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I forgot to share this picture of a BOSS BF-2 that I bought as defective last year, repaired on the 31st March '24 (broken zener diode). When I disassembled the unit I was really surprised!

BOSS used an enclosure that was originally intended for being used as a two-knob pedal. The serial number of this Flanger dates back to June 1981, so this is quite an early BF-2. Apparently there was an overstock of enclosures of the OD-1 or PH-1 that were already "replaced" by the SD-1 and PH-1R. My wife says that the spot around the switch is not really green as I thought the whole time (I'm quite colour-blind!). So maybe that is only the colour of the ground coat. A very sloppy paint job for a BOSS pedal, I must say!



Have you seen something similar?

That's cool, nice to see that the knob locations didn't clash. Love seeing transitional pieces.
I have an earlier BF2 (1982ish IIRC) and had a later Japanese one (1989ish). The paint jobs were clearly different, the earlier one looked to have brush strokes vs the much smoother, sprayed look of the later.

How very odd! Never seen such a thing before, cool find.

That is a great find Pepe, I guess we all now should dissemble our older pedals just to see what lies underneath, or just check near the switch.....

I just stumbled over this strange looking Japanese BOSS HF-2. It has the early BF-2 knobs! I think it's highly unlikely that this is the original state. The HF-2 was introduced in 1985 and I'm pretty sure that also the BF-2 already had the knobs with light grey caps at that time. Before the introduction of the HF-2 there were the DD-2 and the HM-2 with their blue and orange caps ... It just cannot be original. Or can it?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/205771575801

bigtone23 wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 06, 2025 6:10 pm

That's cool, nice to see that the knob locations didn't clash. Love seeing transitional pieces.
I have an earlier BF2 (1982ish IIRC) and had a later Japanese one (1989ish). The paint jobs were clearly different, the earlier one looked to have brush strokes vs the much smoother, sprayed look of the later.

Here's my 2 BF2. I sold the Green Label one to my friend a few months ago.
The Black label is November 1980. The Green is 1989ish? I could barely make out the serial, and wrote what I thought it was with Sharpie.
In each picture, the older one is on the left. Both have the 'typical' BF2 knobs and are exactly how I got them, so I don't know how original or oddball they are.
?

Well, you can buy replacement knobs of exactly this kind. I think that's because they were used for some synthesizers and not only for pedals. At least the Berlin-based Banzai Music shop has them in stock. Maybe some peaople kept the white knobs and replaced them with the old type to make their units seemingly more valuable.

Amongst the collection my BF-2 Green Label is a 1986 issue with those knobs, which I would guess to be standard timeline. Serial in the 600000s.

Never seen a HF-2 with those black knobs, certainly unusual.

According to the BOSS book codes (in this thread http://www.bossareaforum.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=463)


HF-2 OCT 1985 590000.