New BOSS pedals!
Re: New BOSS pedals!
That DF-2 looks great, Pepe!
Re: New BOSS pedals!
I only spent a bit of time with the SDE-3000D, but my memory tells me the modulation was different, very 80s sounding.BearBoy wrote: ↑Wed Nov 13, 2024 9:55 pmThat's strange. They made quite a big deal in all the marketing blurb about it supposedly having the same modulation/chorus as the original. e.g. here.
Was intending to pick one of these up but might have to do a bit more research. I wonder if the SDE-3000D is the same?
The SDE-3 does that sort of "seasick out of tune warble" on its modulation if you have the depth above 9 o'clock or so and immediately made me think of the common modern tape delay algorithms. I have only given it a basic test run but that is what my ears have told me so far.
- Pepe
- Posts: 2243
- Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 2:19 pm
- Location: Germany
- SBZ: Multi Platinum
- Bossarea: Double Platinum
- Contact:
Re: New BOSS pedals!
A few days ago I received a Taiwanese BOSS BF-2 Flanger in good condition and a BOSS ST-2 Power Stack in near-mint condition. The pair was too cheap to let it slip away and I always wanted to try the ST-2.
I have a Japanese BF-2 and even without a direct comparison (that I'm going to do later once the newly arrived pedal is cleaned and assembled again) I think that it sounds better than the MIT version. But I have had another MIJ version that I sold a few weeks ago and I must admit that I wasn't able to make both flangers sound the same, no matter how much I tried to tweak the trimpots. Somehow there seem to be better sounding versions of this model.
And the ST-2 ... as I almost expected, I don't like it. Digital BOSS dirt pedals have always disappointed me and this one is definitely the worst of them, even worse than the digital DN-2 Dyna Drive. I don't believe that I only think that it sounds bad, because I play it through a 50W tube amp with a single speaker. Yes, to some degree it mimicks the tonal characteristics of a large-sized speaker cabinet, but the overall sound is not how I know 4x10 or 4x12 amps. Especially with the "Sound" (gain) knob above 10:00 everything sounds heavily over-compressed and muddy. It totally lacks clarity and really no decent overdrive tone is possible with this thing. Even worse, everything past 12:00 is sounding too artificial and fret noise becomes ear-piercing and shrill. I simply don't get how this thing was able to leave the think tank of BOSS and why it is still in production.
Pictures to follow in the next days.
I have a Japanese BF-2 and even without a direct comparison (that I'm going to do later once the newly arrived pedal is cleaned and assembled again) I think that it sounds better than the MIT version. But I have had another MIJ version that I sold a few weeks ago and I must admit that I wasn't able to make both flangers sound the same, no matter how much I tried to tweak the trimpots. Somehow there seem to be better sounding versions of this model.
And the ST-2 ... as I almost expected, I don't like it. Digital BOSS dirt pedals have always disappointed me and this one is definitely the worst of them, even worse than the digital DN-2 Dyna Drive. I don't believe that I only think that it sounds bad, because I play it through a 50W tube amp with a single speaker. Yes, to some degree it mimicks the tonal characteristics of a large-sized speaker cabinet, but the overall sound is not how I know 4x10 or 4x12 amps. Especially with the "Sound" (gain) knob above 10:00 everything sounds heavily over-compressed and muddy. It totally lacks clarity and really no decent overdrive tone is possible with this thing. Even worse, everything past 12:00 is sounding too artificial and fret noise becomes ear-piercing and shrill. I simply don't get how this thing was able to leave the think tank of BOSS and why it is still in production.
Pictures to follow in the next days.
- laurie
- Posts: 2217
- Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 am
- Location: Canada
- SBZ: Multi Platinum
- Bossarea: Multi Platinum
Re: New BOSS pedals!
Interesting.....
- Pepe
- Posts: 2243
- Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 2:19 pm
- Location: Germany
- SBZ: Multi Platinum
- Bossarea: Double Platinum
- Contact:
Re: New BOSS pedals!
Have you tried out the ST-2, laurie? It came out at around the same time (2010) as the BC-2 Combo Drive (2011) that you regarded as sounding "like arse", if I remember it correctly.
- laurie
- Posts: 2217
- Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 am
- Location: Canada
- SBZ: Multi Platinum
- Bossarea: Multi Platinum
Re: New BOSS pedals!
Yeah. They both sounded bad.
- Pepe
- Posts: 2243
- Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 2:19 pm
- Location: Germany
- SBZ: Multi Platinum
- Bossarea: Double Platinum
- Contact:
Re: New BOSS pedals!
I can truly confirm that this is the case with the ST-2. I have no high hopes in getting a VOX-in-a-box with the BC-2. So I stuck to my KORG ToneWorks 105od, the only digital dirt pedal that I really, really like. And it mimicks the VOX AC sound in a great way. When I activate it, it doesn't sound like a mere overdrive - to me it sounds like a totally different amp.
I guess that was due to the tonal differences of the two MIJ BF-2 models? Maybe they had sounded identically after a recap and the same calibration.
- laurie
- Posts: 2217
- Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 am
- Location: Canada
- SBZ: Multi Platinum
- Bossarea: Multi Platinum
Re: New BOSS pedals!
Theoretically... they should be really similar. Must be component drift/calibration?Pepe wrote: ↑Sat Dec 21, 2024 10:36 pmI can truly confirm that this is the case with the ST-2. I have no high hopes in getting a VOX-in-a-box with the BC-2. So I stuck to my KORG ToneWorks 105od, the only digital dirt pedal that I really, really like. And it mimicks the VOX AC sound in a great way. When I activate it, it doesn't sound like a mere overdrive - to me it sounds like a totally different amp.
I guess that was due to the tonal differences of the two MIJ BF-2 models? Maybe they had sounded identically after a recap and the same calibration.
- Pepe
- Posts: 2243
- Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 2:19 pm
- Location: Germany
- SBZ: Multi Platinum
- Bossarea: Double Platinum
- Contact:
Re: New BOSS pedals!
I bet on the component drift. The model that I sold a few weeks ago had a broken zener diode, so maybe something had suffered at some point because of too high voltage? I don't know. I just know that I had serious trouble to calibrate it to make it sound similar to the MIJ model that I kept.
- Pepe
- Posts: 2243
- Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 2:19 pm
- Location: Germany
- SBZ: Multi Platinum
- Bossarea: Double Platinum
- Contact:
Re: New BOSS pedals!
Here are the pictures. The flanger cleaned up very nicely, much better than expected:



