What is it? Boss MZ-2 Digital Metalizer from Boss Compact series. Made in japan, july 1988. Now, since i’ve lately been looking at these late 80’s analog/digital hybrids, this may be a decent unit to continue with. We are looking at Boss’ take on the distortion plus delay/chorus effects that were widely available back in…
Category: Compact Series
Boss FZ-5 Fuzz
What is it? Boss FZ-5 Fuzz. Made in taiwan, may 2007. Since we are on a roll with sounds coming out of digital circuitry, here’s one to add. Some may have wondered why there isn’t a schematic or any hint of a DIY project for a pedal with this reputation. The answer is simple. The…
Boss OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion
What is it? Boss OS-2 OverDrive/Distortion. Made in taiwan, january 1996. I was rather keen on trying this one out. I find the idea of OD and Dist made blendable in a single unit intriguing. This, among with other basic or classic hits as DS-1 and SD-1 are probably the cheapest and most common boss…
Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb
What is it? Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb. Made in taiwan, june 2008. So the Boss RV-reverb line keeps getting duller as it goes further. Can’t help but to compare this to RV-2, which was ground breaking pedal in many ways. First off, the RV-2 was the first compact digital reverb ever produced. Second, the design…
Boss DF-2 Super Feedbacker & Distortion
What is it? Boss DF-2 Super Feedbacker & Distortion. Made in japan, november 1985. At first, the DF-2 has a history that is worth mentioning. The unit was originally called Super Distrotion & Feedbacker, but since DiMarzio owns the name”Super Distortion”, Roland was forced to change the name. Similar thing happened with DOD’s “Supra Distortion”,…
Boss BF-2 Flanger
What is it? Boss BF-2 Flanger. Made in taiwan. No serial number and no enclosure date stamps. Even the electrolytic capacitors have no date codes. So it’s nearly impossible to determine the date accurately. My best guess would be 1993, since dual opamp codes point to that direction. The japanese units apparently have all black…
Boss CH-1 Super Chorus
What is it? Boss CH-1 Super Chorus. Made in taiwan, november 2001. At one point i woke up to a feeling. I had tons of effect pedals, but zero Boss brand choruses. That felt extremely weird, as these effects in Boss catalog are usually praised pedals. So what was i to do, bet to get…
Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion
What is it? Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion from compact pedal series. Made in taiwan, february 2003. Probably the best known as Kurt Cobain’s distortion of choice. I had to get one out of pure interest. I sourced all the Nirvana CDs as used ones last spring. Since there are now expanded reissues out of each…
Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter
One more Boss before moving on… What is it? Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter from compact series. Made in taiwan, april 2008. PH-3 marks a very first digital phaser in the Boss catalog. All the previous ones, released before the year 2000, were more like all standard phasers from any other manufacturer – BBD based analog…
Boss OD-2 Turbo Overdrive
What is it? Boss OD-2 Turbo Overdrive from Boss Compact series. Made in japan, march 1986. The OD-2 was apparent attempt to create a follower for the classic OD-1 which already had a vast user base with lots of hype going for it. In all its simplicity, the OD-1 was pretty much Boss’ venture to…