Boss TR-2 Tremolo

Typical three knob stomp box. Sick green color. Rate-speed /depth-intensity/ and wave-shape of the waveform. AC adapter port is on the topside where ALL AC ports belong! BOSS battery compartment with the thumbscrew. Typical BOSS quality. Very easy to use. I had my sound going in about 30 seconds. Totally silent switching with a red LED to tell you it's on.

Sounds just like an old Fender circuit. I have no idea what all the volume drop is about. Mine is an older unit and I notice zero drop in volume when I step on it. As for all the mods-it don't need no stinkin mods, amigo.
Les Paul into Wah-wah, into TR-2, into BOSS ME 5, into Roland Blues Cube or Fender Blues Junior or Fender Blues Deluxe RI. For surf-o-licious wobble it kills! I'm perfectly satisfied with it. Compares favorably with pedals costing much more. (our other guitarist has a boutique trem stomper for comparison) Trem circuits pre-date reverb...it ain't rocket science and it's been around for 50 years.
Honestly I cannot fault it in any way. Simple, easy to use and it delivers the sound I was looking for.
Handles bluesy overdrive real well and the cleans are not colored at all, whether the TR-2 is on or off. Very quiet-no noise.

Good stuff...no worries.

You're kidding, right?

I'm playing in a classic rock/surf/blues band. I needed trem for some of the tunes we play. I came here to HC and scoped out a few pedals. The TR-2 seemed like a reasonable unit for a good price ($40-used). No regrets.
I read a lot of reviews here on the TR-2 that discussed the mods on these. I have no need for any improvement, myself. Others swear by the mods-good for you. I try to buy my stuff based on the sound/utlity. I don't swap parts if I can avoid it. Almost all of my gear is stock. In my opinion, no improvement is needed with this pedal. It does exactly what I want it to do with no issues.

Three controls- rate, wave, depth.
Super easy to use!

I bought my TR-2 but in the mid-late '90s and I've run it in several different setups with several different amps and guitars through the years.
Not noisy at all, in fact it runs very clean.
The only problem is what the TR-2 is notorious for; it's volume drop... but even with it's volume drop I'd still recommend it.
If boss managed to fix the volume drop it would easily get a 10 rather then the 7 rating.

Boss pedals are tough... everyone knows this so I'm sure I wouldn't have to try and convince anyone.

It's your basic tremolo effect- it will work well for any type of music you throw at it.
If it were lost or stolen I would grab another over the competition but I would (as I have been meaning to with my current unit) have the keeley mod done (analogman's mod is also very good) and that would fix the volume dropping issue.

3 knobs for rate ,depth and waveform.couldnt be easier.
Tap tempo would be nice but did blackfaces have it as a feature? Of course not !!!!

The volume drop on this pedal is only a percieved drop as all trem effects do this.Its a psychoacoustic thing.
It does a good job of emulating a nice subtle fender amp trem right up to stuttering morello type stuff by way of wobbly surfy cramps.
my only complaint would be that it is a bit hissy but you cant hear it when your playing and you could gate it when your not...problem solved.
overall a very usable pedal which isnt leaving my board any time soon.

its boss so will last a long time.ive had all manner of boss pedals in my time and only one died (a dd2)

never dealt with them

apart from the hiss its a great affordable way to get some swampy wobble into your sound.
you could always spend way more on a demeter or similar but give this a whirl 1st and you may be pleasantly surprised.

This review is for the pre-2008 version. It's my understanding that Boss has corrected the main problem I encountered with mine in the newer version.

Of course it's an easy unit to use. It's also pretty versatile.

I'll do my best to describe as accurately as I can just what I personally encountered with this unit. I wanted a tremolo to make up for the lack of tremolo in my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I sound I wanted was based on the sound Robbie Kreiger got on the solos on Riders On The Storm, not for that song specifically, but to use on some other things. The TR-2 does this sound very well and is actually a pretty versatile unit overall.

Now, there are various reviews on here where people talk about a significant volume-drop. In all fairness to Boss, I have come to the conclusion that this depends on your own personal system. Up until recently, my pedalboard was audio-wired traditionally, that is, one pedal into the next, into the next, etc. In this configuration, I did not notice any volume-drop when the unit was engaged. I used the unit for about four years in this configuration with no problems. Recently, however, I aquired a Road Rage 8-channel true-bypass looper and routed all my pedals into individual channels on this looper. Now, with each effect isolated, I have encountered a significant volume-drop when I engage the tremolo patch. Not just slight, but very significant, to the point where I've had to replace it with a Catalinbread Semaphore.

I'm not a technician so I can't say why there would be this kind of difference due only to the audio routing but it is the case, nonetheless. I have not encountered this problem with the Semaphore, which has a volume control.

I used the unit for four years without a problem, and it's in the typical Boss enclosure.

I have never dealt with Boss.

I've been playing professionally since 1974 and still am. It's my job. And I can say with certainty that this sort of volume-drop is not in one's immagination, as suggested in one of the other reviews here. If that were the case, it's doubtful some of the other companies would goto the trouble of building volume controls into their units to compensate for this very thing.

My overall opinion is that if you run your pedals traditionally, you're probably okay using this unit, although I might suggest buying a new, post-2008 version just in case. But if you're isolating your pedals with a looper, I would suggest looking elswhere for a good unit with a volume control.

Very Easy! 3 Knobs, Speed, Depth, and wave shape.

This is a very natural sounding Tremolo. Doesn't color your tone too much and is just subtle enough. I can get a great SRV tremolo sound with this pedal.

Boss... Built like a tank! Nuff said!

I play blues rock. Playing for about 25 years. My signal chain is Fender Strat with Fralin Blues Specials, Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive, MXR - Phase 90 - Dyna Comp - Classic 108 Fuzz, Boss Tremolo - Dynamic Wah, Maxon AD-9 analog delay, Korg Pitchblack tuner, into a Peavey Classic 30 combo w/ Celestion Vintage 30.

This Pedal is a perfect compliment to my overall "Power-blues" sound!

Three controls, Rate, Depth, and Wave.

Probably a 10 for someone familiar with Tremolo pedals, 8 for the newbie. It is easy to get a "good" sound out of the unit, maybe slightly harder to get exactly what you're hearing in your head.

The Wave control goes between Triangle and Square wave and is mostly a "color" function to be set after Rate and Depth. [What I'm trying to say is to not be intimidated if you don't have any idea what its supposed to do. :) ]

My rig:

Epiphone Sheraton II >> MXR DynaComp >> Vox 847A Wah >> mXR 10-Band EQ >> BBE Green Screamer >> EH Big Muff Pi (Russian) >> MXR Phase 90 >> Boss TR-2 Tremolo >> EH Holy Grail Reverb >> MXR Carbon Copy Delay >> BBE Boosta Grande >> BBE Sonic Stomp

There is a slight volume drop when the pedal is engaged.

It sounds good on ultra clean settings and light-to-mid distorted settings. Haven't really tried it with heavy gain, but supposedly Tom Morello uses the TR-2 so it must not sound too bad. :)

Unlike a lot of other Boss stuff I've played with this pedal has a definitely personality; also between the three different controls you can go from vintage, 50-60s like warble (Sleepwalk) to the big E minor chord from Mary Jane's Last Dance (Petty) to modern stuff like Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day) or Guerrila Radio (Rage Against the Machine).

Use it as a hammer or self-defense device in a pinch

Excellent tremolo. It is digital and buffered bypass so there is a small amount of tone difference but nothing too terrible.

I'm thining about getting mine modded by Analogman, which supposedly takes care of the volume drop and gives the trem a little more presence.

If anything, I wish this unit had been 25ish dollars cheaper and/or came with a power supply.

3 controls, pretty easy to get a good sound out of...

Since I had never used a tremolo before, the manual was quite helpful in trying out initial sounds. Of course I went on my own once I got the hang of it. I did perform the C4 mod...more on that below

2004 Ibanez S470 into a Peavey JSX head with GT6L6 tubes. For the record, I have my TR-2 placed in the effects loop, not in the main line.

Haven't had it that long, but as we say here on H.C., "it's a Boss..."

Never dealt with Boss.

The main reason that I decided to post a review on this is to let everyone know that it seems that Boss has reverted to the older style boards in the TR-2. I just picked mine up new about 2 weeks ago, and I did have to perform the C4 mod on mine. It has been mentioned on here previously that Boss changed the circuit boards and that you can't perform the C4 mod on new TR-2s/the mod has no effect on new TR-2s. Mine was brand new out of the box, and the C4 mod was needed. I can't say that I noticed any "dirtying" of my tone after the mod, but the volume drop problem is solved by performing it.

Pretty simple -- 3 knobs. Rate, Depth and Wave.
Wave is square or rounded. Didn't take 2 minutes to figure out how to do what I wanted to do.
The manual has some sample settings that I liked: Vintage Tremolo, Electric Piano Sound, Swtiching Technique Sound, Rotary Speaker Sound. Didn't care for the last one: With the Rate turned up all the way it sounds like Outer Space setting, but the rest are useful.

This is the category that prompted me to write this review.
The only trouble with most of these reviews is they're all about about the C4 mod. Sounds like spinal surgery. I bought mine new in July 2008, today.
After reading the reviews I decided to thoroughly A/B it. I play a '99 Les Paul Studio into a Fender Twin. I put the TR-2 into the effects loop and my guitar straight into the 1 input, switch down for 25-watt sound instead of 100-watt (hey, I'm in my living room).
I had my wife repeatedly twist the Mix knob from 10 to 1, wet to clean.
With the effect turned off, I noticed no change in tone, playing full E-chords, A and B chords; playing chords further up the neck; noodling up high on leads. Don't know if it's a true bypass, but it's close.
I think the effect is at least an 8 on transparency even when on, playing in all those situations (chords or single notes, bass or treble). No dropoff in volume and tone was preserved between clean and tremolo. Maybe it's a 9 or 10, but I'm reluctant to claim that.
I'm playing a Gibson Les Paul into a Fender tube Twin, so tone is important to me. This pedal passes, at least the 2008 version.

It's a Boss. I've had my PH-1R since '84 with no problem, so I'll say this one is probably reliable.

Hope I'll never find out.

I like this pedal more than I thought I would. "Until We Sleep," from Dave Gilmour's first album: Set the Wave to square and the Depth all the way up, Rate about 1 or 2 o'clock and you're there.
I like Rate about 1 o'clock, Depth around 1 o'clock and Wave around 11 o'clock for an average setting.
I'm thinking this might be one of those effects I use most of the time. Set all the setting shallow and it's a nice background vibrato.

It's easy enough to use. No problems. I have no idea if there are upgrades available. I doubt it.

It works and does what it's supposed to do. I'm not that much of a tone freak to know if it's the best one available. There may be better trem units out there, but I haven't found a better one yet. If I do, I'll buy it. I use trem on maybe 2-3 songs per night.

Boss's stuff is bulletproof. Or so they say.

The first TR-2 I bought died after about three days. The second one didn't work right out of the box! In a fit of anger, I called Boss directly and after some difficulty (I had to go "up the ladder" to the director of customer service), they sent me a replacement direct from the factory. This one, finally, worked fine.

It's very good, obviously.

If it were lost of stolen, I would check out other trems before buying this one again. If the TR-2 turned out to be the best one, I would buy another. I wish it oscillated faster. That's my only complaint, but it's not such a big deal.

Very easy to use.

This is on the new TR-2:

In 2007 the Boss TR-2 has undergone some significant changes in the cirquit design. The new version is easily recognized by a "R" sign on the box. The new model is still all analogue.

But finally Boss has reacted on the complaints about volume drop. What have they done? They have exchanged R9 for a trim pot. The way it is set up from the factory (around 2 o'clock on the trim pot) there is no volume drop. By turning the trim pot counterclockwise you can further boost the volume level. By turning it clockwise you can set it to unity gain like on the older models (which had no volume drop at all, by the way. It was all just psycho acoustics, as a trem is supposed to sound weaker because of the drop outs during the pulsating).

The C4 Mod can be done on the new models, either. But there's no need for the C4 Mod anymore. I did the C4 to both - old and new - models and I can assure you, that it is the wrong way. It doesn't boost the volume but increases the transients and just makes it sound harsh, sterile and cold. Totally useless. Takes all the warmth out of your guitar every time you step on the pedal.

The folks at Boss may be dumb, but most folks on the internet and in the forums are even dumber. Everyone with an ear or two should hear the negative efffects of the C4 Mod. Just snipp one leg of the capacitor - then put this leg in an out of the board and listen carefully. Everyone who has done it this way has soldered the C4 back in again asap. Do yourself a favour and keep the pedal intact. There's a need for this capacitor in the cirquit, otherwise Boss would have dropped it.

The sound? Nice vintage style tremolo.
Just two minor complaints: It can't do the more extreme helicopter throb kind of thing and there's a little hiss, but that's about it. All in all a great pedal.

It's a Boss.

I play since 30 years and had it all. This is a good tremolo. Not the best, but it's rather cheap and a great value for the money. No volume drop on the new models and an internal trim pot. What more could you ask for?