Boss TR-2 Tremolo

This is mind-numbingly simple to use. 3 knobs, with a knob for blending between sawtooth and square wave frequency. This really could not be simpler. You plug it up, tweak a knob and you've got a usable sound.

I use a Gibson Les Paul through a small stone, boss tr-2 and boss super overdrive and then switched between a 68 fender bassman head and a marshall jcm 900 into a marshall 1960B 412 cab. i play post-emo, indie shoegazer music a la stratford four, death cab for cutie, gloria record etc. this pedal is perfect for subtle trem sounds as well as well defined, broken square wave tremolo. Some people complain about noise. Maybe they just got a bad pedal, or they use crappy gear. If you use cheap pedals, cheap pickups or a crap amp, then no pedal is going to salvage your tone. Mine is always studio quiet.

boss=tank

it never broke, so i never needed it.

This pedal is perfect for me. I couldn't be without it. If it were stolen I would get another one the same day. It does have a tendency to round off your attack, but that's a small price to pay. Great pedal with countless options from only 3 knobs. You want this.

3 knobs - rate, depth, and wave - very simple: just turn until you like the sopund. It won't take long!

Used with G&L ASAT SH and Les Paul Studio DC both thru a Peavey Bandit 65.Here is my main reason for writing this review:

NO NOISE!!! NONE ZILCH DIDLEY SQUAT. I have NO idea where the other reviewers heard noise. No clicking, humming, buzzing, NONE. Just Tremolo!
IT DOES NOT SUCK TONE NOR DOES IT CAUSE VOLUME LOSS.

I do wish the depth knob had just a bit more range but that's all!
Lots of range, Wave choice is continuously variable and all positions are good!
This really sounds like a Fender or Magnatone (remember those) style amp tremolos.

Uh - It's a BOSS - need I say more?

I was considering other brands but bang for the buck goes to BOSS. I do want to try the Dan-O Wasabi pedals tho.

Easy to use..comes with a guide for a few different sounds...play around with it and you'll find your favorites..........

I use a Peavey 25 watt Bravo with a Celestion 30 that I put in to replace the lousy stock speaker....I have another Peavey single speaker cabinet with a Celestion Greenback in it. I play a 57 reissue strat with a 62 neck..I replaced the stock pu's with Dimarzio Virtual Vintage's.. and a new Standard (Mexican)Tele with DiMarzio Twang Kings........I use a Dunlop Rotovibe, Dunlop Crybaby, and old DOD fx65 chorus and a TS-9 reissue tubescreamer.......I'm an old-school from the barrio and most of what I play is surf /beach boys/ Los Lobos/ Ritchie Valens stuff....I get really great sounds and the tremolo pedal is dead quiet,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I don't play out anymore...just at home jamming with my sons and friends

Never dealt with them...I bought the thing from a friend who bought himself a modeling amp.so it's second hand

I have heard that Boss pedals are excellent.it looks like you could drive over it and not hurt it.........I was actually going to but a 65 Deluxe Reverb reissue or a Delta Blues 210 just to have a tremolo but I'm happy with my little Bravo set-up and the Boss TR-2 tremolo pedal was the answer!

3 knobs, so it's quite easy.

Man it's just a tremolo (on-off-on-off...). What do you expect??? Can be faster or slower, stronger or more subtle. Cause it turn's the sound off periodically, you get the overall impresion that you lose volume when engaging the pedal. Better pedals compensate this effect, but not this one, which is a minus. Furthermore it is quite hissy. Unusual for a pedal that's supposed to turn the sound on and off! T put it short, this one really blows...

It's a Boss, what should I say which hasn't been said already?

look above

It's too expensive for the quality it offers. the sound is decent but you loose too much volume and gain too much hiss. Bad deal! There are better tremolos out there (in fact, I rewally think you'd have a hard time finding a tremolo that's inferior). Get anything else!

foolproof

Good tremolo but bad noise! I hear that hiss, too.
My amp (Fender Twin Reverb) is absolutely clean and doesn't hum or hiss at all. I put some FX in front (MJM London Fuzz, Boss OD-3, VL MicroVibe) and there you go! Can't beat that set-up.
Most pedals make some slight noise, for sure. But the TR-2 was a nightmare. Could't live with it.
Don't try to tell me it's my set-up, the guitar or the cables. I checked another one of these suckers in the store and it was just the same. What a shame .-(

Boss is reliable.

I play since 20 years. All kinds of music, as long as it rocks.
I like the sound of teh tremolo, but I hate that damn noise. I gave it back, would never ever try it again. I am very disappointed.

easy - man it's just a trem!

sounds great. there is a slight volume drop, but that's part of the nature of the beast (turn on - turn out). but I couldn't stand the noise, at first I thought it was broken, tried another, but again: terrible hiss (white noise). to put it short: unusable!

it's a Boss.

Never dealt with them.

could be a nice effect, but because it is so noisy it is absolutely unusable. I don't understand why others can't hear that hiss (I'm not a snob, I play a lot of vintage gear - Marshall, Vox, EH - but this is way too much).
I like Boss FX in general, but this has got to be the worst thing they ever produced. don't waste your money on this, get ANYTHING from ANY other company - you won't regrett it.

Very simple. Rate, depth and wave form knobs, two jacks, how can you get any simpler?

The sound quality of the tremelo itself is pretty good, but as many others have said, there is a volume drop when activated. It's not horrible if you're using it on a clean channel, but it can definitely be annoying otherwise. I thought for a while that maybe it was just the nature of a tremelo effect, but I've played through several other trems and never had a problem. Its for this reason that I give it a 7.

Seems rock-solid, never had a problem

Never dealt with them

Decent trem but the volume drop is annoying. I'm getting a line 6 mm4 in a few days and its trem doesn't have the same problem with my setup, so I may switch to that.

Fairly easy to get a very useable tremolo sound. The shape, speed and intensity controls are all very straight forward and easy to use.

I got mine used, so there was no manual. I don't think one is necessary, but for people new to using tremolo, it might be helpful.

I'm using a strat, asat classic, robin avalon, gibson es-135 and a hamer specialp90 through a maxon compressor, fulltone fulldrive2, boss tr-2, digitech digiverb and digitech digital delay through a Fender Bassman 10 that has been blackfaced.

The sound using any of the above is very good. I honestly don't know what the huge complaint was from some of the other reviewers. Tremolo is tremolo. I don't want to use it all of the time and can't justify spending $200.00 on one. For what I use, the sound is fine. Also, I don't notice any huge sound drop off when turning it on, like some of the previous reviewers have stated.

Anyway, for a $55.00 pedal, I think it sounds great.

Mine was used. It looked beat to hell and it still functions like the brand new one I demoed before buying the used one. Boss makes great stuff, and I feel confident on using any of their pedals heavily. Even with my big butt stepping on it.

Never had to deal with them.

I play anything from Jazz to country to old rock and blues. Close to 20 years of playing, and I've mentioned most of the guitar stuff I own. I can tell you, for the money (especially used) this is a great pedal. I had a tunamelt and was highly disappointed. I like the VoodoLab Tremolo and some other higher end pedals, but couldn't justify the sound quality/cost ratio. I'm not saying this pedal beats the higher end stuff, I'm just saying this pedal is qualified to be used in just about any set up I feel like whether it be recording or playing live. It's quite, doesn't cut my signal and it holds up. That's about all I can ask for. These units are pretty abundant on ebay and in music stores. There's nothing wrong with buying brand new (support your local guys) because even at retail, this is still a good pedal for the money when compaired to some more expensive tremolo pedals out there.

This requires, like most pedals, a little bit of teasing to get the right sound that you can use for your tunes. Once there, it's just a case of remembering where everthing is!

With my setup(Big Apple-Cry Baby, Rat 2, Digital Metalizer, Super Phaser, Tremelo-Sonus SC-10)there wasn't any noise with batteries. Introduced last in the chain(I use one of those link cable things)it sounded like bees in the distance, so beware. No tone colouration, which is nice. My delay broke recently and I wanted to replace it, so I got this. Great!

I've only just got it, but my Metalizer is about 10 years old and i've gigged it tons so I guess it'll be cool.(i got it second hand too!)

Like I said, this was a welcome substitute for my delay(a VERY old Digitech RP2000)and it's inspired me to write slightly lighter music again, without worrying that the tone sounds thin or too wimpy. used in conjuction with gain it produces some Morello style stuttering and bouncy nonsense, if used correctly. I'm really pleased. For #50, excellent, and not a one-stomp-and-it-breaks number like the Dano one(great sound though, and excellent bypass-if only it hadn't been made of paper)

Very Easy. No manual needed--note that sine wave can be changed (from softer to sharper wave form) via one of the controls. A nice feature.

A 7.5 of 10. A great workhorse. NOT noisy. **To the reviewers complaining about alleged "noise" from this pedal--maybe cheap cables and/or cheap amp have something to do with this alleged "noise" problem, or maybe your tinnitus is so bad you hear noise all the time** No more noise than any other pedal. Very good (versatile)sound control.

Used for at least three years gigging--no problems.

I've never had problems with Boss pedals. Never had to call BOSS.

I rate this a 7.5. Like I said great "workhorse"--very acceptable sound quality for most club work. TREMELO is not just for surf music, it can be used very effectively in many styles of music. I have used this pedal on different settings for "surf" trem, SRV "Cold Shot" Leslie-simulation, and in extreme settings for a "volume pedal" type effects. This has been like an old friend in the pedalboard for quite some time. There are better trems, but a good investment for the price (suggestion: find one used for $50-$70).