Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

Very easy... three knobs as descrived previously.

This is a very versatile box. I use it a booster and it retains the cleasn sound and also it can go dirty and fat, very fat. It is a little bit tight though and so it is good for rhythm but solos (not on its own). I run it in series with OS-2 and they make a good team then. Very powerful.

Very realiable... For a while I supplied 15V instead of 9V and it works fine.

Never dealt with them

A useful pedal for any sort of music because of its versatility.

Pretty straight forward. Has level, gain and tone. Gain is what gives you the overdrive (DUH!). I set it to minimum to just slightly more than minimum to get the tone I want. I'm a blues player and it servers me quite well. Finally getting some nice bell like tones from my rig. The manual is ok but not very comprehensive. Experiment and you'll find your tone.

I use an Epiphone Sheraton II with stock pickups (need to changes these) going through a Seymour Duncan 84-50 amp. Also use a noise gate, compressor and EQ. The box is somewhat noisy but the noise gate takes care of that. I'm not trying for a sound of any artist. I'm trying to find a sound that I like and want to present.

It would withstand a nuclear bomb. Yes, I'd use it without backup. However, get an AC adapter. It will eat up batteries.

Don't know. Haven't had to get any support.

I play blues and this is a great match. I wouldn't recommend it for heavy metal or grunge but if you want a nice blues crunch (or even a bit more) it is great.

Volume, Tone and Gain. It's almost as easy as it sounds, but I've found that there are many different sounds to try out on this blue beauty. The manual is reliable just as any Boss manual out there.

I've used it whith a Laney 50 watt amp and a Marshall Valvestate 100 watt amp. It sounds great on both of them. The thick gain sounds fine and it is not that noisy even if the gain and tone are up much.

It's like a Nirvana album. Don't leave home without it!

I play hard rock n'roll punkrock music (Nirvana is the gods), but i also like soft rock like radiohead and smashin pumpkins. Even if my sound often is very crunchy and noisy I like when I have a sound which is not so "super distorted". This pedal is the greatest one I've ever had. I've had a Zoom 505 before and it sucked! This one is 10 times better in sound, reliability, ease of use, and personality. I have also tried several others of pedals like Metal Zone or DS-1 but this is THE pedal for me. It's not that expensive, and I would have bought it even if it was twice as expensive. I really recommend it!

The manuals pretty crap, its suggested settings arent too great, but the pedal's easy enough to use that the manual is irrelevent. 3 knobs, level, tone, gain, very simple.

I use this pedal with a Fender Roadhouse strat and my backup, a squier strat, with a crybaby wah and a fender deluxe 112 plus amp. The pedal's great for producing a good lead tone, its well suited for the sort of hard driving blues stuff I play (SRV, Buddy Guy, Albert King)

Its a boss, its built to withstand nuclear explosions. I use it on gigs without a backup, just got to be sure the battery still has juice in it before a gig.

never dealt with em

its a great pedal for giving some oomph to blues leads, SRV, Buddy Guy type lead tones.

i would say it takes a bit of time to dial in what is right for your personal tastes. it is layed out in the all familiar volume, tone and gain knobs.

i use this pedal with alongside a t.c. chorus, z. vex fuzz factory,z.vex seek wah, and a voodoo labs micro vibe. i run these through a matchless sc 30.no noise added by the blues driver. i find it to be extremely transparent. i spent literally hours testing it along a ts9, a modified ts9, a boss od1, and a fulldrive 2 and the only pedal that beats it,probably, is the fulltone. the gain boost is extraordinary. sounds a billion times more like your guitar and amp than a ts9

everthing seems o.k. i'm not worried about it.

Iv'e never had to.

Iv'e been playing for 16 years. I'm in a band that plays quite a bit around the state. I of course, have purchased a million amps, a million pedals and so on. I can't believe how well this one works for me. it maintains the entegrity of my matchless amp. when i step on it, it sounds like my beautiful matchless with a beautiful drive on top. Not like a gain mixed with my inherent amp sound. I have to admit, i first felt it was just o.k. As an excercise, try this.... It seems most people test an overdrive by listening to their clean sound and then kicking in the overdrive to hear unwanted coloration. sometimes they may listen to what the pedal sounds like regardless of how it might change their overall tone. What i do is set my overdrive the way i like,play for a bit, and then turn it off quickly and listen to the difference between it and the clean sound. It's kind of a backwards way of doing it. but what i find by doing this is that the bluesdriver is very, very transparent. It simply needs to be set properly. I do love the sound of a tubescreamer but it is one sound! the bluesdriver to me beats the tubescreamer. It beas it at mild gain to big sustain.

Keep the tone knob shy of 12 o'clock and your set. Crank up gain for crunch. Crank up volume for power boost. Hit the switch to turn on, hit the switch to turn off. It's simple and it works.

I've got a strat with lace sensors into the blues driver into a peavey classic combo. It's great to use in combination with the gain channel, but only use it for opposites. Combining high pedal gain with high amp gain gave some wacky assymetrical distortion. Not good stuff. I like to use it to overdrive the preamp tubes or to add crunch with the power tubes humming. With the gain past 12 o'clock, it takes on a bit of fuzz. Not like a fuzzface, not a tubescreamer, but somewhere in between. I'd say it's a healthy dose of page and clapton, with a little stevie and jimi thrown in for good measure. Oh yeah, when the tone knob passes 12, some unholy trebly nastiness shows up - avoid at all costs.

I've got a paint chip after a month of use. That's about as bad as its gonna get. If Boss only made tube amps and guitars, we'd all be set.

Not a clue.

Great gain channel imitator. Not quite as warm as a 12AX7, but about as good as it gets. Don't get it if you want a cheaper tubescreamer. This is a mild distortion pedal rather than an overdrive pedal. It is versatile enough to do overdrive duties, but it rocks doing the distortion thing.

Three knobs, didn't need the manual but read it anyway for something to do. Extremely easy to set up.

I'm playing a Rick 620 with vintage/SC's into a Peavey studio pro 122 amp. This pedal definitely warms up that too-clean transistor sound! It's not noisy at all, and definitely gives a blusey tone. I am really impressed with this unit! I run the volume at 9:oo, tone at 2:00 and gain at 1:00. This gives me what I need for break-through leads or blusey chording. I hardly ever use just one pickup, as the vintage single-coils are a bit thin. I adjust the BD-2 to give me my leads when I step on the pedal. One less thing to do or go wrong!

I won't dignify this with an answer!

Not applicable!

I can see this pedal being used for almost any style of music. It can be used for a nice moderate distortion or as a clean boost for leads. This was my second Boss pedal, the first being an OD-3. I liked the OD-3 until I got the BD-2, and then I wasn't quite so enamored with the OD-3. I considered selling the OD-3 to buy a DS-1 for a harder-type distrotion until I tried running the BD-2 into the OD-3. WOW! I have no need for a heavier distortion pedal. This combination will peel the paint off the walls! Now this works out as a very nice combination. The BD-2 for blusey chording and lead boost, the OD-3 for heavier overdrive in the background and the two together for a really heavy, nice sounding distortion. Sometimes you just get lucky! Would I buy it again? Does a squirrel have climbing gear? I play a mixture of country, country rock, vintage rock (50,60, up to about 1970 when all the good music stopped! I may sell other pedals, but I'd never, ever sell this one. It's become my most-used effects pedal and I just love it!

I find the Blues Driver easy to use; the instruction booklet is useful, but the workings are rather intuitive. I have always liked the straight-forward Boss approach to switching...no nonsense here.

Primarily I use the Blues Driver with my strats thru a fender tube amp (Super Reverb, a Vibrolux, or a Deluxe, depending on the size of the club). It should be noted that my strats are customized with P90s in one and Rio Grandes Muy Grandes in the other (with a P90 in the neck). The BD really needs different settings for these pickups, depending how you want to use it. I learned that the BD really didn't get the sound I wanted for leads, but it was great for boosting my rhythm work (I primarily play rhythm and 2nd lead in our band).
For me, turning the tone and gain over 12 noon produced a harsh, muddled, and messy sound without a real tone or sustain. I didn't like it, although I kept working with it. I eventually got another pedal for my lead work. But I use the BD to boost up my gain and tone for rhythm. Typically, I set the level about 10 to 11 am, and the tone and gain just shy of 12 noon. It works well with my other effects this way (delay, chorus, tubescreamer).

I have found the BD to be wonderfully predictable. This is another reason why I keep working with it. It retains the sound of the pickup and the amp, enhances it nicely in the way I want, and it does so consistently. Like your standard Boss pedal, it is rugged and made to last. I run it from a power supply and have never had a problem with it. I routinely gig without a backup, other than the other effects that I use.

I have never had to work with Boss for support or repairs.

I like the Blues Driver. For me, I like using it for my rhythm and an occasional lead here and there, but it is not well suited for the tones I want when I am to step up and carry a solo. My band is primarily blues/southern/roots oriented, and a vintage, soulful tone is what I want. I love the dependability of it and carry it as standard gear for my work. It is the first pedal in my chain, right beside the power supply!

Its really easy to get a good sound out of this box. There are 3 knobs. Level, Tone, Gain. There is a manual included, and there are some useful settings. But you dont really need the manual to get the sound you want.

I have a Strat with two single coils and a DiMarzio Air-Zone hunbucker at the bridge. I run the strat into a Marshall Valvestate. This pedal is absolutely great. Its the best overdrive pedal I've ever owned. I tried the Danelectro Daddy-O, and it doesn't even come close to the BluesDriver. The BD-2 gives me the fat overdrive I need. Its great as a booster, or you can use it as a regular overdrive. In both ways, this pedal can give you a good sound for playing Blues/Rock. It's definitely not a fuzzy pedal as some people say it is. It's not particularly noisy, and if you're using humbuckers, it's not noisy at all. You can get a variety of sounds out of this baby, everything from warm overdrive to rock lead overdrive.

If it's a Boss, you can definitely depend on it. I would use it without a backup on a gig.

Never dealt with the company.

I play Rock/Blues. This pedal is the one and only overdrive pedal I have. Its all I need. I also own a Digitech RP-6, and a Daddy-O. BluesDriver is the only overdrive I use. Nothing else I tried can compete with this pedal. If it was stolen or lost, I would definitely buy it again.

Three knobs and a footswitch. How hard could that be? The Gain knob covers a lot of range, and it is nearly impossible to get a bad sound out of this little box. The battery is well concealed, but it's still relatively easy to get at. All in all very nice.

I use this pedal between my guitars (Strat w. Texas Specials and a stock Les Paul) and my amp (Marshall Valvestate). I also use it to get a nice overdrive on my battery-powered portable amp, and occasionally on other people's amps. This pedal is ideal for pushing a crunchy sounding amp into a wailing lead sound, or crunching up a hyper-clean amp such as my portable. The BD seems to have been designed with all-tube combos in mind, since it does a really nice job of driving something like a Fender Bassman into sweet overdrive.
The actual tone that comes out of this pedal is amazing! Plugged into my Marshall (set at a moderate gain level), I can get that wailing "Comfortably Numb" lead sound on the Strat. The gain is smooth and round, with no harshness whatsoever. This pedal works great as a solo boost box with the gain set relatively low and the volume up a bit. If you're looking for any sort of heavy distortion out of a pedal, this is not your cup of tea. The BD is at its best as an enhancement to existing gain, or a driver for a clean tube amp. Very very impressive.
Noise is a minor factor when the pedal is on, but a decent noise gate should clear this up (something every serious player should have). However, it should be noted that BOSS kicks butt when it comes to static, so this is probably as good as you can get in an overdrive pedal.

All the BOSS pedals are indestructible, and this one is no exception. An AC adapter is a must-have if you don't want to keep buying batteries, but in general battery consumption is pretty good. I have had no problems with this unit and I don't expect to anytime soon.

Never dealt with them for reasons explained above.

This is the most solid, reliable, useful piece of gear I own. I would definitely buy it again. The sound is second to none, and the overall quality of the pedal is superb. I only wish all gear were designed this well; maybe I wouldn't spend so much money replacing disappointing products.

Three knobs just like any overdrive/distortion pedal. Came with a decent manual with some illustrated suggestions for dial settings to achieve particular sound styles. Onward. . .

I play a mexi/strat with a Seymour Duncan Lil'59 in the bridge position with a dial a split/tap. Standard Single coils in the Mid/Neck position. I plug into a Vox Wah and then straight into a Peavy Classic 30 w/1-12 extention cab. I retubed the 30 and I think it sounds great. I use the Blues Driver as the first pedal in my effects loop in front of a DOD Ice Box Chorus, and a Boss Reverb/Delay. I don't like the Blues Driver inline because the colors the sound of the amp too much and is too noisy. The effects loop drives the pedal with the natural sound of the amp(that I like).This drives the pedal with a hotter signal so pedal is pretty quiet in this position. I use the Pedal two main ways. First I use it to slightly boost and dirty up the clean channel in the amp. Gives just a slight grit to chords and slightly rolls off the bottom end. Second, I use it as a boost switch to the Lead channel. I set my peavey up with the mids just slightly scooped and love the sound. But punch in the Blues Driver for leads and you get a little boost and some midrange punch that just sings. Very Nice. I have the level on the Blues Driver set at about 10:00 and the gain at about 11:00. Too much gain and the sound turns to absolute mud. The pedal will do a pretty good Clean Boost. I just had to dirty it up abit and the results are great. I suggest anyone with a Tube amp to put your effects in the loop if you have one. This will keep your axe/amp sound as it should be and just lay the effects on top. The Blues Driver seems to work equally well with the Single Coils as it does with the Humbucker.

I don't gig. I am a basement jammer. I just feel lucky that I have time to play with music. It keeps me sane. Boss is solid as a rock and I have never had any trouble with Roland/Boss equipment. Used to beat the hell out of my Pad80 Percussion Module and it is still holding up.

I always buy from local music stores. I know I will be treated well. I occasionally pay a little more than I see advertised in the Discount Stores, but I don't have to pay shipping/handling so it all levels out. Support your local music stores!

I play mostly Rock -n- Roll, Modern Blues, and do some jazzy noodling. I have been playing guitar about 4 years. I have been playing drums for 20 years and the guitar has been a refreshing challenge. I like that this pedal can give a nice boost without having the gain up too high. Easy to get a little grit on a bunch. I leave the Tone Knob at 12:00. This pedal is great in my setup and I think it would give a SS amp a nice Punch.

Three knobs, gain, level and tone. Does anyone really need manual for a pedal like this? Metal casing, rugged enough like other Boss pedals.

I read previous submission by other musicians here, and it doesn't seem like a lot of people really like this thing. Well, here's what I have to say about this pedal. Yes, this pedal is not comparable to Tube Screamer or any other bluesy overdrive pedal. It's not a bad pedal, though, it has its own sound and won't really duplicate the sound of other pedals. You can come close, thought it's won't copy the sound. So here's the good way to use this pedal. Like other musicians here already noted, this pedals has its own tone and it will change the entire sound. But if you happen to like the sound that this pedal creates, then, you can use it! Eventhough this pedal is named "Blues Driver", you can consider this pedal as a fuzz pedal. The only problem I found with this pedal is this unit is pretty bad at tonal response. Very limited range. Specially on the lower frequency. It'll cut off much of lower frequency when specially playing on a strat, neck position. So it's kinda drag. But you can use this pedal as a booster and it works pretty good. It's not a clean boost, but just like any other fuzz pedals (Big Muff, Fuzz Face and others), it can push your guitar singal to over way over there than TS-9 or any other over drive would do. So if you want a huge boost, this pedal will do pretty good job. I happen to find some nice Hendrixy fuzz sound with this pedal and I decided to use this pedal for just that purpose. Oh here's another thing that you should know...is that this pedal does NOT have true bypass, and if you are picky about guitar sound, you'll realize some of your tonal loss because of this pedal in your guitar singal chain. But as long as you are not using this pedal with stock wah pedals(like Vox and Crybaby which those wah pedals kill the sound just by plugging them in your signal chain), it'll alright. I mean sometimes you have to compromise on something to get other. Anyway give it a try. Since you spent some cash on this pedal, don't just give up. Tweak around see what you can do. There are so many pedals out there...from bad ones to good ones, all of them have their own good and bad. If you are patient enough, you'll find a good thing about this pedal, too.

It's tough as hell. I've dropped, kicked, scratched, and all that, but it's still working. But backup is always neccessary of you are using this pedal as your main sound.

Never dealt with Boss customer support.

So in my opinion, this pedal happen to be quit a piece. It doesn't sound impressively great, but it doesn't sound too bad either, and as far as I'm concerned, it is doing pretty good job keeping me happy with the sound it can offer, so I think I'm going to give this pedal something higher than 6.

Basic same three controls (level, tone, drive) as a zillion other overdrive/distortion boxes out there.

Have used it with Fender Blues Deluxe and HR Deville and Marshall JCM800 combo. First off, this thing is not transparent tonally at all, imposes its own EQ which is heavy on the bass, scooped mids, and very bright highs, therefore when you step on it your overall sound changes considerably. Backing off on the tone rolls back the highs, but you still get a pretty scooped EQ sound. With tone at 11:00 or more, the highs get pretty severe. With regard to overdrive/distortion quality, it has fairly authentic tube preamp sound when played through a tube amp. Has a gritty, "loose" sound and feel. I haven't tried it through SS amp. Sounds best at lower to mid-gain, which is where you'd play it if you wanted true classic blues tone. At higher gain starts to sound more trashy and harsh than saturated and sweet. At lower gain sounds good on neck and middle pickups of Strat, you can achieve the full, gritty, throaty chords and low notes and those "whistling" Strat neck pickup lead tones on the high notes. On Strat bridge pickup, scooped EQ and severe highs make guitar sound just too thin and harsh. With humbucker guitar, again unit sounds best on neck pickup. While bridge HB pickup fills in the mids a bit, still sounds too thin in the middle, and the bass becomes boomy. Tweak amp to compensate, and you lose best clean settings when you disengage the BD-2. However, get the amp turned up and you will sound a little Marshally. But it doesn't offer any improvement at all to my master-volume JCM800 as far as "Marshall" sound goes, to the contrary, sounds cheesy when compared to the real deal. With Marshall, best used with clean channel with lower-gain setting to give a low-gain blues sound, let the Marshall preamp handle the higher-gain stuff. The Fender amps are already pretty big in the bottom and the BD-2 becomes a bit too much.
I don't know if this unit is aimed at the TS-9 or not. But it is not comparable at all. The TS-9 has a much more neutral EQ, only a mild mid-upper-mid hump, therefore you don't get a radical EQ change when you step on it. The TS-9, which I bought after the BD-2, is smoother and more authentically tubey sounding. Even with the gain maxed, it still has a sweet rather than harsh sound. I also just got a Fulltone Fulldrive 2, which is comparable to the TS-9 but more transparent EQ, refined and flexible. Now the BD-2 sits in its box. I suppose I'll sell it some time.

Like all Boss units, it's well built with heavy cast aluminum shell. Has never failed in any way.

I've never had a problem with a Boss unit which I felt was the company's fault, so I've not had occasion to seek support.

I play blues and classic rock. This unit seems to be aimed at those styles. But my comments on sound above state how well I think the BD-2 comes to the target.
Been playing 23 years. Have been through a number of OD/Dist/Fuzz boxes including MXR Distortion +, original yellow Boss Overdrive, original Big Muff, BD-2, Tech 21 XXL, Ibanez TS-9, Fulltone Fulldrive2, DOD something or other, can't remember, plus gone through phases where I just relied on amp for overdrive. Out of all of those units, I'd say my order of favorites is (1) the Fulltone, (2) the TS-9, (3) the BD-2. My experience is that some amps get their own GREAT natural overdrive, but even with those you can use a stompbox to increase flexibility -- its like adding another channel to the amp. I've gotten to the point to where my evaluation of an OD pedal is based (1) on how much it changes your EQ, i.e., I don't want to compromise my favorite clean sounds to compensate for EQ imposed by a pedal; and (2) on how sweetly and smoothly the unit breaks up. In other words, I really want a pedal that you could mistake for the real preamp of a good amp and complements a good amp, not tries to compete with it. In this respect, the BD-2 gets a 5. With respect to overall durability, reliability and value (my new favorite, the Fulldrive 2, set me back $200!), it gets a 7.

It takes about 2 seconds to figure this thing out..

The sound quality is good, reminds me of Clapton on the Blues Breakers disc... gives you the 60-70's bluesy sound..

it's a boss, i've packed this thing to school for the past 2 years, throwen in around my locker, rolled it down the hall way, flushed it down the.... well you get the idea =)

I've never needed it..

ahhh... it's just a great pedal.

u don t have to be too smart to find crunchy blues sounds too easy to use...

i have jackson and an amp of saund(made in turkey)150watts i have found cool bluesy srv buddy guy sounds gain over 8 gives a cool hard rock sound it can also be useful for those who plays pop-rock stuff it s an overdrive for soloists

no suprises no shockin problems just a cool overdrive i m lookin forward to enjoy it on a gig

BOSS...problem?????

i play soul,blues and rnb i think bd 2 is the goal in the net it gives me what i want...

Easy to dial in the sounds you are attempting to approximate, (within reason) I found it thinned my tone a little, although it was easy to tweak. The manual is helpful for suggestions, although with 3 knobs (gain, tone, level) I fail to see how complicated it could be to find an acceptable setting. Generally, this is as easy to use as any 3-knob overdrive pedal.

I use all kinds of guitars & several amps, but bought this to put a little grit into my too-clean, too-loud Fender Twin. For this purpose it worked well. Actually, I used it to emulate a pre-amp a few times. This worked well, too. The BD-2 is as quiet as any good overdrive pedal. But I found it made my tone a little thinner, even when I dialed the tone knob all the way down. My goal was to use this as my light overdrive, a counterpoint to my heavey overdrive (a TS-9). Generally, it does what it's supposed to do. I ended up getting a cheap used Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, and prefer it to the BD-2 for this role.

Totally dependable. No surprises, no backups necessary.

N/A

I play original blues-flavored modern rock. The BD-2 was acceptable for a light overdrive. I found something else that did the job better, but I might keep the BD-2 around as an alternative. I didn't like the brightness of the Blues Driver, it just sounds a little... almost "plasticky." I wanted a truer "earthy" sound. I think a giant like Boss could have done better, but my other Boss gear has had the same sonic features. Maybe I am just not so thrilled about Boss-flavored sounds? I dunno. Last year, I would have said it was great. This year I can live without it.

Not hard! 3 Knobs, level, tone and gain. Step on it to activate!

I've heard comparisons to the TS9 but honestly, this pedal has far more gain and can also get ultra trebley. I have both pedals and use this one for my main overdrive set roughly at what the manual calls its "British sound", and then use my TS9 as a boost for leads. So when people start comparing the two, don't be mislead, they are both great pedals at what they do, but I believe their EQ and gain characteristics are totally different. The blues driver never gets noisy with my strat, however, with my Les Paul I do get a fair amount of squealing when pushing it hard. Solution? When I play my Les Paul I usually turn down the gain or adjust my guitars volume knob. Incedently, my setup is: guitar(62 reissue strat or Les paul)- wah wah - TS9 - blues driver - boss DM3 Delay - Fender 59 reissue Bassman. The BD2 is really a fine pedal you should at least consider even if blues is not your thing. Don't get confused with the title "BLUES" Driver, I successfully use it in my cover band(mostly modern), and in my original band(loud blues/rock). However, its not a metal pedal by itself. Oh, by the way, easy on the tone setting, I usually set mine at about 10 o'clock.

Had it for about 2 months, no problems yet, Boss products dont fail very often do they?

N/A

This pedal suits my playing just fine... at the moment! I say this because we guitarists can't help ourselves when it comes to equipment, always trying new(or old) pedals etc. But the Blues driver will do me for a while. If I did buy another overdrive pedal, it wouldn't be this one because I like exploring and changing my sound. I would keep it however, while still collecting and changing pedals to have more at my disposal for different ocassions.

Very easy to use: Level, Tone, and Gain.

Sounds "OK" through both solid state and tube amps. Probably better for tube though. It is similar to the Ibanez TS's, however, tends to be a bit more harsh. (not as warm)

Is new, so I have never had a problem.

Boss is pretty good so I would expect good service if I ever needed it.

Is very good for Blues/Rock. No good for metal. I would probably recommend it to those with a solid state amp that want to emulate tube blues sound. I would'nt buy it again only because I am already getting rid of it for a TS-9. Like I said earlier, it is simply Boss's stab at the TS series, and almost does it. I have been a Boss fan forever and always buy and collect Boss products, but this one is not a classic.

Real simple 3 knobs: Tone, Level, Gain. Boss Manual's are always good with giving you suggestions and getting different sounds with the pedals

I play a Gibson Nighthawk Studio w/ 3 pickups, and a Fender Bullet through a Crate solid state stack. This pedal is very quiet even on high gain settings. This pedal gives you great tube tone even though there is now tube. This pedal sounds fat all the time on all the settings. I can not find any setting on this pedal that sounds bad. If you want great blues tone or great tube sound buy this pedal. And this pedal nails the sound of a tube breaking up. I listen to hard rock music, Korn, Deftones, Limp Bizkit, Helmet, and Hed(pe). You really cant get the distortion produced by these artists, but if you use it with for example the metal zone, it really gives you thick and warm distortion.

As with all Boss products, I don't even need to send in the warranty card. I trust Boss products so much I got the store's demo. You know the one of the board. and I still refuse to send in the warranty card.

Never had to deal with them

Like I said I mostly play Hard rock but I also play alot of jazz and blues. this pedal can deliver that SRV-like tone, which is why I bought this pedal. I've been playing for over 3 years, I also own Korg Hyper Distortion, Boss: Metal Zone, Super Phaser, Fuzz. If it got stolen I would definintly buy it again. It's cheap and most importantly it sounds great A big thumbs up to Boss for making this pedal sound so great.

It's got three knobs: Level, tone and gain. Very easy to use. Nice manual too!

My setup: A strat, a Dunlop JH-1 Wahwah, sometimes a Boss HM-2 (For metal) and a BD-2 (For everything else) through a Fender Champion 110. The BD-2 sounds great, as long as I keep the tonecontrol down. It's almost at it's lowest point. This way it gives me a real fat sound. Not fuzzy like some other reviewers said. I keep gain at maximum. if I need less gain I turn down the volume on my guitar. Ofcourse this will work better on lower gain-settings, where you can even get a clean sound. The BD-2 isn't exceptionally noisy. No more than other distortion or overdrive units.

Boss......who needs a backup.

You can use it for every style of music, except metal. It's great for blues, hardrock etc...I would buy it again, though I really hope boss will do something about the tone control, which is to trebly.

Three knobs: level, tone, gain. If you can operate an amp, you should be able to figure this one out.

I am going to return it because it sounds way too much like my BOSS DS-2 Turbo Distorton, but I like the sound I get from both. The BD-2 has a lot of fuzz in the gain, which I like. This sounds especially cool on the lower notes. The only thing I don't like is that you really have to crank up the gain or your poer chords will fall apart and sound tinny and metallic.

It's a BOSS. I have been using boss for like five years and never had any problems

You shouldn't have to call them, I never have with any of my pedals.

Like I said before good for Blues and a fuzz petal, it just sounds too much like my DS-2 Turbo Distortion.

With a Les Paul, set everything at 12:00. Perfect amount of crunch yet retaining definition. Might want to roll tone back to 9:00, however.

This guitar thrives on neck-pickup-position lead tones (Strat or Paul) and chunky chords. My only complaint about the sound is that it's a bit piercing on the bridge setting. If you roll the tone back too much, however, you lose cut. To my ears, it sounds just like a vintage Fender Bassman cranked, which is its intended purpose. BTW, I use a Les Paul or Strat through a 1965 Deluxe Reverb. Works wonderfully with both, but possibly a little thin with the strat. I use it in conjunction with a compressor pedal for my lead tone. This way, I can get sustain without saturating the sound. It does however, have plenty of gain if you want it. Conversely if you want a volume boost, this unit would punish any preamp.

I've never had any problem with any Boss pedal ever.

Never needed to call them

I own this and a TS-9. Somewhere between them lies the perfect sound. If I had to choose, I would go with the Boss because it sustains better and gives you more volume and gain options if you want it. Also the TS-9 has an annoying amount of midrange but lacks highs and lows, the Boss has plenty of bass, but could use a little more mids and slightly less top end. I play alternative rock, BTW, but strive for a polished, liquid tone.

Level, tone, drive.

This is a great pedal. Despite it's moniker, this unit has the perfect amount of crunch for pop and pop-punk with a nice midrange hump. harmonics cut thru nicely at higher gain settings and palm mutes sound great thru my JCM800's clean input. Probably one of the most versatile overdrive/distortion units on the market. At lower gain settings it's great for what it's designed for - tasty blues. Higher gain settings will give you hard rock or punk. The only thing you can't get is a harsh scooped "teen eq" metal sound, which I hate anyway. If you want that, get a Metal Zone. This pedal is distortion on the creamier side, rich with harmonics and superb note definition but with a throaty crunch as well.

BOSS!

This pedal is great for distorted power pop. This is a truly versatile pedal with great rich shimmering sound quality.

Update- see my last review.

I finally got the Mesa V-Twin pedal, and I was blowna way by it. the BD-2 is very tube-like for a solid state pedal, but nothing is more tube-like than tubes. With my PRS, the BD-2 sounds almost like a fuzzbox, even with the tone on zero ( I run the gain at 10 though). The V-twin has about the same range of gain on the Blues channel, just a little bit less. The difference is no matter how much gain you run on the Mesa, it still sounds good. With my '68 SG (p-90s) the BD-2 sounds great. That was the only guitar I had when I bought it, so I was happy. It still sounds great, but not as good as the PRS/MESA.

ACtually, I'm keeping it just in case a tube dies in the V-Twin and I can't get another one quick enough.

Update- see my last review.

I don't need anything else, I have 2 out of the 3 best pedals on the market. The MESA is first, the MAtchless is second, and the BD-2 is third. If it were lost or stolen, i might buy one, but I might buy the Matchless, depending on how much cash I have. It's a great pedal, and in its price range, it's the best (depending on yer guitar) but it's not the best out there. If you have cash to burn, get the V-Twin. It just has a much more natural sound.

Pretty straight forward... Typical for an OD pedal: Level, Tone, Gain.

Generally speaking, it's very similar to the TS-5/9/808 vibe, except for... 1) the ability to dial in more gain. 2) more bottom end.
It can be a little "fuzzy" at the extreme gain settings. In fact, at the max setting, it sounded like a TS-_ in parallel with a fuzzbox!
Seems a little noisier than a TS-_, but I'm setting it with more gain than a TS-_ delivers, too.
Tone control sweep seems ridiculously bright. Unusable for my purposes beyond 10:00. Also, not quite as warm as a TS-_, but still very usable and pleasing.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. It has the sonic additions to the TS-_ that I was looking for.
My settings are as follows: Level: 10:00-11:00, Tone: 9:00, Gain: 3:00.
These settings, into a Fender-style tube amp, yield a Larry Carlton "On Solid Ground"-type tone and feedback.

Boss stompboxes are great as far as reliability! I really like the footswitch - it doesn't give a false "switch" - you can count on it to switch when you stomp on it.

I haven't had any correspondance regarding this pedal, but I have for another in the past. The folks didn't necessarily have the technical expertise, but they were friendly and sent out a schematic pretty quickly. Not bad...

I'd buy it again, as long as the price was reasonable. For more money, I'd buy a Fulltone Fulldrive II. But for <$90, and for the reliability, it's among the best if you're looking for a good meat 'n' potatoes tone.

Set everything at a little before 12 O'Clock, and have at it!

I trashed my 'potato bug' Tube Screamer for one of these. I play a Strat thru a silver-faced Fender Deluxe Reverb. For a punchy, crisp, warm blues tone to complement a Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Magic Sam style, this is the one. Responds nicely to pick attack and guitar volume settings. Not one trace of generic Stevie Ray tone in here like the Tube Screamer somehow adds to anything played through it. Essential to beef up a fender-on-fender tone without the annoying thin-ness of the Tube Screamer.

Seems quite reliable. I like metal housings.

Beefy metal housing, easy battery access, straightforward design. Good sound.
This box has become an essential element of my tone recipe. Again, for the fender-on-fender player who is not interested in a stevie ray tone, this box deserves a good look.
This box has also held its own vs an Expandora Pedal and a Fulltone drive unit, and a RealTube unit as well that I've tried.
My overall rating is in relation to other overdrive pedals, not this pedal vs a vintage Tweed Bassman amplifier.

This thing is as simple and as complicated to use as you would ever want. (why does DOD insist on using stupid names like 'stupid' and 'butt'?) Boss keep it just how the majority of people like it, level, tone and gain. Beautiful.

I tried this unit in series with other stomp boxes that were supposed to be the best (ie tech 21 XXL and Bixonic expandora) and every time I stepped on one of them I found myself wanting to jump back on the BD-2. It sounded warmer, clearer, it had a better frequency response and it responded to my playing nuances better. It is a rhythym players dream. Any tone you want, this has it. The gain control is very dynamic.

I cannot really comment on long term reliability but I can say that after being a recent convert to the BOSS family (I started with the TR-2 tremolo) any other pedals I buy from now on will be BOSS.

I never expect I will heave to go down this road. Stomp boxes dont get any tougher.

I have just undergone an extensive search through at least 15 distortion/overdrive pedals ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous and this was by far the best. It has it all in the one box. If you want the dynamic playability of say Johhny Greenwood of Radiohead or the crowd-pleasing rhythym of Swervedriver, get this pedal.

Easy- 3 knobs. No stupid names for them (like DOD pedals), just level, tone, and drive.

I love this thing. The only effects I use are this and a Crybaby, and it's all I need. There's not a bad sound in it. You can change the amount of distortion just by changing how hard you dig in with your pick. The reason I'm only giving it a 9 is I'v found one pedal that's better- The Mesa Boogie V-Twin. too bad it costs 3 times as much.

You couldn't break it if you tried. I'd definately gig without a backup.

Never needed them.

I wouldn't buy it again, because: 1. it will never break, and 2. If I ever buy another overdrive/distortion pedal, it will be the V-Twin. If it got stolen and I didn't have $300, I guess I'd get another one. I would definately buy other Boss pedals if I need more effects.

Very simple to operate (like all Boss units). No goofy names for the controls, just Level, Tone and Drive

I dunno. After reading all the (mostly) glowing reviews here I decided to give the BD-2 a try but I was somewhat disappointed. The salesman I spoke with assured me that this unit blows the Ibanez TS-9 away, but try as I might I couldn't get a sound out of it that I liked. It seemed very trebly and brittle even with the tone control rolled back. At higher gain levels, it began sounding fuzzy. Not what you'd expect from a bluesy tube amp. I used it on both channels of my Marshall Valvestate with no luck. I suspect, however, that if you're willing to fiddle with it for long enough, you can coax some pretty sweet sounds out of it. But for all the hype from the salesman, I wasn't very impressed. The TS-9 blew the BD-2 away.

My dog uses Boss pedals as chew toys. I just borrow them from her once in a while when I feel like playing. I suspect the roaches would be able to live in these things after nuclear holocaust.

Never need to deal with them.

I returned the pedal because I liked the Tube Screamer so much more. However, this pedal is definetly worth a look given that so many people are raving about it. Overall, it gets a seven for effort.

Look, three knobs (level, tone, and gain), one switch, that's it! It doesn't matter where you leave the settings, you will get a kick ass tone.

O.K., I love this pedal. I have a Jackson Preformer PS-4 with humbuckers running through a Fender Champion 110 25 watt transitor amp. I thought my clean tone was good before... now it kicks ass! I use the pedal primarily as a booster pedal. It smooths out and fattens up your sound. I like it best with the gain turned up to 9:46 (ha ha, the tone turned up to 9:00 and the level up to 12:00. Obviously setting will vary due to your own set up but this gives me a little crunch when I hit it hard. I is great as a straight distortion pedal or tube anp simulator but it also brings alot of variety to my other effects. It gives my RAT distortion a much more tuby feel. It boosts up my wah signal. It is very quiet. I love it.

Yes, no questions asked. Because I bought this pedal, I do not have to go out and get a more expensive amp to get a great tone.

You can't get much simpler than this, except in maybe an MXR unit.

For the type of pedal, it's incredibly quiet, IMHO, but... I think it sounds great with my Strat. It'll handle the highs of the bridge pu, and the meaty lows of the neck. It retains the classic Strat neck pu tone that many other distortion I have found take away.

It's a Boss. But, I've not had it long, so I can't say from experience with this peticular one.

I don't ever forsee this happening, but a 5 year warrantee is nice to have in the back of your mind...

What can I say, I think it's a beautiful pedal. Although it is not something for all people. I'd say you have to have blues influence to appreciate the thing.

Three knobs: Tone, Gain, and Level.

It's only noisy when close to the amp, other than that it would depend more on your pu(eg hum cancelation...) All settings do not sound great on all guitars, for example, I tested this unit with a tele, it fattened her up and gave her some real nice gain sounds and dirty ones too. However, when plugging it in using my strat, it wasn't as effective. In other words, had I tested this pedal using a strat, I probably wouldn't have purchased it, It's a good thing I own a tele though. I'l rate this for a tele:

Yes, I owned boss pedals before and have never experience a problem.

I suppose

As mentioned above, for my tele, this pedal sounds fantastic. I give that rythme early stones growl, I love that stlye so I dig this pedal.

As many have stated, this is one of the finest distortion boxes you can find. The manual explains the basics and gives a few sample settings, but you really don't need it. Three knobs (level,tone,gain) so it doesn't get much simpler than that.

With the gain cranked you can expect a bit of noise, but no shock there. As far as the sound goes, it is superb acroos the board. Everything from a warm fuzz to an attacking overdriven growl. With active pick-ups you might want a noise gate, but that's totally dependent on the sound you are looking for. This effect can cover a wide range of musical styles, although it may not suit you if heavy metal or grunge are your cup of tea. I have been using it in combination with the Contour setting on my amp and the sustain is endless. It gives that warm, tube distortion that translates into an incredibly "fat" sound. If this pedal doesn't sound good with your amp, buy a new amp...

It's a BOSS! Built like a tank with an attitude, so I see no need for a backup.

Never called them, but it would be nice if they spruced up the Web page.

I would definitely buy this pedal again! IMHO this is as good as distortion gets. As stated above, it may not be suited for heavy metal, but in all other categories it flat out excels.

Three knobs - Level, Gain, and Tone, and one on/off switch. It's the easiest-to-use thing I own

This little box is perfect for what I do. I use it to boost the gain and volume of my Marshall Valvestate for soloing. The tone is fat, smooth, and sustaining when combined with the Drive channel of my Marshall, and it works beautifully on all three pickups (Strat with Texas Specials). There is a tiny bit of noise, but that is to be expected from an overdrive pedal.

Boss pedals are absolutely indestructible. This one is no exception.

Never needed help with this bad boy.

Absolutely perfect. Worth every penny.

I fell in love with this unit the minute I plugged it into my Mesa Boogie .50 Caliber.I hardly tweeked it kept most of the controls dead center and got a great blues/southern rock tone from my 79 Fender Strat.I hardly refer to manuals at the best of times but haning read it I guess its as clear as a manual should be.

not particularly noisy unless your pickups are unshielded or your amps earthing is screwed up. I find this more silent than the Boss Od 2 and the Sans Amp 9 (original) which has to be gated heavily when I plug into a mixing board. What I really love about the BD 2 is that you can back off your guitars volume pot to about 7 or 8 to get that semi clean rhythm/ lead sound and then kick the volume to full for that "rip out solo sound ".The controls respond excellently.

I,ve used the BD 2 on quite a few gigs now and its been extremely dependable I'd like to get one more for backup just incase I loose it.I'd also like to explore the possibility of using 2 BD 2's on different settings.

Ive never had a problem with Boss / Roland products so Ive never had to call them ( my trustworthy GP 8 still gives me a killer chorus sound in the studio.

I ddefinitelty buy one again, actually I wish Boss had made the BD 2 earlier so I wouldn't have wasted money buying the assortment of overdrive/ distortion pedals that I have. I play the blues and this really helps me dig and 'squeeze out the tone from my guitar(s)."Blues guitarists this pedal is a must."

This is one of the easiest pedals to use. There are three knobs (level, tone, and gain) and two jacks (input and output). That's it. At any setting, this pedal gives you a great tone. Adjusting the knobs merely changes the color of the tone. With the gain up high, and a high tone, you get ripping leads, and with a medium to low tone and almost no gain, you get a fat, deep, crunchy blues tone for rhythms. The manual is quite helpful; it gives you a few useful settings, but some of the coolest ones aren't in there. You need to play with the knobs for the sound that you like.

The sound on this pedal is outstanding! No matter how you adjust it, you always get a great tone. When you combine the different colors and sounds you can get from adjusting your pickups and your amp with this pedal, you can attain anything from a screaming yet full Hendrix tone to a mellow, lightly crunchy, deep, tubey BB King sound. You can also play with the volume knob on your guitar in accordance with the level knob to get different amounts of "gruffiness."

It's a Boss. These things could be dropped off a building and still work.

Never needed 'em, so I couldn't tell ya!

If you like rhythm and blues, mellow crunchy tones, full sounds, or flexibility in tone, this is the BEST pedal out there! GET IT! You can get a bassy, fat rhythm sound, with little distortion, or you can get a wailing lead sound with great sustain (or anything in between).

Three knobs -- Very easy

Does exactly what it is advertised to do. Has a ton of gain available if needed! Does everything from slight crunch distortion a Marshall Stack, although I am feeding it with a compressor, which increases the distortion and sustain. Great for a basic Rock and Roll Guitar sound, but best when used for subtle overdrive, leaving the heavy distortion for pedal designed for heavy distortion. As advertised, all picking nuance is preserved, even at higher gain settings.

BOSS says it all

Being a customer rep at Boss must be a very relaxing job.

It's a Strat player "gotta have". Works very well with my explorer as well, if a limiter is used as a pre. A metal player with a light touch might be disappointed though.

The pedal is easy to use. Three knobs, one for output level, another for tone and one for gain. The manual is simple to understand and recommends a few settings for you to try.

Firstly , the level control has lots of guts. To get the effect level to match the clean signal level the knob has to be put at about 11 o'clock. If you put it any more clock wise you get quite a large signal boost. I reackon that if you even had the gain at zero (ie no distortion) you'd overdrive a valve preamp into distortion easily. Secondly, the tone control is very treblely. I found it painful to have it set past 12 o'clock. I think the pedal must of been designed by an old rocker who had spent too much time in front of 200W stacks. Personally , I found I had to have the tone control turned to 10 o'clock or less to get warmth out of the effect. Lastly, the gain control has a nice wide width of effect. at 11 o'clock it gives an edge of disortion to chords and to the more agressively picked lead solos. If it is turned much past 12 o'clock it makes the guitar wail with a very bluesy feel. Also the sustain significantly increases so there must be some compression in there somwhere. The tone produced when I use the neck pick up (S. Duncan vintage staggered) of my strat when the pedal was set with tone at about 10 oclock and gain at 2 o'clock was magical. It sounded like I was playing through a stack of melting marshalls. And I only have a 20 watt transistor amp!! Overall, the effect is really amazing. So long as you don't have the gain turned up full, you keep the quality of your tone. ie you keep the unique sound quality of the neck, middle or bridge pickups. At intermediate gain settings, You control the level of distortion by how hard you treat the strings. Gentle picking gives clean tone, harder picking increases the distortion. The higher the gain setting, the earlier the distortion sets in for a given strength of picking. The unit certainly gives out a valve sound.

It's you typical boss contruction. I've only had the effect for a couple of weeks so I can't comment on it's long term reliablity.

Never had to use them.

I compared this pedal with an ibenz tube screamer (TS-5) and I thought the boss was much better. The tube screamer sounded weak with little warmth by comparison with the boss. Since buying the effect, I wish I had tried the Mesa V valve foot preamp (it has 2 x 12AX7s) but it is a lot more expensive ( ca AUD$ 600-700 vs AUD$ 200 for the boss). But that's not to say I'm unhappy with the effect. I think its great stuff as it lets the tone of guitar come through unlike many distortion devices. I think it boosts the high frequencies a bit too much but turning down the tone control on the unit solves that.

It overall very very easy to use.

The sound is perfect except that it is hard to find a very smooth but still distorted sound

Every time I pluged it into my guitar it worked so I haven't seen any problems with it yet.

I never had a problem with this pedal

This pedal works for me on any song my band plays

I haven't got it that long, but I assume it will be the same quality as other Boss pedals, and that's pretty good

It's a great overdrive/distortion unit. It's a bit like the old yellow OD-1 overdrive for low settings of drive, more like a distortion unit for higher settings. It doesn't lose as much bass as the OD-1, with a neck pickup and a low drive setting you can get a very warm, full tone, with just a hint of overdrive/distortion if you pluck lightly, then hit the strings hard and you get a nice crunch. Very responsive. The best overdrive pedal I've had so far.