New Boss IR-2 Amp & Cabinet

[bigtone23]

Got it, after 3 1/2 months wait. Well worth it!
Does everything I expected and needed.
Used it with some Sony MDR7506 headphones and went through the various amp/tone platforms. Interestingly, I found two of the Boss MDP models the most to my liking: Clean and Modded.
Clean was big and full. It also sounded great with bass. The Twin setting was phasey, not like what I experience playing through a real Twin. However, Twin had a pretty cool and crunchy tone with the gain turned up. You can kind of get a Mesa Mark thing with the gain up and an EQ in the loop to do the necessary scoop.
Modded was also big sounding. I run the gain pretty low (around 9 o clock) and was able to dial in a dirt tone I liked. Brit was a close 2nd place, and Brown gets the bronze for my dirt preference. Tweed is also a cool crunch mode.
It was nicely reactive to my guitar volume control. The effects loop works great with the DD3/CE5/GE7 plugged into it. Hitting the front end with a BD2 and SD1 resulted in the usual expectations of boosting.
Plus, dirt pedals sounded and reacted like they should into the various amp models.
Well done!

[BearBoy]

Glad the wait was worth it bigtone23!

Still waiting for them to come back into stock over here so I can pick one up.

[bigtone23]

Glad the wait was worth it bigtone23!

Still waiting for them to come back into stock over here so I can pick one up.

I bet they are on the way! Seems that the initial run sold out and it took this much time to get the next run built.

[bigtone23]

The BCB30 headphone/direct amp!
Only way to make this more convenient is to mount it up.
Put an '88 long chip DD3 in the IR2 loop, but this might get swapped for a GE7, as either pedal is quite useful. Also, a TU3W (with buffer bypassed-a cool feature) in there, too, because you always need a tuner. I have a Hotone EKO delay, it fits in the small, square compartment. It's also the only delay that fits on my main small board, and is needed there. Perhaps I find another and then I can have the GE7 in the DD3 spot.
It's been great, I just put any other pedal I want to use before this pedalboard. Much more convenient vs the big ol' V-Twin into the TC Impulse and then into a headphone amp.

[bigtone23]

Having the long chip DD3 in the IR2 loop was not working great, it would lightly clip on the initial attack, at all settings and levels.
I ultimately wanted both EQ and delay, and there weren't many options if I were to use the small upper compartment for one of the pedals. There doesn't seem to be a sub-micro EQ out there, so the GE7 went in and worked great. The Hotone Skyline EKO from my small board fits in the small upper compartment and sounded great in the loop after the EQ. The EQ makes my patches sound similar to my Boogie Mark amps (which have onboard GEQ). Found another Eko online and threw it in there.
Here is the updated IR2 headphone board! I ordered a short 3.5mm M to 1/4" F trs adapter for the headphone jack on the IR2. This will put the headphone jack just out of hubbub of signal and power cables right there at the IR2. Plus, I won't have to remove the adapter from my headphones to plug in.

[Gasgano]

This is kind of cool! Very portable. I like the vibe.

[BearBoy]

Finally managed to find one of these in stock somewhere and it’s now winging its way to me.

Looking forward to finally putting together my evening headphone practice BCB-30X

[laurie]

I'm waiting for one to come along at the right price... Definitely want one!

[BearBoy]

My IR-2 turned up just before lunch so had a chance to have a very quick blast before going back to work

Initial impressions are great but hope to have a proper play around with it this evening.

Just realised I might need some extra cables though as I don't think I have a 1xTRS to 2xTS lead of the right length to put some stereo pedals in the send/return loop. It's not like I've had the best part of a year to plan for this...

[bigtone23]

My IR-2 turned up just before lunch so had a chance to have a very quick blast before going back to work

Initial impressions are great but hope to have a proper play around with it this evening.

Just realised I might need some extra cables though as I don't think I have a 1xTRS to 2xTS lead of the right length to put some stereo pedals in the send/return loop. It's not like I've had the best part of a year to plan for this...

Allright! It's here!
It's a fun one. Spent the better part of two evenings experimenting with the various models, tweaking the EQ, higher and lower gain settings on each model, etc... until landing on a clean and dirt that did what I liked best.
It's funny, it seems that BOSS may have voiced the models to sound mostly good with the EQ knobs at noon. I found that drastic EQ settings (like I do on actual Marshalls and black/silver Fenders) doesn't sound as good on the IR2 models. Little tweaks go a long way...
Using a momentary switch for the channel selection is handy, too.