and Gain. Very easy to the sound you want out it from muddy 70's style distortion up to crisp clean crunch and everything in between. With in minutes of hooking it up I found the sound I wanted and was extremely impressed with the versatility of this pedal.

I use a stock Fender Standard Strat and an Epiphone Les Paul Studio Demo through a Randall 100 watt combo and it sounds great. I can get some great Stevie Ray Vaughan style sounds on my strat and some rocking Ace Frehley/Jimmy Page sounds with the les paul. Although you can get some smooth distortion with it, the BD-2 is not for metal (if you want great metal get the MT-2 Metal Zone).

Its a Boss, It would survive a nuclear blast.

Haven't had to deal with them

I play mostly any type of rock and this works well for those great 60's Style Rolling Stones riffs to 70's Style Kiss riffs, even Stevie Ray Vaughan. I've been playing for 2 years and this is a nice change of pace from the MT-2 (which I own also.) If it were stolen, I'd first get mad that I would have to buy one at regular price and second because its a crucial piece of my effect arsonal.but I would definatly buy a new one. Overall, get ths pedal if you are looking for a good Overdrive/Distortion pedal because first of all, you'll save money by not having to buy 2 or more pedals, and if metal isn't your thing.

Level, Gain, Tone. How much simpler could it be? Boss even includes a lil sheet that tells you some cool setups. However, you could be illiterate, and still understand how to use this pedal right outa the box!

I primarily use a: Danelectro Hodad -> Fender stomp tuner - Boss PW-10 V-Wah, Dunlop Crybaby, Danelectro Black Coffee, Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, Boss AC-2 Acoustic Sim, Boss TR-1 Tremelo, Danelectro Cool Cat, Vox AC30/Fender 80's Redknob Twin.

When every pedal off, I get a fairly quiet tone (mostly because I run expensive patch chords to quiet the loop) the only noise I get is from the "lipstick" pickups found on the Dano.

I havn't had a problem with feedback from the BD-2 unless I up the gain really high. But that's not what I use this pedal for! I mostly use it as a smooth syrupy bassy distortion that gives me great sounds lows, and an awesome bluesy sound.

Why give it an 8? Sometimes it's too bassy... Major problems that could give me that are probably located in the amp/guitar setup.

Oh, and I usually use my dunlop crybaby with this pedal, or my V-wah on the voice effect.

I've had this pedal for three years now. The Level pot is missing it's pearl inlay, and the tone pot needed to be replaced, but thats it.

No backup needed.... I got my V-wah ;)

Havn't needed to contact them yet.

I play a lot of surf, ska, blues, and punk, and find that this pedal a great alternative to my Black Coffee metal pedal... (the BC gives me too much feedback, and a really agressivive distortion, but that's what it's supposed to do) the BD-2 just a cleaner bassier effect for more laid back bluesy tunes.

3 knobs simple

it is cool but kills my AC-30s tone when gain is pushed the tone dies
it still sounds nice

made well butt kills my bateries like no other

i play late60s to erly70s rock it is good for that but boss should work on the quality of the distorshon when it is on 3to6 o clock and
longer baterie life would be nice

I've always been a big fan of the old 3 control setup. Pretty self explanitory.

I was very happy with the pedal right out of the box. I ran accros a website, http://www.robertkeeley.com/, and he turned this descent pedal into a soul-diving machine. I am currently using it with my Tele plus. It's got Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups and the tone override control. It's got bite and punch now. I run a Boss SD-1 after it to boost my lead. I play mostly Texas music, Reckless Kelly, Cross Canadian Ragweed, The Great Divide....ect. Great modification. I rate the pedal a 7 without the mod, and a 9.5 with it.

All Boss pedals are road warroirs.

Never had to use them.

I give it an 8 overall, but a 9.5 with the Robert Keeley modification.

It took a while to get it set up how I want it. I play mostly stuff like Pink Floyd, so I wanted their sound. I played around with it for a while and basically got what I wanted. The pedal had a manual and gave a few settings to try which I did, but I specifically wanted it for the Gilmour sound. (Dave Gilmour is a Legend!)

I have a Fender Strat and a small Marshall G15RCD amp that I have had modified. I found the pedal to be very good thru my setup, as it (my amp) has been modified for noise reduction and clean input channel filtering. The pedal is as standard from Boss, and I think it sounds grouse. I can get my Floyd sound so I'm happy.

It is a good pedal. If it broke during a gig, I could tweak my other pedals to get pretty close. to it.

Never had to contact them.

As mentioned I play a lot of Pink Floyd. I have been playing now for about 2 years I would not buy another one if it got flogged, I would prolly get a multi-effects unit. But I reckon you don't get the same sound quality thru the multi-effects. Overall though, not a bad unit.

theres three knobs, whats to know?

great for blues, bad for metal, i dotn play metal, so i like this. my fat strat clone and marshall 30 watt amp sound pretty good alone, but with this in between them, o man, you know how 50% of women would give up sex for chocolate? well 50% of guitarists would give up sex for tone liek this. the only drawback is that its not terribly versatile, but what are you supposed to expect, the name of the pedal says Blues in it. so im giving it an nine and not a ten because its not versatile enough, use a DS-1 or -2 for other stuff

ITS A BOSS!! cmon, this question shouldnt be on any boss reviews. this thing takes multiple beatings. i never gig w/o backup, my backups are a DS-1, an OS-2, and a Tech 21 double drive, but i never need those when this guy's plugged in

never needed it, BUT, Boss has a pretty bad website, with soem major problems on it (go to the compact pedal demo under interactive and youll find out once you reach the BF-2 flanger demo, sheesh)

great for blues, maybe some rock too, but i use a DS-1 or an OS-2 or a Tech 21 double drive for anything other than blues, but if you want anything in a blues drive from bedroom hero to international superstar, buy this. good deal, and its pretty good lookin to, not like the ugly purple flangers and orange distortions. if this were lsot or stolen i would be crushed until i found eighty more dollars, i would buy another one. just remember, if youre into metal or anythign thats too far off the scale from blues, BUY SOMETHIGN ELSE.

Check below for features and ease of use... I rate it a 10 because it does exactly what it is supposed to do, blues!!!

I run it with my 72 twin reverb black faced and it is the best. I have had many pedals over the years with this twin and this takes the cake for the blues.

Its a boss...

They are like maytag... Non-existant because they never break!!!

If you want a great over drive pedal to push an amp, this is it. If you want high gain, get a high gain pedal. This does the blues and does it well. Exactly what it was meant to do.

Very easy to use. Level, tone, and drive. On/off
It would be hard to get confused with this pedal. You can get a great range of blues tones by tweaking the knobs. Some metal sounds too

This is a great sounding pedal if you are looking for a overdrive.
One of the best I've heard, I love the sound I get with it. I have a 60 watt Beringer blue devil amp and a strat with seymour duncaan clasic stack pickups. You can get or come close to the sound nearly any of the big blues artists with this puppy.

It's a Boss. I have a Boss pedal that's 25 years old, and it is very dependable and durable. I would trust this pedal without backup. Only a act of God could destroy this thing, it's rugged

Never had problems, so I have no opinion about the company

I play mostly Blues, some rock, and some heavy metal, and some mellower acustic also. I've been playing for 25 years. I would be greatly upset if my BD-2 was missing, I would most definately replace it. This thing just really hits the overdiven tube amp sound in a big way. I compared it to many other pedals, I had the poor sales guy drag out everything he had, the BD-2 came out last and was the bulls eye for me. If it had a extra boost footswitch it would be nice, but not nessisary. I spend more time playing since I purchased the BD-2.

OK, I just posted a damning review of this pedal but it turns out that it was faulty all along! No wonder it sucked!! Someone (I'm not mentioning any names!) had modified it by changing a capacitor or something which caused a massive low frequency boost. This might be desirable for some people, but with my Marshall it just plain stunk. The stock BD-2 that I tried today sounded infinitely better, but I'll probably just go back to using a Tubescreamer.

Disregard my previous review, and beware of aftermarket mods!

It basically has one sound.. FUZZ. It doesn't make much difference where you set the knobs. The manual has a few recommended settings which are completely useless.

Horrible! This thing sounds like a cross between a Big Muff and one of those tinny sounding yellow Boss overdrives.

I seems well built, like all Boss pedals.

I've always used a Tubescreamer, but when it broke I decided to try something different (and cheaper). I bought this without trying it properly first. Now I hope like hell I can return it in exchange for a new TS-9.

Three knobs, drive, tone, level. Very easy to use. In the manual are some great settings too.

Very good sound quality and very versatile. I also have a modded ibanez ts-9 and it is perfect for playing blues, but since I've added the BD-2 I can get very good modern sounds too (overdrive - distortion). You can get from a light crunch to an AC/DC kind of overdrive with this unit. I'm playing in a pop-rock-blues combo and it was THE key to achieve great overdrive-distortion sounds. Although, the sound is not as warm as my ts-9/808.

You could easily play a match of football with this thing ... it will still scream.

Never had to deal with BOSS ...

I couldn't miss this pedal any more ... it will always remain linked to my ts-9/808 ... I'm very happy with it.

Very easy to use. 3 amp-style knobs: Volume, Gain, Tone. I don`t need more knobs, it`s shit if you have so many knobs (like Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble).

I use a Yamaha Pacifica 120S with Gibson Toni Iommi Signature Pickup in bridge position and standard Yamaha stock PU in neck position (I like to buy a Duncan SH-4 for neckposition next time). My amp is a BC Rich 30RT Transtube. My effectchain is: CryBaby > Boss BD-2 > Boss MZ-2 Metallizer > Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble > George Dennis Flanger/Chorus > MXR DynaComp > Amp. This Pedal sounds very very good with my Iommi PU. With Gain knob on 1 o`clock and Tone knob on 9 o`clock it gives me a smooth, cool sounding blues tone. If you turn the Gain to the max it will give you a crazy-heavy overdriven sound which is good for Rock/Punkrock/Grunge stuff. The best overdrive I`ve heard. There is a bit noise, but it`s normal at overdrive pedals. I can get the sound of BB King, J.L. Hooker, Clapton and also a classic/modern rock sound like Sabbath, Purple, Nickelback, etc. Very versatile effect, buy it!!!

Man, it`s a boss thing. Built like an Appachy Longbow with high explosive stingers!!!

Never dealt with them. But I think they are nice!?

I play a lot styles of music, mainly Blues and Classic Rock stuff. It is the pedal I dream of every night... Now playing for 1 year and a half. If it were lost or stolen I would buy it again, no question. I compared it to the Ibanez TS-5, CD-5 and to Boss DS-2. The DS-2 is great too, but the BD-2 is still the best.
I wished it had a remote control like the Boss OD-2r so that you can change quickly from smooth overdrive to high gain solo tone.

This thing is as simple as any other overdrive pedal. Just play around with it til your happy.

Well, I like to put the level and gain nobs at about 12:00. And then I put the tone nob at around 9:00. This gives me enough boost and flare to push my leads out into the crowd. It gives me a nice sustain. I like to run a mild crunch tone either on my Peavey Classic 30 or my Behringer V-AMP2. I like to keep my volume on the gutar down to about half way or so, so that when I click on the Blues driver, it gives it enough boost. I have found that if the guitar's volume is all the way up, this unit will not really boost the volume that much. I'm sure that this depends greatly on the guitar and pickups you're using. I have a strat clone that I love. By the way, the BD-2 doesn't really improve your rythm tone in my opinion. It's great for lead. But if you're lookin' to improve your rythm tone, you might wanna look somewhere else.

So far so good. Only had it a week. But it looks like it could hold up a tank.

N/A

I bought this thing off Ebay. It was so cheap, that it really didn't have to work that well for me to be pleased. So I'm trying to rate this thing based on the price of a new one which you can get from Musicians Friend for about $69.00 plus shipping. I think that if you're happy with your rythm tone but when you try to play lead you usually have trouble cuting through the band, or you just feel like your lead is thin and weak, then you probably need a good overdrive pedal. And this is deffinately a good one. There are some others that you might consider as well. Marshall's Bluesbreaker is a nice one. I wasn't real impressed with the current Ibanez TS-9. But you can have it modified to the specs of the original TS-808 which is probably alot better. I would like to try that someday. Or try this... type into the search box of Harmony Central, "Overdrive". You'll find a whole bunch of overdrive pedals you've probably never heard of. Anyway, the Blues Driver is very good. I would deffinately recomend it. And, good luck with your quest for tone.

Easy: 3 knobs, Level, Tone, and Gain.
If you can't figure it out, your not to smart.

I use this with my gibson les paul and my fender stage 160 amp. When I fiirst plugged this in, I didn't like it. But then I started playing some licks and all of the sudden, I was creating blues solos of the top of my head that sounded really great. This pedal is really great for blues, I bet its one of the best. I can get a perfect bluezy zeppelin sound out of it. But it can do more than that. You can kind of get an ok AC/DC sound out of it. But this pedal is great for soloing. Thats why I love it. Perfect blues overdrive.

Its made by Boss. Simple as that.

Never dealt with them.

Great for BLUES. NOT for metal. Perfect for soloing. Get this if you love playing blues.

Very simple and straightforward without requiring a manual to learn settings. You just plug it in, hit the on button and turn the knob until you hit your sweet spot.

I had a comptortion.....Yes, HAD it only for a week and really didn't care for it. I got a tube screamer, some other boss distortion pedals and an expensive Carl Martin Hot N Drive Overdrive pedal side by side and this unit sounded best to my ears...I mean, the C.M. was nice, but not $169.00 nice compaired to the $58.00 nice I paid for the Boss unit.

Looks durable enough to me and Boss has a solid reputation

Death Metal fans beware. Blues lovers....you'll love it...........

Very easy to use. Three knobs control volume, gain and tone.

Sounds as advertised- classic old tube-amp distortion. So I got my money's worth for once, because the claims are accurate! Its much like an old tubescreamer but there are alot of differences. The Blues Driver has less sustain, less compression, and more bass response than a tubescreamer. Theres not much compression so its responds well to picking attack dynamics but wont overwhelm you with harmonics or sustain. Sort of a trade off. You can run a compressor in front of the Blues Driver and thats probably its wake up call- however I detest using more than one or two or three pedals at a time so I will just have to suffer without the compression. However it does sound much like an old tube amp cranked up high. The drive can go from totally clean to pretty heavy, much more distortion than a tubescreamer. Its entire range of drive is greater than a tubescreamer. The volume can provide a massive boost, so with the volume on max and the drive down low you can overdrive the front end of your amp. Doesnt really clean up with guitar volume- those IC chips never clean up anyway, from my experience. I use it with the drive about half-way (noon), and the tone and volume knobs at 10:30 for a good clear crunching blues driving sound! Add some amp reverb and you are ready to blues and roll.

Recap: Its main features- somewhat warm and realistic tube amp sounding overdrive at low drive settings, massive volume boost allows it to be used as a clean boost pedal, and a drive control that goes from totally clean to heavy overdrive. Sounds like an old tube amp cranked up loud, even at moderate sound levels. Like an old-timey tube-amp.

Bad points- it has no sustain or compression so it makes you work about as hard as possible to maintain a great tone. You really have to be dead on with your chops and have serious tonal control over your instrument in order for this pedal to enhance your sound. It can sound woody and britte unless you adjust its knobs perfectly and can play like a God. Needless to say I am strugging just a bit here with this thing.
I am using it with a Gibson les Paul Standard and a Marshall 50 watt AVT combo.
The tone control on this pedal wont cut bass, so the bass response pretty much stays strong when you add or cut the treble. Just use your amps bass knob to adjust the low tones.

Beautiful design- the blue color is handsome and the build is fine. Most BOSS pedals are ugly as sin but this one can join my collection of boutique pedals. The switch turns off and on smoothly without a hitch.
Made in Taiwan.

Never dealt with them. BOSS stuff is virtually indestructable. Roland is a huge company so I wouldnt expect a response unless I had a very serious technical question concerning one of their expensive keyboards, not a silly guitar pedal. In my opinion they ARE doing us a favor by manufacturing these pedals- they dont HAVE to do it, and you dont have to buy it. Just a thought.

I've been playing for 20 years- mostly rock and blues and this pedal is going into my collection because it looks great and sounds good. Yes it looks better than it sounds but thats what I expected anyway from BOSS. Its not nearly as good as my Blues Pearl Blue Screamer, but some may like it better than the Reverand Drive Train (The Rev has a bigger mid-range hump, more compression) which I also own. I would buy the Blues Driver pedal again if I needed to replace it because it can give me that "amp on 10" breakup at low volume levels and it looks good and is reliable and is inexpensive price-wise.

Its good value, very versatile (can be used as a clean boost or an overdrive) and is different than any other pedal on the market because of its particular sonic traits which I outlined above. This pedal wont blow you away- a distortion pedal is for that purpose.
This is probably the best pedal BOSS has ever made, and the best pedal they will ever make because Ive tried many of them- I gave away their old Chorus CE-2 pedal (cheesy sickly sweet chorus sound made me want to vomit- really! I hated it and I just gave it away like that- you can have fun with it but I am relieved that its gone!), I still have an old 1980's CS-2 Compressor in my drawer that I am keeping because the newer BOSS CS-3 compressor sucks, and I have a new DS-1 Distortion which is pretty cheap and much too popular for me to take seriously.
In the end this Blues Driver is the BEST pedal you can buy from BOSS- and did I mention I love its blue color? Some of my other effects not mentioned above include the new red Roger Mayer Spitfire and the orange Axis Fuzz pedals, the Fulltone Soul-Bender, MJM Britbender (2-knob version), Austone Fuzz Nutz, and the Blues Pearl Blue Balls and Blue Screamer pedals. I have a fine collection of boutique gain pedals and believe the BOSS Blues Driver belongs among them. Yes BOSS FINALLY came out with a pedal that all the boutique gear snobs, me included, can actually brag about, and its called the Blues Driver. And yes did I mention how good-looking and handsome this blue pedal is? I rate it a 9 overall for sound, versatility and price. Boutique tubescreamer clone pedal manufacturers move over because BOSS is on your tail. I havent tried the BOSS OD-3 Overdrive and can only guess that there are differences in volume output, tone and range of distortion when compared to the Blues Driver- the OD-3 pedal is probably more geared for a generic 1970's rock sound, while the Blues Driver is closer to a tubescreamer clone.

it is pretty hard to get a good sound with this unit. im still kinda adjusting with it after having it for more than 5 months.

people come up to me and ask what kinda distortion because it sounds soo nice. they were so impressed that a blues driver could crank such a punch. if you are looking for something that "bites" this is not the pedal for you... try xtortion or metalzone. but personally i don't like them because the distortion sound so fake and bright. i am using this pedal for my fender big apple strat with seymour duncan humbucker pickups, channeled to an all tube fender deville. together this baby is the creamiest, warmiest yet a very powerful distortion.

this sucker is bomb proof

customer support for boss pedals? hahahah

i play for a church praise team every sunday service... so this pedal is ideal because its not grungy at all. ive been playing with this pedal for about 5 months, i also use boss super chorus which is another MUST HAVE. together you can get one of the most beautiful guitar solos especially for slow songs.
as any other guitar player i tried many different distortion pedal, but by far this is my favorite distortion, very smooth, creamy and warm. as i said before people acutally come up to me to look at what pedals i use!

3 knobs. easy to use.

way too bright for an overdrive pedal. i was looking around for a sutle distortion to complement a high gain pedal, and i thought this was it. call me a moron for not demoing this before buying.... it ended up just collecting dust on my pedalboard.

Boss = bullet proof.... HOWEVER this one only gets a 9 cause the switch was a bit faulty. All my other Boss pedals (past/present) have never had problems. For some reason when I stepped on the pedal it wouldn't engage the effect... or if it was on it wouldnt turn off. i fixed this by adding some padding under the metal switch between the actual switch inside. also, the pots were scratchy... nothing a little electric luibricant wont fix.

Never dealt with Roland/Boss

It was not for me. I play a lot of hard rock, and a DS-1, Rat, and Big Muff have served me well. Don't get me wrong, this may be the pedal for you. Just don't be like me.... demo it before you buy.

Let me first say that this review is for a Robert Keeley MODIFIED Bluesdriver. Robert modifies these at his shop in Oklahoma City for 38.95 (including shipping). For more info on what he does, go to robertkeeley.com and read the section on this mod. I hadn't ever submitted a review of this pedal in its stock form but I won't be talking too much about how it did sound because I am not looking back. :) I will say that (stock) it is a good pedal and worth buying. After being modified by Robert it is definately a keeper and I will be using this pedal constantly for a very long time. Ease of use is somewhat easier to dial in than the stock model (I will explain later) which is already very straight forward.

I am using a few different guitars through my setup. I have an early 90's deluxe strat plus with emg SA's, an early 90's american standard tele with a duncan tele little 59 in the bridge and the stock neck pickup and an Ibanez AX120 with duncan alnico II pro humbuckers in the front and back (this is a pretty cheap guitar but with the better pickups it sounds very good believe it or not--pickups make all of the differance. . .). These all go through my pedalboard (vox wah, boss stage tuner, bluesdriver, tech 21 GT2, boss chorus ensemble and a boss DD5 w/tap tempo) and into a boogie single rectifier rectoverb combo. I play pop-ish rock to hard(er) rock. I am also playing with a gospel choir at my school. I don't do the metal thing (at least not anymore. . . ) and obviously any pedal with the word "blues" on it isn't going to be marketed at people who play in that style. Let me just say this--this pedal with the mod IS a really good overdrive sound. Before the mod it was only CLOSE. I liked it before it was modded and I really love it now. All of the harshness in the tone knob is gone. No more nasty upper mid range and highs. Now the tone knob is useable and correctly voiced through its entire range--it sounds right. The low end is smoother and the highs sound like the upper frequencies of a good tube amp. Also, the high gain settings are smoother and more realistic sounding rather than fuzzy/buzzy sounding like the stock model. I first heard about this mod from another user review further down the page and everything they were raving about is true! This pedal is definately a keeper now! The lower gain sounds are nice and full with the tone knob backed off and the high gain sounds are everything that you wished the stock bluesdriver would but couldn't do. The higher gain settings are very "old boogie" sounding--very thick (I know. I used to own a mk. III). It can get sounds that I want to hear and use. This mod doesn't take the bluesdriver and simply turn it into a different pedal. It turns it into what it should have sounded like in the first place--like a tube amp. Its almost hard to explain because its not like one BIG change. It is many smaller changes that add up to a much more versatile and quality sounding pedal. I'd give this pedal a 7 or 8 stock and definately a 10 with the mod done.

I know I can depend on it now because Robert went through and made sure everything is as it should be. Evidently at some point before I had sent it to him, the pedal casing had gotten some moisture inside of it and had coroded some of the parts. In the meantime, I had been using it several times a week to gig with and never had any problems and naturally didn't think anything was wrong with it. When Robert opened it up and began working on it, parts started falling off the PCB from the corosion--NOT GOOD!! Anyways to make a long story short, Robert fixed it all for FREE--and there was evidently alot to fix. He cleaned off the corosion and made sure everything would stay fixed because he wont send something back that he can't be proud of. Great service and a real nice guy.

Like I just said, Robert is the man. He takes care of business. Sure with everything that happend with my pedal falling apart as soon as it was opened the turn around time for the mod did take a bit longer than usual but nothing that I wouldn't expect considering the circumstances.

For anyone who has this pedal or who is thinking of buying this pedal--Get this mod done or buy a pre-modded one straight from Robert. He sells them on his website which is again RobertKeeley.com. This mod really improves the sound and function of this pedal and it gives me a much more desireable tone than previously possible. Plus, Robert is a real cool guy and is willing to go the extra mile for your business.

three knobs: tone- adjusts a dark or bright sound; level- basically volume from the box; gain- amount of distortion. very easy to use. i bought it used, so it didn't come with a manual; but i don't think a manual is necessary.

i run a prs santana se into a proel volume pedal to a dunlop gcb-95 crybaby into the bd-2 into a boss sd-1 to a johnson j-station to a peavey ecoustic 112. i use the bd-2 on the channel of the j-station that doesn't do any other amp modeling. i have used it on channels with amp modeling, and it adds a little bit, but it's not noteworthy. the bd-2 does make some noise if you turn the level or gain up pretty high, but that's easily fixed with a noise gate, or just don't turn it up that high. it's not necessary to have the level way up, i use 112 to get volume. i can get a nice light-medium distortion out of it, and that sounds really good; but it's also possible to get a heavy distorion. i don't think that is the best sound, but it can be done.

'boss' and 'indestructible' are interchangeable; this pedal will last forever. i would definately use it on a gig.

never had a reason to get a hold of them.

i play many styles of music, but alternative rock is what i do the most. the bd-2 does a nice job providing tone for anything that needs a nice bit of distortion. but again, it can give more than that- much more. i would never lose it, but if it were stolen i would buy another one.

10 This pedal is very straight forward, volume, tone and gain. Boss manual are always user friendly.

I use a yamaha tele style, and epiphone SG, and a beat up strat that only works when it wants to. I use a peavey classic 30 amp and a morely pro series wahII, and a black dog. No noise from this little pedal. Great for blues tones, very smooth and sustains well. Robben Ford tone.

The best never had a problem even when it got cauth in a flood. This pedal will out live me.

Never had to contact them

blues and jazz and classic rock. 14yrs. If lost or stole I would use my savings to replace it. This is the best pedal I have.

How easy??? Nothing can be easiest. Just plug to jecks, and every position of these three knobs will make a nice sound.
I didn't look at the manual, but I think it's pretty nice...

I use it with rickenbacker 325 and a pretty shity amp, you guys maybe even didn't hear about it, It' Eastern German mark called Vermona, I'm not sure that they still exist, but for a bloody transistor combo it has very nice tone...well actually I'm satisfied with it, and my guitar sounds not as perfect as on a expansive gear, but it's ok.
BD-2 sounds pretty cool with my guitar, and it makes it louder.
About favourite artists...I'm not sure that this pedal was created to make a sound of Gene Vincent or The Beatles... but I create my sound with this one for a neorockabilly, it's just great, the best overdrive pedal I've ever heard.

Can I depend on it? Maybe I can, but I wish I didn't...
The bad thing about it is that a stupid batteries is last not so long, the boss is ok, but I don't know where to find it, and I don't want to, 'cause I'm lazy for that. So before a gig just put a new battery in and everything will be ok...

Don't know, newer dealt, but it is Boss, c'mon, everybody uses it, I saw like my friend treat his boss distortion, he's playing punk... I think it is unbreakable.

I'm playing (neo)rockabilly and other trifles, this pedal is pretty good for it, anyway I like the sound...you can get any tone from it from blues to bloody psycho... it's just perfect.
Been playing for about 6 years, and I saw this pedal on one of our gigs, the band which we played with used it. I noticed its tone, and then in a year or something, when I had money to buy a pedal I decided to buy this one. I tried about six overdrive and distortion pedals, but they were all rubbish. I were stolen, I would find that bustard and kill him...Definitely would choose the same.
It don't need anything else really, it is completed.

Pretty simple: Level, Tone, and Gain knobs.

I compared this pedal with the Tube Screamer. I don't like the TS-9's distortion tone, because it's way too smooth for me. I like more "bite" and pick attack. So, I chose the BD-2. What I DON'T like about its tone, is that when you crank the Gain up it starts to sound like the same cheezy distortion that every single distortion pedal I've ever heard suffers from: a muddy sounding low end. Ragardless, it's still a very warm sounding pedal, great for driving the front-end of a non-master volume amp.

Same as everyone else's.

Who cares. If it breaks, I'll make 'em gimme a new one.

I bought this pedal specifically to use with my Lonestar Strat, and an old model 1481 Silvertone tube amp made in 1966. The Silvertone is a low-wattage amp that starts breaking up at full power, especially with the humbucker on the Strat. I wanted to accomplish 2 things with this pedal: 1)I wanted to obtain the amp's "cranked" sound at lower volumes, (because even 5 watts the amp is too loud late at night), and 2)When cranking the amp full-out, I wanted a more hard rock sound. The BOSS Blues Driver suits these purposes very well for me. If lost or stolen, I'd buy another.

Three knobs. Easy to use. Easy to get a decent sound out of it.

I play a customized Fender Strat into a Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket amp. The sound on the low gain settings was the best in my opinion. I found this also to be true with a fender twin I used to play it through. The higher gain settings sounded like the sound was in a tin can. I can't really describe it any other way. I compared it to a route 66 (Visual Sound) pedal and kept that one and sold the blues driver.

I think this unit would be and was reliable for me.

Never had to deal with boss

A decent pedal for a blues overdrive and probably reliable as well. The Visual sound route 66 pedal also has a compressor that blows away the boss and that pedal in my opinion is a much better value, at least with my gear.

Boss effects are very easy to use. Even I can understand them.

Fender telecasters and Rio Grande El Ranchero through Fender and Peavey tube amps. Very consistent pedal. This is an The The Blues Driver is an overdrive that pushes your amp well... this is not a fuzz or metal distortion, just a good push that makes a good tube amp kick in a little harder into louder and slightly more distorted territory. I play 70's style funk and rock and roll, so this pedal is perfect.

Are Boss pedals sturdy? Is the Pope Catholic? check out> adrianesparza.com

No dealings at this point.

Along with my Fender Tele Thinline, Crybaby Wah Wah Pedal and American Express Card, I wouldn't leave home without one.

This unit has 3 knobs. They twist. When you twist them, the sound changes. Simple enough? Anyone can get a good sound out of this pedal. The manual is very thorough. It gives suggested settings (usually not first class, but a good place to start) and a neat little section where you can write down your custom settings.

I play an Epiphone Les Paul Studio through a Crate GFX-212T (not a great amp, IMO). I put the BD-2 in front of the amp and just use the amp's clean channel. You can get a HUGE range of sounds with this pedal! From twangy clean to rock crunch to saturated overdrive. I plugged this pedal in, turned the gain to almost max, the tone to the middle, and played the Purple Haze intro. My jaw dropped. I progressed to the verse, and eventually finished the song. This pedal gave me a vintage marshall tone, yet with mids like a fuzzface! Hendrix never sounded so good through my setup! The suggested "Crunch" setting works pretty good for an Angus Young lead sound. Tweak that a little, and you've got Jimmy Page's hard rock tone. I give it an 8 because of some slight noise when the gain is at max.

It's a BOSS pedal...If nuclear winter began, the only things that would survive are cockroaches and BOSS pedals. I don't think I could break this thing TRYING (but who knows, I've only had it a month)

Not yet had to contact customer support. Registered it online.

I play anything from Classic Rock (Hendrix, the Doors) to Hard Rock (AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen) to contemporary Grunge (Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots). This pedal works great for vintage tube sounds. It's not going to give you so much gain that it covers up the fact that you can't play worth a damn (take that, metal heads). If it were stolen or lost, I would smack the SOB over the head with my Crybaby (a big metal brick). Definitely a keeper, would buy again.

Three knobs- Easy as it gets.

I really don't like the "distortion" sound much at all. It sounds OK for a light breakup sound but at higher gain is a bit mushy.

*** It sounds awesome as a boost driving a tube amp. Set a clean amp to the point of "just breaking up" and use the Blues driver on a cleanish setting. Then crank the BD's volume. Just a huge sound for roots rock and country.

Boss pedals are indestructable.

Never dealt with BOSS

Great for a tube amp volume boost, not so great for a pure distortion tone.

Very easy, volume, tone, drive, LED light, a monkey can do it.

Very nice pedal. With high gain pickups (SD Invaders) it can get pretty damn distorted giving even the metal a run for it's money (gain-wise, the sound is still very different). It's a very organic sound and though it treats gutiars VERY differently, it still has a useable tone with everything you throw at it. Also exceptional at putting other distortions over the top. I use it in conjunction with a Big Muff (gain at 75%), and it seems to boost a certain frequency making the greatest distortion i've ever heard. Heavy, but so articulate it would make your head explode. the average person can't handle the sound these two pedals make.

I think the big muff is more hardcore than the boss pedal, but boss definately takes a good ass kicking.

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I bought this pedal used, though it didn't even have dust under the knobs. Still in original wrapper and whole 9 yards. Great edition to my set up. Gibson Les Paul w/ Invaders, Bud-Wah, Blues Driver, USA Big Muff, RP2000, Mesa 50/50, Mesa Recto Cab, all with monster jazz cords (i recommend them for everyone, quite and clear). Very organic, wide range of tones, even works with my Ibanez GXR70 ($110 backup). Great Pedal, buy one. I also compared to the OD-3, which i soon found out was an insult to this pedal.

The question should be... How difficult is it to get a bad sound? Anything you do with this pedal is a usable sound. Get to know it and you'll find some great sounds.

This is the best sounding non- tube distortion I've ever heard. Especially the way I'm using it in my rig. The name, however is a little misleading. It doesn't sound super bluesy to me which is interesting since I use a Fender Hot Rod Deville. I use the pedal for a rough and tough, balls to the walls distortion. Much like plugging in to a good dirty tube amp a taking it up to 10. I put a Tube Screamer in front of it, (which is my lighter distortion), and using both at the same time I get a decent sustain. The TS compress it just a little. With the Blues Driver I can get anything from a nice glassy clean that breaks up slightly to a Marshall cabinet.

I'm on my second BD- 2 and the only reason is because the grommet in the hole where it unscrews to get at the battery broke. It's just a grommet. The pedal still worked it just clicked when I stepped on it.
Otherwise, the pedal can take a beating.

N/A

I play epic rock, with lots of dynamics. I don't use a ton of big rock distortion but when I need it, I turn to the BD- 2. If I lost this pedal I would get another the next day. I consider it a necessary part of my rig. I always search for the next better distortion box. Always a return to the BD- 2. Its the closest thing I've heard to a tube amp distortion.

Extremely easy to use. Three knobs that do exactly what they say they do.

I use this pedal with an American Standard Telecaster, right now through a Danelectro Nifty Seventy bass amp with the (formerly) closed back pulled off (decent amp for the $$$, by the way, and works well for a cheap practice amp). Pedal is not noisy at all, and only hums a little on the highest gain settings. This pedal is as advertised. It gets anywhere from a lightly overdriven (nearly clean) blues sound to a raunchy Marshall-type blues sound. The tone knob has an extremely wide sweep (from very dark to very bright), and the level is easy to match to bypass. The Blues Driver can do SRV to AC/DC, with a lot of blues and southern rock in between. I give it an 8 for lack of true bypass and sound quality inferior to only the most high-priced units I've tried.

Shipped to me used from Hong Kong via air frieght, and seems built like a brick. I wouldn't gig a pick or cable without a backup, but this unit shouldn't give any trouble.

N/A

I play rock and blues, and this pedal suits these styles well. I have played for 16 years, and I would replace this pedal if lost or stolen. Good sound quality for the money, and extremely versatile. Once I buy a better amp (Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue), I will probably replace this with a higher end pedal such as the Fulldrive II, and perhaps use this to get pseudo-Marshall sounds out of the DR. I would add only true bypass or buffered bypass switching

Pretty simple to use. 3 knobs - Level, Gain and Tone. Manual covers everything needed, but only glanced through it as prefer to find my own 'sweet spots' with such pedals.

Very impressed with the sound.

Setting the gain at about 11 o'clock gives me a nice bluesy overdrive. Lower than that is great for 'crunchy tones'. Cranking up the gain gives bags of sustain and drive. I've seen this pedal criticised for its sustain. Personally I like to make my guitar and amp do as much of the work as possible with regard to tone and sustain, then add on FX units for the necessary extra. I found no problems with sustain. When I bought it, I compared it with a BOSS Super Overdrive, which I found trashy and harsh, and a Mesa Boogie V-1 Bottle Rocket, which I found rather over the top and coloured my tone too much. I found the BD-2 just suited my tone down to the ground. By the way, it gave of SRV tones much more faithfully than my old TS-808 tubescreamer which I got rid of a while ago (vastly over-rated pedal in my opinion). I find the BD-2 very 'touch-sensitive' and responsive, and it gives me a sound that just makes my fingers 'itch' to play. Love it. It has generally low noise too.

I'm using it with, typically, a Fender 'Buddy Guy' signature Stratocaster and either a Laney LC15R valve combo or Fender Blues Deluxe 40 valve combo. Other effects are BOSS AW2, CE-5, DC3, and a Sound City AD-07 analog delay.

It's great for Eric Clapton / Buddy Guy type blues. The mid-boost on my BG Strat kicks it into the stratosphere !

Not had it too long, but BOSS pedals are usually pretty bomb-proof.
No opinion as not owned long enough yet.

Never dealt with BOSS yet, so no opinion.

This suits my playing ideally. It is totally unlike the yellow BOSS overdrives. I tried one first and was vastly underwhelmed. Then I plugged in the BD-2 and the tone was just 'there'. Entirely different. Don't overlook this unit just because its '"just another BOSS pedal made in Taiwan".

I have also been using an old Tubeworks Blue Tube pedal - a superb unit for basic blues sounds specialising in that just-over the-edge tube amp sound, and was looking for a solid state backup with a similar sound - and this nails it. There is also more gain on offer from this unit which I like.

I did not believe a solid state overdrive pedal could compete with a valve unit. I was wrong. Great value for money.

3 knobs, Volume, Tone, and Gain. Press the pedal, and the little light is lit up. Its ON. Press the pedal again, the light goes out. Its OFF.
If ya can't figure it out, You probably aren't able to read this text. The manual is stupidly clear on what these knobs do and what happens when you turn them.

I am using a Fender American Standard Strat with Kinman AVn Traditional noiseless singles, and a Jimmie Vaughan Strat with Duncan Classic Stacks through a Boss delay (DD-3) into a Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue.
Its not exceptionally noisy thanks to the noiseless pickups. It is however pretty crappy sounding. Somewhat harsh, but its biggest problem is the horribly fizzy top-end. Reminds me of my Ibanez Powerlead distortion I used as a teenage metalhead. Retch. Nothing like any overdriven tube amp I've heard.
And it isn't very gutsy. My other OD pedal is a Boss SD-1 Super-Overdrive, whichs isn't exactly greatness in its own right, but its clobbers the BD-2 tone wise. The SD-1 is nice and smooth, with phat midrange (which is great for strats). And little of the fizziness. Plus it was $20 cheaper. The BD-2 doesnt have the smooth midrange punch, and it sucks bass at at even more alarming rate than the SD-1 (something both pedals are guilty of doing). The BD-2 also has little sustain.
One mildly cool thing about the BD-2 is that it cleans up well. But I can get the same effect by turning the frickin' thing off.
I could see this pedal being somewhat useful if you crank the volume and turn the gain all the way down, for a clean boost to overdrive yer power tubes. Like the way Stevie used his Tube Screamers. But for that I'd recommend an actual Tube Screamer or Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive over this pedal.
I dig the SRV tone, I also love Eric Johnson and David Gilmour.
The only one of those artists the BD-2 gets remotely close to is SRV, and specifically on the live version of "Leave my Girl Alone". I thought he got the worst tone of his career on that recording. 'Nuff said.

I'm sure I could depend on it. I just dont want to.

Never dealt with them.

Been playing 5 years. This should have been a good unit for my bluesy tone, but it isn't.
I dig melodic/proggish rock ala Pink Floyd and Rush, and precision ear candy like Eric Johnson. I love good bluesy guitar solos.
If it were stolen or lost, I would be dissappointed because I didnt get the chance to trade it or sell it first, meaning I. Judging by the reviews here, a lot of people seem to dig this pedal. Whatever.
There are many better OD's out there, including Boss. I would recommend the OD-3 or SD-1 over this. And the SD-1 is cheaper.
But I will be checking out more expensive (and hopefully better sounding)pedals from Visual Sound, and the Reverend Drivetrain. I may even fork out for the Fulltone Fulldrive.

Very easy to set up: Adjust gain to suit, adjust tone (treble boost and roll off only), adjust volume to match straight through signal when effect is off!=EASY!

Using through any number of amps (mainly solidstate though) set to a clean channel. No more noisey than any other amps lead channels (valve or solidstate). Always sounds good, obviously adjustment of amps eq has to be made. Particularly good for crunchy settings although can give a good lead sound by increasing the drive. Doesn't compress and sustain a great deal but when playing at high volumes this is compensated for with natural feedback. You can actually hear the type of guitar you are using i.e. single coils or humbuckers so cant mask a bad guitars shortcomings.

Never let me down so far. I have three on my pedalboard (all set with different drive levels) so if the worst happens I could easily get by.

Never tried, wouldn't bother, too big a company to expect great/fast service. I would probably just buy another.

Play anything-mainly covers. Gives me a good basic tube tone without all the usual valve related problems. Been playing 18 years. Best distortion/overdrive pedal I have owned. Very little (if any) bass roll off compaired with tubescreamers/other boss pedals/turbo rats etc. At low volumes lack of compression/sustain can be a bit of a problem, but cleans up using guitars volume very well and responds to guitar/pickup changes. If lost/stolen would definately buy another, as I said it's the best solid state representation of a tube-like sound I have found thus far (Ive owned and tried dozens and dozens of other pedals).

Three knobs blablabla....easy, okay?

Ok, I have written a review of this pedal before, but I used it in a completely different way back then. I used it to get a Zakk Wylde kind of tone. Wah on at all times, full treble. Treble on my amp was almost down to zero and so was the toneknob on the bluesdriver. Gain all the way up. This gave me a really heavy, saturated overdrive. But since I don't need that sound anymore I now use it in a more regular way, and I like it even better that way! Tone at 9 o clock. Gain at 12. And level at wherever you like it. This gives me kind of a Hendrix clean sound. But if you dig in harder you'll get more overdrive. Great, natural sound.

You know the drill....

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Great!!!!

Just plug it in and you'll figure it out in 10 seconds.

Great for getting good Blues distortion sounds. Especially if you have a hi-wattage tube amp that you only wish you could play at hi volumes for long periods of time without the police showing up. Don't believe those who think they can get punk/metal, there's other pedals for that. Not sure what there smokin. I originally bought the TS-9 without trying it 1st and ended up returning it for this one after hearing a friend of mine play through one. I like it much better. Very versatile from mellow to growly to whiny(in a good way).

It's a Boss. Enough said.

Don't know, Don't care.

Helps me to evoke the sounds that I want when playing blues. Highly recommend it. Don't buy the TS-9 w/o trying this one. I was fortunately able to return mine. I play a Strat, Les Paul, and Guild mostly through a Fender Twin and sometimes a Peavey Delta Blues.

I didn't get any instructions with mine, but it is still very simple. Like another reviewer said, be carful when turning the tone knob past 12:00! An very banal Skreechy sound will emerge... shudder. I heard a guy below say that his took 6 AA batteries to run. Mine runs on a 9v and i was wondering if anyone knows the difference between the two.

When I first played the pedal for about a minute, I was more apathetic then exited (I also heard the "skreechy stuff"). I was thinking about the money I wasted when I was out back hauling planks around. When I came back inside and tried it out some more, hehe, I blithefuly got some pretty cool sounds outa it. Great Blues and Rock tones. It really gave my amp sound much more character, while still keeping my guitar's sound come through true. Yow, I'm a believer. The sound is superb. Incongruous in a room full of them metal people, though.

Boss: You can hammer it, run over it, stuff it in a monkey's stomach and it won't break... and yet for some strange reason they can manage to stop working. Must be them tiny green men

I don't know. Ask my monkey stomach.

Fantastic, incredible value. I'm so happy I got this pedal. My friends have ds1 and ds2s, but I didn't think that they sounded that good. A good buy even for the most parsimonius of misers. If you don't get one, I'll force a tiny green man down your monkey stomach.

30 years ago when all I had was a Germanium Fuzz Face and transistor practice amp I would have killed for a unit like this. Now I have a couple of decent valve amps so this was bought as something to drop into my Boss effects chain to provide a reasonable sound into things like chorus and pitch shifters. It fullfils this role quite well. Having bought a Turbo Tubescreamer and not liked it I bought this without hearing it and was worried it would sound identical. I would summarise the main difference as the TS9DX being OK but too bass light with 3 additional modes with useless bass boost (which curiously add bass but seriously round off the treble) while the BD-2, at mild drive settings has a far better balance and wider frequency range. In terms of absolute quality it sounds particularly good at the onset of break up sounds. With the gain more maxed it sounds synthetic but I don't think this unit was designed for that level of gain anyway. It still lacks the absolute magic of valves - in some situations slightly, at other times significantly. The greatest difference is in its lack of compression. Put a CS3 in front of it (with compression low) and it sounds more realistic, yet at times the dynamic range is quite useful. To a far lesser extent than the TS9DX the unit can still sound a little bass light but I think this is down to me needing to have the bass down on the amp for clearer clean sounds. I do not run this into higher gain channels of the amps as it doesn't achieve anything.

Having recently had a boutique effect with several manufacturing and constructional flaws I'm amazed at how reliable these little beasts are. Have you seen how small the pots are?????

Only tried ordering spares (cables, knobs etc.) and they seem very well set up.

In the context of a transistor emulation of a real valve amp it's probably as good as you will get for now. Works well with other effects. If these are your expectations you will be pleased with it. If you're a beginner, you could probably buy a baby Marshall or Fender for almost the same price, with a distortion circuit designed for the amp and speaker. However the real issue is, would I put my wife though it (hojo 8/31/3001)? On reflection - only if I was using her in a chain of other wives.

Three knobs, gain, level, tone. You can't operate three knobs? Start at zero and work your way around, easy.

Through any amp, providing you adjust the level, you can get awesome tone from this thing. I play it through a Fender Frontman 15R/Ibanez Blazer custom (hum/single/single), and it will give me a huge range of sounds, from light OD to punk metal screech. No noise from the pedal, quiet on/off operation, no clicking, etc.

You never see these second hand in Australia...says a lot for reliability and tone. PLus its a Boss pedal...no worries there either. Should be bulletproof...
I've owned it for 2 1/2 years, and it's not given me one problem.

Never had to talk to Boss, or Roland, or the distributors.

These things are as rare as rocking horse poo second hand...which says a lot. I tried the Boss OD pedals, and Turbo OD's which are way too bitey in tone. The DOD's and RAT's are a lot screechier than this pedal too. For subdued blues power and light OD and fuzz, this rocks. This is also an adequate pedal for bass usage as well, giving a light fuzz when cranked (naturally).

3 knobs unless you're the 4th there should be no problem

Great. I've had a ton of dist pedals, including the much vaunted ibanez tube screamer, for me this is a mile ahead of the pack. However, I agree with the guy who said that it sounds better with his strat than his gibson. with my strat I can get a sound like an HH amp slightly too load. Not distorted, but more edgy than that over compressed dire straits sound that a strat too easily falls into. I run my bass through it too, to give a little edge. I should try running my wife through it!

still works

no idea, probably crap like most companies these days

love it

Very simple unit. Easy to dial in a true blues sound.

I use teles, a '52 reissue and a '73 that both have texas special pickups. I've run the Blues Driver through both my '59 reissue Bassman and my new Blues Jr. It gives a nice biting sound through the Bassman, and I've had to dial the treble down a bit when I go thru this amp. But it gives a perfect "Sky Is Cryin" SRV tone. I've listened to the Bassman totally cranked, and then I've listened to the Blues Driver at a comparable level, and they're real close.

When I play through the Blues Jr., which has a celestion in it, the sound is a lot deeper and not as biting, to be expected from the 12" speaker. All in all, it gives you an excellent Blues tone. This is not a distortion pedal people, and it won't have the sustain or the gain of a standard distortion pedal.

I also combine this pedal with an old RAT distortion pedal that I have, and it significantly enhances the tone of the RAT. It picks up the midrange, and really cuts through the mix, without being obnoxious.

It's a BOSS pedal, so it should be roadworthy. I've only had problems with other pedals so far, not this one.

Not a clue. Never called them

I play mostly blues and classic rock. The pedal allows me to slightly overdrive a clean amp sound without getting too dirty. Of course if you want more dirt, just increase the gain. This pedal IS NOT for heavy metal heads. In my opinion it makes you play better, because you don't have all that distortion to hide behind.

To me. it's perfect for that overdrive/blues sound, and I just use the RAT in conjunction with this when I really want to wail.

Theres 3 knobs, gain, level, and tone. easy, easy easy. very simple to get a good sound but it took 10 min. to find the perfect sound for me, gain all the way up, tone almost all the way to treble and level just loud enough to not piss off the neighbors

IT CAME WITH A BATTERY! WOOOOOOO

I use this with an american strat, and peavey amp or small fender amp. I dont know what those people were talking about saying it was bad, the sound is great! i do wish it had a little more sustain like the last guy so i haveto deduct a point.

this is a boss, total dependency, i would totally gig with no backup, but this wouldnt be my only distortion

Never needed em

This pedal is just great!

is easy, some knobs and jacks

ok...umm...unless u have a mex fender strat and a 30w crate gxsomething..urs or the one ur gonna get probably wont sound like mine. Mines fine, kinda trebly...on my setup it's nothing like what some others describe the sound to be...i.e. acdc or punk like. It mor acts or sounds like a booster, thats all. Any distortion i do get out of it is not to great sounding. I also think it strange that people compliment the sound of it with their gain channel on their amp..it's redundant and makes it unnecessary to have a pedal, something thats supposed to be a convenient way to turn the dist on and off.

ya its dependable..it wouldnt break on a gig or nething like that, but i wouldn't use it

i dont like it too much for a distortion pedal. It just wasn't the sound that i thought i wanted. But this is just for my setup. Maybe itll be great fo urs.

If you are a patience person and dont care about the true blues sound, this pedal is easy to use. The manual have some examples of adjusts, but this is not help very much.

I have 3 guitars: A Gibson SG with 2 humbuckers and 0.10 strings, a Gibson Les Paul Standard with 0.11 strings and a Hand-made strato with alnico single coils pick ups seymour duncan and 0.11 strings. My amp is a peavey classic 50 and i already use the Ibanez Tube King and a Vox Wha . I like to play rock 60's , 70's and blues. Things like ac-dc, aerosmith, purple, foghat, clapton, hendrix, ten years after etc... The Blues Driver is not enough. The sound is poor, but not infludes totaly in the natural sound of the guitar. The BD2 is better with Srat sound, but to me is much treble and mid sound.

In this time, i bought the Tube King and trying to sell the Blues driver.

It's a midle pedal. Not good and not bad. I'm brazilian and live in Sao Paulo city. For me is much difficult to buy different types of pedals, sometimes is much expensive, imagine: In dollars this pedal costs 70, in my country costs 175 !!! UNBELIVABLE !!! And my english is very bad !!! O pior de tudo e que aqui so tem BOSS, qualquer outra marca e algo raro. BOSSta !!!

Three knobs, no less no more... Keep it simple

Good overdrive sound, with a fair amount of guts to it. Tends to be a bit bitey on the bridge pickup of my strat. I use this pedal mainly with the clean channel of my Marshall JCM 900 to get a different overdrive sound than the diirty channel of the Marshall. Gives good blues tone with that set up.

Use it every show, I've had to tighten the input and output sockets a few times but other than that no problems. All pedals should come in metal boxes in my opinion..

Good for a blues sound. I wish it had more sustain however. Sounds great when paired with an old TS 808. Gives a nice overdrive for playing rhythm also. I'd like to see a new improved version come out with a wider tonal range and more sustain. Still a good pedal and worth the money