What BOSS pedals would you recommend

Torgot

Torgot

Multimeh
I am thinking of upgrading my pedals to all BOSS pedals and wanted to get some advice on what you thought were the most essential ones to have on a board. I am looking at a definite BOSS RC-30 looper but really beyond that not sure what order I should be getting or what maybe I should be focusing on.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
 
they are all pretty dang good. without knowing what music you play or what sounds you like its a real shot in the dark. help us help you lol.
 
Ah yes I guess I should have given a bit more information, sorry about that. I play a few different styles, mainly I focus on what is now considered classic rock, but the group I'm with sometimes I have to play things like "walking on sunshine" and more modern stuff. Of course the bands I personally like to emulate are the common rock bands we all know. (KISS, ACDC, Rush, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc). I do also dabble in the blues. So I guess the rig I have in mind would be able to be versatile enough to cover both band performances (not many happening now) and my personal likes. Hope this gives a better understanding although, reading through it I guess it basically looks like everything. lol
 
if i was in a band that did covers the GT1000 would be my first choice after a line 6 helix LT, even if you only used them for the effects. saves a lot of tap dancing and the effects are top notch. its nice to be able to change your amps channels as you engage or disengage multiple effects with one button instead of several stomps.

individual effects wise though you probably want an OD, distortion, maybe a fuzz, chorus, flanger or phaser or all 3, reverb and delay. hard to go wrong with boss pedals, they are industry standards for a good reason.

the BD-2 is really good. DD-3 is awesome. RV-6 is great.
 
There's no 'right' or 'wrong' as such, but if you like getting more of your drive from your amp and control things with the volume knob on your guitar, you're often better off with an overdrive pedal. Set the gain fairly low and the level fairly high on the pedal in order to push the front end of the already overdriven amp.

If you want to be able to go from quite clean to a more saturated tone, a distortion pedal might be the better choice. You can have a distortion pedal in front of a slightly overdriven amp, but if you crank up the gain on the amp too much, it'll all start sounding more like a fuzz pedal. That can be cool too but harder to control. To me distortion pedals sound more modern though.

If I were to build an all Boss pedalboard for classic rock I'd go with: SD-1 -> CH-1 ->DD-3 -> slightly overdriven amp. If you place the chorus before the drive pedal, the chorus effect will be more subtle when the drive is on. Reverb pedals don't work that well in front of overdriven amps.

That said, I'd go for the pedals I think sound good rather than a specific brand.
 
I was in a country rock band for years and our lead guitar player had an all Boss board and his tone was excellent.

Definitely a BD-2 for light overdrive. DD-7 is a great delay pedal. I would look at the JB-2 as a second drive pedal. It gets very good reviews.
 
Boss have so many different flavors of overdrive and distortion, it's really just a matter of which you prefer. However, they are all fairly specific in their usage and tend to require that you have an o/d AND a distortion if you're playing a wide range of music (which it sounds like you are). Any of their chorus pedals are great, again just a matter of which you prefer. Their delays are great, their verbs are great. Phasers? I never cared for theirs, but lots of players like them.
 
This should do about anything you might need:

Tu3 Tuner
an old Heavy Metal(way more in there than an over the top Death Metal buzz, a very versatile high gain pedal w/a great eq stack)
Blues Driver or OD3 for lower gain tones.
GE7 Equalizer for a boost/tone shaper
Phaser &Chorus or Flange & Chorus, take you pick.
DM2 Analog Delay
DD8, DD7, or DD3 Dig Delay
RV6 for reverb if you need it.
 
Last edited:
The king of Boss pedals of course

boss-hm-2-heavy-metal-7211.jpg
 
Why would anyone spend several hundred bucks on pedals (and maybe board and power supply) when you could get a pod go, stomp hx, or even helix lt? Then, you'd have an almost infinite assortment of pedals. (and amps/speakers too with the pod go or LT).
 
GomezAddams said:
Why would anyone spend several hundred bucks on pedals (and maybe board and power supply) when you could get a pod go, stomp hx, or even helix lt? Then, you'd have an almost infinite assortment of pedals. (and amps/speakers too with the pod go or LT).
Click to expand...
That's been my opinion for many years, but different strokes.
 
GomezAddams said:
Why would anyone spend several hundred bucks on pedals (and maybe board and power supply) when you could get a pod go, stomp hx, or even helix lt? Then, you'd have an almost infinite assortment of pedals. (and amps/speakers too with the pod go or LT).
Click to expand...

Analog > Digital

:stir:
 
GomezAddams said:
Why would anyone spend several hundred bucks on pedals (and maybe board and power supply) when you could get a pod go, stomp hx, or even helix lt? Then, you'd have an almost infinite assortment of pedals. (and amps/speakers too with the pod go or LT).
Click to expand...

Better tone, easier to adjust an individual setting on the fly, no little lcd screens to navigate.

I don't really play out live except for some jams with friends, so a pedalboard is perfect for me. I could see giving up a little bit of tone for the ability to switch between presets quickly in a live setting, especially playing covers where nailing a particular, unique sound is required. That isn't me.

I just dial in a tone I like, kick certain effects on/off as I desire, and play.
 
Digital always left me flat in the past. I could always detect a guitar player using a digital rig in about 5 seconds. That is no longer true. With the line 6 Helix stuff, the effects are indistinguishable from the real thing. Seriously.

With the pod go and stomp, you have knobs for the effects. It isn't a whole lot different than individual effects.

I don't play out either, but I find that the pod go is superior to pedals simply because once I find a combination of effects and settings I like, I can simply save them to a preset (and I can save four variations of a given preset using snapshots).

And when playing at home, I can use the pod go software on my computer to edit the setup which is easier than knobs on the go or actual effects.

And at home, I can connect the pod go to a solid state amp and guitar speaker cabinet so that means I can sell my old Marshall combo amp (which is seriously overdue for a re-tube and re-cap).

And, since the go is hooked up to the computer, I get recording for free.
 
yea, agreed. I still have all my pedals. when we are just messing around I might try them but quickly go back to the helix and its not even a question of what I will be using live. its just so powerful and sounds exactly like how I hear things in my head.

I wrote this riff the other day and randomly was like hey a flanger might sound good there. I don't really ever use a flanger and never had one when I used pedals but hey look I have about 13 to choose from now and maybe its not flanger but uni vibe or some strange chorus that might fit better - I never had that many pedals laying around to try and experiment. But the flanger fit the riff perfectly. I didn't have to buy a new pedal, hope I ordered the right one, wait for it to get here, re arrange all my pedals, maybe have to kick a pedal off my board, decide if I liked it or not, convince myself to try a different one, etc...

plus you can use them in so many different applications. live with your band either with a tube amp or direct, practicing at home at whisper lives direct into a studio monitor, recording because it has a built in interface.


I still got love for people who don't want to try one, at least we are all having fun playing music. but I think its great when people at least try them to see if these newer ones are better than maybe the previous generation of multi fx pedals they tried and really think its great when people realize how sweet they are now. the effects sound AMAZING.
 
Like @sleewell, I'm not saying real pedals are bad or inferior. I'm saying that modeling has arrived for real. The Line 6 Helix technology gives astonishing sound, and at least with the pod go and the stomp, it comes in at a price well under what a decent pedalboard would run.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top