Boss BF-2 Flanger

if you don't know how to adjust four knobs and figure out the impact of each knob, then you have other issues that harmony central can't resolve.

my only complaint is that it has a slight bit of noise, but, seeing that analog freaks don't mind a little randomness in their patch, i like it fine. you have NO idea. you can open this pedal, it has three or four (can't remember) pots on the board. turn the knobs all the way up, plug your guitar in and adjust the pots. you can get so much more out of this pedal if you TWEAK it correctly. you can get the res to generate an analog sine wave. you can then adjust the frequency/pitch of that sine wave with the manual adjust knob. then you can put that pitch on an lfo with the depth/rate knobs. VERY cool. i'm more of a synth geek than a guitarist, and i can make some very nice sigur-ros ambient stuff with some old boss analog pedals. this is a bonafide analog sine oscillator!

VERY cool pedal. i haven't reviewed any of my other japanese pedals because everything's already been said about them, but this one is so so nice for ambient. i'm gonna buy a second one to do stereo effects!

if you own a japanese pedal, open it up. it most likely has at least one pot. you can adjust the sensitivity of the res or rate knobs.

look at everyone else's cheesy comments.

my favorite pedal. i own over a dozen japanese, analog pedals. and this one will fuck up your sound more than ANY! did i mention it's analog?

Easy in principle: turn knobs and stop if you like the sound, but somewhat finnicky because especially the regeneration knob has a small range where the pedal sounds good.

I *had* the made in Japan version which is supposedly better than the new ones. I didn't like it very much though. This flanger is sort of weak and harmless. It sounds alright when played clean. You get chorus-like sounds and some old school vibrato which wounds interesting but simply not very exiting or versatile. It is not the most expressive flanger. It sounds more like a chorus with delay time control (see H2O by Visul Sound). I found the pedal terrible when played with distortion due to metallic highs. It is impossible to get a good "airplane" sound. You need to crank up the regeneration knob for that. Doing that will make this pedal sound like a broken reverb coil.

I believe you can depend on it but I haven't used it live, so no rating.

No idea.

I had Ibanez and MXR flangers in the past and this is the worst I've tried. I would not recommend it and would not buy it again. It's somewhat harmless but useless. If you like effects that are not too radical this might be for you. Otherwise stay away.

This pedal took me awhile to get a cool sound out of it (without the "airplane" sound going through ... even though it would sound cool in maybe 1 sonf).

I didn't get a manual with it ... I got the pedal free.

This pedal sounds geat once you get the knobs adjusted right (at least for your sound). It's not noisy.
I set my knobs like this (from left to right): 3:00; 12:00; 12:00; 9:00.

This pedal is probably close to 20 years old (I'm guessing ... It has the "Japan" label on the back) and it still works perfectly.

Great website.

A really nice flanger. Can be used as an alternate (replacement) to a chorus or phaser pedal (even though it sounds nothing like a chorus or phaser).

This pedal is difficult to get a good sound out of. The manual that came with mine (I bought it over 7 years) was useless. It did not explain any of the knobs. What the hell is "manual" anyway? Maybe alot of guitar players do know, but Boss shouldn't assume we all do. You can spend hours sitting there turning knobs with silly names, trying ot get a decent sound

When I first bought this pedal, I used it with a 40 watt Crate amp. I used it in line, and it sucked appropriately. I hardly used it. Then, a while ago I got the Peavey 5150, and ran this flanger in the effects loop. Surprise, still sucked....only it sucked LOUDER this time. And unlike many of the newer boss pedals, there is no Effect volume control. Basically, this boss flanger is the most METALLIC sounding doorstop I have ever heard. The only time I use it is to just get a weird noise or effect. I bought this pedal in order to get classic flanger effects ala Van Halen, Queen, Extreme, etc. This pedal WILL NOT GET THOSE SWEEPING JET SOUNDS. It will get, however, sweeping tin and metallic sounds. Ever put you tongue on the end of a 9 volt battery? You know that metallic taste? That is how this pedal sounds. Now I just have it to make strange noises. You could try to get a decent chorus out of this pedal, only it will sound like chorus in a tin can. Wish I could recommend a good flanger, but I've never heard any except the old MXR's, and they are EXPENSIVE, if you can even find them.

In the 7 years I have owned this pedal, it has never failed in any way. It turns on and off fine, and while the effect sucks in horrific ways, to its credit, it sucks consistantley, and without fail.

Overall, avoid this pedal. If you want a flanger that sounds tinny, metallic, digital, and fake, this is the pedal for you. Otherwise, look for an old MXR. Seriously, I'd really like to have someone post in here if they have ever heard a nice flanging pedal. I tried every suggested setting on the internet for this pedal, and they all sounded awful. My own settings sound awful. Do yourself a favor. If you want chorus, buy a Boss or other chorus pedal, don't use this one. If you want a flanger, good luck. lol.

The BF-2 Flanger is well easy to use. even on the defult setting (which is all the nobs facing upwards) it sounds nice and mellow! the manual is abit of a let down but Boss kick ass so i recomend this effects pedal

You can get loads of different effects out of this flanger! not just flanging! u can make it sound like the chip munks and all sorts. It sounds abit bollocks when you use overdrive with it but its good enuff. when you have ur amp clean....woah it sounds NICE!!!! it sounds dreamy and distant =)

haha yeah i depend on it and yeah i went to a gig with it its really reliable! wot do u expect from boss?? they r the best man

Never needed help with it

Ive been playin for 7-8 months and i play just about anything. i own a fender telecaster which gives out a warm crisp sound. personaly i reckon the strat sounds tinny and f**k but there ya go. They should change the colour coz puruple is abit gay. The bf-2 is abit of a novilty but you can get great sounds out of it. my flanger settings for the bf-2 are:Manual (pointing upwards) Depth: (Pointing upwards) Rate: pointing at 2:00 (imagen its a clock face) Res: (almost max)

Well I bought the pedal used, and without a manual.I didn't know that Roland would try to dime for $2 bucks...
I could not figure out what "Manual" or "Resonance", other than they seemed to keep some control over feedback. Maybe the instruction manual would better direct me to understand how the dials work...
However it was impossible to dial in a a nice thick 'n sweet flange.
Ping. VERY metalic flavor.
Its supposed to go: turn the knobs around until you get a good sound. Uh uh.

Very metalic and fake. I can not appreciate that which weakens me.

If I used it as much as the rest o' my shit, it would last just about forever.
But I can't stand this peice o crap. But it will still be around long after I throw it at the next Nu Metal hero.

They tried to dime me $2 to send me a manual. $2. How am I supposed to appreciate your products when I by a used one cheap to see how they are after years of work in the trenches, and you pull THIS crap !
If your TU2 Tuner pedal wasn't the best tuner box on the planet (besides acting as a power supply for other pedals) I would NEVER have a BOSS in my rig. You'd be like DOD, only you'd be around much longer...and yes sound better.

I play HARD ROCK. HARD ROCK is warm and comfy. All the other shit is crap. It is sterile and cold. And probably flanged by a Boss. I don't want to entirely diss Boss, because if they hadn't been pretty descent for so long they wouldn't be around. But this thing did not work for me. It worked against me. Be gone !

I found it actually easy to use. I just played and turned a bunch of knobs to get a cool sound. The manual did help by explaining what the knobs meant, there are four.

I have an Epiphone SG Special into a dinky Marshall CD100 amp. I have a vintage Fender amp head, but I need $500 for some amp cabinets. The Epiphone cannot sustain a note very long at all so it's extremely difficult on some solos. There is some background noise, but that is from the guitar I think. The pedal is amazing. It can sound like echo, wah, and sometimes it makes the guitar sound far away. I don't have other pedals with it because my Wah pedal broke and my overdrive isn't working either, for reasons not linked to the manufacturer. I'm not patient enough to try to get the sounds of artists. I just do my own thing. I bought it to play Sober from TOOL, but I'll have to tune my guitar from dropped C and I'm too lazy to do that now.

It's BOSS. I rely on it. I can't afford a backup, but I wouldn't get one anyway.

Never had any problems, of course I haven't had it very long at all.

I ove it and if it broke I would buy another one of the exact model, or I'd probably get the new BF-3, it's the same but better.

When I said depth in the previous review, I actually meant effect level, as in how much flange is mixed with the ORIGINAL signal, as you can quite clearly see a DEPTH control on it... :-)

Well it sure is easy to use, only 4 controls and all pretty logically laid out, but since you can't adjust the level of the Flange in the mix I personally can't tell that well.

I didn't need to test this pedal with any of my gear, just the Fender Twin and Strat in the guitar shop told me all I needed to know. It's not a good flanger. The biggest and most obvious mistake is not being able to adjust the depth of the flanger, so you have to put up with the level it's pre-set to.

The actual flanger sound is okay, not particularly awe-inspiring as the DOD FX-747 can be when set up right. The controls allow accurate shaping of the sound, it's a shame the sound isn't that good.

It's just a weak pedal, thats all. It's the worst flanger I've ever tried (out of about 4 including the one the the GT-3 Multi-FX, the Danelectro Hash Browns) and it's also the worst Boss stompbox I've used out of at least 15 I've tried. It's odd that Boss could get it so wrong on a pedal, but do a much better (not perfect but better) job on the GT-3.

It's up to Boss' usual high standard of production. A friend of mine recently picked up an original OD-1 - 25 years old and dented and stained, but it still works. I think the same is true here.

Personally though I wouldn't be bothered if it broke or not.

Never needed to deal with them, despite owning 4/5 of their stompboxes and a GT-3 Multi FX. They're said to be good though, in most cases.

I've been playing guitar for around 5 years now, and I personally really like using effects other than overdrive or distortion every now and again to add texture to a song. As such I would say I've got an ear for it.

If I had bought this I would have been very disappointed. If I had bought it and someone stole it, the actual loss of the pedal wouldn't bother me. The money I lost would though. Then again, if I'm stupid enough to buy it and someone is stupid enough to steal it...

I know a lot of people love this pedal, but when I can only vaguely hear the sound it makes over the original sound I don't see the point of it. Save yourself some money and buy another Flanger that isn't this one.

i use flangers for that mellow, swirly, detuned sound a la the cure and tool. to achieve this, i put the flanger before distortion (ie. not in FX loop). after that it's just a matter of playing with dials.

i can't give it a 10 because the manual does not explain the "manual" knob very well and to this day i still don't know what it does. no biggy though, because it serves it's purpose

here's my setup:

epi lp/yamaha tele/fender strat->boss dual overdrive-->boss flanger-->boss dd-5-->boss EQ-->marshall AVT 150.

this pedal is very noisy when left on when you're not playing if you are playing anything other than clean stuff because it's flanging your dead air. have only ever used this flanger though, so i don't know how common that is.

this pedal is great at achieving everything from that ear-splitting shriek that adam jones from tool uses to that mellow, ethereal swirling a la the cure. i don't even have to change the settings to achieve the different sounds, just my level of distortion. because it's before distortion, the sound you're getting is really a function of how much gain your using

boss...need i say more?

never dealt with customer support

i guess you could say i play "art rock" but more on the heavy side like a perfect circle, tool with a bit of the cure.

if stolen i would replace it in a second.
a great pedal.