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flatworm
Copper Member
USA
7 Posts |
 Posted - 09/09/2005 : 21:24:33
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Does anyone here know where to find either FAQ's on pedal settings and what they sound like or where to find hard/PDF (or anyother medium) copies of the Boss pocket dictionarys v.1-current....I personally own the one from 1994 and I've downloaded the most recent one in PDF form from Roland but I want more information and more ideas for my pedals....I unfortunately am not a tone/EQ master so I could very much use some guidence to get the most out of my pedals....Thanks!!!!  |
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eeone
Bronze Member
Yugoslavia
121 Posts |
Posted - 09/09/2005 : 23:06:28
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I was in such position myself for quite some time and I couldn't find a site with suggested settings for each pedal.
Then it suddenly came to me that the joy of pedals is that they posess endless tweaking possibilities. 
Keep on tweaking, and you'll get *that* sound.  |
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2005 : 00:01:32
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You're not likely to find the old pocket dictionaries anywhere on the web. I called Roland and asked if I could scan them and add them to the site. They denied my request and I'm pushing their limit by publishing the covers of them here.
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boss freak
Gold Member
USA
663 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2005 : 01:48:14
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| What!? The won't alow you to post them on the site? What a load of crap. How can they justify that? It's not like you're selling them, or even that they themselves are making this stuff available. I really don't understand the logic behind that. |
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2005 : 02:05:56
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| It really doesn't make much sense. They were given away for free so why won't they let people see the old ones today? After all the new ones are available as pdf's so those will be floating around on the net for ages to come. |
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boss freak
Gold Member
USA
663 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2005 : 03:11:15
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| I think it goews hand in hand with Boss' refusal to reissue the classic pedals that cost so much on the second-hand market in a way. People are making wads of money on selling and re-selling these pedals (AND the Pocket Dictionaries), so why not make them available again and make the money themselves? I supose it has something to do with the Japanese sense of always progressing and never looking back on the past, but come on... They're still a capitalist corporation with plenty of demand, so where's the supply? |
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axewinner
Copper Member
USA
43 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2005 : 06:26:14
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"People are making wads of money on selling and re-selling these pedals (AND the Pocket Dictionaries), so why not make them available again and make the money themselves?"
Awesome question! Totally reminds me of a business school case study!
The mystique from the "hard to get factor" increased prices and buzz of all their current products. It was feared that re-releasing those older products would affect the 'superior consumer perception' of the brand name, and lessen the price point for all their current products, actually lowering gross margins.
Uck, enough business geek-speak, back to my guitar!
axewiz
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boss freak
Gold Member
USA
663 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2005 : 07:39:45
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| Interesting. Thanks for the insight! That clears up the mystery and makes a lot of sense from the business perspective. |
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walrus121
Silver Member
USA
187 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2005 : 22:34:46
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I have a solution:
1. Stop quoting the BPD. Write it in your own words as much as possible.
2. Draw the settings in your own illustrations. Don't scan in their's.
I've used CAD design software before to illustrate control panels, I would be happy to help. |
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walrus121
Silver Member
USA
187 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2005 : 22:48:20
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quote:
Originally posted by axewinner
It was feared that re-releasing those older products would affect the 'superior consumer perception' of the brand name, and lessen the price point for all their current products, actually lowering gross margins.
Here is the problem with that line of thinking: ever since the early 90s we have been in a "retro" guitar market. Reissue guitars, amplifiers, and effects galore. Gibson, Fender, Vox, and Jim Dunlop have been making tons of money on people looking for that old sound again. A lot of the people I have talked to on other forums say that the quality of Boss effects have gone down, even as soon as they switched to making them in Taiwan instead of Japan. I have three Boss effects pedals in my line-up, I'm only 25 years old and two of those pedals are about as old as I am (I got good prices on them on eBay, probably because I those models were still in production at them time). I bought a CE-2 chorus that was made in Taiwan, but when I bought it I thought that that model was only made in Japan. I guess I can sell it again and try to get a Japanese one, but it sounds okay and I don't have the money to play around with that right now, so why bother? |
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2005 : 23:09:48
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Quoting the Pocket Dictionaries is the easy way to get a product description. I agree with you that this site should really have pedal descriptions different from the marketing material but this has proven difficult. I've written a few lines myself on a few pedals but as long as I try to stay objective, it is very hard to write anything at all.
I will update a few descriptions based on new information that has come out of discussions here on the forum. I'm sure there are more info that's just waiting to be uncovered too and when it happens more pedals will receive updated descriptions.
The settings will eventually be replaced with sound samples. This is however in the early design phase and will need to be ironed out properly later. |
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walrus121
Silver Member
USA
187 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 18:03:28
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| Seriously I would totally help with AutoCAD-ing new images of the knob pictures if you can get me the dictionary pictures |
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walrus121
Silver Member
USA
187 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2005 : 23:07:20
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quote:
Originally posted by boss freak
I think it goews hand in hand with Boss' refusal to reissue the classic pedals that cost so much on the second-hand market in a way. People are making wads of money on selling and re-selling these pedals (AND the Pocket Dictionaries), so why not make them available again and make the money themselves?
I had a thought: why did they take the Slow Gear off the market? They never really released a replacement for it, and as far as I know (high price tag aside) it was a popular item. I know I want to get my hands on one, and so do other people on the second-hand market. |
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phenry20
Bronze Member
USA
105 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2005 : 04:49:15
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In most cases a product was taken off of the market because it didn't sell in the first place. The VB-2 didn't sell and one reason listed is that guitar players wanted to control their own vibrato, limited in scope but that was the thought at the time. So I can see a manufacturer reluctant to re-release something that didn't sell to begin with. And when something does skyrocket in price/demand, the manufacturer isn't the one to profit and if they do release a reissue to satisfy the "market", they usually have to do so at a lower price for a number of reasons, and then the folks that paid for the "real deal" start the spin cycle to keep the values of their prized possesions high and will do whatever they can to diminish the new, more available product and lessen it's value. What would you do if you were the manufacturer and it was your money to invest? And you had already tried once and failed, and the big bucks have already been soaked up by the second hand folks? Your best chance now is for a mass market, high volume, high profit piece that you market the hell out of and then have the people who buy one lambasted by the elitist ranks for purchasing something so inferior.
One way to see if any of these older, hard to get, $$$ effects is to pick up a Boss SE-70 half rack - it's got the VB-2, SG-1 and just about everything else Boss had made up to that point suitably emulated and you can in "effect" try before you invest your hard earned capital in the actual pedal. Just a thought.
I spent the better part of a year hunting for a VB-2 and SG-1, listening to the sound samples I could find, thirsting, quenched, hungry for these pedals and the whole freakin' time I had an SE-70 where I could have actually been playing the sound, seeing if I even liked what it did for me creatively in the first place. Right under my nose. And of course once I played them, it made me want them even more! |
Edited by - phenry20 on 09/30/2005 04:52:42 |
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walrus121
Silver Member
USA
187 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2005 : 05:20:09
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I was on eBay earlier today, and they had plenty of CE-2s on there going for big bucks, but nobody was selling an SG-1. Probably because nobody wants to sell their's.
So you can seriously get reverse sounds (and I mean real ones, not delayed ones) out of one of those multi-effect units? |
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walrus121
Silver Member
USA
187 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2005 : 05:49:05
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| Oh, about the VB-2. I son't know if people know this but all a vibrato effect is is a phase shifter missing the feedback. That's why both "chorus" (really a phase shifter) and "vibrato" modes are available on the Uni-Vibe. All that they needed to do was put an extra switch and an expression pedal jack on one of the phase shifter models and then you would have an extra effect on the same pedal. |
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Question: FAQ's on pedal settings???
