Boss FDR-1

I found the tremolo feature easier to use than some of the reviewers here. It only took a few minutes to figure out the two different ways to set the tremolo speed. You can do it by either turning the knob or tapping the pedal. After that everthing is pretty simple.

It's very difficult to get a "Fender clean" sound from this pedal. Turning the drive knob up from zero goes from no volume right into slight crunch. There's no in between. If you're looking for distortion you'll be happy. I liked the thick, bass sounds I could get on the neck pickup of my single coils. The reverb feature, on the other hand, is the pedal's ultimate downfall and renders the whole thing virtually useless. Any setting above 9 o'clock on the reverb dial results in a series of pings and pops. The most annoying part is the randomness of it all. The noises don't seem to be in any way related to what you're playing or your picking style. You can run through a series of notes and the thing will ping all the way through. If you stop and play the same thing over again in an attempt to replicate the problem it will ping in completely different spots. Anyone who has either played or heard a real Fender Deluxe Reverb knows that the amplifier sounds NOTHING like this.

I'm sure the pedal will last much longer than my patience with it will last.

I wrote to Boss to complain about the reverb noises and asked them if they were planning to issue an upgrade that fixed this obvious bug. They wrote back to me with 24 hours and told me that the noise isn't a bug, it's a "feature." In other words, they deliberately programmed ever random ping and pop into the pedal. I didn't care for the answer but I have to give them credit for getting back to me so quickly. I also have to sympathize with the guy at Boss who has to give such nonsensical answers to the public day in and day out.

This is the most diappointing piece of guitar geat I've ever bought and it's a shame because it's such a great concept. The Fender Deluxe Reverb is one of the legendary amplifiers in music history and the abilility to replicate its sound at a fraction of the price was something I looked forward to doing when I first heard about this pedal. Unfortunately, Boss was more interested in cashing in on the Fender name than they were about getting the whole thing right.

The double knobs on level/gain and reverb/veb. seems to be labled backwards to me. Other than that it is very east to use.

I use mine on a fender champion 600 and it does what I wanted. It fattens tone and adds options to the amp that are not there. It sound just the way I wanted it to. It is not for you guys that want heavy distortion. Its distortion is 70's like and sounds good to me

I think it is vey dependable

I like clean or very little dirt in my sound. This is perfect for that. If you want a different sound get a different pedal

I'm giving it a low ease of use rating because it is impossible to make it sound as advertised.

I own a Blackface Pro Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, and Princeton Reverb. This pedal does not sound like it is even related. Someone already said it well. Small, Flat, and Lifeless. The Boss Rep said "but think of it as a reverb, vibrato, eq, and distortion all in one pedal." The reverb is NOT usable past barely a hint of it. Sprorngy!!! I did not buy one I'm a dealer and all are going back to Boss.

It will last forever - like plastic bags in a landfill.

I play Latin, Jazz, Blues, Classic Rock. I have a vintage amp collection mostly Gibsons and Fenders from 50's and 60's. I play a Godin Montreal mostly but also play a '63 Strat, a '64 Gretsch Nashville, a G&L Comanche and a Guild X-500. Been playing 45 years. Owned a music store for the last 30 years.

Easy to use. Keep it simple. If you think of this pedal as a single channel amp it will work well.

I use it at the end of my effects right before my AXE active direct box mostly. Other pedals include: Boss tuner, MXR dyna comp, TC chorus, Cool Cat chorus, Fulltone OCD, Bad Monkey, Morley Wah/Volume. Guitars include: Fender Am Tele with noiseless pickups, Epiphone Les Paul, Samick 175 copy. Theater and church gigs. I also use it with my Ampeg AX70, Fender Bassman, and Fender GDec 30. If you have ever played a Deluxe amp, you'll know that the sound is not high gain. The magic of the Deluxe is controlling the levels you put into it. This pedal emulates the deluxe well. It takes some work to get to the sweet spot. If you want think high gain this is not the pedal for you. If you need a pedal that gives you a little warmth and smooth when you raise the level at the input using the volume control on the guitar or a volume pedal. This does a nice job of making a direct signal chain sound like an amp.

Boss is well built gear.

Boss is good if you need them.

I've been playing for 30 years. I spent time as a recording engineer and played lots of different styles. If you have a deluxe or a bassman amp you are limited to one sound that you set up on the amp itself. This pedal does a good job of replacing my amp sound and weighs about 50 lbs less. I like modeling for convience and a lot less noise. It is only 90% of the real thing. Most of your audience won't know the difference. $100 is a good price to pay for a single sound, if it is good. The Boss FDR-1 does just what it's supposed to do.

I did an earlier "good" review, and wanted to add now that I've had a chance to play it through a Fender Champ 600 that I can sympathize with some of the negative reviews, as unless you have a very clean channel and tube amp to boot (the Champ starts to get dirty at 3, and gain increases with volume), also utilizing both reverb/trem at 3 or less on the pedal, and keeping pedal gain at 3 or less, the sound isn't good. This pedal works great to ADD FDR "tones" to a really clean channel, but only enough tone to "fatten" or "complex" or "round" the sound, like old rhythm and blues, blues and gospel, not extreme treble sounds or even blues rock. This also works better with both humbuckers or the neck pup, not so much bridge pup. For what I wanted it still works great! Better than 65 lb Twin Reverb.

All Boss stuff is virtually indestructible.

Only thing better is what it emulates, FDR reissue at least $1000, vintage blackface is much more. Headstrong 1X12 (Princeton Clone with trem/reverb) is $1499, 35 lbs. Carr Rambler and other boutiques with term/reverb onboard are even more. Where do you get these tones otherwise? Holy Grail reverb pedal (great) $100 is only halfway there. This is the only game in town I know of.

Good design, lacks additionnal switch input, as well as additionnal speaker-simulated output ?? la digitech bad monkey (which costs far less...).

Aow, this hurts, the guy below is right: one have to admit defeat with this thing.
Sounds cold, small and flat, very lifeless.
The deluxe amp has eq, ?? la fender, quite effective. This boss pedal has the eq ?? la Vox, go figure... This means when you turn the bass up it looses treble, and so on. It sucks big time IMHO.
Keep in mind the thing costs more than many multieffectors which does the job of emulating the deluxe better than this pedal.
I don't smash boss, or modelers (I am fond of my GP20, which does the deluxe job quite good), but really the FDR1 misses the hit.

My only defective pedal in 20 years is a boss beq 3. All others still works.

For what it claims to be/do, it sucks big time. And is very pricey too.
Cosm technology can be amazing (GP20, RE20, Cube20X), I don't understand why boss missed it this time.
BIG disappointment, I returned it.

Plug and play, controls similar to Deluxe Reverb, manual is well written with descriptive hand drawn numbered pictures explaining controls.

Very close sounds to the original Fender amp it models; with my tube amps, a Fuchs BlackJack 21W with 6V6 tubes, no onboard effects, totally clean amp, and a Fender NOS Blues Jr. 15W with RCA tubes and Jensen speaker, onboard spring reverb.

I also have a DR Z Airbrake attenuator, so I can "dime" amp master and/or volume to get tube saturation, and the Airbrake lowers the volume for home.

I play classic Chicago blues, a la Mike Bloomfield style and lots of the 3 Kings styles, and the old Fenders had that sound down to a T, but are heavy. The FDR-1 pedal is the best solution yet to get that sound from a lighter amp. I also have a Holy Grail reverb pedal, which is also awesome, but much softer and smoother, with no gain or tremolo.

My notion is that classic blues, R&B, R&R and classic rock players have always idolized the Fender Deluxe Reverb. Many hard rock and blues rock players from 60's to 80's turned to Marshall, as did most acid rock players. Now it's new R&B, fusion, metal, etc. and modeling amps seem to be the favorite, as they've come so far at less cost and lighter. For a classic blues player who needs a fat, clean sound, with beaucoup sustain, my Gibson ES-345 (Varitone) and my LP hit it just right, and the FDR-1 is right there also. A good speaker will also help. The FDR-1 comes as close as possible to the real thing without actually replacing it. However, I don't like any reverb, or pedal higher than 6, and usually use 3-4. The FDR-1 is no different.

All Boss products have always been as solid as rocks.

Never needed any. Old reliable.

This is a good match for a blues man. I've been playing 53 years. My guitars and amps are already mentioned. If lost, I would buy it again. There is no other products to compare it to, unless you have a pedal farm with all of the separate pedals, i.e. reverb, tremolo, gain, etc., and then they won't emulate the FDR. That's too much work, like amps with too many knobs. Ir does what it is supposed to do, better than advertised. Play a Deluxe Reverb first, and if you like it enough to want to have it, buy the FDR-1 and with a tube amp you're there.

Fairly easy to use. The split controls for the combined volume/gain and tremolo/reverb can be a little fiddly. Otherwise, it is much like other Boss pedals.

I bought this to use with my Matamp King Street, which is a 15w EL34 old Marshall sounding amp. I was determined to like this pedal even after reading the fairly negative reviews that I have seen elsewhere. I wanted to add a Fender sound to my amp and this seemed like the easiest way to go. I have used amp modellers like the Pod before, but the FDR just seemed like the easiest way to add this sound to my existing rig using a simple stomp box. After much experimenting i have to admit defeat. I think this pedal is truly terrible. I think the only way to get a good sound out of this pedal is to use it with a very clean transistor amp (like the Roland that Boss demonstrate it with) or use this pedal with an existing Fender amp. Which kind of defeats the objective in the first place. Even if you can't use this pedal to simulate a good Fender amp sound then I thought I could just treat it as an overdrive pedal. The trouble is, it isn't a particularly good overdrive pedal either (in my opinion). It sounds very digital and there are many other better ones on the market. The tremolo/vibrato is an OK effect. I hated the reverb. Even on very low settings it sounded extremely digital and processed - my EHX Holy Grail is much better. Some people have criticized doubters like me as having too high expectations of this pedal. However, after much trying, I simply can't justify using this pedal. I'm going back to my Jeckle & Hyde overdrive, and ditching the FDR.

Seemed reliable. Usual Boss construction.

No comment

I mainly play blues and rock and bought this to add a good Fender dollop to my Marshall rig. Have been playing for over 30 years and gig regularly. I own 3 amps (Matamp, Marhsall JTM and Crate Powerblock), 6 electric guitars (Fender Teles, strat, Gretsch, etc), and numerous pedals. I definitely wouldn't buy it again. As I have said, the only justification for this amp is to go with a clean transistor amp - it sounds best with my Crate Powerblock. But even then it isn't very inspiring. There are better modellers (eg. Pod) and better overdrive pedals (eg. OCD, Maxon, Tubescreamer, etc), and better reverbs (eg. EHX). It is very hard to get a good clean sound out of this pedal (ie. a glassy blackface vibe). Only really does a dirty sound. To be honest I am surprised this is so bad. As I said I was expecting more, even though I had tempered by expectations by reading the other bad reviews first. Don't be tempted like me. It is expensive and definitely not worth the money.

Very easy to use without reading the well written manual.

I never used an original Deluxe Reverb nor the reissue, so I've no idea of the original tone, but isn't a problem. I've bought this effect mainly to drive my Fender Champio 600. It has only two input (low & high) and a volume. I use this amp for study becouse other Fender amps I own are too heavy to carry at third floor (and to loud too).

The sound is want I need: a more deep sound with a bit of reverb and the tone control to avoid the crisp sound of this amp with single coil pickups.

No noise at all, I've use on recording and on stage. I've planned to test it on pa system as backup in case of amp failure.

All I need, no noise, good tone control, good reverb (at low settings).

This is my second Boos pedal (the other is the TU2) and I think they are solid.

No need. 5 year warranty is good.

Playing guitar since 1970, then guitar since 1980 I play mainly blues, rock & roll and some easy jazz tunes with a female singer. I own three Fender amps (modded Blues Junior, Deluxe 90 ss, modded Champion 600) one '79 Stratocaster, one '84 Telecaster and a '08 Mexico Telecaster and a Ibanez Artcore Af125 Jazzbox. All guitars sound nice through this box.

I own a Digitech RP350 when I need to play on pa systems with acoustic gear or my jazzbox and I think FDR-1 is better, less versatile, but better for my needs and small to carry.

For me is a great value, I'm very happy and let me play in my home with a great sound at low volume, and is easy to play live with the right tone too.
Again I've bought this not for the '65 Deluxe Reverb tone, but to obtain a decent Fender sound in every situation.

If stolen or lost, I start to buy another. High value for who love the Fender sound.

Very easy to use. It's a Boss turn and tweak.

I own an original siverface Deluxe Reverb. So the comparison was
tit for tat. This pedal is a one trick pony. You can get the growl,
if you wanna call it that, but besides the reverb which is ok, I found this pedal to be a disappointment. I could not get it to clean up...no matter what. Now another user said he was able to so it's possible there was something wrong, but I don't think so, as the gain did increase. If you notice in the demo videos these guys are all using one kinda dirty tone playing in that typical 70's classic blues/blues rock style which I play also, but one of the great things about a deluxe is the beautiful clean bright sound of the 2nd channel which this pedal doesn't even come close to achieving.
I played the p??dal through a vintage Showman while comparing.

Don't know.

I returned the pedal to the music store where I bought it.

I've been playing for 40 years. I play blues, funk, rock(some prog), country and a bit of jazz(some fusion). I used to do sessions when I lived in Los Angeles and also had several different working bands.
I suppose that guys that want the sound of a deluxe reverb kinda almost breaking up might like this pedal but I thought it a bit narly. I have owned a lot of Fenders and in the 80s did my time with just about every preamp out there including Marshall, Fender, Soldano, Bogner, Groove tube and about every variation thereof.
I play now through various old Fenders including the Deluxe and Showman each having been tweaked.
There are so many boutique pedals out there now that sound so much better that this that to drop money for basically one sound that IMHO
doesn't even nail it that great, is not money well spent. The person who posted using it for harp, well I can imagine it might do a decent
job for that but that's harp and not guitar.