IndyGuitarist BD-2 Mod

Its a boss with three knobs!

The pedal didn't sound that bad before mod. But I thought what the hell, Brian claims to make things sound better! Boy, what a waste of money! The mod did not really do what Brian claims on his website!
So I had to spend more money to have analogMike fix the crappy work done on this pedal. This is a warning to those people who what to get their pedals modded: USE A PRO LIKE ANALOGMAN OR KEELEY!

It's a boss, come on....

I don't like Roland supports modded pedals.

Like I said before let the pros do the work, not Brian.

It was pretty straightforward. The diagrams were very clear about which components to switch out. The kit even came with some extra resistors. The only real difficulty was soldering on the PCB (which is more my inferior soldering skills than anything).

At the time I originally did the mod, I was using a Rickenbacker 650D -> DynaComp -> BD-2 -> Big Muff (Russian) -> Boss DD-6 -> Vox Pathfinder 15R. I was using the BD-2 to get a tube sound out of the amp (which is solid state) and to boost the signal and give it a fuller sound. Before I did the mod, this pedal was lacking bass and could be very tinny, esp. on higher notes. The mod gave me more bottom end, but it was still a little tinny. I have since realized that it was the amp I was using and have moved up to an AC30. Now I only use the BD-2 for really heavy overdrive sounds (the AC30 has great natural OD). Until I started using the AC30, I hadn't noticed, but there is a noticeable buzz/hum when the pedal is engaged, but, again, I think it's my soldering more than anything, as there were a few less than perfect connections (and I may have dripped a little on a trace somewhere). Overall, it sounds much more pleasing now that it has been modded.

I only give it a 9 here because of the hum, but, come on, it's a Boss, it's virtually indestructable. I always gig without a backup (mainly because I can't really afford a second one, plus the time to do the mod), but it hasn't failed me yet and hasn't given any problems otherwise.

Brian (the owner) is really nice and helpful. If you email him with a question he will usually get back to you in a day or two. His newsletter has some good tips and stuff too.

Overall, this mod is definitely worth the money. It makes the BD-2 sound fairly decent, if not really good. The mod also made it a bit more responsive to picking technique. If it were lost or stolen, I'd probably buy a Tubescreamer TS-808 re-issue, but for now it will serve my purpose. This mod makes this pedal a good tool for getting a more dynamic and tubish sound out of a solid state or for really overdriving a tube amp without killing your eardrums.

It is a Boss BF-2 with a great addition, anyway you set the knobs it just sounds terrific. So for that reason alone it gets a 10. Also it comes with a very bright blue Led that you can see anywhere from the stage very cool.

The only way I can described it is as Fantastic, It sounds HUGE when you stomp on it. I had a vintage MXR with power AC cord and Inmediately sold it after got my BF-2. It is simple the only flanger that feels right on my rig and I have tried lots of them. I am a pro player in a South American Band and our sound man came to talk to me after the first show I used it and told me what did you do to your flanger it sounded awesome. Believe me he knows we play over 150 shows a year in every kind of venues from theaters to hughe festivals. I use a Komet amp which is simply unbelievable everything you put on that monster gets faithfully amplified. I use two fender custom shops. A really old gibson expolrer andn some others but those are my workhorses and it sounded terrific on any of them. So again I am very picky with my sound, extremely picky I would say and this mod deserves 10.

This is the main reason why I wanted to try a modified Boss. I have had in my pedal board every vintage and boutique pedal you can imagine, with tru bypass and so on. Now after three records we get a very hard touring schedule every year in Venezuela and sometime we play in Pto. Rico, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Spain. So every pedal that I have had with true bypass switch has failed on my, It is simple 3 PTD switches fail if you use them a lot. Vintage pedals, same story like the Ibanes TS-9 switch. It just needs to be replaced every six months. Sure they sound good but no way my guitar sound will ever go off in another show again. Boss pedals are simply the most reliable pedals on the planet but not enough of that good sound that we are all after. With this mod I got the answer af all my prayers. Great sound with great reliability. Again a perfect 10.

Brian is awesome, responds to your mail quickly, Responds your phone calls etc etc. I live in Caracas Venezuela and it was kind of expensive to send a pedal to the states and then have it back, and he proposed to send me the kit for me to install but I found out that I had lost mine years ago. Brian did not have any in stock so he bought a second hand one without even a deposit and did his magical thing on it. He even asked me what kind of sound I was looking after, the only word I said was big with no drop on volume when engaged like my old mxr. And that is exactly what I got. His webpage has improved a lot since then, so obviously Brian is the kind of person that likes to do things right and then even better. And that is the kind of people I like to work with. Again perfect score.

I have been playing since I was 8 years old and profesionally for more than 15 years. Now my pedalboard is full of modified boss pedals. I love my bf-2 my search for flangers is finally over. If stolen I will just have to call brian and get another. In fact I am planning to get a boss phaser to see if Brian can get the same approach for the mod. Great guy, great company.

3 Knobs, how hard can it be?

Seriously don't understand the bad review at the bottom. If he's being honest, I suspect he did the mod himself and screwed it up. By playing with the volume and tone levels on the guitar (an Amer. Strat mostly) and on the pedal itself, this thing has all kinds of great sounds. Nothing negative to say about it.

It's a Boss. The pedal I received was from another indivual who performed the mod himself. I have had no problems but obviously reliablity goes hand in hand with who's performing the mod and how experianced they are. I have performed the Indy mod on a CS-3 and the directions are pretty clear cut.

Aside from the guy on the bottom of the page I have never seen anyone complain about Brian. Actually it seems he goes over and above.

main Gear:
American Standard through a Bedrock Royale Deluxe.

2 days after plugging in this pedal, I put my Keely modded TS9 on ebay.

I used the DIY Kit and had this thing done in a matter of a couple of hours... Not bad for someone that's nnever even thought of attempting a pedal mod. The instructions are fool-proof and dialing in a great tone with this mod is a hell of a lot easier that it is with the stock BD2!

Great improvement on the stock BD2. There's more low end, more controllable midrange, no thin, brittle highs. Much warmer sounding and much more desirable tone. I'm using a variety of guitars from a vintage Thinline to a cheap Strat knockoff to a vintage Iceman - through a small fifties Alamo tube amp. No other distortion unit I've run has sounded as good as this mod... no small feat considering that I've tried nearly a dozen different boxes.

Boss users will agree - BOSS rules. Anyone that is running this mod will agree - Brian rules!

Brian is very cool about answering e-mails regarding the DIY mod kits. I've already recieved several very friendly, very helpful e-mails and tips from him. I haven't got the slightest idea where the person below, "Jim" is coming from with his negative - and apparently unfounded - comments. Sounds like someone has a personal problem.

Like I mentioned, I'm only running this through a small tube amp at home as of now, but I can't wait to hear this mod through a cranked stack! I play a variety of stuff from rockabilly-type stuff to hard rock and metal. The vastly improved sound of this mod over the original has worked out just fine for me, and like I said, the customer care Brian provides is incredibly generous... Try getting that kind of support from a corporate pedal manufacturer! I hope this review is helpful to those of you that have considered modding your pedals, or cansidered having them modded for you. I whole-heartedly endorse this mod and Brian's service!

Ease of making the modification is 7. I am reviewing the DIY instructions ($10) and their written clarity as well as the required skill level. This is not a difficult project, but locating the components to de-solder them is somewhat difficult because they are small and marked in tiny letters on the circuit board. Hint: "c9" is right adjacent to "c10" under the tied wire bundle.
You need the de-solder braid and a very small tip on a 25-30 watt pen type soldering iron. I find that penetrating the braid with the tip of the soldering tip will let the braid 'wick up' the melted solder better and gently pull the braid as you de-solder to release it. A dentist's pick is useful for getting the ends of the components pried loose after de-soldering. You need patience and fairly good dexterity to do this project; don't hurry and carefully select the components (about $10) and check the values on the package. You have to have needle nosed pliers and the best have bent tips for this job. Takes about 2 hours to do it, but it is fun!

This makes it worth while! The BD-2 is not a great pedal, but it is pretty good stock. It is MUCH better after the 'hot rod' mod, which I did. It is a lot louder, better bass, better tone control and the gain is plenty improved and generally the pedal cleans up and is more lively and transparent (less muddy and more 'openness'). I rate a '9' versus the stock sound because it is improved enough to make it worth your while to do the project.

This depends on you. Solder neatly and don't drop a glob or it can silence the pedal (truest me!). It's a sturdy pedal and there is nothing breakable. Be careful reassembling it so as not to crush the components and make SURE you use a proper Phillips tip for the floorplate screws; they can be stuck pretty snug. I set the pedal upside down on a towel and used downward force as I unscrewed the 4 screws.

Brian is a genuine guy and you can get a sense of his approach in his recorded message. Fast email replies and whatever little $$ he makes is well earned. I expect to go after my Boss DD-5 delay pedal next and then perhaps try the compressor pedal mod.

Summary: great fellow to deal with and a cool idea that makes a nice rainy day project and pays off in a source of pride and a better guitar sound!

I have Strats and Teles (built by Fralin's luhier from my parts), so they are good guitars. For single coil guitars, this is a good pedal mod to do: $50 for the pedal shipped via eBay seller, plus about $20 for the sheets and the parts. And you have a pedal MUCH beter than stock (I A/B'd mine at Guitar Center and it was convincing that the mod is about a 20-40% improvement over stock)

Same as stock.

I would give it a strong 9.This is for the Full Body mod for the BD-2.If you think your BD-2 is too thin sounding,would like little more gain,this mod might just do the trick.It really dose not change the original tone,but it seems like the pedal's entire sound spectrum has been boosted up.Tone control is really sensitive now.I now need to Go easy with adjusting this knob.The pedal cleans up really well when you back off the volume from the guitar.I am glad that I went for this mod.Also had the bright blue led installed(extra charge)

Boss is a boss is a boss.

He is pretty good with communication.I also had the Boss od-3 modded to the wang-dang? mod, and took little longer to get that pedal back.The bd-2 only took a few days.

I am really pleased with the Bd-2,Full Body mod.I have owned two or three Bd-2's and each time I had it,I ended up selling because of the thin sound.I did like it for chords,which is nice and cruchy,but did not cut it when it came to solos.This one seems to be a keeper.

i got the DIY kit, and i am an electronics novice, so ease of use was a key feature for me. brian's instructions are clear and complete. he even tapes components to a sheet of paper with instructions, so there is little chance of error.

i ended up reversing a couple of steps in this mod. the end result was cool, but after a lot of fiddling, i got my own sound. it is much better than the stock BD-2. the main things are (1)responsive tone knob, and (2)some bass. i am very happy with how it turned out

well, there are some of my own solder joints in there, so i don't know. i think i did pretty well, but we'll see

brian is off the charts in this category. he answers emails quickly, directly, and thoroughly. i didn't spend too much money (just DIY kits), but he still gave me a lot of his time.

indy guitarist is a great concept - it helped me a lot. as a result, i have a couple of cool modded pedals, a little more understanding, and a new level of enthusiasm that will get me through a more complex project.

This is to clarify the below fake submission. I keep very detailed records of every pedal that goes out-I make sure that after every purchase, my customer is happy. If they are not, I will gladly refund their money.

I've tried contact this person to offer them their money back, but the email address is not valid.

Furthermore, I have no record of this person, which leads me to believe that someone is trying to make me look bad. Please see my ebay feedback as well-

http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=www_indyguitarist_com

I encourage EVERYONE to email me, call me, or ask around on the harmony-central.com effects board, as well as the guitargeek.com effects board.

Thanks,
Brian
www.indyguitarist.com

Pretty easy to use if you ask me. Tone knob is a bit more handy. I was able to find sounds I liked.

Gibson Les Paul Studio to the BD-2 into a Roland JC-120 out to a Marshall 4X12.

Will feed back more than a stock BD-2...but I consider that to be okay since you get more gain as well (and I kinda like feedback \m/). It's an improvement from the stock BD-2, but I wouldn't call it the end-all be-all. More full-range with extra bass and presence.

I can get some pretty decent classic rock tones from this, Steppenwolf, The Who, Hendrix...

It's a Boss dummy.

Brian is a stand up guy. The fact that he so willingly gives up information on how to perform the mods, where to get parts, and answers questions the same day he recieves them, really says something about him. He's not just out to make money. He wants you to become a better musician. This section only goes up to 10, but he deserves at least an 11.

I like to rock. >:D Seriously, I play a lot of classic rock and blues, southern rock..you get it. I've been playing since I was conceived, (or since I was 7 or something nuts like that). If it were stolen, I'd probably win the lottery and by a Marshall Plexi, but if I only had time to get a quick replacement, I'd buy another Blues Driver and mod it again. It's got a full range with plenty of bass and presence, extra gain, dirty big balls. It's a good little fella.

It's a Boss Overdrive, very simple to use.

This thing sounds quite bad actually, The soundclips on the website are misleading. I thought that I was going to get a clearer tone with much more smooth gain than the stock pedal. Instead, this mod increased the noise incredibly, lost bass, and only seemed to make the pedal louder, not better. I tried this pedal with my Fender Twin Reverb (reissue) and a small Marshall JCM900 combo. On the Marshall it adds a lttle (VERY little) clarity to the overall tone, but the overdrive clips it in a very unnatural and unmusical way. On the Fender, the treble on this thing will take your head off! I was left wondering why I spent the money on this mod. A friend of mine has a Keeley Phat modded BD-2 and it blows this piece of crap away. I guess I should just stick with guys that actually know what they are doing instead of trying to give a "new guy" a chance. Don;t waste your time or money.

It's a BOSS, so it's reliable.

This guy seems to be nice enough at first, but he gets defensive when you ask questions about his mods or complain.
I won't be buying from him again.

I used this pedal with a Fender Am. Standard Strat and my Epi Les Paul (replaced the pickups with Duncans) through the above mentioned amps and it is definitely not an improvement. Stick with Keeley or Analogman.