Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

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.

?

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....

-

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