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sirshack
Copper Member
USA
41 Posts |
 Posted - 03/05/2008 : 04:37:21
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You know, reading these threads about leaving Boss for new stuff or coming to Boss from the boutique got me thinking about how I've kind of come full circle with the brand. Humor me for a moment :)
Back when I got my first electric guitar in 1989 I remember thumbing through every new Musicians Friend, Sam Ash, Manny's and AMS catalog that came in the mail (no internet back then!) and fawning over things like the DD-3 and the CH-1. From what I remember, the choices you had were Boss, MXR/Dunlop, T.C. Electronic, DOD/Digitech, Morley and probably Arion. You could also find Ibanez stuff in the catalogs occasionally, but it was mainly the music stores that seemed to carry them.
The HM-2 was my very first pedal of any kind, and I got a CH-1 soon after. I remember having dreams of filling up an entire BCB-6 with Boss pedals and one day being able to swing a DD-3.
And then I got into other stuff (actually, I kind of got off the whole pedal thing for a while). And then the boutique/vintage/unusual phase started, which I still have some appreciation for...
...but after all that, I've come back to Boss. They're rock-solid, you can buy them pretty much anywhere, and they may not be "cool" in some circles but when it's all said and done they can pretty much hang with anything you want to play. Kudos to all the boutique guys for giving us great products (I own and love some of them), but there's something about taking a $50 Super Overdrive, plugging it in and just wailing away that's a lot more rock 'n roll to me than worry about whether something is true bypass or has such-and-such chip that was only produced in Uruguay in 1968 or provides all these subtle tonal nuances that no one is going to hear once the rest of the band starts playing.
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williamh
Bronze Member
USA
53 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 04:44:19
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| I posted over on thegearpage.net nearly the exact same thing a few days ago. I haven't been playing as long as you have, but I've definitely done the full circle thing as well. Originally owned some boss pedals, then ended up being more of a plug in and play kinda guy for a while, only to move on to owning nearly every boutique pedal under the sun. Now here I am in the process of replacing nearly every pedal on my board with older boss pedals. |
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sirshack
Copper Member
USA
41 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 04:56:37
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quote:
Originally posted by williamh
I posted over on thegearpage.net nearly the exact same thing a few days ago. I haven't been playing as long as you have, but I've definitely done the full circle thing as well. Originally owned some boss pedals, then ended up being more of a plug in and play kinda guy for a while, only to move on to owning nearly every boutique pedal under the sun. Now here I am in the process of replacing nearly every pedal on my board with older boss pedals.
You know, I really do love thegearpage.net, but that is just supergeek central for pedals  They get so hung up on certain things over there it's kind of hard to read sometimes. But I can't hate on all my fellow pedalheads 
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williamh
Bronze Member
USA
53 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 05:07:00
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quote:
Originally posted by sirshack
quote:
Originally posted by williamh
I posted over on thegearpage.net nearly the exact same thing a few days ago. I haven't been playing as long as you have, but I've definitely done the full circle thing as well. Originally owned some boss pedals, then ended up being more of a plug in and play kinda guy for a while, only to move on to owning nearly every boutique pedal under the sun. Now here I am in the process of replacing nearly every pedal on my board with older boss pedals.
You know, I really do love thegearpage.net, but that is just supergeek central for pedals They get so hung up on certain things over there it's kind of hard to read sometimes. But I can't hate on all my fellow pedalheads
I hear you, it's pretty much been my online home for the past couple of years. Astonishingly, no one really seemed to care about my post declaring my new love for older boss pedals lol |
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homestar_kevin
Copper Member
USA
34 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 06:55:08
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boss and other brands like dod get disregarded in the wave of boutique stuff available and especially now that there are so many forums and builders out there on the internet it has truly become like that. People know more about effects, are even building their own, making clones, kits and learning about everything( I know I am starting too) but in the end most boutique stuff is based off boss stuff! the analogman delay based off the dm-2, how many chorus pedals are based off ce-2? how many boutique builders establish their names by taking the beautiful platforms boss has provided for them!? Keeley, analogman, monte allums all have used the ds-1, sd-1, bd-2 and others to build their niche in the market.
at the end of the day, a 200 dollar pedal is probably better than a 50 dollar one, but is it 150 dollars better? Probably not |
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 09:46:51
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The only non boss pedals i own is my cry baby wah and the seymour duncan twin tube overdrive which IMHO more like having a mini tube amp on your board than an overdrive and one of the main reasons i bought it was i was having impedance issues with an active strat i had and my boss dist/drives and i thought i would have better luck the twin tube and i have......i have to confess here that i've never really bothered with the boutique makers as i would of had to buy them on the 'net without any way of trying them out or hearing them,but i did email analog mike a while back about his bi chorus and bi compressor after zestystrats good reviews of the compressor.... mike put me on the waiting list so i might indulge myself to see what the hype is about in the future.... but sirshacks first post on this subject brought back some memories..i too can remember going into a guitar shop and looking at all the boss pedals in the glass case the only other ones at that time were MXR with DOD,Arion and Aria coming along later as a lower cost alternatives...sirshack also raised another valid point..in a live situation with a band can you really hear the difference.....??...i think maybe if the player can hear it and it inspires them to play better then it's valid but i do think some people have got a serious problem looking down their noses at boss pedals 'cause they use buffered circuits....personally i couldn't give a monkeys if it's buffered or true bypass once it sounds good........ ...  |
Edited by - FRANZONI on 03/05/2008 09:49:24 |
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 09:51:50
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[/quote]
I hear you, it's pretty much been my online home for the past couple of years. Astonishingly, no one really seemed to care about my post declaring my new love for older boss pedals lol
[/quote]
I take it this is a big no no over there to declare a love of boss pedals.....??......... |
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alex_law
Silver Member
168 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 14:29:48
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I've done the boutique thing to death. I still think Boss have made arguably the best analog stompboxes ever.
I'm not counting the Moog stuff, 'cause that's venturing into the realm of modular synthesis and it's not really fair to compare...
Nobody should feel that their Boss pedals are in any way "less than" a boutique pedal.
Oh, p.s., I'm also "p3dalwh0re" from HCFX! *waves* |
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alex_law
Silver Member
168 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 14:31:30
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Oh, re: thegearpage.net, have they figured out which is the best low gain overdrive yet?  |
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DeFrag
Moderator
USA
3409 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 15:45:49
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| You mean its not the OD-3 from beloved Boss? |
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alex_law
Silver Member
168 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 15:48:14
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Shove it in a Hammond box, paint it all swirly and mark the controls with a Sharpie - and yes, it's an OD-3.
Was that my outside voice? :D |
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DeFrag
Moderator
USA
3409 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 15:54:03
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| LOL |
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4evrnewB
Silver Member
Canada
322 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 17:37:27
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Glad you guys are discussing this topic here, because it's been on my mind of late.
My first few pedals were all Electro-Harmonix. They were mostly given to me by bandmates back when I was a drummer. When I started to collect for myself as a (sort of) guitar player, I started with Boss as they were so well built (unlike EHX) and seemed to be the standard. As I got into it more and more, yes, I started to hear about "true bypass" and "boutique" and started going that way. At first I figured I'd end up replacing nearly all my Boss pedals, then I started thinking that I would still look for the "holy grail-type" Boss and see what that's all about.
So, I'm still a newB and in the middle of all this, but I agree with what was said about "if it sounds good, who cares?" and you know what?~
The best sounding so far have been a V1 Small Stone - and my PH-1r...a Deluxe Electric Mistress - and my BF-2...the nicest chorus' have been a CE-2 and analog CE-5...(ok, I do love my Catalinbread SCOD and SPP!!!) But then, I haven't really checked out a lot of Boss distortions and overdrives... |
Edited by - 4evrnewB on 03/05/2008 17:39:17 |
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Coming full circle with Boss
