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Hatsubai « Great overdrive »
Published on 11/24/11 at 18:25Most people out there who have tried the BD-2 know that it's a pretty solid pedal. You can get a very nice overdrive with the pedal, and it can be a nice alternative to the standard tubescreamer that you hear on so many other albums out there. That said, it could use some improvement, and Analogman is here to help. His main mod is the BD-2/Super mod which helps improve pretty much everything about this thing. It still has the same three knobs and operates the same way, so no difference there.
UTILIZATION
Boss pedals are inherently some of the most reliable and robust pedals out there. I could throw this thing off of the empire state building, and I bet it would still survive with barely a scratch. That said, I do not endorse throwing your pedals off of buildings. I'm sure some moron out there will do that and blame me for injuring somebody later on... The pedal really doesn't look any different on the outside. In fact, the only real way you can tell that it's modded by Analogman is via the sticker on the pedal. Aside from looking inside, you'd probably never know. I can't comment on the manual, but this pedal is easy enough to use without having to look at the manual, especially considering all the example settings are now moot.
SOUND QUALITY
One word of warning: Do not turn all of the knobs on full. If you do this, you'll get some nasty squealing. That said, you really shouldn't ever turn up all your knobs to max on this thing. It's mainly the tone knob that'll cause the squealing to occur, and I find that'll be way too bright. The pedal now sounds more like a transparent boost instead of that middy overdrive kind of sound that you hear from standard tubescreamers. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on what you're looking for. The tone knob on this is a lot more useful, and the overall pedal just sounds a lot better, in my opinion.
OVERALL OPINION
If you're looking for a more transparent sounding overdrive, this is the kind of pedal you should be looking to get. It sounds a lot more organic and has a bit more depth to it overall. It's also more versatile as the tone knob actually works this time. It's not as harsh as it was stock, and it has some nice depth to it that the other one really didn't have. Combine this with a tubescreamer to get some awesome versatility.
UTILIZATION
Boss pedals are inherently some of the most reliable and robust pedals out there. I could throw this thing off of the empire state building, and I bet it would still survive with barely a scratch. That said, I do not endorse throwing your pedals off of buildings. I'm sure some moron out there will do that and blame me for injuring somebody later on... The pedal really doesn't look any different on the outside. In fact, the only real way you can tell that it's modded by Analogman is via the sticker on the pedal. Aside from looking inside, you'd probably never know. I can't comment on the manual, but this pedal is easy enough to use without having to look at the manual, especially considering all the example settings are now moot.
SOUND QUALITY
One word of warning: Do not turn all of the knobs on full. If you do this, you'll get some nasty squealing. That said, you really shouldn't ever turn up all your knobs to max on this thing. It's mainly the tone knob that'll cause the squealing to occur, and I find that'll be way too bright. The pedal now sounds more like a transparent boost instead of that middy overdrive kind of sound that you hear from standard tubescreamers. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on what you're looking for. The tone knob on this is a lot more useful, and the overall pedal just sounds a lot better, in my opinion.
OVERALL OPINION
If you're looking for a more transparent sounding overdrive, this is the kind of pedal you should be looking to get. It sounds a lot more organic and has a bit more depth to it overall. It's also more versatile as the tone knob actually works this time. It's not as harsh as it was stock, and it has some nice depth to it that the other one really didn't have. Combine this with a tubescreamer to get some awesome versatility.