OD-2 vs OD-2r Output

[bigtone23]

Well, at volume and through a few bigger amps (Peavey Special 130 with 1x12" Thiele extension, Rev G Dual Rec with 1/2 of an Orange 4x12", Mesa Mark IIA 1x12" and the hot rodded Bassman Ten 4x10" with the channels jumped), all set clean*
...they still sounded virtually the same and sounded fantastic in all of the amps. Good job BOSS!

The only difference was that the OD2 has a touch more clean signal coming through in standard mode. This was most noticeable when the drive knob is set from 5-10. The OD2r, with the same settings, seems more compressed, but it's just that clean blend being lower.

I'm a fan and am very happy with the $11.35US OD2r. I would say it's the pedal score of the year!

The stock SD2 is still my favorite yellow BOSS, as both modes are not quite as mid forward and have more low end heft.

*The Special 130, Bassman Ten and Dual Rec are my go to amps for testing stand alone drive pedals. For pushing dirty amps, I have dirtier Boogies and a Marshall for that.

[zentropa]

I know This has been covered before and I didn’t see all the mods concerning this issue but I was wondering if the mod to fix the output of the OD-2 was only in turbo mode or overall?

The only one I have used is the one for the turbo mode, which makes it roughly double the volume of the standard mode, which limits the usability of the mod. I believe the culprit for this is a design flaw where the voltage rails only received 4.5v, instead of 7.5-9v.

The OD-2R was the fix for this, but I feel like getting the appropriate voltage to the rails in the OD-2R also changes some of the touch and break characteristics of the JFETS. Even with doing the turbo mode volume mod, I feel like the OD-2 and OD-2R play/feel different.

I agree with bigtone23's assessment that the OD-2 does have more clean blend coming through and the OD-2R does have a bit more compression, particularly in turbo mode. When I have given a recommendation of one or the other, I find the OD-2 to better suit people who play with a lot of touch or staccato style (it sounds very "tubey" this way, particularly when riding the edge of break sound), and the OD-2R tends to fit better with people who primarily play chords or multi-string riffing. Basically, I use each of them for very different things and don't consider them to be substitutes for one another.

Overall, the OD-2R is my favorite "medium gain" Boss dirt pedal (the SD-2 is my favorite high gain dirt).