Boss BF-2 Flanger

The Boss BF-2 is a flanger effect stomp box. It has 1/4 inputs and outputs and is not a rackable unit. I believe it is an analog pedal, but I'm not 100% sure about this. It is a cool looking color and is much more versatile than its predecessor, the BF-2.


UTILIZATION

The configuration of the BF-2 is very easy to figure out. It has four knobs and one of the knobs has another knob on top of it. The first knob controls the resonator, the next controls the depth, the third controls the rate and the last knob is used to set what mode of flanger you would like to use. It is designed to get a wide variety of flanger sounds and it does just that. I've never used the manual as the pedal is pretty easy to figure out.


SOUND QUALITY

The sound quality of this flanger is very realistic sounding. It is easy to use it subtly and to hint with the flanger, and easy to go nuts to get some real spacey sounds. I have only used the BF-2 with guitar - a Gibson SG and a '76 Fender Twin Reverb amp. The flange sound on this pedal is top notch and totally professional sounding.


OVERALL OPINION

I first used the BF-2 about three or four years ago. I also have a BF-3, which is the Boss flanger made before this pedal and while the BF-3 is a lot more expensive it is definitely more versatile and overall has a better sound to it. While some sounds between the BF-2 and the BF-3 are comparable, the BF-3 has a more varied arsenal of sounds than the BF-2. While the BF-3 is a bit pricey you are getting a very well made pedal from a company with a great reputation. Overall this is great sounding flanger pedal with a ton of versatility.

The BOSS BF-2 Flanger was made for over twenty years, twenty-one to be exact. It was sold from 1980 to 2001, when it was replaced by the BOSS BF-3 Flanger. It should be noted that the BF-2 is analog, NOT digital. The BF-3 on the other hand, is in fact a digital Flanger.

The controls are nothing out of the ordinary, and are as follows: Manual, Depth, Rate, Res (Resonance).
The BF-2 is are powered by a 9 Volt battery, or either a 12 Volt ACA adapter, or a 9 Volt PSA adapter. Which version you have determines the voltage you need. Some of the older, Made In Japan BOSS pedals were powered by an un-regulated 12 Volt power supply, and the pedal had a resistor and diode inside to both drop the voltage down to 9 Volts and to smooth it out. Converting those to run off of of a standard 9 Volt adapter is very simple if desired.

UTILIZATION

Tweaking this Flanger to your tastes isn't hard. It's a pretty standard control set, and as with all BOSS stuff, they make things pretty obvious. I can't comment on how well the manual lays things out, because since I got it used I didn't receive a manual, but you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.

SOUND QUALITY

My main genre is Thrash metal with some drop-tuned stuff thrown in. I mainly use this pedal to add some depth to cleans, and occasionally I'll use it for leads as well. This Flanger sounds pretty decent, especially considering I got it for $30. It does seem to add a slight volume boost when engaged, which can be annoying, but it's not terrible.

It can also tend to boost the low end too much sometimes, which works out fine for leads, but for cleans it just muddies things up a bit if you aren't careful. It might be fine though if you had a more treble-oriented amp, or if you are like me and have a 4x12 cab that can handle the extra bass without getting muddy.

You can also do the standard airplane-taking-off Flanger sounds with this thing, so if that's something you are looking for this can do it. It's also possible to get some pretty chorus-like sounds out of it as well, which is pretty cool. In general, it's a good sounding pedal. Is it the best Flanger out there? Most likely not. But it's not bad either, and if you can get it cheap it's a good pedal to check out.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, this is a pretty decent little Flanger. As said, I got it for $30, and I definitely think it was worth it. I like that I can do more than just crazy sounds, but I dislike that it has a slight volume boost. Having used it for several months now I would DEFINITELY buy it again, even if I had to pay twice the price for it. It's one of the staples of my pedalboard, and I just don't see it going away anytime soon.

Get it if you are looking for a Flanger that can do anything from chorus-like sounds to airplanes taking off. Don't get it if you don't want to have to deal with a slight volume and bass boost.

This is a simple digital flanger in the standard boss stomp enclosure. It has 1/4" input and outputs (mono) 9 volt DC jack, and controls for manual (sweep), depth, speed, and resonance. It can also run from a 9 volt battery but mine killed batteries a little too quick.

UTILIZATION

This pedal is as easy as it gets for flange. Everything is layed out in typical boss fashion where what you see is what you get. The only knobs that may need a little explaining are the "manual" and "resonance". The user manual does a good enough job explaining what they do and how it effects the other parameters.

SOUND QUALITY

As with other boss stomp boxes this pedal has the ever active buffer. The pros and cons of the buffer have been discussed for years but I will say I found it to be useful when running a long chain of effects. I did not notice a great deal of tonal degradation with this pedal. The flange itself is very metallic sounding and pretty easy to identify. Pop in a record from the cure or machine head and you can hear the sound of this pedal. It works good for some sounds but was always a bit too over bearing for much use. It can be dialed down to some extent with the resonance knob but the high end flanging is always there. Because of this I used it mainly for the over the top sounds. Cranking the speed and depth gets a sea sick sound that works great for interlude stuff and noise music. There are also some internal trim pots that can turn this pedal into a siren making noise machine. There is no mention of these in the manual because I don't believe boss intended on users altering their factory settings. If you are in love with this pedal you probably shouldn't screw with these as they are very tiny and small adjustments can make a world of difference. For me it actually made the pedal more useful as I had been using it for noise purposes anyway.

OVERALL OPINION

There are much better flangers out there, even in the boss price range. I think overall boss just is not that good at the modulation effects. I have managed to acquire two of these for free and gotten some use out of them but I doubt I would ever actually buy one. The sound is just too thin and pingy where modulation should be able to add warmth.

This is a great little unit. It is a fantastic sounding flanger and the lush chorusy flanger effects sound amazing. However there is another hidden gem to this pedal. It doubles as a preamp booster.

It is amazing how the limited number of amps and effects were back in the 80's to guys and still were able to pull off some of the best created rock tones to this day. Well it seems a lot of them would get really creative with the stuff that they had rather than gassing for something they didn't have.

Ronnie Le Treko used this pedal as a boost in front of a simple Marshall amp. He would run the pedal with all of the knob in the off position except for the level/volume/manual. This would give a midrange boost to the amp and would get that great tone he was so famous for in the 80's.



UTILIZATION

Specifications

Controls: Manual, Depth, Rate, Res
Connectors: Input, Output, AC Adaptor
Current Draw: 15 mA (DC 9V)
Weight: 400 g (15 oz.)
Input Impedance: 470 kOhm
Residual Noise Level: -95dBu (IHF-A)
Recommended Load Impedance: 10kOhm or greater
Delay Time: 1 ms ~ 13 ms
LFO Speed: 100 ms ~ 16 s
Recommended AC Adaptor: ACA or PSA Series (depending on production year)


SOUND QUALITY

The tone of the flanger is a very good and usable tone. You get a very lush tone that really widens the signal to explore warm flanger tones. Te flanger itself is a great feature but as a get more into guitar playing instead of effects using I find myself leaning towards using it as a preamp.

If I run this pedal in front of a stock Marshall JCM800 or a Splawn QR I can get a very cool and usable Le Treko tone or just a boosted midrange distortion tone. It is cool for getting that 80's grind that was distinctly 80's hair metal.

OVERALL OPINION

These pedals have now been discontinued and have been updated with the Boss Bf-3. Pretty much the same pedal with a few minor and not that noticeable features. On the classifieds you can find this pedal for right around $50 or so. They are pretty inexpensive and not a big investment to find a cool effects pedal or booster pedal.



The BF-2 was sold from June 1980 to December 2001.