Boss BD-2 Blues Driver - Modded by Keeley

The Boss BD-2 is a great boost alone. It can be used with a clean amp to give it some nice grit, and it can also be used a fairly transparent sounding boost to help give you a little more tightness and compression to your overall tone. However, it has a few drawbacks. For one, it's a bit bright in its stock form. The tone knob really needs to be fixed, and it could be thickened up. Keeley's mod does that and then some. This mod not only gives the pedal a revoicing, but it also adds a special switch so you can select the thickness of the actual pedal.

UTILIZATION

First of all, the pedal is mostly Boss' creation. That means we're talking about Boss reliability and overall setup. Thankfully, Boss is one of the best pedal companies out there when it comes to both those things. These are crazy reliable and rarely ever break. I've toured with these things for ages without any issues at all. The pedal only has three knobs, and it's laid out like a tubescreamer, so anybody can figure out how to use this. The manual is now kinda useless thanks to Keeley's mod, but it can still help if you want some ballpark tones. The switch is in a nice location to where you can select it easily, but it won't be knocked by accident.

SOUND QUALITY

The stock pedal sounded pretty good for what it was, but it had some issues. The Keeley mod fixes those issues, and it also gives you some additional tone controls to help further shape the tone. This pedal should really be used as a clean style boost, in my opinion. It works best when you want that transparent sounding overdrive to help push the amp just a touch but don't want that tubescreamer flavor sound. It's awesome on leads to give you a bit more sustain. If you find yourself needing more thickness, just flick the switch, and you'll get a nice bass boost with this thing. Perfect for single coils and those brighter amps out there.

OVERALL OPINION

This is probably one of my favorite mods for the BD-2. Monty, Analogman and a few other guys out there offer great mods for these as well, so don't discount them. Keeley can be expensive, but he's been in the business for a long time, and his mods are proven. If you're good with a soldering iron, however, you can find out how to do these mods yourself.

This is a modification to the Boss BD-2 done by Robert Kelley and folks. This is a mod that cost about double the price of this pedal. It is a great pedal for modification and Keeley does a great job on this pedal. You get an even more transparent pedal and a gritty more usable gain distortion from this mod. It clears up some of the fizz and adds necessary overdrive to make this pedal more usable. The original isn't true bypass and the mod that Robert gives makes it a true bypass pedal. This enables the user to put in his or her pedal board and run it without any tonal loss in the signal and chain of effects.

This pedal has chance to be great but in its stock form it doesn't live up to a SD-1 or and OD-2. It carries the name for blues but it is not restricted to only blues tones. It is a pretty simple overdrive pedal with subtle gain and not much else going for it. It comes off sort of shrill sounding and very thin. It doesn't have a tone that says play me by any means. At best in its stock form it is used as a clean boost into a heavy gain amp. That is pretty much all your going to be able to use this in.

UTILIZATION

Specifications

* Controls: Level, Tone, Gain
* Connectors: Input, Output, AC Adaptor
* Current Draw: 13 mA (DC 9V)
* Weight: 400 g (15 oz.)
* Recommended AC Adaptor: PSA Series


SOUND QUALITY

Let me say this though....if you get this thing modded by Keeley and then you will have a very usable pedal. If you get this thing in this mod you will get a warm and smooth tone that is much more natural like a real amp cranked up. It will level out the highs and smoothed the midrange to compliment the lower end which made dialing in a solid creamy overdrive much more tastier.

You can use this with a Fender STratocatser now with ease. You will get a more singing tone and fatter tone ala this pedal then you would the stock version. The stock version is sterile and thin in comparison to this thing. The mod does exactly what the final intention was,...to have a usable overdrive that blends well with your rig. I would suggest checking about getting one modded. It isn't too much money to buy one new modified. They come in around $200.

OVERALL OPINION

By it self it come in around $90 but modded you are almost going to double that if you by new modified. I suggest you get this mod because it is well worth the price of admission. It is almost double the price but for a pedal that has this type of circuit is going to cost that much or even more from some other manufacturers. This mod is worth every penny if this is your style of overdrive. So if you buy it new from Keeley then the price is $199. So they will sell you a modifier new one from their factory.

We're talking about the BD-2 Phat Mod.
I think this pedal is made to play on a tube amp.
On an amp that does not "safe", it is useless.
on the other hand, with lamps, it is huge ....
It has a blues sound, as its name suggests, a grain and different "tubes screamers." This sound is fantastic.
Very warm, round, no breath and very balanced in the equalizer.
There is no acute garish tappent low in the belly, that's great ....
I must say that I do not play a lot of blues and I wanted to sell it several times because of this, but I from the sale as soon as I reconnect.
I bought, sold and traded a lot of pedals, and it is still a survivor.
I do not have a Keeley original, but I ordered the kit in the U.S..
I bought the pedal new in France and raises all by a professional electrician that I know well and who did a perfect job.
I think it is exactly as if it came out of the workshops Keeley ...
I did not understand how to use it, I also saw a lot of videos on the web where guys did not understand either.
You really need to use it with a tube amp and then it sounds!
Issue price, it has cost me almost as much as a original.
(109E + 20E + 30E Kit Installation [because I know the guy] = 159E)
It's expensive, but really it is a single pedal, a great quality that can cope with larger.
I kept in my pedalboard, 1 Fulltone '70, Fulltone OCD V4 1, 1 Xotic BB, 1 Wha
Dunlop dime from hell, and 1 MXR noise clamp.
The BD-2 Phat Mod does not partly because of the style that I play with my band, but honestly, it is the equal of these pedals.
I hope this will vocations.
I give an overall rating of 9, because for me, perfection is not of this world.

UTILIZATION

The config is simple.
The settings are in the manual.

SOUND QUALITY

A huge sound with lamps.
I use a lespaul custom shop.

OVERALL OPINION

I tried tens of pedals, well used, it can compete with the best.
I love the fact that it has its own grain and Phat Mod brings a subtle but vital heat.
The BD-2 is a nice little pedal, the Phat Mod is great ...