All user reviews for the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

Hyper Single

UTILIZATION

Trs simple. The manual gives some presets

SOUND QUALITY

Discrte pedals (even without playing triggers) Obviously condition to meet a certain level and gain between symtrie (9H-3H 12:00 to 12:00 3H-9H etc ...)
It's a good surprise, I saw horrible overdrive from this point of view.

OVERALL OPINION

Well then I would especially like to say that I spent a lot of time read reviews, watch vidos BMD etc ... I finally bought a secondhand pedals and I find it excellent. The range of sounds is INTERESTED, it's true that the Tone knob is not in hyper-influential and so I "understand" those who make mods that level but hey, there aplein elsewhere to cut the sound ...
on the other hand I would say that as a particular boost pedals is really good, in fact I can not do without ... Voil!

Guitars: Fender tl, strat japan, lg the blues
Roland amp and vox cube60 DA ... 5 connected to a Marshall 2x12! (Not yet els means for head lamps)

This is a Boss overdrive pedals.

A Level, Gain and a tone.

6.35 A between Jack (guitar) and Jack output 6.35 (amp)

Works with a 9V battery or power supply.

Nothing in particular, to a Premire pedals like any other, no less, quite simple.

UTILIZATION

It is simple,

volume a very practical and well done,

gain, while also

and a tone that Ragit.
Ragit trs well with an amp lights, nothing wrong.

SOUND QUALITY

At first I thought to try a Tube Screamer when I had it in hand, CHARACTERISTICS are more or less the same for all TS is to say its a fairly bold (dpend gain) and a pretty hot sound. The BD2 n'chappe not this RULES!

A Difference tipped me yet, I found the sound of the TS trs 'nose' that the less! Much warmer. So I opt for the l.
And then for lovers of the screwdriver, "I dvisse I disassemble, I go back, I screwed back" it is true what is not even a TS components.

I use a Marshall JCM800 2203 on a Marshall cabinet 1960BV a Fender Start HSS with Burstbucker the bridge. A little research can get closer to the sound of "Fast" Eddie Clarke.
I use it in the rhythmic level 11h 2h gain and tone a little before noon.

It gives me the sound I expected respecting the amp and guitar.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it since October 2008, I am delighted.

It is true that the tone is quite rglage 'Determines' but not enough to .. a pendulum. And compared to Tubescreamer I tried it a potential that is not ngligeable.

I do it again this choice, the purchase of the pedals has not changed my life but I am glad sincrement.

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.

Like most Boss pedal it is not true bypass so that is something that you would probably want to have modded. It isn't a main OD so you will most likely use in in context unless you only have the one pedal. So I recommend getting the true bypass mod done to it.

The connection is simple as it takes a 9v plug. The great thing it has going for it is, Boss made it and it is pretty much built to last. Other than that your going to have to change out some parts. They claim it sounds like a vintage overdriven amp, but come on...it sounds like a garbage cans in a pedal that shreaks and registers high ear piercing tone if you can call it tone.

UTILIZATION


It doesn't get much easier than a three knob pedal. Gain, Level, and Tone and there isn't much to figure out. Setting this thing up for a good sound can be very difficult since it won't sound good. However, it is easy to twist three controls in an attempt to get some usage out of it.

I would rather record that on a guitar amp than stick my cable through this thing. I think this is Boss's attempt to capitalize on the blues market by offering an OD pedal that simply says "blues..." on it. They have had many people buy into it.

SOUND QUALITY

Let me say this though....if you get this thing modded by Keeley or Analogman then you will have a very usable pedal. I have heard a modded one and it actually did sound amazing. It felt warm and smooth much more natural like a real amp cranked up. It leveled out the highs and smoothed the midrange to compliment the lower end which made dialing in a solid creamy overdrive much more tastier.

I used a Strat with the pedal into a Vox Ac30 and also a Sovtek 50 head. The sound with the Sovtek was amazing! It was the first time I had heard this pedal and amp so I wasn't sure which one was the keeper. Found out the pedal was modified and the Sovtek was stock. It had a huge overdrive going into a fairly clean with just a hint of grit in the Sovtek. I went to check about getting one modded and it wasn'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 one used and then send it out. But then I would suggest you just buy a TS9 or an OCD. If you need a good clean boost then this is a proper pedal for that, but if I personally had the choice I'd go for an SD-1.

Get this thing modified! I cannot stress this enough. You want to use a pedal that feels and sounds natural. It may cost a little bit extra but if you need a slight OD pedal that is silky smooth and reacts naturally to your guitar amp then send it to Keeley or Analogman.

I would recommend this pedal only if it had the mods. Otherwise it is pretty useless out of the box. It does sound fantastic once repaired. So if you had extra time and some extra cash try it out and if you don't like it I would go for the TS9 which would be a similar taste to this pedal.

It is a saturation.

Analogue compact pedal.

Level finishes, it's tough.

Input and output jack.

A 9V power input. I put a 7 because it does not output to power other pedals like the boss boss TU-2.

UTILIZATION

The configuration is simple and easy editing effects:

More volume, the more it sounds strong.

More tone, more means treble

More gain, more sound is saturated.

Nothing more.

The knobs are very responsive, it is not necessary to have a great ear to hear the difference in sound when you rule a foot (this is not what CS-2).

Only problem (in my humble opinion), must push the guitar volume way down to the pedal really spit, otherwise, we get the grain, but very far from a distortion!

SOUND QUALITY

Excellent sound quality, this pedal takes you to the golden age of rock & roll by pressing the switch. You'll quickly warm sound with a grain charming 100% vintage.

I use a yamaha pacifica changed and I have great sound, I guess with a guitar les paul or a Start would be even better.

To play Cream, Creedence, Lynyrd Skynrd ... this is what you need.

The range of sound we can get: Crunchie cute little spending to spit up phlegm by playing around with the gain of the pedal and the volume of your guitar, I love.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for two years.

The price is true that 80 euros is not given, put the pedal well worth it, I am very satisfied and I would do this choice.

The Boss BD-2 is an attempt at getting that pushed overdriven sound in a stompbox. It has this almost overdrive Marshall-esque quality to it. It's basically a mixture of an overdrive and a distortion box, almost like a mixture between the TS-9 and the DS-1. Like most Boss overdrive pedals, it features a level, gain and tone knob.

UTILIZATION

Boss is using their standard enclosure with this pedal. That means it'll withstand a nuclear bomb drop without much of a problem. These enclosures are crazy reliable. It's still using the FET bypass, but it doesn't seem to leak quite as much as the SD-1 does. The manual does a nice job at describing what everything does and gives you some settings, but it's an easy enough pedal to use to where you should be able to get a good tone within about 20 seconds without having used the pedal before.

SOUND QUALITY

The sound is very similar to a more milder tubescreamer mixed with a DS-1 at times. It has enough bite to send an amp into overdrive and play some 80s metal, but it also is calm enough to be able to do some awesome blues licks. In front of a Marshall, you can get a wide range of tones ranging from VH-style to Eric Johnson/SRV.

OVERALL OPINION

I find it interesting that this pedal isn't as popular as it is. It's a fairly overlooked pedal, and it goes real cheap on the used market. I can only assume it's because it doesn't push the amp quite as much as the SD-1 does. On the other hand, I find it sounds a bit more "natural" than the SD-1 for whatever reason. It seems to complement the amp a bit more. However, since I'm mainly a metal player, I tend to prefer the SD-1 to really push the amp into overdrive for those crazy legato licks. Regardless, if you're looking for a different kind of overdrive that's a bit more tame than the SD-1, I'd recommend checking this out.

Pedal overdrive / distortion

3 knobs: 1 win, 1 tone, 1 level

An input and an output jack

UTILIZATION

User level, you branch, you just turn the knobs and it sounds right away. Must pass after a little time to find his sound obviously, but we can learn a lot.

SOUND QUALITY

Sound Quality: for me this pedal is a bomb. At that price I think was simply amazing to have something much distortion level. And that it is versatile small: it may very well have a slight crunch to arpeggios, like a good overdrive for rock rhythm, or lead to a distortion solo crazy
I play a gibson les paul studio, connected to either a peavey studio pro 122 at home or in a mesa boogie dual grinders repeats. I tried many other amps and this pedal suits everyone: there are ways to find his his condition has not finished being a moron and know a minimum turn knobs (they make me laugh those n 'nothing has come with the unit).
In any case, within a mesa boogie + les paul, it gives a good way disto metallica live =) Square, accurate, but can be as rough and dirty, if desired.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for over a year and I am fully satisfied, before it I had a boss MT2 (but too much metal type, not versatile enough) and an MXR DoubleShot (good quality but I could not finding the right sound with)

Excellent value for money

I plan to buy the boss GT10 multi effects for greater effect (buy pedal pedal is very expensive) which I think is understood the blues driver. So we can say that this choice I will ever lol =)
If you are looking for a good versatile overdrive distortion, go for it! At that price I did not think there are better.

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.

Like most Boss pedal it is not true bypass so that is something that you would probably want to have modded. It isn't a main OD so you will most likely use in in context unless you only have the one pedal. So I recommend getting the true bypass mod done to it.

The connection is simple as it takes a 9v plug. The great thing it has going for it is, Boss made it and it is pretty much built to last. Other than that your going to have to change out some parts. They claim it sounds like a vintage overdriven amp, but come on...it sounds like a garbage cans in a pedal that shreaks and registers high ear piercing tone if you can call it tone.

UTILIZATION

It doesn't get much easier than a three knob pedal. Gain, Level, and Tone and there isn't much to figure out. Setting this thing up for a good sound can be very difficult since it won't sound good. However, it is easy to twist three controls in an attempt to get some usage out of it.

SOUND QUALITY

Hitting metal garbage cans against a dumpster would sound better than this pedal. I would rather record that on a guitar amp than stick my cable through this thing. I think this is Boss's attempt to capitalize on the blues market by offering an OD pedal that simply says "blues..." on it. They have had many people buy into it.

Let me say this though....if you get this thing modded by Keeley or Analogman then you will have a very usable pedal. I have heard a modded one and it actually did sound amazing. It felt warm and smooth much more natural like a real amp cranked up. It leveled out the highs and smoothed the midrange to compliment the lower end which made dialing in a solid creamy overdrive much more tastier.

I used a Strat with the pedal into a Vox Ac30 and also a Sovtek 50 head. The sound with the Sovtek was amazing! It was the first time I had heard this pedal and amp so I wasn't sure which one was the keeper. Found out the pedal was modified and the Sovtek was stock. It had a huge overdrive going into a fairly clean with just a hint of grit in the Sovtek. I went to check about getting one modded and it wasn't too much money to buy one new modified. They come in around $200.

OVERALL OPINION

Get this thing modified! I cannot stress this enough. You want to use a pedal that feels and sounds natural. It may cost a little bit extra but if you need a slight OD pedal that is silky smooth and reacts naturally to your guitar amp then send it to Keeley or Analogman.

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 one used and then send it out. But then I would suggest you just buy a TS9 or an OCD. If you need a good clean boost then this is a proper pedal for that, but if I personally had the choice I'd go for an SD-1.

I would recommend this pedal only if it had the mods. Otherwise it is pretty useless out of the box. It does sound fantastic once repaired. So if you had extra time and some extra cash try it out and if you don't like it I would go for the TS9 which would be a similar taste to this pedal.

The Boss BD-2 Blues Driver is an overdrive guitar pedal. It is an analog pedal and has a 1/4 inch input and output. It takes a 9 volt battery or can be powered by the Boss TU-2 tuner pedal if you have the power supply and daisy chain. It is not a rackable unit and as it is a stomp box.

UTILIZATION

The general configuration and set of the BD-2 couldn't be easier. It has three knobs - one for level, one for tone, and one for gain. After a few minutes of playing around with this, you should be able to figure out what everything does exactly and get a quick good sound from it. It is easy to get a light, subtle overdrive or to get a nice thick tone. I don't have a manual for this, but like most Boss manuals, it is probably pretty thorough. This being said, the pedal is easy to figure out and most probably won't need a manual.

SOUND QUALITY

The Boss BD-2 has a really nice tone quality to it and is usable for other genres besides blues. I have only use this with guitar and I probably wouldn't recommend it for use with any other instrument, although it would work fine. I just think the specific tone this has it probably best with guitar. It is great for playing blues lead lines and also works great as an all around rhythm guitar overdrive.

OVERALL OPINION

I've been using the Boss BD-2 for about four or five years. While I don't use it all the time, when I am looking for a specific type of overdrive, this can work like a charm. Boss has a reputation for make quality products, and this pedal definitley fits that bill. It would be hard to break and has a great overall tone quality. The price, like most Boss pedals like this one, is quite cheap and players on all budgets could probably afford one of they wanted it. If you play blues and are looking for an overdrive that isn't too heavy, I definitley recommend taking a look at this.

Well this is a very basic distortion pedal by Boss. You get to adjust Gain, Level and Tone - the whole unit is built into the famous Boss casing - nearly indestructible.
The Bluesdriver is powered by a 9V Battery or an external power adaptor (not included).

UTILIZATION

Setting this effect up is quite simple. I usually put it right in the beginning of my chain - right after the Tube Screamer. Once you have it hooked up just dial in the tone you want and make sure that the volume doesn't drop when switching. Of course different gain settings give you different sounds - just trust your ears.
I don't think a manual is needed - maybe a piece of paper to jot down your own presets.

SOUND QUALITY

I really like the Bluesdriver. I have read on other reviews that they thought it was a bit too bassy and didn't have enough punch. I can see how people can feel that way and it really is a matter of taste. I use an old Fender Twin and run my Stratocaster through it. As these guitars don't have a lot of low mids by themselves this pedal complements my sound quite nicely. When I want crunch I switch on my Tube Screamer. Only occasionally do I use the Bluesdriver as a first overdrive - there I don't like the sound too much. But when I want a nice lead tone with endless sustain I switch on the Bluesdriver and together with the Tubescreamer it delivers just that. I also like that both have rather big pedals as it allows me to step on both of them at once during a gig.

OVERALL OPINION

I have been using the Bluesdriver for about two years now. I think eventually I will update it with an effect by T-Rex. They just sound better - period. I do think the Bluesdriver is not for everyone and even I wouldn't use it as a single pedal very often. But together with my Tubescreamer (or a similar pedal) it really gives my signal a very nice, creamy sound that can hold notes for hours!

(Originally written by Dlz/translated from Audiofanzine FR)

Boss pedal with standard PSU.
Only three controls (vol. - gain - tone), no bass boost or switch for the modulation.

UTILIZATION

With only three controls, it's plug and play.
The controls bring a certain versatility but the sound quality decreases with extreme settings.
An overdrive pedal is often used as pre-boost for a distortion but the result with this pedal is not convincing.

SOUND QUALITY

The sound is ok with basic settings but its quality rapidly decreases when the gain increases. The last turns of the gain knob produce a mushy sound...
You'll hardly be able to use the unit as a pre-booster because its frequency response is less than ideal. I chose this pedal because I was very happy with my SD-1 as a pre-boost effect and I hoped to get the same quality but with a fatter sound.
The sound is fat indeed but I regret its poor definition, precision and overall quality.
While the SD-1's frequency response isn't totally flat (it has a slight boost in the mids), the DB-2's frequency response actually alters the sound. Therefore its use as a booster is very disappointing, specially if you consider that the SD-1 is a lot cheaper.

OVERALL OPINION

It's probably not a good idea to purchase a BD-2 if you already own an SD-1. Its fat sound can be interesting for some applications but the good old SD-1 seems a better choice to me.