Oliver Pedals - Boss Made in Brazil

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Old_Iron
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Oliver Pedals - Boss Made in Brazil

Post by Old_Iron » Mon Aug 15, 2022 3:05 pm

In between 1964 and 1985 Brazil was under a militar dictatorship, during that period importation was forbidden.

The reason, they said, was to protect the national industry from foreign competition.

A big mistake, in a long run you only make it lazy, under invested and outdated.

At that time a Boss pedal was a luxury that only few could afford, acquired by travelling abroad or smuggled.

To fill the void in the Brazilian pedal market, Oliver (a Brazilian company) made a deal with Boss/Roland to license some Boss circuits to be produced inside Brazil.

With few components being substituted for similar made in Brazil ( ICs, transistors, etc.), Oliver managed to build a line with 10 models.

In these pictures, one can spot some similarities, like graphics printed in the manual, lettering, models name (with the addition of a zero), knobs, etc.

And look, they are all black label! :lol:

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Last edited by Old_Iron on Mon Aug 15, 2022 8:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Pepe
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Re: Oliver Pedals - Boss Made in Brazil

Post by Pepe » Mon Aug 15, 2022 3:23 pm

Wow, that's awesome information that I didn't know already!
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laurie
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Re: Oliver Pedals - Boss Made in Brazil

Post by laurie » Tue Aug 16, 2022 12:13 am

Crap! I had an Oliver pedal years ago but let it go in a batch I sold. Knowing this I wish I still had it.

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Old_Iron
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Re: Oliver Pedals - Boss Made in Brazil

Post by Old_Iron » Tue Aug 16, 2022 3:12 am

Pepe wrote:
Mon Aug 15, 2022 3:23 pm
Wow, that's awesome information that I didn't know already!
laurie wrote:
Tue Aug 16, 2022 12:13 am
Crap! I had an Oliver pedal years ago but let it go in a batch I sold. Knowing this I wish I still had it.
Here in Brazil those pedals are highly praised by mid age guitar players, they were teenagers in the 80s and could only afford an Oliver pedal then.

Therefore it is a subject charged with nostalgia and a bit of hype, with some swearing that they sound even better than the Boss equivalent. :roll:

I never owned, nor played, an Oliver pedal, but there are some YT videos reviewing and comparing them with the original, if you guys want to listen them just put "pedais oliver" in the YT search.

The videos are in portuguese, but you can scroll to the parts with playing activity.

I read some reports that they were not as sturdy as Boss pedals, with some mechanical parts like jacks, pots and switches a bit prone to fail after years of intense use.

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Dirk
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Re: Oliver Pedals - Boss Made in Brazil

Post by Dirk » Thu Aug 25, 2022 5:25 pm

Wow, that's awesome 8-)

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Re: Oliver Pedals - Boss Made in Brazil

Post by sclitheroe » Fri Aug 26, 2022 6:29 pm

They are quite appealing visually in my opinion - that bass EQ and bass chorus in particular are great looking.

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Old_Iron
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Re: Oliver Pedals - Boss Made in Brazil

Post by Old_Iron » Fri Aug 26, 2022 10:53 pm

Dirk wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 5:25 pm
Wow, that's awesome 8-)
sclitheroe wrote:
Fri Aug 26, 2022 6:29 pm
They are quite appealing visually in my opinion - that bass EQ and bass chorus in particular are great looking.
Yeah, looking at them I got curious to understand the decision making process about their appearance at that time.

Did Boss participated in that decision?

How much they could look like a Boss pedal, and how much different they had to be?

I think we will never know.

Guts of a BF-20:

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