Boss BF-2 Flanger

I would say medium for easy of use. I had to take a look at the Effects Guide from Boss to get an idea of a good starting place. It was a lot of fun tweaking the knobs and creating all those sounds.

Setup = 84 American Strat equipped w Noiseless pickups, 91 Charvel w Dimarzio Area 58 and 61 pickups, or 73 Ibanez Les Paul copy equipped with Seymour Duncans. All w gauge 10s. Crate Palomino v32 212. Connect by itself with monster cables and thru my Carl Martin Combinator 2 with George L cables. Also tested with Vox Pathfinder model v9158, Fender FM 100 head, Marshall MG 250 DFX.

Settings = no noisy. found a lot sounds good for funk, soul rhythm work, some for rock, and some for lead.

Sound = the effect sounded great and actual boosted the overall volume level. great for that swoosh and swirl, short delay, watery chorus sound, funky phase sound. I can get sounds for Maroon, Seal, Van Halen ...

Great clean or with distortion.

No issues what so ever. Gig all the time with a variety band playing all kinds of music. Its found a permanent spot on my pedalboard.

Never had to deal with Boss.

like I said, I play soul, r&b, funk, jazz, latin, latin rock, tejano, rock, and pop.

i have a bf2 mij once but i sold it after a few years, now i got one but its a mit. i think the quality differs because the knobs from mij productions are tighter than the mit prods..

if you have a really good ear, you can have various sounds from this baby.. i make it as a delay and a slight phase effect for modulation when im kinda tired of flange effect..

i have an analog flanger once, an ibanez fl9.. its a good one but it is limited to though, it limits a jet flange effect.. but the warm it produces a warm sound which a bf2 lacks.

i think boss pedals really stood up in their warranty of 5 years and more coz i owned a lot of boss pedals and theyve been with me since day 1..

just go to their website and you can get all the support you can get..
manuals and stuff..

been playing for 12 years.. been playing jazz/blues/funk/soul/rnb and rock, so i pretty much wear this baby a lot.. id probably get an analog flange effect to double the effect of bf2.. if this were stolen, id get another one.. my clean tone depends very much on flange rather than chorus so this is pedal really serves me well..

easy to install if you've got a bit of confidence with a soldering iron (practice on a old radio with some desoldering braid if you've never soldered before).

clear, easy to follow instructions and a handy tips page were included with the kit on cdrom.

the boss bf-2 only has 4 knobs, the feel of them changes (but it changes for the better).

The sound is much better after the mod. There is less noise and more depth.

I got the BF-2 on ebay for $50. I had fond memories of them from the late 80's - but it sounded nothing like I remember them (unlike the CE-2 that I got recently which is great). I'm sure they sounded the same back them but to my ears today it sounds like thay had a good reason to bring out the BF-3.

After the mod - I really like the pedal now, a huge improvement. It's great for subtle stuff. I haven't tried many other flangers so I can't actually compare it against anything else.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with this unit - I reckon that it's got lotsa potential.

I've only played for an hour or so.

But, Boss pedals are built like tanks so the reliability factor is up to you and your solering iron.

Pedal Hacker kept up good email contact and went out of their way to get the mod kit from the US to Australia.

I don't see any problem arising in the future.

A great way to spice up an old pedal.

Easy to do if you want to try your hand a pedal modding - It was my first pedal mod.

I'd say that this mod is well worth the 16 bucks and a few hours of fun with a soldering iron that it takes to make it happen.

May the Flange Be With You 2

Easy to get a variety of sounds if you put some time into it.

I use this pedal with a variety of Fender and Marshall tones, and it suits all. Avoid high gain, however.

I bought this pedal with Joy Division in mind. It nails that sound, as well as David Gilmour's tones. Sounds similar to John McGeoch's work with Magazine. Also replicates Keith Levene's Public Image Ltd. tone.

My BF-2 is one of the silver screw MIJ 1980 models. It doesn't have much external damage and it works like new. I'm probably going to pass this thing down to my grandkids.

Never had a problem.

I play experimental music, particularly influenced by the New York No Wave scene of the late 1970's. This pedal works for everything. I highly recommend it.

Easy to use and edit a few knobs is all.

The sound is OK, but heard better flangers (to my ears)- I think the Digitech Flanger is much better and with more sound options, but the Digitech pedals always push on and off too stiff (can always change the springs I know, no big deal).

Yeah built like a brick sh... well you get the point. Also they are usually very reliable electronics-wise, except sometimes the pots and jacks get a little dirty, like any pedals played in too many smoke-choking-suffocating hole in the wall "clubs".

no idea

Great tough pedal but sound isn't as good as others I've heard--to MY ears anyway. Someone else would probably worship this pedal. Couldn't they have picked a btter color like puke orange-yellow, instead of girly pink (good color for the chicks tho :D ok )

Due to the 4 knobs, and the power this gives, dialing stuff in isn't quite a simple as it could be... but there are options a-plenty...

This is a late-80's Japanese BF-2... as others have said, this has a bit of a harsh tone... but i love it! I often use it with distortion, and it sounds uber freaky... i put all the knobs at 50%... a nice square-sounding yet warm flange...

it's 20 years old... i've gigged with it tons... never a problem

an excellent flange... the MIT version was also great...

4 knobs

I have modded my Boss BF-2! I purchased an on-line book that gave me instructions, you have to change about 12 things plus I personally added a very cool purple LED instead of keeping the stock red

http://www.guitartone.net/allmods.htm

Anyway, after the mod, the flanger becomes very natural, clear, clean? sounding, your guitar tone comes through first which is great :) it kind of sounds like a flanger/chorus now, it sounds great

Well? boss is top notch so it it fails, its down to my modding skills :)

The stock pedal is good but you can mod this pedal to sound very cool :)

4 knobs. i still dont know what the manual knob does tho...

im satisfied. if set right, sounds nice. set wrong, and its a little to twangy but then again, every pedal set wrong sounds like shit.

boss...

just a good pedal to have in your arsenal

4 knobs! simple

I bought a Guyatone fl-3 which sounds cool :) I was originally after the Boss but I heard such great reviews on the Guyatone. To be honest, I picked this up in near new conditon in a secondhand store for the weird price of 15 British pounds??! so I grabbed it! I must say, I think I prefer the sounds of this Flanger to the one Ive been using and now the Boss sites on the main board! to my ears it has a warm digital sound where the Guyatone has a more natural sound, if that makes sense? they both sound different, I like them both but the Boss fights in best with my playing. Anyway, you can hear the Boss on Blurs/Graham Coxon Albums, its used loads and thats when I first become more aware of it, check out Blurs Popscene track, the intro uses the Boss BF-2, with a high setting, its a great Flanger

Boss

This Pedal suits me great, I love its sound as found on Blur albums, its very warm. Ive plugged the Boss and the Guyatone Fl-3 in together, you can get some very warm, natural, digital, mixed up, cool sounds :)

anyway, if you dont like this pedal, please check out the Guyatone FL-3, it has its own Flang Sound, I love both pedals

It is more than adequate. Just dial it in and off we go. Get some some weird metallic tones, as any flexible flanger should do. Note: I origanlly bought this because I was unhppy with the various flange setting on my long-gone Boss ME-50- BIG IMPROVEMENT.

Mine was a Japanese model. You have just to know your flanging stuff.

Fender USA Lead 1/Ibanez Talman TC420->Boss autowah->Boss bass overdrive->Boss feedback/distortion->Yamaha Jap flanger->trem->MXR Phase 45->volume pedal->Boss EQ->Boss delay/sampler into a variety of different solid state and valve amps (mostly Fender Super 210 valve).

It's at least adequate, if not very good. I only just sold it in favour of an old Yamaha Japan flanger. No noise or distorting of existing tones, as you would expct from, especially Japanese Boss.

Boss...

Lame with customer support unless you've got a CE-1 or the first DS-1 ever made. At least they don't charge anymore for their 'manuals'.

We play indie pop and a decent flange is vital. I've been playing for 15 years. This was a good flanger- it is just that the Yamaha one (which, by the way, self-oscillates!!) suited my purposes. Excellent pedal.

It's super simple. Funny thing is that when I first got it over 10 years ago I never really tweaked crazy. I was doing the shoegaze/darkwave/cocteau-twins thing so I had it on one setting all the time. I never even knew it was analog until a few days ago.

Well, at the time it was good enough. Now I'm so used to it that other flangers sound too clean, unless they are old school analog flagers of course. It does sound very metallic and a bit harsh. Last night I opened it up just out of curiosity and tweaked the previously mentioned trim pots and *HOLY!* this pedal can sound pretty insane in da membrane! With the resonance tweak you can have awesome feedback effects, and of course controlled with the manual knob gives you super tweakability.
I will be using it with synths from now on.

I've had it for about 12 years and it still works. What else can I say...

If you sit down a few hours and really work out what each of the four knobs can do you will find loads of great sounds-everything is in there if you are patient. Manual is of limited help.

I have the MIJ version-but the MIT version is really close. It's analog so expect some noise in exchange for that rich, deep tone. The noise level is no worse than any other analog flanger. You can get everything from subtle sounds to really outrageous effects-the key is you have to work with this pedal a few hours to figure it out. It may not be quite as good as the older MXR,EH, or ADA pedals but do you really want to spend upwards of $200 for one of those when this Boss will give you what you need at a much more reasonable cost. Plus, the Boss is alot more reliable.

As the saying goes-"It's a Boss". Much more reliable than a vintage, or reissue, MXR or Electro-Harmonix.

This Boss pedal will do all the flanging sounds the majority of guitarists would ever want or need. Sure, you can say that the vintage MXRs, EH or ADA pedals give slightly better effects but do you feel like paying the outrageously high prices for those brands, and then having to worry that those pedals will work each gig. The BF-2 will do what you need, at a fraction of the cost, and is the most reliable brand around. All in all, you can't beat this flanger.

Quite a tricky one to get right, the range of effect is great, and you can really hear the flanging with the resonance all the way up, which completely overpowers everything, but sounds very cool. I have it set up on: meter 8 o'clock, depth 7.30, rate 5, resolution 8 and this gives me an almost chorus type sound, it gives it a very metallic reverb type of thing at the same time, and is very good for making your sound jump out at certain moments, like soloing.

I use an Ibanez RG custom with dimarzio evolutions at the moment through a boss cs-2 compression sustainer (which took me ages to work out how not to sound rubbish, but works really well now, is always on), an SD-1, a US Big Muff Pi, the flanger, then a Boss RV-3 (something everyone should own), into a Hiwatt DR103 and a standard 1960A. This pedal does add a slight hiss when you tread on it, but this is not really important. The effect is very strong and can be quite difficult to temper, it sticks out a lot if you're too over zealous with the depth and resonance. But if you like that, then it's cool.

Only anti-theft clamps would make it more dependable, for if it ever got nicked. I can't see it, or anything else made by Boss, ever breaking.

Bah, customer support?

I use it for heavy rock type of stuff, Isis, Mastodon, Tool, and I like it. I think it's a handy pedal for lighter stuff though, flanging is nice.

Easy to get a likeable sound.

I first bought this pedal to get a Tom Morello sound, which was easy enough. This was also the pedal Billy Corgan used on the song 'Love'. But I joined a funk/hard rock band and wanted to create my own sound with it.
This was harder than I thought, as I also have the Super Phaser and I found myself using it instead.
I was fannying around with the flanger one day and I maxed all the knobs except the Manual, which created a trippy, watery sound that perfectly suited my playing.
It may not be to everyone's tastes, but it is a big part of MY sound.

Boss.

never needed to.

it's the shizz.

This pedal took me a little bit of getting use to when I first got it 7 years ago but now I can't seem to get a bad sound out of it. Seriously you can set all the knobs at 12 o'clock and get a solid sound. Just start from there and come up with your own unique tone.

Awesome!!!! Let me just remind people one thing which is pretty obvious, great gear makes all the difference. When I first bought this pedal (was my first stomp box) I was using a crappy little Crate amp and a knockoff Strat and this pedal sound good. Now 7 years later I upgraded to a Gibson SG and a Peavey Classic 50 and let me tell you, THIS PEDAL JUST LIT UP!!!!! It's amazing how much range this pedal has and how classic it sounds. It especially goes great when I kick in a DS-1 before it for solos. I'm always rocking it on a sweet jet flanger setting. I've heard many people complain about how the pedal has a little bit of a volume boost but personally I like it. I want that flanger to stick out when I turn it on. I've tried many other flangers out before and they all have their own unique characteristics to them but this one just fits my style and looks great on my pedal board :)

Can I depend on it???? I seriously think Curt Schilling could throw this thing 95 MPH at a brick wall and it wouldn't break. Boss pedals are know for their dependability and all of mine have held up quite well to my abuse. I'm almost always play at least 3-4 gigs a month and I'm a big guy (250lbs, shut up!) and I've been jumping on them for years without any cracks or broken part. I would gig without a back up, I just don't think it'd need it. If it was lost or stolen I'd be all over a new one. 10 ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!

Never had to deal with them but I've heard good things.

Anyone looking for a classic flanger should check out this pedal. I play your general rock music (classic/hard rock), and this pedal fits in great. Sounds great all all sorts of guitars (single coil, humbuck, solid body, hollow, etc) and amps (tube and solid state). Even though it only has 4 knobs, once you get use to it the possibilities are endless. It is definatly worth checking out!!

The BF 2 is simple enough to use if you have ever used a flanger before. The knobs are common on most all brands of flangers. It took about an hour to tweak this pedal up to my setup. I use it for 2 different sounds so I bought 2 of them and never touch them now that I've set them up in their pedalboards. I have a manual which did help to setup this pedal at first. I use a Keeley Looper to turn a group of Boss pedals on and off together. 8/10 because without the manual some beginners will get frustrated and spend a lot of time tweaking until they find the sweet spot for them. A Manual for beginners is wonderful.

I was looking for a good flanger sound for David Gilmour and some 80's type tones and tried several brands and this Boss model gave me a light flanger sound without that harsh metalic grading sound like a lot of brands give you. I bought one MIJ and the other is a MIT. Unless you really listen really really close you can't tell one from the other. I had the insides checked out by a pedal guru and he said one piece was all that was different and it was on the output stage. So a lot of this MIJ vs MIT is hype. Check it out for yourself.
I use a '62 reissue Strat or a Les Paul sometimes a Tele Plus thru a Fender 2ch The Twin amp or a Soldano SLO head thru Boogie 2x12 EV12L loaded cabints. I use several other pedals in the chain: CE 2>EH 2>DM 2>RV 2>OD 1>OD 2>OS 2r>the BF 2>Klon Centaur into the amp. I use a simular setup for the second pedalboard.
I had to set the other pedals differently around the BF 2 because of the volume gain when it is on but that is normal with all Boss pedals, you just have to work with them in a chain. 10/10 because as far as flangers go this one is light and clean.

It is a Boss so it is built like a tank as most everyone agrees on.
I have two so I always have a backup.
10/10 because Boss doesn't build unreliable gear, ever!

Boss is very easy to get help with. I called and was sent to a rep. I gave the rep a message and in 3 working days I got a return email. I was told where to ship the pedal and in about a month I rec'd a new pedal. It wasn't this BF 2 but another model bought new with a switch problem but the back their products. Over 25 years of making pedals shows you they have to backup what they sell and they do.
10/10 because Boss stands behind their products and out of all 100 or so I own only one pedal needed to be replaced. All still work and some after 23 years of stomping on.

I play my own music mostly but do play some Pink Floyd and other classic rock stuff. I play a lot of jamband music. Like Gov't Mule, Widespread Panic Allman Bros. But I have been playing for over 30 years I guess so I have been thru everything from INXS to Led Zep and everything in between now. I love Blues and I love rock of all kinds. I really like classic rock guitarist like David Gilmour Jimmy Page those guys are masters at their style. If it were slolen I would replace it with the same model. I compaired it to about everything out there. I bought and sold over 12 flangers until I settled on this BF 2, remember I bought 2 of them. If does make my music better sounding. I found that this model is a light flanger in tone. It doesn't color your guitar sound. The harder you play the more it is in front of the sound. Using the volume and tone knob on your guitar really effects the way the pedal responds. The place it is put in the chain matters what sound you get so it took about an hour for each pedalboard to get it in the right place and the settings of each pedal to work well with each other. I record 99% of the time so hearing these pedals as true as I can make them is important to me. No use to record sloppy or unclean tones when all it takes is a little time and patience to work the tone out. If you use a lot of other pedals as I do each pedal reacts differently around other pedals so time is what you will need to setup everything to suit you. If you play live try to not use it with overdrives after it. If you record with it use it before the overdrives so you can control the amount of flanging going into the OD's. Live playing you should use a looper or a A/B or a A/B/C box and use 2 different effects loops not to mix the different types of effects. I am just use to running them in a chain and have spent enough time tweaking everything since all I have is time. These BF 2's sound great ao enjoy them and stop believing all this hyoe about MIJ vs MIT. It's in your guitar and hands anyway not in a Boss Taiwaneze pedal. Believe me if made in Taiwan was not up to par Boss would not have sold over 7 million pedals in a little over 25 years. MIJ stuff is over with, get over it and rock on! 9/10 because over all it is one of the best flangers for the value, it does cost a little more new than some of the other new models but for the money buy a Boss.
I am happy with both BF 2's I own, both setups sound better because the Boss BF 2 is in them. Thanks and I hope this helps you young beginners out there, for the players that don't need my opinion or don't agree it's like a ***hole, we all have one! Rock On and Peace to you all! missinmikey!

Extremely easy to use. Four knobs and it's not too hard to get at least 3 or 4 cracking sounds out of it. Didn't have a manual but you don't really need one, just plug in a get going. Excellent stuff!

Great quality. Sounds brilliant through distortion, clean, reverb, delay and chorus and alongside any other effects you want to slip in. The occassional wobble in the sound quality if you just don't have it set quite right but surely down to the ineptitude of the musician and the human error in setup.

Solid as a rock, it is a BOSS!

Never needed a thing. It's a BOSS!!

Along the Jim Dunlop Cry-Baby Wah this is the best pedal ever made. John Squire certainly agrees, check the huitar on any classic Roses tune circa-1989. Myself I cannot gig without it after initially buying it only out of curiosity following listening to the Stone Roses. Listen out for it!! - www.CensoredOnline.com

It is a highly useful great sounding pedal and an another element to any guitarist style. Although don't be tempted to overuse, you will just sound shit. If put to good use i'm sure everyone would agree this is a truly exceptional pedal!!

Four knobs, and about 2 1/2 hours to get a good sound, along with the muddiness at low res settings(Mainly in the off position). no volume drop, or spike for that matter. didn't get a manual with it.

for an analog flange it sounds pretty good. there is some noise with it (but analog is always a little noisy) Mine is MIT, and i know that ppl don't like MIT's but come on ppl even the japanese outsource work to taiwan. i use an ibanez GAX 70>>DOD Compressor>>TS7>>Ibanez DS10 Distortion>>BF2>>DD3>>Ibanez SC10 Chorus>>Boss EH2 Enhancer>>Amp.When I first bought this pedal i felt that it was kind of weak, but after finding settings on this site I was happier with it but it was still missing something. After i bought the Enhancer that's when i was finally content with the sound. the enhancer brought the sound to the forefront, very lush with just a hint of that often bitched about metallic sound. soundwise with effects 9 (nothings perfect)butwithout the enhancer i'm gonna give it a 8. P.S a compressor will bring out nice tones too, but the enhancer is my personal choice.

It's a tough pedal! i would gig without a backup.

n/a

a great but tough to set pedal, i can see why alot of ppl don't like this but for my needs (rock, metal, some alt rock)it works! if it were lost or stolen i would off the person who took it and use his head as a hood ornament, or i would just cut my losses and try to buy a new one.

To get the classic flange sound, you have to really play with the "Manual"and "Res" controls. This is not the easiest thing to do.

I'm into blues, funk, fusion and straight ahead jazz. I own about a dozen guitars and about a half dozen amps from solid state to boutique tubes.

I own a made in Japan version of this pedal, purchased new in the mid 80's. For the most part, I have never used this pedal, since classic flanging was really never my thing. Recently I decided to unload gear that I didn't use anymore and decided to fire it up one last time and made some interesting discoveries.

This first thing I noticed was this pedal produced a very respectable chorus sound. The depth of the chorus was very impressive and comparable to my Analogman Clone Chorus. The Analogman is a bit more transparent and provided more note detail, but also cost a lot more. I was pleasantly surprised.

One of the other reviewers mentioned Ernie Isley used this pedal to get his sound. So I tried to replicate this and in the process discovered I could get Santana's sound on the cut called "Taboo," from his Santana 3 LP. It's not a classic flange sound, but a rich 3 dimensional effect that was kind of a cross between a touch of slow chorus and a hint of flanging. The depth of the tone was what caught my attention.

The pedal sucked a bit of highs, but the overall effect using overdrive was very nice. I found I could pretty much replicate Ernie Isley's tone and the Santana tone mentioned above. I ended up noodling around with this for quite some time and had a lot of fun with it. In the end, I've decided to keep this pedal (at least for now).

The classic chorus sound can be had by setting the "Manual" and "Res" controls to zero and setting the Depth and Rate at approximately 12 o'clock.

To get the Ernie Isley and Santana tones from above, I set the manual between 10 and 2 o'clock, while keeping the rate and depth at approxiately 12 o'clock and the "Res" at "0."

My pedal did not cause a volume boast as some of the other reviewers had indicated. Where the pedal lacks in transparency and detail, it made up for in richness and depth in sound. Used in the context described above, this pedal is hard to beat for the money.

From day one this particular pedal had a slight problem with the on-off switch. I may have to step on the pedal a couple of times to either turn it on or off. Aside from that I'm assuming it with hold up.

Never contacted customer support.

This pedal allowed me to rediscover nostalgic sounds from the past and I'm currently having a lot of fun with it. If it was lost, I will probably not buy another. It appears there were a lot of inconsistencies in the production quality of this pedal, judging from the many comments that the pedal caused a huge jump in volume when activated. I'm keeping the pedal for the sounds I discovered and not for the clasic flange effect. For that, I'm sure there are better alternatives.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions. I've been playing guitar for over 30 years and fairly picky about my tone.

This flanger is easy to use, but getting a good sound out of it is hard. The controls have a good range of sounds - I'll miss that variety, but that's it. The sound itslef is horrid. I'm not a fan of metallic hollow sounding flange, and the BF2 is the king of metallic and hollow sounding flangers. Ick!

I was looking for an analog flange and I was warned not to get one of these, but I didn't listen to anyone's advice. I should have. Mine was a NOS made in Taiwan version. I hear that the older made in Japan's are better. I now have played both versions and should have got the Japanese one. Mine had a HUGE volume boost when switched on that made it not sit well with the rest of my band. The boost was so big that I couldn't stand practicing alone with this thing. Non-musicians even noticed that it wasn't right. I could have just used the volume knob on my guitar to counter-act the volume boost, but I shouldn't have to do that! Your pedals should not dictate your dynamics or how you play. The boost was worse with any level of gain no matter where I put it in the signal chain, what guitar used, patch cords, or amps.

I found out that I could open the pedal up and mess with the trimpots to bring it to unity gain. I could lower the volume, but it messed with the flage sweep. For two hours I slowly turned the trimpot, "V6 Bias" or whatever it was called I forgot now, and going both clockwise or counter clockwise it either turned the effect off completely or really distorted the sweep. The flange sounds best where it was factorty set at about horizontal. Adjusting the other two trimpots did not help. Besides, it should not be neccasssry to spend that much time tweaking a Boss pedal. I don't want to sacrifice the sound quality just to have a good volume level. Whatever Boss did to the circuitry this late in BF2 production was really stupid. The older ones sound better.

I have one Boss pedal. A DF2 that I got used in 1989 for maybe $30 and it is still kicking ass! If I kept the BF2 I'm sure it would provide many years of crappy sound!

Never dealt with them.

I tried really hard to like this pedal and justify keeping it. But with all the other flanger options out there it seemed a joke to keep it especially since I don't use flange often. It would just sit collecting dust. I returned this pedal and got a Rocktron Hypnotic Flange which has an Effect Level control!!!! That is something I wish the BF2 had. The Hypnotic Flange also is a warmer flanger. I thought about getting the BF3, but it's digital and I wanted an analog flanger. I have never rated any of my gear so low, but I was actually embarassed that I had this pedal.

This pedal is mysterious to me-it appears so simple to use, yet it takes a LONG TIME to get that sound you were looking for. It really does take some tweaking to get a good sound out of it; it's not one of those pedals that sounds good at every setting. But be patient, and you will probably like it.

Pretty good-it's not a deep whoosing flanger, but it has a very very nice subtle flange if that's what you're after. You can also dial in some really metallic pingy sounding stuff too. Place some fuzz in front of it and you can get a deeper sound. The speed range is very good, but I docked it two points for lacking depth, but hey, very few flangers do have a lot of depth, and this one is pretty affordable.

It's a Boss.

Very nice-for the money, you can't go wrong. It will last you forever, so that's well worth some of the money right there. It's no MXR, but it's a very nice subtle flanger that you can get some great swirly sounds out of if you monkey with it.

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?

Hard. It's really dynamic. I actually put it away a year ago thinking it was junk. I pulled it out recently and to my chagrin have found it's quite good.

I use it to get a Frank Zappa Shut up and play type sound. (Post fuzz)I also use it clean to get an "In the metal bucket" sound and a clean double. Very effictive.

Mine came out of a pawn shop. The body is busted up and it's held together with duct tape. I gig with out back up.

This is a cool box. But I think is comes from an era when there was a need for lots of flexibility. Hence it's pretty wierd for modern (young) players who have a limited idea of what you can do with flange.

It;s a bit hard to get your head around at first but after some tweaking of knobs you get the hang of the whole thing quite easily.

I use a 1969 Stock Fender Stratocaster and an original Marshall JTM45 and the sonic possibilitys with the my setup and this pedal are amazing.
Anything from subtle tremolo, twangy morphed spaceed out sounds, chorus and even a tiny bit of delay can be had if you know how to set it. I has a bit to much volume boost when it's turned on though.

when i got if off a friend the switch woulden't stay on but this was fixed by some spray contact cleaner and it has never failed me since. And i have been using it for about 2 stage hours and 5 practice hours a week for 2 years. this pedal only needs a backup if someone dropps sumthin' really heavy on it. You cant kill it.

Never needed any CS

I play Jazz, Funk, Blues and a bit of 80's rock. This effect adds some nice depth to your sound and realy brings out your picking technique on some settings. I wish it had a volume control to adjust that boost when it's turned on.

Mine is a Green Label Made-In-Japan model about 18 years old by the serial number. Inside it has two JRC4558D's. I don't know how the chips affect the sound in this pedal but they're REALY sought after in the old Tube Screamers.

I'm always looking for more hints on cool settings for this so please email me if you have some tips!

Very easy to use. The manual is pretty good.

I'm using mostly super strats with DiMarzio super distortions, and Seymour Duncan JBs etc. at the bridge, into Marshall amps. It's not noisy because it's a Boss. Boss makes great stuff. It sounds better through a clean amp. It sounds pretty good through a distorted amp too. This effect is kind of hard to describe. It's a spacey kind of sound. It's more intense than a phaser. I sometimes add a Boss DD-5 digital delay to this effect to make it even more out there. Sometimes it sounds thunderous. I played a DOD flanger years ago and I think it sounded better. But then again that was about fourteen years ago, so who knows? I've read that Malmsteen owns one of these. And he's one of my favorite artists so I'll keep it. It's a fun effect. But I get tired of it after about fifteen minutes. My cousin heard me playing it once and said that the effect sounded like Heart.

It's a Boss. So it's reliable. No need for a backup.

I've never had to contact them. Hardly anyone ever has to. Making good reliable products is the best customer suport.

I play rock and metal type of tunes. Mostly 70s and 80s stuff. I've been playing for twenty-eight years. I own about seven electric guitars, two Marshall amps, and about seven pedals. I don't know if I'd buy another. I may though, because nothing else sounds like this. You can get all kinds of tones with this pedal. Here's what I named some of my settings: 'outer space', 'the UFO has landed', 'twelve string reverb'. 'laser guitar', 'slow space tunnel', '1950s space movie', 'flange on ice', 'space sitar', etc.. If you want a one of a kind effect, this may be what you're looking for.

This is a big problem with this pedal. It's really hard to understand the effects causeb by turning the knobs. They should give some suggestions on the manual.

I use 2 stratos (american standard and a japanese Ritchie Blackmore). I use a Marshall AVT150H, Marshall Jackhammer, Digitech Whammy, Boss Compressor, Boss super pitch shifter, Boss turbo distortion,line 6 dl4, mxr phase 90, mxr auto Q, Dunlop wha, dunlop uni-vibe, ernie ball volume pedal. I plug the pedal into a rocktron patch mate and I use anArt midi controller. This is the worst pedal i have on my pedal board by far. The effect is very poor and I've been using the phase 90 instead of this (i know that they are different monsters by the mother is the same so we can find some points in common)

No problems until now

i play rock and funk some times. If you are lookin for a real flanger you should try the new BF3. I never plaued with it but I heard a few greats souns at the roland's site.
Forget this one. Waste of time and money.

it's easy to use, once you know what kind of sound you want to get out of it...the knobs are easy to 'tune' if you know what they do,
if you don't just play with 'm and you'll figure it out fast enough!

if saw other reviews that said it has 3 trims on the inside, I haven't found 'm yet, where are they!!!if anybody knows or could make a pic. of it, please E-mail me at: outlaw_torn87@hotmail.com:

ahh.the sound...I have come to find it somewhat weaker than my PH2(which dominates over al the other effects-levels, which sucks!)
and that's a good thing, 'cause this BF2 is just 'loud' enough to get a nice mix of effects, when I use it with distortion(HM3/DS2) it still lets my distortion through!(wonder-f-u-l-l) and that's what I like, I want my distortion to remain distorted, with just a bit(or bit more!)of the effects thrown in. overall the souds is 'really' amazing, just the way i like it.
from a 'nirvana - come as you are'-intro-kinda-sound right to a 747 landing in your backyard. (from sweet melow intro's, to grunge solo's, back to blues to rocking metal)

it's a BOSS duhuh! if you break it, they'd(ROLAND) probably give you a new one just for being able to break it in the first place!(won't happen but you get the idea: indestructable and super gig-able)

read above! (I live in holland so they'd probably do nohing for me anayway...US only I think)

I play mostly metal/punk/grunge...(metallica/nirvana/korn/blink182/more crap..etc.)and as said before, it's great for all of this, I'm very pleased I'd bought it, to be honest I'd never used a flanger before and I got it second hand over Mail(so didn't test it), I played with it a bit in a shop but not excessive.) and when I finally hooked it up, I was amazed, after just a couple of minutes I got a great chorus sound, which sounded even better whith slight distortion.

if you're planning on buying it, do so. if you're not planning, get to it! :>

yeah...great pedal, really awesome!

4 control (Manual, DEpth, Rate, Regen, but become 6 if you look inside!!!). after you know what the knobs do it's quite easy to find the good setting. some people complain about the manual knobs that do nothing, this control the delay time of the effect, which is really short an inudible, but if you look inside there are 3 trim, the one left control the delay time (this is the most usefull to tweak), the one right do nothing (ecept that the effect don't effect the sound if you turn it, it's a mistery what it does), and the third one right on top controlls the maximun feedback (it's better you don't tweak it to much because you're gonna get wooshy sound/noises which are really unmusical and too strong to use with a guitar.... but for noisy peaple works...).

The sound is that of a flanger from metallic sounds too jet planes, but i like to use it for liquid chorus sound ala univibe. somethimes i use it with my Small stone and distortion for noise. nice effect

Boss are solid ones.

-boh?!?

I play a bit of all, mainly metal and heavy stuff, with some reggea/blue/jazzy stuff somethimes. i have this pedal since 5/6 year and i'm happy with it, never broke and works fine. I tried once the BF3(i was a bit curious), but the BF2 is better, analog is better than digital!!!!! I don't want to say say buy it because it sound good, buy if you like it, otherwhise try all the onther pedal you find on the marcket, it the best way to find what suits you better!

I would say easy. 4 knobs to tweak. How hard can that be? The manual is a bit vague.

Sounds average. Somewhat limited sounds. Never really cared that much for flanged sounds. I just bought it for a couple of songs we do.

Its a Boss, need I say more.

On this pedal they suck big time. My pedal has a very noticable volume boost when on. That sucks when you're on stage and kick it on and you're blowing everyone else in the band away. I contacted them about it and they wanted me to send it back. It has 3 trim pots inside and those people wouldn't tell me if one was an output level. If anyone knows, please contact me.

If it weren't for the boost it would be usable. Otherwise its for sale. Its in almost brand new condition w/box and manual. Contact me if you're interested.

I find i pretty easy to use and iam a bit simple, not reall sure what "resonannce" and "manual" do to the sound, but depth is how deep the flange is and rate is how often it flanges...
But i find it easy to get the differnt sounds that i need.

I use a warlock (double humbuckers) and a Honner panther amp, it can make some wierd alien sounds or a cool jet noise, my favourite is the chorus effect you can make, however You get this cool flange feedback, which is cool for a bit but i gets annoying.

100%

not used it

I play Punk/Ska/Metal i use it mainly to round of what iam playing, a little flange sounds good with everything. i use it with my Boss Hyperfuzz iand it makes a PHAT NOISE its a F**KING blow you bollos of sound.

Which is nice

Extremely easy to use. Plug and play action. Battery inserting process may be a bit tedious , that is what some prefer using ac adaptor.