Riding the Boss Renaissance

[JVG]

Two words: Hyper Fuzz.

As of right now, it's the only Waza I'd just go out and buy. The Waza line is cool, don't get me wrong, but price/need hasn't inspired me. I realize we have the Behringer.

I want the Hyper Fuzz.

I NEED the Hyper Fuzz.

The Waza line is a bit pricey, at least compared to the standard Boss line, however I’m totally into it. I’ve got the SD1w, FZ1w, CE2w, and DM2w, and they are flawless pedals.

I don’t know if there are many phaser fans here, but I am positively gagging for a PH1w. Surely it will come eventually….

[mynameisjonas]

Two words: Hyper Fuzz.

As of right now, it's the only Waza I'd just go out and buy. The Waza line is cool, don't get me wrong, but price/need hasn't inspired me. I realize we have the Behringer.

I want the Hyper Fuzz.

I NEED the Hyper Fuzz.

It’s an amazing pedal. They should just reissue it as is, no need for a Waza version.

[MrShake]

I want the Hyper Fuzz.

I NEED the Hyper Fuzz.

It’s an amazing pedal. They should just reissue it as is, no need for a Waza version.

Yeah, it's already got three modes. Any more and it's practically a Strymon or something. Just do the thing you did, but again. There, R&D done.

I'll still pay the Waza Tax.

[TagoMago]

I like Boss pedals. Yes, they're not fashionable but they're tour-worthy and generally wont crap out on you at inappropriate moments like some of the vintage pedals I used to have, or like the handbuilt boutique stuff I've had that looks and sounds great but stops working 3 gigs into a run of dates abroad.

I still use the FZ-5 Fuzz a lot, and the waza DM-2 and and overdrive (OD-3 maybe?) but I'm not so keen on my phaser or tremolo but will use them because I know they're not going to disintegrate on me. If I could get an MXR Phase 90 rehoused in a Boss enclosure I'd have it straight away. And the Marshall Vibratrem is better than my Boss trem but it weighs 20 times more than it.

If Boss did a Vox Repeater V809 style pedal, I'd be on that like a shot.

[DeathJag]

Is there anywhere I can hear (or read) a comparison between all the distortions? Not fuzzes. For example, how does the DS-1 compare to the OD-1? The Metal Zone one is super staticky? I LOVE the old DS-1 I use, nothing comes close, but then again I haven't heard too many distortion pedals.0

[distressed]

SD-1 missing in the picture

[sal paradise]

This happened. Bought it cheap from Japan, just waiting on a step down transformer. The idea of having a multi-fx for demos at the touch of a few buttons was pretty tempting. And, well it’s a cool piece of music history.

[fuzzjunkie]

This happened. Bought it cheap from Japan, just waiting on a step down transformer. The idea of having a multi-fx for demos at the touch of a few buttons was pretty tempting. And, well it’s a cool piece of music history.

There’s a lot of great sounds in there, and all the basic Boss sounds as well. Other than gain matching when using any of the dirt modules programming is pretty straightforward.

Even after I bought pedals to replace it, I still brought it along as backup in case any of the pedals died on tour.

[daemon]

I've loved Boss from the moment I found out about pedals. I couldn't afford any and for some reason the only ones I would get as gifts would be Arion (which had somewhat of a renaissance of their own in the past few years), so I was left wanting until I finally ponied up and got the Digital Metalizer. That led to an (almost) all Boss pedalboard:


These days, though I'm just rocking 3:

[Rob]

The first pedal I ever encountered was a DOD Grunge pedal in the early-90s, and I fell in love with the form factor. It had a low profile, easy-access battery compartment, and a beautiful footswitch that was effortless to operate -- barely had to touch it to bring it to life. As I ventured out into the world of pedals, DOD was my brand.

Boss, on the other hand, seemed comparatively inelegant, and I hated the big spring-loaded footswitch. It was loud and clunky, and changing the battery felt like I was disassembling the thing. I also hated that some of them only had 3 knobs, which upset my OCD craving of symmetry.

However, it didn't take long for me to realize that the DOD footswitch design that I loved so much was fucking awful. Within a year, we were having to double-tap and triple-tap pedals to turn them on/off, others shorted out completely. By the time the Lamb series were all the rage, I was returning a brand new DOD Digital Delay because of electrical problems.

After one particularly bad stage experience where I ended up having to borrow a bandmate's Boss pedal just to get through the rest of our set, I saw the light and converted. Since then, probably 90% of my pedal purchases have been Boss. I've rarely been disappointed by a Boss pedal's features, and never by the build quality, reliability, or value. For my money, they're just the best there is.

I will say, however, that we're long overdue for a PH-5.

[JamesSGBrown]

I've had the DD-5 in reverse mode always-on at the end of my board for 11 years now. I really should buy another. I love the CE-2w- no desire for any other chorus. I've had a few others in the past- a few SD-1 that I clipped the capacitors out of, my first pedal was a DS-2 that I gave to a friend and it got trashed on multiple tours (a fitting end), and I've had Blues Drivers, DM-2s, PS-3s etc. But for dirt I've never found them to be characterful enough in my hands (though I did use an SD-1 as my main light OD for 4 years). But they do the job, I think I could live with a SD-1, RAT and a DD-7 if it was that or painful death.

[budda12ax7]

always have a boss tuner.....always.

[sal paradise]

Even after I bought pedals to replace it, I still brought it along as backup in case any of the pedals died on tour.

Did you use the 4 cable method? Just wondering how much of a pain it would be to programme modulation to be in the effects loop or whether I just do it all in front.

[fuzzjunkie]

Even after I bought pedals to replace it, I still brought it along as backup in case any of the pedals died on tour.

Did you use the 4 cable method? Just wondering how much of a pain it would be to programme modulation to be in the effects loop or whether I just do it all in front.

My amps are all non-master volume and without effects loops, so everything is in front.

At the time I had 2 fuzz, a wah, 2 modulation pedals, a DMM and a tremolo on the floor going into the GP-16 and then a Yamaha SPX-900 in the rack. Only the last unit used stereo out to 2 amps. I had a Ground Control midi system for turning things on and off.

[GotA]

Two words: Hyper Fuzz.

As of right now, it's the only Waza I'd just go out and buy. The Waza line is cool, don't get me wrong, but price/need hasn't inspired me. I realize we have the Behringer.

I want the Hyper Fuzz.

I NEED the Hyper Fuzz.

I'm the BOSS guy. I built almost every BOSS analog circuit...almost. I just built another FZ-2 but this one has an added octave lift switch. I'll have to take some pictures. Learning to build and understand circuits was the best thing I ever did musically. The Hyper Fuzz is amazing but the octave lift is so good it should have replaced the clean boost mode.