Boss FDR-1

I read some other reviews of the FDR-1...AFTER I had already ordered one, so needless to say I was suffering from some degree of remorse before it arrived. I held my breath as I removed it from the box and connected it to my USA made Pro Jr. and 1989 American Standard Stratocaster without even a glance at the manual or the controls on the pedal. With the amp volume set at only 3 and tone at 5.5, I brought the three guitar knobs all the way up and strummed an E chord. What a relief! For only a $150, I had just turned a simple practice amp with only volume and tone chickenheads into a very expensive vintage Fender Deluxe Reverb. Like magic, I now had the flexibility to manage gain, overdrive, bass, treble, vibrato, and reverb which is reason I bought the FDR-1 in the first place. The only reason for rating this product an 8 instead of a 10 in this category is that some players may require more time to obtain a desireable sound due to the complexity of their amplifier. Also, some may not realize the intended purpose of the pedal as an amp model and be somewhat disappointed to discover it is not the equivalent of adding several independent effects.

Like many, I have fallen under the spell of the Fender tone well exemplified by the guitar work backing artist like Lucinda Williams in particular. I was looking to achieve the simple, clean vibrato and reverb presence heard on almost all of her arrangements. I have heard that the Fender Deluxe Reverb amps were also very good when overdriven using gain and I wanted similar capability, not just a fuzz pedal that turns the effect on or off. The FDR-1 achieves all of this very quietly. I have been so pleasantly surprised and satisfied with the performance benefits the FDR-1 added to my Pro Jr., that I have not yet got around to trying it out on my USA made Hot Rod Deluxe. I can confirm that the effects are strong and controlable with both Stratocasters and Telecasters. My USA made 1988 Telecaster sounded over 30 years older running through this thing at least in my imagination. The real purpose of any good effect is to inspire creativity, so I suppose it can be said that the FDR-1 delivers because I pictured myself in a fancy cowboy shirt and tall hat on stage alongside Merle Travis a couple of times.

This is a typical Boss pedal in both size and weight, therefore it should prove to be as durable as any of their products. While maybe not as colorful, the matte black finish I believe was chosen to enhance the vintage factor associated with the old Fender blackface amps.

Never had to deal with Boss, but there is a wealth of information on everything the company has made or makes at the non-affilliated http://www.bossarea.com website. Every dime-a-dozen guitar player knows they make great products.

I am a fan of the early Hillbilly country music 1946-1956 as well as some of the past and modern day American folk songwriter music. Chet Atkins and Glen Campbell are my kind of guitar heroes. I am sure some rock or British style players, can find a use for the FDR-1 as well, but I stopped listening to anything recorded much beyond 1977 sometime ago. With few exceptions, everything after that just sounds far too over produced and I like things simple. As for current country music artist, let's just say there is not much that is even listenable these days. For certain, the FDR-1 is an inexpensive way to take your sound back to the heydays of the hayride if you do not happen to own a hand wired all tube amp from that era. The reverb displayed none of the "sproings" mentioned in other less than favorable reviews through my equipment. Of course everything I use is made by Fender, including the instrument cables, so that may have something to do with my sonic success utilizing this Fender inspired device.

Very Easy...If you can use an amp, you can use this pedal.

Ok, lets get something straight. If you are using this with a regular amp, it's coloring the sound. I use it with a Tech 21 Power Engine 60 set flat and, whoa; instant 60w Deluxe.The pedal drives the amp quite nicely, giving me a 2 lb amp head. I've tried my Am Strat, Am. Tele, Les Paul and all sound very, very convincing. You can even feel the sag when you dig in. The random "sproings" from the reverb are annoying, but are not as noticable as they might seem.If you turn the reverb down, they lessen in intensity.The tremolo is a pain in the butt to set, but I dont use it anyhow. All in all, this thing does more for me than I expected. I plan to mount my PE60 amp into a Carvin BelAir 212 cab with Weber Spekers and have a 60w 212 Deluxe monster.

So far, no problem.

Never dealt with them on anything.

I've already got the Bassman Pedal, and it is as good or better. Both are great for jazz, blues, etc. The pedal is a gas.

Fantastic piece of equipment. Plug and play. I was extremely hesitant about a digital pedal however this one really smokes. I have never liked the floor model distortion devices that give you 100s of ways to make horrible noises. This one has great distortion with no buzz or fuzz.

P-90 les Paul special with the pedal through a low powered fender tweed. Sonic heaven. Really cool idea to emulate classic amps and this one has it down. Trem and reverb are ok.

All of the Boss pedals I have purchased in the past have been reliable ( tuner and OD1) so I would hope this would be the same.

NA

Great pedal. I tried the Bassman but did not like it. This is the one to get

No manual is neccessary to operate this unit, except maybe to figure out how to use the tap/tempo function for the vibrato.

I am a surf guitarist, so I tend to have a wet, reverby tone. The comments I have read about the loud random SPROING sound are absolutely true. For me, this renders this pedal totally unusable. I returned it immediately.

I have never dealt with Boss customer support.

What a disappointment! I really wanted this to work.

Very easy to use. Straight forward controls. Intuitive setup

This pedal was a major disappointment. I used it with an Eric Johnson Stratocaster, two of my amps (Hughes and Ketner 30 watt and a Fender Cyber Twin (clean channel) and had the same result. I used the clean channels as suggested and just had nothing but harsh, very unsatisfying sounds. I adjusted the treble, bass, mids on the pedal and the amps to no avail. The gain/level on the pedal was adjusted every which way too. The reverb and vibrato had annoying howls as aftersounds on both amps - even at lower volumes (guitar and amp). I wanted this pedal to work but no matter what I did it was an incredibly poor performer. Don't know how the Boss videos demonstrating the prowess of this thing happened - it's very puzzling!

Don't know about this specific pedal- only used it for 2 hours. All the rest of my Boss pedals are built to last and are very dependable.

I have not dealt with them. Never had to and I have lots of Roland/Boss gear. I guess that says something about the dependability of their products

I play blues, rock, classic rock, reggae, ballads. Anything with a melody essentially. I've played for 37 years and own 27 guitars of varying age and brand. I am primarily a Fender stratocaster player and have 9 of them. I took this pedal back to the store because it was not anywhere near worth the money in my opinion. Others of you may subsequently tell me I didn't know what I was doing with this pedal, but like I said - I tried everything I knew to do to make it work. I chose it because it sounded so good when the Boss reps demo'd it in the videos at NAMM (and the Phil Gates separate video). It definitely gets in the way of good sound for me - and like I said -there's an aftersound (small howl) when using the reverb and vibrato settings. I have many other pedals/effects to include Boss and Digitech products and have never had this kind of performance. I would not recommend this pedal if it cost $20.

It's easy enough for me to use and that's a plus. But due to problems with its reverb, I have to cut the score in half.

I like the basic Fender Deluxe Reverb amp modeling that comes in this pedal. I'd probably give that aspect of this pedal a 9. But I don't much care for its DRRI overdrive tone. It sounds a bit harsh or raspy to my ears. I'll take an Ibanez TS9 over this OD tone any day. The tremolo is nice and a big plus on this pedal. But the big problem is the reverb. I love a spring reverb tone and I own a DRRI amp so I have a good idea of what to expect. But this pedal produces random big drip sproing tones that sound like a drunk randomly kicking the reverb tank or your amp. They aren't consistent when they release so it really throws off my playing. I had a Roland rep try to convince me that this is what they are supposed to do "just like a Fender DR amp, but I'm not buying that. They are supposed to emulate an original DR's reverb, and this pedal doesn't accomplish that if I can use my DRRI as a reference. The reverb in my FDR-1 did settle down after I'd tried it out for a few days, but the reverb is still unusuable after half level and I can even detect odd sproing drips occuring randomly with the reverb only up about 2 clicks.

So I give this pedal a thumbs up (but not for the money) on its DR tone modeling and tremolo, a "so-so" on its OD tones, and a big disappointed thumbs down on its reverb. And with the price of superior Vox modeling/dsp units being available for just a couple hundred or more, I can't recommend paying $150 for a single compact stomp box model even with a decent tremolo effect added in.

If you want one of these pedals, be sure you try it before you order it. And run it thru something very clean like a Roland JC to evaluate it. A warm tube amp will bury some of its reverb anomalies and you don't want that while you're checking it out. But I'm hoping Roland will fix the reverb, cuz then, this would be a nice compact pedal to have. But if they are going to be stubborn and argue this is the way a DR's reverb should sound, then just walk away. Also, don't flame me on my review, I've compared with others and these pedals seem to have some variations. Others have reported that this problem with the reverb disappeared for them with some time. So the one you get, might be better than my sample.

Only if you don't use the reverb!

I won't even begin to describe my conversation (other than the ref above) with the Roland rep.

But here's a score.

Nice modeling, nice tremolo, OD is okay, but not for me, and the spring reverb has potential but the random sproing crash drips ruined this pedal for me. I'm sending mine back.

The FDR-1 is fairly simple to use. It does take some getting used to. In fact, you kind of have to wrestle with the level and gain before you get it right, but that is true of any pedal or effects board that you use. NO problem there. You have the luxury of playing it clean, with overdrive reverb and tremolo.

The FDR-1 sounds very close to the Deluxe Reverb. I use one as well and happened to acquire a Bassman LTD. The Bassman LTD with the FDR-1 sounds like a Deluxe Reverb on steroids. I use an Ibanez hollow body and an American Standard Stratocaster with my Bassman. The FDR-1 works great as an overdrive pedal. In fact, it sounds very similar to my Boss OD-3. I won't need both. As far as I can tell, the FDR-1 is not noisy. I think the reverb, while not as deep as the actual thing, is as close as it gets. It is very good. Sometimes it gets "boingy" if the strings are plucked too hard. I am still trying to tweak the tremolo. As far as I can tell, it leaves a lot to be desired, but that could be me. Again, I am using this with a Bassman LTD.

Yes, I feel that I can depend on this pedal. More as an overdrive pedal and occaissonal reverb pedal.

Have not had to deal with Fender however, my supplier said that if I didn't like it I could return it.

My band plays rock and blues. Some country. I think this is a very good match. I have been playing the guitar for over twenty years, and have been playing in bands for the past ten years. I own an Alvarez mandolin, Morgan Monroe resonator a JV Stratocaster and Peavey Classic 60 amplifier. If it were stolen or lost I think I would definately buy one again. What I love about it is this: I have always used Fender Black face amps. I have switched over to the Bassman because I think it is more suitable to my band's style of music. However, when I punch in that FDR-1 for certain songs it brings me back to what I am most comfortable hearing; that punchy, crisp and musical tone of the Deluxe Reverb. This is much better as a reverb unit than the Digitech Digiverb pedal which is highly rated. I think the tremolo is a bit lacking, but then again I am still getting used to it. I am pretty confident that it will help me make music, and enjoy doing it as well.

Very easy to use. One might want a footswitchable reverb or tremolo separate from the other functions but not a problem for me.

Some Marshall/Vox and Behringer + POD users looking below looking for a Hendrix sound are not happy. I am not surprised, this is not a rock pedal, nor is the Fender Deluxe Reverb amp. This pedal very well emulates the sound of Fender Deluxe Reverb when clean or mildly overdriven. Just keep the amp sound clean, tone controls in or around the mid position as the manual states and set the pedal gain on the edge of distortion or little more. Use your guitar volume pots and PU selector for the rest, lower vol for rhythm and full blast for solos. I have noticed the about noon gain position is great for humbuckers, 1-2 PM position for P90s and 2-3PM for a strat. Do not overdrive your amp with the pedal's excessive level setting unless you want it. Level and gain settings allow you to have so many more options than the DR offers, even at a bedroom volume. If you don't get a good sound using this pedal look at the mirror or the rest of your equipment. The reverb is really dripping and cool! Sounds exactly as an accutronics long pan. Tremolo works fine too.

Looks as solid as the rest of the Boss pedals.

Never needed or used them.

This is a pedal for players who want to get the great clean or mildly overdriven DR sound at a lower volume level. I play blues and this works great! I have played for 40+ years and after getting into Fender amps I have not looked back. For younger players who do not care about the Fender sound this works well as an overdrive or distortion pedal too. In addition to the great basic sound the pedal's reverb and tremolo effects came free with it!! Great sound and value, highly recommended.

Should be simple but the knob inside the knob is tricky to get at and harder yet to see for both rev/vibrato and gain/volume.

The demo's by boss sounded incredible through a Roland JC12 and that is a super clean amp. I tried with a Vox AC30 and a Marshall 1959 100watt and 4 12 cab with greenbacks. In either case it was very hard to desern any Fender spank/bounce/scoop mid type vibe and I won a Tiwn as well. Does it work as an overdrive well yes very close MT favorite TS9 but not as clean. The Reverb needs more flexibilty in depth settings the vibrato is limited by thos e damn knobs as well.

Seemed Ok but just demo.

For my purpose , to impart some Fender tone on my Vox/Marshall combo it simply did very little. As an overdrive it works ok. still no enough to keep. Think i will try a BBE FREEFUZZ next.

Easy to use!! no problem!!

This is a do all 10 punds of DUNG and I mean DUNG!! in a 5 pound box!!
I own a 65 BF Deluxe Reverb and to say this is the pedal version is a Sin!! this pedal plane sucks, I ran it into my princeton and my Twin reverb it gave the Twin a little more than it had but for the price? I don't like the new BOSS stuff it as well as other pedal makers no longer make stuff in JAPAN, now they sell cheap junk.

It feels like plastic metal if that sound strange pick up an older Japan Boss pedal and just feel it in your hand.

Wasted my $$$$'s!!
Been playing on the road and at home for 24+ years I have and had a pedal farm of stuff over the years and when it comes to cloning a sound some come close like the Wah and Fender Bassman setting on the Digitech RP-250
That was impressive and that had a bunch of other useless Crap involved + a tuner for $145.00!!