Boss LS-2 Line Selector

The Boss Roland company has been producing great sounding effects pedals for decades now. They have build various pedals for almost every single purpose one would use in either their bass rig, keyboard, or their guitar rig. They have successfully manufactured some of the world's first edition effects units and multi units and have set the stage for many other manufacturers to follow in their walking path. They build a system that gets quality pedals at affordable prices to the budgeted consumers.

This is a great little pedal for those needing to run an effects pedal in a signal but want to option to take it out of the signal as well. The reason someone would do this is to have another effect in their chain or they would like to take an effects for whatever reason out of the signal chain at times. This pedal works great for what is does. It is simple and easy to use and have a great amount of possible operations.

Looping modes

AB: Alternate between the two effect loops
ABypass: Effect loop A or bypass
BBypass: Effect loop B or bypass
A-B-Bypass: Switch between loop A, loop B or bypass
A+B Mix-Bypass: Switch between both loops in series or bypass
Output Select: Input is alternately connected to Send A, Send B or Output

Specifications

Controls: Level (A, B), 6-way Mode selector
Connectors: Input, Output, AC Adaptor (In, Out), Send (A, B), Return (A, B)
Current Draw: 25 mA (DC 9V)
Weight: 410 g (15 oz.)
Recommended AC Adaptor: PSA Series


This is a great pedal for someone who uses an older effects pedal from the 70's or 80's that isn't true bypass and wants to remove it from the signal chain when not operating it. For example if you have and old MXR Flanger pedal from the 70's that has a lot of noise since and deteriorates your tone when running through your signal chain but still want to use it with your modern true bypass pedals...well this would be the pedal to use it with. You would hook it up in the loop A or loop B, then click the button on or off when you wanted to take it out of the signal. This would allow you to remove noisy old effects pedals that sound great but damage your buffered tone, you would hook this think up like a send and return on your amp and click the pedal on and off when you desired. Works great and is efficient and what it does.

At new these pedals come in right at around $79, which is a great value for a pedal like this. If you need to remove noisy pedals and bring them in when activating then this is a great pedal to do it with. Other manufacturers make ones as well that are smaller such as the Keeley pedal which is about a third of the size. This one has more versatility though.

This is a really cool pedal switching unit by Boss. Boss is definitely a staple of the pedal market, with a few great pedals and some not-so great ones. They are usually at least pretty reliable though. This pedal has an input and output, and also has two effects loops (send and return), which are marked A and B. It can run on a 9V battery and also has the option of using a power supply. It is not rackable and cannot be edited with a computer.

This is a really easy pedal to use if you know exactly what you're doing. You would run your guitar straight into the input, and then from the output to the amp. You then have the option of using two different effects loops, marked A and B. You can have one chain in A and the other in B. The knobs on the left are to adjust the input gain from each loop; that way if one of your loops is really loud and the other is really soft you can adjust them to make them appropriately level with your dry signal. There's also a switch that determines what signal flow to use and how the switch will work. You have the option of switching between A, B, and Bypass, and the knob selects different combinations of each depending on how you use it.

I think that this is a great pedal. It doesn't color the sound at all. In fact, I like the fact that it will completely bypass a signal if you want it to and can help you match a signal level after the chain. This is a great way to smooth out lots of effects so that they are a good fit dynamically. That way you aren't making your soundman's life a living hell. There is literally no tonal change with this pedal so I'd say that overall it's a great sounding pedal in that respect. It's only going to sound as good as your guitar and the other pedals in the chain.

I like the price and the usefulness of this pedal the best. It's basically a great way to reduce the amount of time stomping on pedals and get an immediate response, as well as fix problems that come in with pedals robbing you of volume. I've played a few of these but I like this one a whole lot more than some of the others I tried. Boss made a pretty solid pedal here and I recommend you check it out.

The Boss LS-2 Line Selector is a pedal that allows you loop your effect pedals so you can send your guitar straight to your amp and only use the effects when you want. This clears up your signal a great deal and the pedal is great for general cleaning up of your chain. It has 1/4 inputs and outputs for sending and returning your effects as well as for your amp and instrument. This is not a rackable unit as it is a stomp box.

The configuration of the pedal is pretty straightforward and is easy to use. Once you learn how to use this to its full potential, its extremely helpful to clean up your sound and to loop your effects. I don't have a manual for this, so I don't know how complete it is.

Being that this isn't really an effect pedal, I can't speak about the sound quality of it per say, but I can say that with this pedal your tone will be cleaner if you loop your effects pedals through it because it will eliminate noise that comes from your pedals when you are not using them. I have only used this with guitar, but will work fine with anything that you want to look effects with. The pedal won't color your sound and will help to make your clean tones shine for what they are without the noise that comes with using a few different effects pedals at once.

I've been using the Boss LS-2 Line Selector pedal for about two years and have found it to be really helpful when playing live to clean up your sound. The pedal is easy to use and has a variety of different effective uses. It has the Boss seal so you know you're getting a high quality made product, even though the price tag is cheap. The LS-2 is definitely worth a look for those guitar players who like to use a bunch of different effect pedals at once.