Boss BF-1

It is easy to use, and fun to play around with for the sounds.
The manual is helpful.
Mine has not been upgraded, modded, etc.

Unlike others--I find it noisy.
This can be compensated somewhat by tweaking the controls--but it takes over the sound too much.
I bought it primarily because it was on sale (because it was discontinued) and also because I could get a chorus sound and a phase shifter sound--after I got a JC-60 amp and a phase shifter, this went into it's box & rarely comes out.

It is sturdy--I've dropped in several times, and it still works.

n/a

I prefer the BF-2.
This one is noisier than a BF-2, and the size is a drawback to carrying it around--especially since I would only use it on a song or two as the flanging sound takes over, and that's all you hear--it's noisy.
It was fun when I first got it and was experimenting with effects--but when the novelty wore off and the reality of the noise hit me--well that was a let down. So in answer to the question-"Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way?"-it gets in the way.

The best thing about it is the adapter. I use it for my Boss DF-2.

I'd have sold it, but the best offer I ever got for it was barely enough to replace the adapter. So it would have been like selling it for 10 or 15 dollars--which is depressing.

Of all the gear I've ever bought, this is the one I regret buying the most.

Very easy to use, four knobs, one big stomp

Ive had this pedal for years, all though it's spent the last five years in a box as it started self oscillating and I didn't know why at the time. I dusted it off recently and downloaded the service manual and found out that there are adjustment points (via screw driver) and an idiot guide on how to set it to factory settings, which also made it possible to experiment with the sound of the pedal to more extremes that I thought possible, even getting it to over drive it's self, or getting brown note bass tones out of it at full resonance on manual, or just tweaking it to your own tastes. Superb sounding vintage flanger that has more versatility than any I've played to date.

BTW I found the manual at http://hammer.ampage.org/files/BOSS_BF-1.pdf

I wonder how many of these units have been chucked due to it needing a setup

It's as old as I am and works better than I do, I all ways have a multi effect with me in case any pedal has a moment but it would take a pounding before you would even scratch the case

never dealt with them

I play a mix of music from accoustic solo gigs, to full on stoner gigs, to experimental noise, and it gets used in all 3 setups (the only one of my pedals that does) If I lost it then I would be searching for one the next day

Very easy to use, four knobs, one big stomp

Ive had this pedal for years, all though it's spent the last five years in a box as it started self oscillating and I didn't know why at the time. I dusted it off recently and downloaded the service manual and found out that there are adjustment points (via screw driver) and an idiot guide on how to set it to factory settings, which also made it possible to experiment with the sound of the pedal to more extremes that I thought possible, even getting it to over drive it's self, or getting brown note bass tones out of it at full resonance on manual, or just tweaking it to your own tastes. Superb sounding vintage flanger that has more versatility than any I've played to date.

BTW I found the manual at http://hammer.ampage.org/files/BOSS_BF-1.pdf

I wonder how many of these units have been chucked due to it needing a setup

It's as old as I am and works better than I do, I all ways have a multi effect with me in case any pedal has a moment but it would take a pounding before you would even scratch the case

never dealt with them

I play a mix of music from accoustic solo gigs, to full on stoner gigs, to experimental noise, and it gets used in all 3 setups (the only one of my pedals that does) If I lost it then I would be searching for one the next day

Ok, here we have an original Boss BF-1 Flanger, essentially Boss' first foray into Flange - they should have stuck with this design and left everything that followed on the drawing board. If that wasn't a big enough give away I'll spell it out - I love analogue flange and have a particular loathing for the Boss Flangers that follow this unit. This particular model is a cinch to fire up and get going - from left to right you have Manual - Depth - Rate - Resonance - twiddle to taste, hit the switch and let the jet scream overhead or ...

This unit doesn't take batteries and runs with either 9 or 12 volts power pack; though the word is that 12 volts is preferable - I am currently running mine on 9 and it sounds fabulous.

My set up couldn't be more irrelevent to this review and so I return to the topic - people want to know how this baby sounds, right?

This pedal has a zero noise factor and no tone loss when engaged - there is a perception with modulation effects like flanger or chorus - and I have heard this with other pedals - that you lose some volume, but this is due to the nature of the effect. So there is some small perception of a slight volume drop when engaged but it is very minor and nothing to worry about at all.

Ok, I have two other awesome vintage Flangers and am a bit of a flange-head so I can compare this unit to two of the best out there, an A/DA 70's original and an 80's Yamaha FL-01. This unit doesn't get as whacky as the Yamaha or as deep and trippy as the A/DA - nothing does actually, but this unit really holds it's own in analogue flange terms and at first I thought I was a little underwhelmed until I started playing with it a bit more - there are allot of lush vintage sounds in this box. It will do the jet swoosh thing, not as extreme as other pedals but it's a good sort - it will then do all manner of chorus/flanger tones as well as lovely leslie and vibrato-ey tones in the flange realms. With the resonance knob maxed you get into some nice bell and chime tones in the sine wave also.

Bottom line I was really enchanted by this Flanger - it has very cool mojo and allot of vintage charm - the tone of this thing is sublime and totally unique and I was unable to stop playing with it once I got it home. Definately a keeper and not something I plan on selling - ever! I would place this in terms of flange intensity as the mildest of the three listed above but this does not mean the effect is weak at all - that would be unfair - the effect is thick, lush and vibrant but it just doesn't do the self oscillation of the FL-01 and doesn't do some of the unique DEEP SPACE flanging of the A/DA ... make no mistake though this flanger is sweeeeeeet and not to be bettered in it's class. For a pedal this old the sound was pristine from my unit.

I give an 8 for age but this unit is a brick, big chunky early Roland/Boss case ... won't find better. For a unit this old the sound and the switch are solid as are the controls. This will hold up for many years without error.

NA

All you need to know is this is a killer vintage flanger, if you can get one at a deal grab it and you'll have an awesome bit of history and something that sounds way cooler than the modern units by far. If you can't find a deal you need to know it's worth getting at twice the price. Some people complain about the no battery vs adaptor issue but for me it's better as I hate having to buy and replace/worry about betteries dying on me.

There is no better in it's class ... a classic!

Correction to my previous comment..The BF-1 does run on 12V adaptor.
Check out schematic Service sheet on http://hammer.ampage.org/...

This is in response to the previous reviewers dc adaptor issues.
If you have any old style Boss pedal that used to use the "ACA adaptor" you can easily convert this to new "PSA adaptor" (as per new Boss pedals)by removing a 470 Ohm resistor and diode and replacing with wire effecting shorting these components out.You can trace these components by following the wire from the adaptor socket to the board.
"You may need someone with electronic experience to help on this one and who can use a soldering iron".

Once done you will find a regulated 9V dc adaptor works fine.

This part of HC reviews always makes me laugh! HAHA! Unless you're dislexic, you shouldn't have a problem. 4 knobs at the top, then a huge amount of real estate all for the stomp switch. Has an adapter input, apparently it is supposed to use a 12V adapter (as opposed to 9V). I can tell you that is accurate, I began using this with a 9V and liked it. Then I found out about the whole 12V thing, let me say now i LOVE this pedal! More on that later. 1 point deducted for lack of batter option.

'62 Fender Jaguar Reissue MIJ (1993) with Seymour Duncan SJAG-1 in neck and bridge into: VL Bosstone-Big Muff Pi USA RI-Crowther Hotcake-Zinky True Grit-DanEcho-Boss BF-1 into: '71 Traynor Mark III 2x12 tube combo.

This not so little for a Boss pedal unit goes from metallic robo-flange to warm & liquidy. People are probably put off by the thoughts of other Boss flangers (not a strong point for Boss) but this is honestly a fantastic sounding analog flanger! It's got some wonderful flanged vibrato, and self oscillates like a mofo whith the resonance knob cranked. You can also get this wicked saw vibrating on a table edge sound (seriously!) by cranking the resonance knob and moving the manual knob all the way down, then you can actually guide the effect (dont need to play anything btw, its gone nuts!)smoothly through every note and actually create melodies!!! This wins huge points along with the vibrato-flange effects. This is a very versatile flanger!

Joy Division to Beatles to Soundgarden (black hole sun) kinds of flange. I would snap one up if I saw one for the same price again. These seem to be quite rare too! I guess this pedal bombed due to the whole 9v/12v confusion.

Oh yeah, on that btw, when I was using a 9v adapter I got a bit of volume drop (pretty minor) when engaging the effect, but once I got a hold of a 12v adapter there doesnt really seem to be a change in volume. This pedal also has great bypass, doesn't seem to suck tone to my ears. And once I began using the 12v adapter my tone seemed to shine through alot more and the unit basically sounded alot warmer and less dry (which is a good thing).

Anyways, I would say this pedal is easily the best flanger I've tried. But I have to let you know I haven't tried some of the more respected flangers out there such as the ADA, big old MXR, or EHX Polyflange, or the TC Electronics. But I also wouldnt get one of those for $100 Canadian. The BF-1 smokes the BF-2 (what flanger doesn't? hehe)

Oh yeah, one more thing. This pedal sounds AWESOME with a mild delay and a touch of reverb. Try it!

I've only had it a couple of weeks. Yes I have gigged with it, back-up no. It has a large enough housing that you would probably need a steam roller to damage the innards.

Yeah right. Big companies like Boss/Roland don't care about customers using their current lines, think they'll care if you're using an ancient, relatively unknown pedal of theirs from 1978?

I play music inspired by bands from all eras like The Velvet Underground, Rolling Stones, The Animals, Silver Apples, The Stooges, Neil Young (who apparently used this pedal on Rust Never Sleeps)Sonic Youth, Galaxie 500, Verve, Dinosaur Jr, Stereolab Do Make Say Think, Godspeed You Black Emeror! etc. etc.

I've been playing about 10 years now.

If it were lost or stolen I would certainly buy another unless I were to stumble upon something I liked better before hand.

I love this pedal because there are a ton of sounds in it. I'm not a huge fan of flangers and i like that you can take this pedal out of the flanger effects and into some wierd oscillation and vibrato sounds. The flanger effect is so tweakable you can find just about any sort of flavor you could imagine. I hate that this pedal takes a 12v adapter, thus the option for alot of pedal power boxes are out the window.

I didn't compare this with any other flanger, but I do know it sounds better than my jam buddies flangers do.

It does inspire me to come up with new sounds.

I'm now looking at the Roland Phase II which is the same casing and era of this pedal. I hope it turns out to be as nice analog sounding as this.

Very easy to get a good sound, if you know what that is then your
half way there and the pedal will do the rest, just twist the knobs.
This rates a nine because the knobs do what they are supposed to,
a ten would be if Stevie Ray or Hendrix came with the pedal to explain
what good tone is and how to get it.

I am using an old Kramer HSS with a SH1 PAF and two rio grande singles, my setup is, Vox Wha clone,Ibanez DS-10 (really nice sounding pedal), 100 watt Plush head, Lexicon LXP 15 in the loop and the BF-1 in the loop of the LEXicon, 4x12 Marshall cab. The lexicon
takes care of the analog hiss of the BF-1, which straight into the amp
is no more noisy than any other Flanger I have used, and there have been many! If I was to compare the BF-1 with other vintage Flangers I would have to say it sounds every bit as good as all of them but not better or worse, just a different flavor. This rates an eight because a nine would be dead quiet and I cannot afford a ten.

All things being equal, any electronics device can die at any given moment with no warning, but the BF-1 has been Flanging along for twenty plus years and will no doubt work untill it dies. This gets
a middle of the road five rating as would any electronics device,
but you have to respect the quality of anything this old and working.

Never called Boss for anything, the BF-1 is the only Boss pedal I ever owned.

Every style of music (except disco and rap) has something I like so
I play a wide variety of music and the BF-1 fits in well where needed.
I have been playing for 20 plus years...damm where did it go? I must admit though that I have always leaned toward the harder rock sound as a favorite style. I am not a vintage nut but at the same time I have tried most of the new pedals and none come close to the sound of this one, you either have to go vintage or super expensive digital to match the analog sound of the old stuff. As far as the 9v-12v thing, I use a nine volt supply and it sounds very good, never tried a twelve volt supply with it. There may be something to using more voltage that enhances the sound but people tend to exaggerate when it comes to gear as you can see by reading some reviews here.This rates the same as the sound quality category for the same reason. If it were lost or stolen I don't think I would hunt the person down and beat them or kick my dog, I would just buy another one.

As easy as any flanger. It has the typical controls, depth , rate, manual, and resonance. Easy.

I think the sound quality is great. This is much better sounding than the bf-2. It is a little noisy but so warm sounding the noise really doesn't matter.

This pedal is over 20 years old and functions perfectly. It should be just fine if you take care of it right.

BOSS/ROLAND SUCK!!!

I have a ton of vintage boss pedals and this one sounds great. There is something about the older pedals that the newer ones just dont seem able to reach. I have an original bf-2 (jap) and an hf-2(jap), and prefer this over both of those for that typical jet plane sound. It will also do some crazy pitch bent vibrato sounds. Not as good as my vb-2, but still pretty cool.

Though the BF-1 has some really cool sounds, it takes a little while to find something good. But it's only 4 knobs.

The pedal has the capability to come up with some really cool sounds, it can even sound like a UFO but when the resonance is turned all the way up it is really annoying. Great for that "forty-six and 2" sound. I use a Strat, a Vox Cambridge 30 and too many effects

Pretty reliable but the power supply issue is a bit of a pain, the only complaint there, but like anything BOSS, it's like a tank

????

I play Incubus meets Tool kind of music so it's pretty damn verstile, if it was stolen (God forbid) I would definately fetch another one.