Boss TR-2 Tremolo

3 knobs as stated in previous reviews. Very easy to get a good sound. Also the lower and upper parameters are not 'safe'. IT's easy to get some extreme/unusable effects as well.

I'm using various guitars, amps and pedals. I need a tremolo to do subtle and helicoptor.

It's ok. The other tremolo I used was on an AC15 (which was recently sold). It doesnt compare to the Vox. It does suffer from a slight volume drop. This doesnt always occur.

I've used various Boss pedals since 1980. I've had 3 instances where the pedal failed and each time it was an intermittant fault with the switch. Might even have been user error.

Having recently decided to build a modular system (various heads, one cab, no combos) one of the casulaties was the tremolo on the AC15. I cannot justify the # on a Supatrem, so I got this. It was cheap, it works, it does the job.

It doesn't get close to amp tremolo, but neither should anyone expect it to.

Nothing to it. There are only 3 controls and they're self-explanatory. Twist the knobs, get the sound.

My setup is a couple of Strats and a Tele into: TU-2 -> Budda Wah+ -> Budda Phatman overdrive -> Line 6 DL4 -> Boss TR-2 -> Boss CE-2 -> Marshall JCM 900 SL-X head (100W, running in the 50W mode) w. a home-made 2x12 or a 4x12 cab. First of all, I did not hear ANY increased noise with this pedal - and my rig is quite noisy, especially when I'm at home (old wiring in my house). Perhaps the problems other people reported plagued earlier units and were later fixed by Boss... In any case, my pedal is dead quiet. The sound is, of course, subjective. I rather like the sound of this pedal - it's very clean and lean, without a tone of its own. The VoodooLab tremolo had a warmer, woosy tone, which I didn't like. I want the tremolo to affect the volume of my signal and not the tone: no modulation, rolled-off highs, etc. TR-2 does pretty much that. I do find that all Boss pedals degrade the sound somewhat. To remedy this problem, my TR-2 will eventually be sent to Keely or Analogman for the volume and circuitry upgrade mod, but I find it pefectly usable as is. I usually use it all the way through the song, so I can always adjust the amp volume a bit to compensate for the volume loss.

I'd expect it to be as reliable as any other Boss pedal out there. I've only ever had one problem with a Boss and it was my own fault (power supply with the voltage set WAY too high - oups!). Boss may not make the best sounding pedals, but no one ever doubts their reliability. I'm sure my TR-2 will last a long time.

Nice sounding, reliable little tremolo. I compared it to the VoodooLab tremolo (too "soft" sounding for me). I was very happy with the sound of TR-2 and <gasp!> did not see the need to shop further. Most of the highly regarded tremolos out there cost quite a bit more and I'm not a huge tremolo freak. TR-2 does the job just fine. It's not a vintage or boutique piece, but it doesn't cost as much, either. If something happened to it, I'll gladly get one again. I'll have it modded - I hear that both Robert Keely and AnalogMike do wonders with TR-2 and the final cost is still very decent. A tap tempo and/or an expression pedal input would be nice, but I'm quite happy without either.

The TR-2 is on of the simplest tremolos on the market today! it has a thre control set up (or if modded, four!). Rate, Depth and Wave . The Wave, which is the most interesting control of the bunch. It controls the attack and decay of the tremolo from subtle (sawtooth wave) to stuttery (square wave). This allows you to dial up something nice and warm like the old Fender style tremolo or something almost Pink Floyd- like. The rate and depth are quite self-explanitory.

I picked up my TR-2 quite a while ago, but never reviewed it here simply because there was always one thing that bugged me- the effect volume! This was a subtle thing to me at first, but gradually became VERY annoying! You could be playing along and the pedal off, but when you turn on the effect, the average volume level drops just enough to not drive your amp as hard as the straight signal. That annoyed me to no end! but I've since "fixed" the problem with a little and logical mod. You can find the info out on the web just about anywhere, and if you have a small soldering iron, some dexterity, and time, you can make the pedal sing! While I won't give out the total details of the mod, it can cost as little as 2 or 3 bucks to buy the parts for and may allow you to add an overall effect volume control to the pedal (internal or external, depending on how ambitious you are).

I personally love the tremolo effect of this pedal. I've read here and elsewhere that some people complain about noise. While there is SOME noise, I would think that this pedal doesn't like being at the front of a high gain amp. In this set up, of course there the noise of ANY effect will be multipied as a result of the increased gain of the downstream amp! I use my TR-2 in teh fx loop, AFTER any gain stages and have no problem with noise.

As said above, the effect seemed a little weak at first, but after the modification I did, things sound incredible!

I use this pedal in the top end signal chain of my bass rig, after a Sans Amp GT-2 and Boss DS-2 distortion pedal. The tremolo effect is set somewhere between Pink Floyd and Yes style (and yet I DON'T play progressive rock, it just seems to sound that simliar to those sounds!).

Even after the mod to the pedal, its behaved like a champ (shows what good and proper electrical theory can do!). I've never had the box crap out yet!

Not needed! Boss pedals are built to be headache free!!!!

Because I take on a guitar like role in my group sometimes- playing lead like lines and filling in where a second guitarist would be- this pedal in pretty good at helping the top end of my bass guitar sound like a second guitarist.

Since the pedal is still in production, I wouldn't be too put out is someone tried to steal the thing! I'll just buy another one. The only thing that WOULD piss me off is the time I took to the modification to it!

I think its a great value, and after the mod/fix, its even more so!!

ANYbody can use this thing. Very easy. The manual for it is unnecessary. Within 5 minutes, i came up with much better settings then the ones there.

I don't know why everyone seems to think it's so noisy. I don't notice any buzz. Probably, everyone has noisy pickups and distortion, and they think this pedal is causing it. I may be a little biased towards this pedal, due to the fact that i LOVE tremolo, but I think this little thing is great. Sure it only does one thing. But so does a fuzz pedal. So does a reverb pedal.
But that's beside the point. The point is: This makes great sounds. I like to set the depth all the way, and then set the rate to whatever speed i need for eighth notes. I play mostly rhythm, and this pedal is great for atmosphere and can help more amateur players keep time well. It's nice to set it just to any speed, put distortion in front of it, and play some bluesy leads, too. No group that i listen to really uses a lot of trem, but even so, i'm very glad to have this. I like to put a little delay before it, timing set to the same as the trem, and it sounds very good for some arpeggios. If you've got a phaser, you can make a fairly convincing "Won't Get Fooled Again." It gets a nine, cos nothing's perfect.

...

Never dealt with 'em.

Just let me say that this a good trem pedal. It doesn't have tap tempo, but it's really not too hard to find the speed you want. It goes really well with my rickenbacker guitar. If it were stolen, i'd be mad. I'd buy another one soon. It's a great pedal, but it IS a bit expensive. If you don't like trem very much, don't get it. If you're like me, you should definitely consider it.

Very easy. 3 knobs, if u have it/ can see the pic above then u know what they're for. the manual isnt really necessary. u just have to figure out for urself the right setting/s for the song ur playing. although the hardest part is getting the right speed of the tremolo sound.

the pedal itself does a very good job in delivering the tremolo effect. if u are having noise/buzzing sound check ur connections and the placing of ur pedals (which one should be before the others??) the boss website has a great tip on which pedal should come first in relation to the guitar:(guitar>wah>compression>distortion>EQ>Modulation>Delay>AMP)
My set up is as follows:
EPI LP>>>CRY BABY>>>BOSS MD2>>BOSS CH1>>BOSS TR2>>BOSS DD6>>Marshall MG100 head + AVT cab
absolutely no noise IF the pedal is off, however, a tremolo effect buzz is heard if the distortion pedal is on (of course its the MD2) other than that its simply fine

like all the other reviewers here say: ITS BOSS!

never dealt with them so NA

overall its about an 8. i bought it because i wanted to cover sevendust's "black" and it pretty much does so with the wah and distortion. ive tried the line 6 tap tempo. great pedal except that i hate having to step on the pedal a little extra hard to switch it on/off--it can cause delay between switch it on/off. just stepping on it sets the tempo for the tremolo speed. the tap tempo IS very useful because its another way of setting the speed. so u dont have to guess by turning the knob. another feature that the line 6 have is its stereo in/output. i dont really need it for now thats why i switched to this boss pedal. however the line 6 is $40 more. there is another trem pedal from electro-harmonix (PULSAR) so if ur looking around u might wanna check that one too. i havent tried it because none of the stores around my area carry that one. its about $10-20 more and it has a panning feature. hopefully this review helped u out in deciding which trem to buy/use

Couldn't be simpler- there are only 3 knobs to tweak.

Tele or Strat -> Ibanez 808 tube screamer -> Boss DD-6 delay -> Boss TR-2 Tremolo -> Boss RV-5 Reverb -> various Fender tube amps

I read other reviews of the TR-2 in this forum, and I was intrigued by the lukewarm response. Boss generally does a pretty good job with pedals, so what's the problem with this little green guy? It's just a tremolo, for gosh sakes!

When I first tried it out it seemed, well... bland. Really bland. It did exactly what it's 'spozed to do, ie, make the volume go up and down, but it didn't have that "shimmer" I was looking for.

I found a schematic and quickly identified the culprit. For some very odd reason, the LFO (low frequency oscillator) had a big capacitor on its output which rolls off the edges of the waveform severely. The result is that the modulation is either a mushy sine wave (with the WAVE control full ccw) or a very mushy square wave (WAVE control full cw) with no impulse or ""pop" to it at all. I confirmed all of this with an oscilloscope.

Easy fix: Remove C4 with wire cutters. That's it! If you don't trust me on this one, then unsolder C4 instead of cutting it out, so you can replace it if necessary.

With C4 out of the picture, the TR-2 sounds much bettter. With the WAVE control full ccw, the modulation is a real triangle wave. Those sharp changes in direction at the points of the triangle give the tremolo much more character. And with the WAVE control full cw, the square wave is MUCH sharper! You get a really great "stuttering" modulation effect. And, of course, you can still set the WAVE control to some nice setttings in-between.

As reported in other reviews here, there is a slight volume reduction when the effect is turned on if the depth is set fairly high. This can be alleviated by changing R19 from 10K to 6.8K. This mod makes the gain a few dB higher at the peak of the modulation, which makes perceived volume of the modulated signal sound about the same volume as when the effect is turned off. I only did this R19 mod out of curiosity, and would consider it strictly optional.

If you have any questions about these mods, email me.

One more thing- lots of other reviewers mentioned that their TR-2 was noisy. Mine is very quiet. Maybe there are problems with particular units, or perhaps an earlier revision of the electronics had a noise problem that Boss later fixed. Be aware, though, that if your signal going into the TR-2 is noisy, you will definitely hear the noise being modulated by the trem.

My Sound Quality rating before mods = 7, after mods = 9

A bunker buster might scratch the paint.

Don't know, never needed it.

With these 2 mods, I really like this pedal, and I don't plan on looking for another tremolo. As with any trem, it is crucial to set the depth control carefully to get the "right" sound.

I now use the TR-2 all the time. For big clean chord strummin' or arpeggios, I set it slow and deep. It sounds great in conjunction with some slap-back delay (no feedback, 100ms) and a little reverb. For overdriven power leads and crunched chords, I set it fast and shallow to give the tone a some drilling power.

I haven't yet used the full stuttering square wave modulation (WAVE knob full cw and DEPTH turned up high) but I'm sure something Radiohead-ish will come along some day... It's nice to know it is there if I need it.

If lost, I would definitely get another TR-1 and mod it.

3 knobs, no big deal.

I was terribly dissapointed with this pedal. Sure I got trem sounds from it, but the stupid thing hissed so bad that it was not useful at all. I know that trems sometimes have noise, but this pedal was impossible to control. I read some other reviews and saw that some people suggested putting it in front of a boss tuner. I tried that on mine, it did cut down on some of the hiss, but not enough. I took this pedal back the next day and traded it straight up for the new line 6 tap tempo tremolo pedal. Talk about a difference. The line 6 is amazing. For $30 more you get stereo, tap tempo, and a freakin' tank. Man, spend the cash and make it happen.

Don't waste your time. Buy the line 6 tap trem

The old Boss srategie again:
A simple pedal for simple minded people ...

It plain sucks! It's a rather noisy pedal with a mediocre sound. The old PN-2 was way better. You don't need a high class boutique tremolo: The EH Pulsar or the new ToneCore Tremolo will both eat this peace of shit for breakfast.

Yes, it's reliable, but what for? I wish it would just die and stop working...

They can't help you and they won't help you!

The new Line6 ToneCore series of pedals is a Boss killer. Who needs this hunk of junk anymore?
For years customers pleeded and begged Boss to redesign the Tremolo and the Delay. Did Boss care? - No.
Now Line 6 gave them the wake up call with the ToneCore Tremolo and the EchoPark.
Shame on Boss, but I don't care anymore...

Pretty simple. Three knobs. Has been outlined in other reviews.

This pedal is "ok", as I've spent more and more time using the pedal I've become increasingly less pleased with it. Yeah you can dial in a pretty decent sound, but I've noticed that it pretty obviously flattens the dynamics of my tone when engaged. The term "tone sucker" has been said of other effects and I'd say that it applies here as well. The pedal is hush quiet and doesn't otherwise color the tone of my set-up, but like the rest of the guitar playing world I work hard to get a good sound out of my rig and I'm not excited about losing any tone.

Boss has always been reliable for me... I've gigged weekly with this pedal for over 2 years with no issues.

n/a

I've been playing for 9 years or so. This pedal is not a good match for me.

My set up consists of '00 Fender Custom Shop Player Strat w/ SD hot stacks and JB jr in bridge > Hughes & Kettner Tubeman Plus pre > 535Q > TC SCF > TR-2 > 6166 Volume pedal > DD-3 delay > DD-5 delay > Peavey 50/50 tube poweramp > Custom Stillwater 2x12's.

The TR-2 just doesn't fit. I think I'm going to pick up a Voodoo lab uni vibe instead.

If it were stolen I wouldn't think twice.

Very easy. You've got the Rate which will adjust the 'time' of the pulse, if you will. The Depth you can think of as the 'strength' of it, and the little knob adjusts a square type tremolo and a triangle type trmolo, which opens up your pulsing options a little more.

My set up is:
Shecter Diamond Series Guitar >> BOSS PH-3 Phase Shifter >> MXR Flanger >> BOSS AC-2 Acoustic Simulator >> MXR Micro Amp >> BOSS TR-2 Tremolo >> BOSS TU-2 Chromatic Tuner >> Line 6 Spider II 120-Watt Amplifier. There is no nosie at all that I have noticed.

This is a Tremolo pedal, and that's all it was meant to do. It doesn't do very much at all, except exactly what it was made for. So, if I had to rate it for versatility, it would be low, but since this is for how the pedal sounds and what it should sound like, it gets an 8.

Boss makes the most reliable pedals ever. No doubt about it.

You are probably wondering how all of the other ratings were good but this one only got a five. That is because this is a very limited pedal, and it is expensive for the fact that it only does one thing: Tremolo, and I don't even use it that much.

If you loooove Tremolo and you want a pedal for it, then get it. Otherwise, look elsewhere.