Boss TR-2 Tremolo

Three controls Rate,Wave and depth.

The TR-2 is a pretty good pedal in its own right but with a bit of internal component tweaking it sounds better than the "boutique trems" and is quieter, richer, fuller than the stock pedal-definitely a keeper!
To sort the drop in volume issue replace resistor (R9 10K) for a 4.7K resistor or better still install a 10K trim pot and tweak to the desired volume required.
To make the pedal have a more Hi Fi sound reduce noise remove (C3, C5,C20,C21 1uf)electrolytic caps and replace with 1uf metallised film capacitors/Mylar.Also replace(C2 and C6 10uF) electrolytic caps for tantalums.
To add high end sparkle remove completely (C7 10pF capacitor).Try it, if it is not to your taste put the cap back in.
If you feel you would like to increase the rate lower the value of (R31 50K)try say a 10K to start with.I personally left mine as stock value.
The above requires a bit of knowledge and the use of a soldering Iron...Proceed with care.

Its a Boss

Pretty good when I have asked for parts.

In modified format definitely a keeper.

like everyone said, really easy.

my setup is gibson les paul (i got 1 standard, 1 studio and 1 special) through crybaby-rotovibe-oc2-tr2-jcm800 split channel head+cab

i bought the tr2 some 7-8 years ago. ive always loved tremolos. my unit was never noisy, perfectly silent, and never suffered major volume drops, it is just perfect.
anyway just yesterday, reading previous customers reviews i thought about doing the c4 "mod". i did it today, i cut out the thing with a simple pair of scissors and i must say it improved the box. the effect is more intense and "warmer", dont really know how to explain it but that operation improves the pedal.
ill give it a 9 just beacause ive never really tried a different tremolo pedal (well i used some old fenders but its a completely different thing) but i love this thing

i play a lot of gigs and never had a backup. we all know boss are die hard!

never dealt with boss

i play rock'n'roll, with my band we do original stuff along the lines of aerosmith, gn'r, black crowes, stones, ac/dc with some covers thrown in for good measure.
i love the effect, i dont use it that much but theres certain things where its just magical, you know, slow ballads, arpeggios and stuff... at first when i was checking out a trem i was thinking about buying a univibe but the price was (its) just too high so i relied on this one and it just does what i bought it for and does it great.
i can understand some people complaining about it, maybe theres just some unit that didnt came out good, i suggest to try it if possible i avoid buying via internet if i cant try things out.

Pretty much a piece of cake. Took me a while to find a good balance between the triangle square settings, but other than that...

Okay, I bought this on a whim (dumb, I know), got it home, and was a little disappointed. What I was looking for was a way to liven up my sound, what I got was a fairly weak rendition of a Fender amp trem unit... I'm using it with a G&L Legacy with SD Alnico's and a '74 Fender Telecaster Deluxe, a Peavey VTM and Traynor YCV80, I got a decent at best sound. HOWEVER! After reading up on the pedal here, I saw the mod for the C4 capacitor and figured that I might as well, so out came the toolbox, gone was the C4 capacitor (looks like a relatively large silver tongue in the middle area of the circuit board). Major, and I repeat major, improvement (for me anyways). The effect isn't weak at all anymore, quite the opposite. Also, the volume drop isn't there anymore (the primary reason as to why people use this mod in the first place), which is kickin' too. So now instead of a slightly weak sounding, non-unique tremolo sound, it's got a personality, making it sound a whole world bigger and more alive. By the by, I've never modded or opened up a pedal before to do anything other than change the battery, so don't sweat it, it works (guaranteed) and it's easier than a drunken cheerleader, so give it a go if you want a little more from the TR-2. 6 unmodded, 9 modded.

Boss stuff is wicked-awesome type reliable.

Never dealt with 'em, but I suppose my warranty is void now that I've dicked around with the circuit... oh well, it'll outlive me, so whatever.

I play a lot of rock styles - classic, hard, surf, rockabilly, psychedelic, alternatice, etc. Been playing for 7 years, been a gear head for 6 and 1/2, and have a pretty critical pair of ears. I'd certainly replace it if stolen, but not before I tried the Voodoo Labs tremolo and Rocktron Pulse.... I hear good things about both, though both are intended more for subtler vintage tones, and the BOSS can pull off some tres' cool experimental vibes that would be tough to compete with. Bottom line, if you dig tremolo and haven't gotten one yet, you'd do well to check this green monster out. Again, if you're disappointed with the sound out of the box, get a phillips head screwdriver and a pair of wirecutters and go to town (just take care not to fuck up anything else!). I guarantee you'll enjoy the results.

I bought this on ebay for #40 - mainly coz I read about the C4 removal mod in these reviews and thought 40 quid was not bad for a trem effect.

The C4 is big capacitor in the middle of the circuit board - I cut it out with a pair of nail scissors - with trepidation I plugged it back in and hey presto one awesome, top quality tremolo pedal in action.

Its good - I use it with the following set up Fender Strat or Esprit into a Bad Monkey, Dano Milkshake Chorus, TR2, Dano PB&J Delay, Digitech X Series Digiverb into an Vox Valvetronix 30 (or computer speakers for quiet practice).

No hiss as report, quiet operation, slight drop in volume when turned on.

As to effect quality - with the C4 in - quite subtle - not a great amount of trem, but a genuine Fender/Vox sound.

Witht the C4 out - all the same as above but more extremes - the old subtle sounds are still obtainable but the depth and rate actual do something.

So the moral of the story is - dont be scared take the C4 out.

Its Boss - so its supposed to be reliable - it is made of heavy duty material, so no complaints in this department.

Dunno - its secondhand so i doubt I get customer support.

I play late sixties folk-rock, surf guitar, etc.

If it was stolen I might buy another, but i'd check out other pedals on the market.

Overall its great fun, has a nice 50s tremolo sound and with the C4 cap cut out has a bit more range - it can now go to 80s indie stuff like the Smiths.

All in all v. good - I give a 9 but a 7 without the C4 mod.

not too hard, 3 knobs. mess about for a bit and you'll find something you'll like. same as any other pedal.

i play a Ibanez Jet King 2 (with Rio Grande Punchbox PU at the bridge)
that runs through: Pro Co Rat 2 -> Dunlop JH-1 -> EHX Big Muff (US) -> Boss TR-2 -> EHX Deluxe Memory Man -> Behringer GX210 & Behringer BX300

it's a good tremolo, i like the sound that i get from it, warm and round. fanatastic, really, if you take the price into consideration. just like a 60's tremolo amp unit. the colume drop, however, is quite annoying. i tried the C4 resister removal and it got rid of the volume drop, which was great. however, removing the resistor made the sound slighty brighter. i just compensate by rolling of my tone knob a bit. it's a much better than the volume

all in all, a good tremolo, very warm and subtle. not enough volume compensation makes the pedal less useful. with the C4 mod, the volume drop is gone but is more digital sounding...less warm.

HEY! BOSS! Boost the volume on output a bit and you'll have tremolic gold on your hands.

Boss = No Break

But just remember, don't stomp on your boxes, step. you're boxes'll live longer.

Boss has its good days and its bad days. Usually good though.

I play cathartic, shoe-gazy-type rock. it used to be just for my own enjoyment but now i'm playing a few shows.

the trem was worth the purchase, but if this one breaks, i'll do some shopping around before i come back to this one. i hear the line 6 trem is good but the Boss is a great value.

Easy enough to use. Twist the knobs for 10 minutes and it ain't hard.

The effect is great. Pulsating tone, smooth trem. The Tremolo itself is exactly what I was looking for.

But.

Mine added hiss. Enough that once your note started to fade out it was overtaken by pumping white noise. This rendered it completely useless for any sort of slow playing and just annoying for anything else. no good.

Dunno, returned mine 3 hours ago.

Haven't dealt with 'em

I like Tremolo. I dislike white noise. Boss should really try hard not to combine the two. I used this with 4 different guitars (Strat, Tele, archtop, SG) in 3 different amps (Marshall, Roland, Pignose) in 2 different houses with 5 different cables. It wasn't a conditional problem. The effect itself was great, the hiss was awful.

Simple layout. Depth, rate and waveform knobs. Electronic bypass.

I play a Reverend Rocco or 66' Fender Duo-sonic 2 (larger scale)
through various tube amps. Pedals are all true bypass. The original sound was a little dull: loss of highs and percieved loss of volume, etc. I considered sending it to Analog Mike but figured I might as well just save for a fulltone, voodoo Labs or Demeter. Also, it could just be my ears but I have spoken with reputable pedal makers who agree: the bypass sucks some tone (highs and attack suffer). I read below about a simple fix to the bland trem of the tr-2. I opened it up, found a big silver thing with the label "C4" next to it (near the middle of the board) and cut it out. This simple "mod" really does make this box sound better. It sounds stronger and has more personality. About the hiss debate... I am no expert but my gear is good and my power is conditioned. I played it through my old 65 (blackface) princeton reverb and it added that awful hiss that so many others have talked about (before and after I cut out C4). I even had slight hiss when the pedal was off. I also played it through an old epiphone tube amp (early 70's). Through this amp there was no added hiss that I could detect. I cannot account for this, sorry. The trem of the tr-2 (after cutting C4) is faster and stronger than the trems found on both of these amps. That is to say that I prefered it's trem to the other two. Not as warm and natural as the fender but faster and stronger. A 5 before the c4 and a 7 after (I worry about that hiss).

Solid. I would gig without a backup. You can replace the switches if they fail.

?? no idea. Never dealt with them directly.

I play folk, indie, country, post rock and brit pop. I like a good trem and I really like the way the tr-2 trems after removing C4. The hiss issue worries me and I don't really care for the tone sucking that occurs when the pedal is off. I bought it a few years ago for keyboard and it did a decent job at that. If you have one laying around, open it up and take out C4. If you are looking for a trem, shop around and maybe save some money for something that has more options and doesn't have as many issues.

getting the sound you want is easy. knowing what sound you want is the hard part. where to draw the line with the depth, how to set the rate, those can be tricky.

after reading the reviews below about opening the circuit board and removing c4 i decided to try it. it was easier than i thought (i dont know anything about circuit boards) and the pedal sounds a lot better. like it's been let loose. i haven't tried any other tremolo pedals but i can get pretty much any sound i'm looking for. "how soon is now" by the smiths is a piece of cake. that's all i expect out of a tremolo pedal anyways.

e-mail the guy towards the bottom that talks about the c4 thing. he was very helpful.

yup

i wish it had a pan mode but i can live without it. if it were stolen i'd buy another. i write songs just so i can use this. i think it's a great pace setter for a jam too.

3 knobs? Should be a doddle.

G&L Legacy or US tele > ds1 od3 ce2 tr2 gt3 > Laney VC30 or Hughes and Kettner Vortex, depending on the gig.
I'm a huge fan of the twangy classic trem sound - 50's country, Hank Marvin etc. But this pedal was very disapointing. The effect is weak and the loss of level too great, and there is little defintion. However I read the guy below talking about modifiying the pedal by unsoldering/disconnecting the C4 wire - Now I've never modded a pedal before, but I figured what the hell, it's just sitting at the bottom of my gear bag. Anyway, I did it and hey presto I've got a kick arse trem, with better output and great defintion. This is now exactly what I wanted. The pedal is still a little noisy however. I'm not recommening you do it, but I'm glad I did. I'd give it only 6 unmodded. 9 with the C4 wire taken out.

No problems so far. Sturdy ey?

n/a

Rubbish without the mod. The trem on my stupid GT3 kicks this pedals butt. But with the mod - it's excellent. But noisy...so only 8.

Plenty easy to use and intuitive. Turn the knobs till it sounds good. Not hard.

It sounds fine and is pretty transparent for the most part. You can use it to get some cool organ-like effects or just a nice shimmery tremelo if you want. My major beef with the thing is you can't do anything time based with your band based around it since it isn't dead-on rhythmically. Also, when you have the depth cranked, you lose volume. You can solve this just by backing off a bit and it still sounds pretty much the same.

Well, it's a Boss. If you trust Boss, trust this pedal. If you don't, don't. I've gigged without a backup with it many times.

It's fun to use as a poor man's delay and for some interesting effects. It sounds good in a lot of situations but the fact that it doesn't hold a steady beat really turns me off. If I didn't want that capability, I would buy another one in a heart beat. As it is, it mostly just sits in a box.