New BOSS pedals!

[laurie]

Does a digital chip have bucket-brigade noise as well?

No. It has quantization noise which is generally much lower.

[laurie]

It had been a while to pick up some new BOSS, but through some drawn out wheeler dealing I managed to acquire two unobtanium (previously to me) sought after items.

(1) BOSS SG-1 Slow Gear
(2) Solasound Boss TB-2 Tone Bender

Nice! Congrats.

[zentropa]

It had been a while to pick up some new BOSS, but through some drawn out wheeler dealing I managed to acquire two unobtanium (previously to me) sought after items.

(1) BOSS SG-1 Slow Gear
(2) Solasound Boss TB-2 Tone Bender

If I can pick up a FZ-1W I’d have the full BOSS fuzz set bar FZ-5, both of those would prove quite practical as giggable alternatives I think.
(Sidenote – given the DM-1 reissue/expansion, I wonder if a compact version of the AF-100 Bee Baa might be on the cards? Now that would be perfect.)

Nice. Those 2 pedals are the most I have ever spent on pedals.

I really like the FZ-1W.

[The_Doc]

That’s a couple of the rare ones. Many congratulations!

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Here we go then

[Pepe]

NICE!
Still strange to see a BOSS pedal with chickenhead knobs.

[bigtone23]

NICE!
Still strange to see a BOSS pedal with chickenhead knobs.

Right?


Otherwise, what a score. Those are hard pedals to find.

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Had a little adventure into the "big black smoke" a week or so back towards Tokyo and popped by a few shops prior to a beer festival. And with such frothy heady thoughts bubbling I splurged on one of these, as the price was very good and I was in the mood!
Surprisingly it wasn't the FZ-1W!  As much as I'm a fuzz man I found it really rather harsh and not particularly to my taste, a quite narrow range and hard clipping, almost nasty (this does seem to be a feature of ALL BOSS fuzzes to my ears, with perhaps the FZ-3 being the "softest"). Might actually be useful in a mix of course or amongst other pedals. Nevertheless I spied the HM-2W in the display case for a very reasonable sum. Cunningly the staff member set up the pedal and immediately flicked it onto the "C" Custom mode setting, a good sales tactic! Despite distortions being my least favourite effect I enjoyed the raunch and EQ range of the HM, and like most distortions I do pick up, I like them gain backed off and to use as a big bottom end boost/ragged overdrive. So for a short while I buzzed through a couple of White Stripes riffs such as "A Ball and a Biscuit". It does those tones surprisingly well and faux Neil Young things. Anyway it came back home with me - hurrah!

[Pepe]

Nice! I didn't know that you don't like distortion too much. The FZ-1w might just be something for me.

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Nice! I didn't know that you don't like distortion too much. The FZ-1w might just be something for me.

Ha!

Despite collecting a fair few (the DS-1s / earlier RATs / Marshalls etc), I'm not a fan of the hard attack/hard clipping or indeed a great deal of heavy compressed gain. To me it's often "unnatural" and I suppose I don't find it very representative of a cooking amp tone (flat dynamics, no compression, sizzle or squash perhaps?). Additionally I can't get much touch sensitivity to pick or finger attack to be expressive with many.

I'm more inclined to dial them in as boosts or overdrives, perhaps related to my formative tastes in the 90s such Graham Coxon of Blur (RAT > Marshall / Bernard Butler in Suede)(3 RATS!) and Radiohead (Shredmaster/RATs). And furthermore those late 60s/70s amp tones of pushed amps.

The same applies to fuzzes, hard clipping/hard edges seem to grate on me. The first fuzz I ever bought in Tokyo iirc was the Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz. I was genuinely excited over it but after getting it home I couldn't dial out that hard attack to the edge of the note when playing. No bloom or squash. all a balance of course, there needs to be some attack and crunch to cut through in a mix and not mush up when stacked.

Perhaps too as a young starter with a cheap solid state practice amp, inexpensive distortion pedals were everywhere along with juvenile power chord thrashing attacking the ears in every guitar shop! There were so many Rockteks, Arions and the like offering very "dry", dull rock tones with zero dynamics. It was a long long time before I found a single pedal that did a nice "overdrive" instead. Pure hell lol.

I am picky though!

Alas, this general distaste for distortion does mean that bar the DS-1, DS-2, HM-2 I've neglected to collect any other BOSS distortions for the collection, a bit of shame in a way as some , like the MZ-2, are commanding quite high prices now.

Anyway, I am quite pleased to pick up the Made in Japan Waza-fied HM-2, they are very versatile with the powerful EQ, cutting through swathes of delay for shoegaze for example. I am also curious as to whether it does the low voltage octave trick of the early MIJ models. Best octave fuzz in the world!

Playing along here's my Top 6 Distortions (for a self confessed distortion disliker!　

Pro-Co RAT (308 flat box) - a good Marshall substitute, nice and clear on lower gain, boosts, stacks and squashes well with more RATS!

Marshall Shredmaster - versatile EQ means a range of tones and the clipping is not as hard as some, almost an expanded Guv'nor. Picked up an original a while back and also a Visual Sound V1 silver Jekyll & Hyde which also has the circuit too.

Pro-Co BRAT - like the RAT but very bright and a great overdrive with the gain down.

BOSS HM-2 - super EQ, fuzz like tones, rough breakup, low gain possible, versatile beast.

BOSS DS-1 MIJ - a classic, stack in a box, I may not play it for long but it does make me smile and think "arrr...THAT sound".

Maxon D&S OD - 801 - a slightly refined Big Muff, tighter but retains "sizzle" and cuts through a bit better. Big box has buffers with more "umph!"

Phew there we go, I've been to "Distortion Confessional"..I feel so much better