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Hatsubai « The lesser known OD »
Published on 04/07/11 at 10:59The 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.
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.