Boss OD-2R Turbo Overdrive

The OD-2r is LIKE your basic 3-knob OD pedal (Gain, Tone, Level), except it has a 4th knob, to toggle back & forth between 2 modes; normal and turbo. These can be switched manually or with a latching remote footswitch- an approximate $15 addition. So basically you get 2 OD pedals in 1 case. This saves on batteries or AC connections. Getting the right balance from your normal to your turbo sound may take some compromising on one or both ends. I'm not thrilled about how this works for me.

Separately, I find I could get a lot of mileage from the 2 overdrives. But the turbo mode seemed like too great a jump from the normal setting for me. There was a substantial volume boost, too. I use this with an old Boss ME-X multi-effects, an Ibanez CP-9 compressor and a TS-9 Tubescreamer. I tried varying orders of these 3 pedals in the ME-X' slots. I generally use an American Standard Strat (40th Anniversary) and an early 80's Gibson Les Paul Custom. I run guitar--> effects--> amp; an obscure 1 12" (Class A) all-tube combo, which shall remain nameless for their abysmal customer support. This amp has an effects-loop, but I don't use it much.
Most of the stuff I do is lightly overdriven, but I like to get my sound progressively thicker and grainier as necessary. I hate buzzy distortions. Tonally, it's nice. I've got better sounding pedals though. The main appeal is its compactness. Honestly, it sounds pretty much like all the other Boss overdrives, which (let's face it) are all pretty much the same things with different paint jobs.

Boss.
"How much more dependable could it be? None; None more dependable."

n/a

Works well for most styles. You can add or subtract gain and treble to either mode, and get some widely varying tones. for that reason, it might be good for far-away sessions where you don't want to carry much. Let's see, other OD pedals I own: a Daddy-O, a Bluesbreaker, a Jekyll & Hyde, a TS-9, an Original SansAmp, and the 2 OD's/1 Distortion in my 2 Boss ME-5's. I used to have a Blues Driver too.
Raves: It's fairly cheap, common and easy to replace. It sounds reasonably good, and it has 2 gain structures in one box.
If stolen or lost, I would probably not replace it or buy something else. I have everything I need, and it's just not that spectacular sounding. I should say it's not bad either.
I originally bought it to have 2 drives in one case. Now I have a Jekyll & Hyde for that. The OD-2r doesn't come close to that quality of sound, and you can't use both modes together like the J&H. If I could alter the settings of each mode separately and/or use the 2 modes together; then I'd get more excited.
It's good, but not great. I use it at live shows a lot, to save my great stuff (which won't fit in the Boss/Ibanez pedal-sized slots of the ME-X), and to cut down on the amount of gear I haul to a gig. If you can get one cheap, it's probablt worth it. Don't spend the money on a new one.

the pedal is very easy to use, there is tre four nops and what can I say, its simple

I primery use this pedal whit my roland "Hot Tube" and my "tokain" guitar ist like a gibson, love rock model, there is no nois, and in my loop there is a wha wha cry baby my enhancer, my octave and then my turbo overdrive, and my DOD distortion, but there is nop punch!!!

IT ALWAYS WORKS, I can smash it up against the wall and stamp on it, it Reliability is the best

its a geat surf overdrive sound!!!

Very easy. You know, like a stompbox. Three knobs, you turn them.

I mainly play in a surf-rock band, using Strats, Teles, Danelectros and Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and Deville amps. That said, I don't like this pedal for my surf sound. Sometimes we play other types of music where I need more of a "Marshall" overdrive (early Aerosmith or AC/DC). That's where I love this pedal. It seems to have a darker, thicker, more mid-rangey quality than my Tube Screamer, Expandora or the Hot Rod overdrive. And it really runs the gamut of overdrive, from slight to searing (with the turbo on). With my Les Paul Custom, I have Turbo off, and drive set at like 9 or 10 o'clock for a nice overdriven sound to riff with. I have the footswitch to change over to Turbo mode, but I don't use it much. There is a slight volume increase (for leads) when you switch to Turbo mode, but it's not dramatic. With the Les Paul, I just use the volume knobs. Responds very well to volume tweaks.

Wouldn't it be great to have a product line like Boss has, where people simply say "It's a Boss" and we all know that means nothing can hurt it?

See reliability.

I've owned the Boss Dual Overdrive (okay), numerous Rats (very nice, wish I still had one) the Boss DS-1 (too trebly for me, and too much distortion). I use only Fender amps, because they're so versatile, but they are sometimes too pristine and slick-sounding. But for playing in church and playing surf-rock, they are of course perfect. It's always been a challenge for me to find a pedal to put in front of it when I want that faux-Marshall overdrive. This pedal does a respectable job of that. To be fair, the Rat does, too.

Sucks compared to my marshall amp. Distortion is to treble and crisp. You can't get a saturated tone out of it and are only able to get two sounds. Crap with a lot of treble and A lot of crap with a lot of treble.

Crap

All over, it's really easy to use. One little minus is that the sound range is not so wide, but cool sounds are available, of course. I bought it used and I got no manual.

I'm using a Kingsound (Strat copy) guitar and a Philipson 15 watt amp. I'm using the following effect row: Morley PWA wah-wah - OD-2R Turbo Overdrive - Zoom 505 multi-fx. The sounds in general are a bit boring (sounds like the amp overdrive), but useful. Alone, it serves a cool and light sound. I usually keep the Turbo on all the time and about 60 % drive and 50 % tone setting. It's not very noisy. Used with the wah pedal, it sounds pretty sharp. It's also damn good as a pre-drive for the Zoom 505. When using chorus or flanging on the 505 and a mid-drive distortion on the OD-2R, really cool sounds appear. When combining OD-2R and 505 distortions, the sounds may be a bit too noisy and thick. All over, it keeps the expections.

I depend fully on it . . . Boss pedals are mainly reliable. I'm not gigging (I'm only playing alone and in no band), but I guess it would do the job anywhere.

I haven't been trying to get any support.

It delivers a very useful overdrive tone (but I need to experiment a little before I find my favourite tone). The bad thing is that it soesn't deliver exactly the distortion type I want. Probably I'm going to sell it to my brother (who also plays a bit guitar and bass) and buy a XT-2, PW-2 or HM-3. I bought it used at a large size music store, for about 60 per cent of new prize. I've been playing guitar for four years, but I bought the guitar and amp about a year ago. I'm playing all kinds of popular music and the OD-2R is used very much.

This pedal has an awesome sound to it. The turbo feature gives it an awesome sound, even with a 6 volt power supply. It is also an excellent pre-amp. just turn off the drive, kick in the Turbo, and up the level and you have a really cool preamp. The manual also has some pretty wicked settings.

I have used this pedal with a cheesey $75 Fender, and it makes it sound incredible. the one downside is the fact that every so often, i get a little bit of feedback, but that can easily be drowned out by using a filter, or constantly playing.

i have thrown this pedal at my sister, and it always works. what i mean is, the electronics hold up. i have smashed it against the floor, wall, ceiling, etc. and have never had a problem. i am sure it can withstand a nuclear war. the sound quality is always excellent, no matter what size amp i use.

Boss rules, no way around that. i doubt i'll ever need it repaired.

when i bought the pedal, i had no idea what i was doing, i just knew Boss was better than DOD. i like to play rock and sometimes a bluesy kind of style. changing the settings on the guitar and playing with the drive on the pedal allows me to play a bluesy style and turning everything on maximum lets me rock the hell out of the neighbors. if the pedal was $100 i'd still have bought it.

This was my first pedal, and I didn't really expect any difficulties with it's ease of use. Don't bother to use the manual, there's only 3 dials to screw around with. (Volume, Tone, and Overdrive, plus a Turbo function) As long as you know the difference between clock-wise and anti-clockwise you should be fine. If you need a variety of overdrive tones during the same song, I recommend you get a footswitch for the Turbo setting. Otherwise, it has to be set by hand.

I had a terrible setup with a second hand amp and guitar that I got for a great price. It was great for a beginner, playing through a Samick amp and a Chevy (anyone ever heard of it?) guitar. It got pretty noisy when the Turbo was switched on, but that's probably to do with quality of my setup. Really, I would only suggest using this pedal with the Turbo switched on. Otherwise, it sounds pretty weak. By adjusting the Overdrive without the Turbo you can get a variety of sounds, but I wouldn't suggest playing any kind of alternative or even punk without the Turbo. My tastes in music have rapidly changed, so this pedal isn't as useful for me as it used to be. This is NOT a metal pedal. Great for alternative, rock, blues, but if metal and thrash is your thing, stay away. With the right setup this pedal makes it possible to achieve a huge variety of sounds. Playing anything from Hendrix to Weezer, Nirvana to SRV is all right with this pedal. I gave it an 8 for sound quality because of the pedal's weak sound without the Turbo. With the Turbo, though, it's great. Just remember what settings you like. The manual has all these pictures of the pedal in the back, so you can draw in your favorite settings.

It's a Boss, it's a indestructable box of steel. I haven't had it run over by an 18-wheeler or dropped it in burning jet fuel, but then it's not supposed to be. It's been dropped a bunch of times, and although the paints been chipped, no harm's been done to anything inside. Strong as a rock. Very dependable, except the batteries have this habit of dying at the most inopportune times. No matter what brand of batteries I use, this pedal seems to eat them up pretty fast. I think the battery gets drained much quicker if the Turbo is switched on. Would I use it on a gig without a backup? I've done it before, and I'll do it again. Do not, and I repeat 'Do not' go to a gig without a spare battery. I speak from experience.

Never had to deal with the company, and I don't think I ever will. An upgrade? No, I don't think so. If you're into blues or rock, this pedal should suit all your needs. If you have to get it repaired, there was probably something wrong with it when you bought it.

For the kind of music that I used to be into (rock, even a bit of blues) this pedal is great. I've been playing for just over two years now, and I plan on buying a Metal Zone pedal, along with a Jackson Soloist, and a Marshall VS100R. If it were stolen or lost, I think I'd buy it again. It's cool for lead playing. Like I said before, keep the Turbo switched on. I wish the dials (especially the volume) were constructed a little differently. I think they'd be more user-friendly if they gave a little resistance to the turning, like on the volume knobs of computer speakers and hi-fi amplifiers. It should be much easier to adjust the volumes on all pedals while you're actually playing. Trying to turn the dial with your foot is pretty dangerous, since the knob turns so easily, and you can end up with a volume much higher than you wanted. I got this as a present from my big bro, so I couldn't really compare it to other products. I think the 'sweet' kind of sound of this pedal, and opposed to the distortion of many other pedals. It would have been cool to have a switch for the Turbo function, instead of a dial. Boss could have eliminated the need for a footswitch by making it possible to press down on a Turbo switch with your foot, instead of twisting it with your hand. Does it help me make music? I love loads of overdrive, and the sweet tone that accompanies it, but I don't think it helps me make any music. It's good for tuning, though, because the difference in pitch is much more noticable. This isn't a metal pedal, but then again Boss didn't make for metal, did they? So many people say 'Oh, the Metal Zone is useless for blues' 'Damn, this Overdrive pedal can't give you a great metal sound.' If you all look extremely closely at most Boss pedals, you'll notice that the name will tell you what you're meant to use it for. Gave it an 8 because it's useless without the Turbo.

its a Boss stompbox.... although there's a catch... u have to know what clockwise is...
(Im kidding..)

ok I know this may sound dumb but in my opinion ALL boss stompboxes have the same exact distortion sound! how do I know, even though I havent tried them all? Well if the OD-2R has a similiar sound as my MT-2 Metal zone, that shows how diverse the boss distortion range is. to be truthful, it does not have the EXACT same sound, its only similiar on some settings, but enough to fool the ears...
Even if they are similiar, I still love Boss Distortion, its rich in harmonics and very pleasing to the ears (unlike the Ibanez Soundtank series) .. the only thing that changes the sound in the OD2-r is the Tone knob, which increases /decreases treble.. actually it works the same as a big muff.. volume, gain level, tone. There is a switch between mode I and II, but the modes are pretty similiar.. mode I has (as expected) less gain , but not a different sound.. I dont know how a good tube amp distortion sounds (having experience only with the Fender hot rod deluxe who's distortion sucks, plus I have a Solid State Marshall valvestate amp myself) but this pedal reacts like everybody says a tube amp reacts.. play softly, it will sound clean.. strum hard, you'll get distortion.. put it on Mode I, back off the guitar volume, and u have a nice bluesy sound. The overall sound can be described as pretty fat/thick. NOT cutting enough for metal, but pretty good for grunge, classic rock and blues.
Here's a plan for any guitarist: buy a Metal zone, but this pedal, and you have every distortion for every situation...

I had a Boss flanger (which I traded for this pedal) and it had some kind of malfunction regarding volume/treble but I hope this pedal stays ok (cuz its not mine :)

never dealt with boss

I play every kind of music and this pedal would suit any musician except hard core/metal people who need a cutting edgy sound which this pedal cannot provide . I like it but I still use my Me-30's distortion most of the time which is cooler (at least to me)

This pedal is relatively easy to use, but the turbo function has to be turned on by hand, and this makes it near impossible to activate it in the middle of a song.

The only way to make it sound really great is to dime the level and drive settings with turbo on. I use a laney 50 watt amp, and Ibanez guitar, with which it seems dead quiet, as long as no other effects are used with it.

I bought it used, and beat on it without any problems, besides, it's a Boss.

It's never been broken!

This pedal is good for blues, and alot of styles that don't use alot of gain. The one pedal I'd trade it for has to be a DS-1. The only other comment I have is:Never turn the turbo off, It sounds too weak.

Doesn't get any easier. One tone knob one volume and one gain.

It's a great overdrive pedal. It really gives a good overdriven amp sound. I mostly play metal and this pedal is no where near a metal pedal. But I recommend it for good old rock.

Owned it a year and no problems

Never neaded their help

I would buy it again. I think the most important thing is to have a good tube amp behind it. I have a solid state Peavey Express 112 and while it gives a good sound it just doesn't do it for me anymore but it still is a very good overdrive pedal.