Boss VB-2

Pedal is great, but we all already know this. Turn knobs, vibrato. Chorus, pahsor, everything. It isn't rocket science. Get it just right, and it'll run away from you, add a delay and you're on a rocket to the sun. It's a great pedal, from mellow whispers to tear-your-heart-out emotion. It's all about the subtlety, and with this pedal, less is definitely more.

The ease of the use of this pedal is amazing. You just plug it in, play with it, and go. It's very natural, even though the pedal has some craziness hiding behind some knob twisting. Those rack units with vibrato, I don't want to use buttons to get my tone...I want to feel it change as I turn a knob, and dig in with my pick when I play. Analog is the way to go for vibrato.

This is mostly a reply to the guy below me, who was replying to the guy below him:

Dude, take a chill pill! The world will not cease if someone confused vibrato and tremolo due to all the conspiracy theories of Leo Fender's naming. The guy didn't even play guitar, so who knows what was going on in the guy's noggin? Whatever worked for great amps might have been bad for naming things.

As far as this guy buying a pedal and reviewing it, he's obviously young. Everyone who is honest with him/herself knows that when they started playing, they did dumb stuff, thought dumb things, and even if someone was there to set you straight, you'd still do what you wanted because you were young and dumb, and on a positive note, passionate and interested in playing guitar. Who cares if the kid reviewed the pedal? Read all the reviews below him! See how much they go for on eBay! One post of a young kid being ignorant isn't going to, "denegrate [sp] its deserved reputation". Are you kidding? Once you start a train it's hard to stop it rolling, buddy. Everyone who knows, knows. Take a bigger perspective and realize that a single review won't change things. I've posted reviews for all kinds of pedals...just click on something, and I bet there's a review from me on there. I've owned hundreds (and have a beater car, less than fashionable clothes and old sneakers...I'm no doctor or lawyer), and the ones that shine still shine even after a few bad reviews because that's just the way the cookie crumbles around in these parts. Why not set the kid straight with some positive advice? Why not be cool? He could be the next Stevie Ray Vaughn, just give him some time and some heart break, who knows?

So kid, you're confusing tremolo and vibrato. Tremolo changes the loudness of a note, vibrato changes the pitch of a note. Leo Fender got it wrong; the vibrato on his amps is tremolo, and the "tremolo bar" creates vibrato. In other words, tremolo would be you turning up and down the volume on your guitar, and vibrato would be you bending a note repeatedly. If you want great tremolo, get a good blackface Fender amp that's labeled "vibrato". If you want a pedal, BOSS made a great one, the PN-2. It's not been made for awhile, but they're not too bad on eBay these days. It's stereo so you can even pan between two amplifiers.

Like I said, everyone who knows, knows. They sound great. And I'll tell you what, the BYOC clone sounds great, side by side.

You'll get some digital errors if you spin the knobs too quickly, but if you're crazy like Radiohead you'll dig it. If you just "set it and forget it", the noise problems are non-existant.

Coupled with a TS-808 and my blackface Twin Reverb, the whole rig cuts through and shimmers like an arctic lake. It's wide and expansive, it's without a doubt the best vibrato circuit available.

One pedal I find that it doesn't "play nice" with, at least for what I do, is the DOD Juice Box. By itself the Juice Box is screaming, but something about it, with any setting, don't jive well with the VB-2. My Sonic Youth days are mostly psst me, though, so I just mention it for the up-and-comers.

Everyone knows that the BOSS pedals are tanks, they can survive anything, salt water immersions, etc...ok, well probably not salt water really, but if that's what situation you're in, heck, I'd probably not be as worried about the pedal in that case. Short story, they'll take a beating and keep on pumping out the sweet tones. And yes, I have driven over BOSS pedals before (me and a buddy, a couple beers, an old Super Chorus...don't ask!), they seriously take it!

BOSS customer support is great, but they're thrifty. Have fun coughing up $4 for each bottom plate screw if you ever call. They're nice enough, but gosh, guys! $4 for a screw, plus shipping? Sounds like I'm in the wrong business. They also won't fix the VB-2 because it's so obsolete, so if it's broken find your local pedal guru. Hopefully he knows what he's doing, so don't be afraid to ask some questions to "test the waters". Your gear, especially a VB-2, is worth it.

Come on guys, we all know what's going on with the VB-2...it's the best vibrato circuit out there. We also know that we should be supportive and positive to the younger ones, show them the ropes instead of getting our kicks by talking down to them. Pick on someone your own size, buddy!

Overall, the pedal is great. The ramp feature, I never need to use, it's kind of silly but I guess with a delay you might be able to make something sound cool from it.

Also be sure to clean the function switch, it tends to accumulate grime and can make for grody tones, and grody switch operation. No sand in my pedals, thank you.

4 knobs are very interactive, and can be a bit tricky. not complicated, but not rangemaster easy either. depth controls the depth of the wave, rate controls the speed of the waves, ramp controls the speed at which the vibrato kicks in in unlatch mode, last knob selects between latch, unlatch and bypass. bypass mode boosts the bypassed signal (a cool feature for those with big pedal boards who don't want to take things apart to get unused pedals out of the signal chain. if you aren't using the vb-2, switch it to bypass. the signal will sound noticeably fuller and cleaner).

i play a 1967 fender telecaster and a 2007 highway one texas tele (now esquire) with the stupidly rare custom shop nocaster 10k bridge pup. amps are a 1967 blackface twin reverb, 1966 blackface vibro champ, RI vibroverb 2x10, 1968 silverface bandmaster and a musicman 410 (super reverb).

this post is mostly to explain the naivety (read: stupidity?) of the poster a below me who gave the legendary VB-2 a "1" because it "doesn't sound like fender vibrato." explanation: that's because fender "vibrato" is tremelo! leo called the tremelo "vibrato" on his amps as a rather specious way of stealing customers from the magnatone amp line which featured true-vibrato as its claim to fame.

bottom line: vibrato is modulation of pitch---which the VB-2 does better than any other vibrato stomp unit in existence. tremelo is modulation of volume---which a good old fender amp does better than any other unit in existence. buying a VB-2 and expecting tremelo is like dating britney spears and expecting tina fey. it bothers me that naive folks like said reviewer are willing to shell out nearly $400 for an uber-rare vintage pedal, yet not understand the basic effect it creates. it bothers me even more that such reviewers will ignorantly rate a pedal on a prominent gear site and denegrate its deserved reputation.

my review: the VB-2 is a classic for a reason. this pedal, in my opinion, makes trem, chorus, phase, etc. modulation pedals obsolete. it can give the most beautiful chorus sound at slow settings that has none of the 80's cheese all other choruses produce. it can give a brownface fender sounding trem (best trem ever) at low-depth, medium-pitch settings. it can go from subtle 3-D movement, to beautiful magnatone warble, to insane 50's scifi mothra effects.

graham coxon is an avid user of the VB-2, and is a good artist to research if you are interested in this wonderful unit. it is all over blur's "13" album, as well as graham's solo stuff.

i've been through hundreds of pedals, and the VB-2 is my favorite of all time. truly a classic pedal like the original ts808, script dyna comp, arbiter fuzz face, boss DM-2, etc.

this pedal and my blackface twin reverb are the only pieces of gear i've ever owned that would get a "10" rating out of me.

it's a BOSS. insert lame gear cliche here. "it's built like a tank", etc...

BOSS will not repair this pedal. it's too old, and most the important parts are obsolete.

This is the greatest stompbox of all time, in my humble opinion. pedals are generally pretty lame and overused. a great amp is only sullied by 99% of effects. this is one of the pedals great enough to put between my lovely telecaster and my perfect blackface twin.

feel free to contact me with any questions you have about this unit.

Operation wise it is a simple pedal. It consist of four knobs; Rate, Depth, Rise time & Latch/Unlatch. It is quite simple to make adjustments to get your desired sounds, I mean no problem atall.

My set up consist of Yamaha guitar AES-620, Yamaha Pacifica 412V & Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty 3 pickup. My amps are Yamaha G50-112 III & Fender FM-212R. It produces very clean sound and the quality of sound is great. I mostly use it in Unlatch position during playing solos or for chord work when the sound starts to fade away. It has a very pleasant sound effect. I do agree with the previous review that it has a very limited use in songs thats why I only use it once in a blue moon. It produces sound somewhat like a tremelo wang bar which detunes the sound. Let me tell you that it certainly does not sound like a Fender classic tube tremolo amp; nothing can come closer to the superb warmth & flavor of Fender tremolo. I think you should better listen it first before buying it. There is no doubt about it that sound quality is nice but its overall use is very limited; that's why Boss discontinued it quite early.

I have been using it since 1986 and it has never caused me any problem.

No I never happened to deal with them.

I have been playing for the last 28 years. I have got lot of gears like Yamaha Studio Lord copy of Les Paul SL-400S, Yamaha electric guitar AES-620, Yamaha Pacifica 412V, Epiphone Les Paul black beauty, Ovation celebrity electric acoustic guitar CS-257, Fender DG-6 12 string guitar, Yamaha amp G50-112 III, Yamaha amp JX-50, Fender FM-212R and Behringer ultra acoustic amp ACX-900. I have got lot of Boss effect pedals. My favorite feature of VB-2 is to use it in Unlatch position during ending of solo or after picking the note or chord. For continous use I do not found it so worthful. My email address : khjodat@mastertex.com

pretty simple, i guess. just a few knobs to turn

now here is where we start to get into a problem. i was playing my uncle's old fender deluxe reverb and was having a great time. I noticed that there was a vibrato channel, so I thought it would be cool to try out something new. I really liked the sound that I got out of it. Since I just turned 17 I have a bunch of birthday money, and decided to track down a good vibrato pedal. I did some searching on the internet and found that the best pedal for vibrato was a boss vb-2. i found one on ebay, it cost a bunch of money (all my birthday dough, plus a couple months of mowing the yard for my dad). i figured it was worth it, because my uncle's amp sounds so nice.

well, i got it in the mail, plugged it in, and boy was i disappointed. it sounded nothing like fender vibrato!! where does boss get off doing this kind of false advertisement? what is their big beef? this thing doesn't sound like vibrato at all. it sounds like my amp is about to die. what a waste!

seems sturdy. it will probably last a long time, because i won't be using it too much.

haven't talked to them

i wish boss would be a little more honest with their customers. my whole pedal board is full of boss, but i won't ever buy another one again. try and get it right if you ever do a re-issue, you morons!

Well, it's basically a 2 knob pedal - rate and depth, even though there are four knobs altogether.
The mode I most often use is the latched mode whereby the effect stays on when you stomp the pedal.
The other mode is a cool idea but to be honest I don't really ever use it.
For those that don't know, in 'unlatched' mode you can step on (and hold down) the foot-switch and the pedal will blend into your signal at the preset rate and mix in either a fast or slow graduation - a la a leslie speaker but it doesn't slowly build up to speed like a leslie, it more mixes the effect in at a preset delay that you can select with the 'rise time' knob - the third knob.
Rise time - To the left is an immediate blend and towards the right is the slowest 'rise time'.
The fourth selects either the normal mode (latched), a bizarre bypass mode, and lastly the unlatched mode.
Fairly straight forward in it's normal latched mode but if you had no idea of the pedals controls at all then it could be quite confusing.
Luckily we have the net and there is a lot of info out there about this rare and now ridiculously expensive pedal.
It takes time to learn where the sweet spots are on the rate knob too.

If you know cool effects than chances are that you have heard of this pedal.
Graham Coxon, Nels Cline, Buddy Miller are all names associated with it's lovely sound.
In a nutshell you can do , basically, three kinds of sounds -
A slow & sickening warped record type effect that's cool for slow arpeggiating of chords
A medium speed pseudo chorus type sound that is completely it's own thing.
And lastly, a fast leslie type sound that is cool for single note lines and solos.
But that's just a very brief overview.
It's very tweakable and quite sensitive so fiddle away and see what happens.
One of the great things is that it can be really subtle and you'll be listening to a guitar track thinking 'what's that? Almost like a really slow phaser with a low mix but kind of different....???'.
Have a listen to 'Suffer Never' by The Finn Brothers to hear what I'm talking about.
This pedal is really warm sounding too. It does nice things to your guitar sound.
I've heard some clips of Magnatone amps on youtube and this lil' box sounds just like them.

I purchased it second-hand and it evidently hadn't been used in a few years.
It 'coughed' a bit when I first turned it on and then it was just fine.
There is a slight delay when turning the effect on but that's no biggie.
I read that the designers of this pedal intended it to be like that?
Boss has a good reputation for being bullet-proof and this pedal is in excellent condition.

Haven't dealt with them but I hear that they will still fix these pedals for you.

I scored this pedal for a very fair price so I was very lucky in that regard.
It's one of only four pedals that I use.
It sounds gorgeous and it's excellent reputation is well and truly deserved.
Very inspirational sounding.
If anything, I have to be careful that I don't overuse it!
Haven't heard another pedal that sounds like this and people (BYOC) seem to be going to great lengths to try and replicate this unit.
From the golden era of Boss pedals, it would seem.

Very easy to get good useful sounds from this unit.
Rate and depth controls very effective. I don't hear big difference from changing the rise time, but I don't have the manual so may not be using this correctly.
Nice effect from leaving the effect switched on (in 'latch' mode), but increasingly I'm using the 'unlatch' mode to bring in the effect only at the end of phrases. I really like this use of the effect as an expression pedal in moderation for emphasis.

Sounds good with any setup I've used. Single coil, humbuckers, clean channel, overdriven. Probably clean channel is best though.
(See note below under Customer Support).

When I first got the unit (used) I noticed while using the clean channel that there was some audible distortion from the unit.
I don't know how long the unit had this problem. It was in "as new" condition cosmetically, so perhaps the original owner did not use it much because of that distortion. If so, that's too bad - see below under Customer Support.

As mentioned above, I noticed a problem with the unit which I had purchased used. Roland/Boss confirmed very quickly over the phone that this was not normal and provided an RMA for return, even though unit is discontinued. Whenever I called, they answered quickly and were able to tell me immediately exactly what was happening with the unit. The unit was returned quickly and fully functional. The repair/shipping cost was very reasonable.
I've noticed in other reviews some criticism of the customer support. I can only relate my own experience, which was first-rate.

I find this effect useful for all sorts of styles. It's a true vibrato, and gives a nice subtle emphasis at the end of phrases, particularly useful when playing full chords.
Been playing many years - but still trying to learn...

Pedal is very easy to use

The sound quality is first rate. This pedal creates a beautiful pitch-shifting vibrato. I would have to say, though, that you can achieve the same sounds from a Dunlop Uni-Vibe Stereo Chorus for probably less than half the cash! On the latter pedal simply use the Vibrato output and set the Mix to zero, the Intensity to ten o' clock, and the speed to one o' clock.

I have never had any problems with a Boss pedal!

I once asked the Boss people for a manual for my Harmonist pedal and they sent me one. No Problem.

If it were lost or stolen I would probably not replace it, because, my Dunlop Uni-Vibe Stereo Chorus can achieve the same sounds and more. (I have been playing guitar for 28 years and own about twenty effects pedals. P.S. ditch the nine-volt battery habit and stop being ripped-off by the battery companies. Buy a Godlyke or One-Spot battery eliminator. You'll never be sorry you did!) I am rating this pedal at a 4, because, if you succeed in finding one, you will have to pay far too much for it!

Easy as pie

This is it! I learned about the VB-2 by browsing through the models in a Line 6 Modulation Modeller. While the Line 6 is a decent piece of equipment, the analog originals blow the models out of the water. Vibrato is pitch modulation (not volume modulation like tremolo), basically like a chorus with the original/unaltered signal muted and using a sine wave for modulation (not a triangle like most chorusses do). This gives a smooth, slim, rotary-like organ vibrato to my guitar sound, and the VB-2 can bend the pitches quite far, amazing!!

Born in the 80's and still going strong.

Boss is stupid not to reissue these, they are going for top $?'s nowadays. I paid an arm and a leg for mine, but it's money well spent.

This is it, one of the best modulation effects ever made. It's a sound I was looking for for a long time. I paid an arm and a leg for mine, but it's money well spent.

the latch unlatch switch is so COOOL...I've got a PRS custom22 with no Vibrato(stop tail bridge), but the unlatch switch solve the need, just keep pressing the pedal when you want to add the vibration, then remove your foot to disengage it

The manual had a misspelling on the word "Boss" somewhere, it's written "Boos" hehehe...It's ok ..early product.

Sound quality is sooo Good, warm, and Unique, I love it so much, it's Good for some Intro sound... Solo classical/jazz guitar Type of sound, Not noisy

I usually use it with my Fender 50th anniversary strat with custom 1954 pickup, go through a Roland JC120

It's a Tank

never need it

I play Pop Rock Alternative music, I have been playing for 7 years now, If stolen, I'll cry and be happy again.Pray for the thief to be forgiven before God.Because he's just stolen my pride.

I bought it brand New yesterday, it's been sitting patiently in the shop for 23 years, waiting for me, It's 100% sparkling, comes with Box, manual, everything,flawless 73Bucks

I compared it with the vibrato in my Boss ce 1 chorus ensamble, the Vibrato is similar,Great vibrato in Both of them but more controlable, more usable unlatched switch in the Vb2

It's simply my Pride and Joy...

Some settings on this pedal are just silly - but if you mess with it a while you can find the effect you are looking for.

This is a really clean pedal, like most Boss analog stuff. The pedal really just does what it's supposed to - raises and lowers the pitch. It's really smooth and warm in the way it does this - not like a Whammy pedal or Boss pitch shifter.

My Boss pedals all work. This one dies too. I certainly can't afford a backup. The only problem I ever have with Boss pedals is I need to clean the jacks sometimes - this is normal maintenance.

I have never dealt with Boss as most of my effects are used and they don't break anyway.

I play in a Synth Rock or New Wave band and I wanted something to make my sound just beautiful, but i didn't want the 80's sound of a chorused guitar. I play a Guild S-300 with Seymour Duncans, through: Boss Vibrato, Boss GE-7 EQ, Boss OD-2, Dunlop Tremolo, Boss DD-5, Boss Reverb/Delay, into a Univox 50 watt head, into a Randall 2x12 cabinet. This is a very clean setup believe it or not! I use this pedal instead of chorus, and in combination with delay and reverb it creates a beautiful sparkling sound at about 8:00 on rate and 10:00 on depth. It sounds like Purple Rain on clean chords, and like nothing else on picked ringing notes. I used it with a Baritone guitar and it sang like a bell. I actually wish one thing about it - that it dropped the pitch down and then up to the actual pitch, never going above - as though you were using a Bigsby as a vibrato. This would provide a more musical sound at higher settings as flat sounds a lot better than sharp. Anyway I love this pedal and use it all the time. I think the CE-1 has a similar effect but this one is more controllable.