Terra Echo is totally amazing, need one, passed it up twice and didn’t buy it with regret. Dyna Drive, never played but now need. Damn it JHS, I love you, can’t leave you, need more. Need more stuff. Grumbles, scratches self, makes ape noises and goes to Reverb…again…
That fact that you guys are showcasing a direct competitor's products for the sheer purpose of helping us all find more cool stuff, is just awesome. You guys are truly the best.
Dude, this channel is effing rad! Something about this dude's whole shtick is just wildly entertaining; maybe it's the juxtaposition between the enthusiasm and the deadpan. I love the nerding out on these obscure pedals, the jams, and free music. Thank you.
I discovered this guy through Paul Gilbert. Watching an interview he did with him about his pedal, and am so glad I found him. His sense of humor alone makes it worthwhile to watch!
I own the terra echo but then again I buy all the boss echo/delay pedals. Gotta have em all. I also have the combo drive. I didn't buy it myself and its the last christmas gift I got from my mom before she passed away so I am never ever getting rid of it. Great show as always, have a nice weekend and stay safe everyone
@@banyarling lol, can't say it has made me seasick but there is a eerie character to a lot of the sounds. It conjours the feeling of what I imagine tumbling away from earth in a space suit would sound like if it was a pedal. Peace
My moms bought me a pedal for Christmas too. Great moms buy their sons pedals for Christmas... Josh can use that on a T Shirt (don't say I never contributed to the channel). You like the Combo Drive, I've always seen it, but never knew it was an AC clone? AC's were NEVER on my radar until I recently discovered their sound, I know, I know, I'm really, really stupid and that has been pointed out to me on a surprisingly regular basis, but now I'm head over heals for AC's, they're perfect for me, like an angry, strung out Fender that somehow still has hope, which pretty much sums me up. I always thought they were, like, a Beatles' amp, so just nostalgic old timeey guitar wankery keeping them alive. Anyway, how's that Combo Driver? Lol, sorry for the tangency.
My first pedal was a Metal Zone, and i thought it was the coolest sound ever, then everyone told me how terrible that sound was. You, sir, have really brought me back to loving Boss. I thank you for it, every time I buy a Boss pedal, I feel a ton of pride. Thanks Josh!!
Keeping the gain control low makes it sound better! It's a high gain pedal by "birth" so it sounds better with almost the lowest amount of gain. This from my personal experience (I have one).
@@_fabio1978 The Mid control was also very misunderstood by a lot of people (myself included, at the beginning). People instinctively cut the mids for the "chug" sound and promptly lost themselves in the mix with their recordings/bands, and neutralized a lot of the MT-2's natural tonal character to boot
The XT-2 Xtortion needs to be added to this list. Produced for less than a year, came out around the same time as the PW-2. Also the XT-2 has a red sparkle finish
@@Guitarwolfluke yea the combo drive has plenty of listings on reverb under $100 and the tera echo for about $150, honestly I’m probly gonna grab a tera echo it seems like a fun pedal
The dirt pedals on here are all very thin. I’ve owned a few and have known many others who tried using them. Everyone always goes back to one of the Boss standards(BD, DS-1, etc., or to a different company.
We need a semi-ironic bumper for every time Josh says, "I could care less" so we can do some kind of Pavlovian/aversion therapy to change the behavior.
Sorry I missed that. Was there a good local music scene here then? Only been in Jax since 2007 and it’s been a while since I saw any actual local bands- long before covid.
@@naturaljoe759 the mid 90s to early 2000s was a really healthy time for jax indie/post hardcore. einstein a go go, the theory shop and stripmine records really were the glue around those times. there were also some really cool house venues. unfortunately, it ain't what it was but, there are some youngsters doing the dang thang these days.
The Tera Echo was my first and only pedal for my first 5 years of learning. I think it is pretty popular with film audio people because you can make Scifi folly sounds with it like laser blasters etc.
4 in japanese is close to the word 'death' in japanese, so makes sense that there is superstition around the number making it even weirder that this is the only boss pedal (according to josh) with the number
Yeah, 士 (shi) "four" is a homophone of 死 (shi) "death", so it's avoided kinda like 13 is in the West. (Japanese people usually pronounce four as "yon" when it can't be avoided.)
Parametric EQ’s are fantastic… in the right hands. But when accessible to those who don’t understand what they do, it can get real ugly in a hurry! Easily the worst bass tones I’ve ever heard in my live sound days were from players who had multiple EQs in their chain, which almost always included a parametric with the bass cranked, mids scooped, and the ‘frequency’ knobs all over the place. Definitely experiment with EQ in your practice space. Not on stage.
My very first pedal was the FB-2. I love it. It was really fun being able to get feedback from my tiny fender amp at age 13 without driving my parents nuts
Another rare boss pedal from the same era as the pw-2, is the xt-2 xtortion. Was also produced less than a year, meant for the grunge scene. it's a distortion/fuzz like sound with something that resembles a fixed wah. pretty unique
The rarest Boss pedal is surely the flood damaged PS-2 that I salvaged from a studio and never managed to fix that lives dismantled in a sandwich bag in my projects box?
@@Crodon We all have different tastes. I should mention I was using it in parallel so that could easily be the difference. I actually don't have it on my pedal board. I use the Double Barrel. Right now I use the Morning Glory side as a clean drive always on and the Moonshine side for dirty drive.
I used a dyna drive as my always on pedal on bass for a very long time. Not on high settings in an alice cooper tribute band. Just did something to the overall sound that worked well.
I agree with what you said about not letting people on guitar forums decide your pedals for you. Forums can be helpful to understand the pros and cons of certain pedals, but everyone has different tastes and you should always get the pedals YOU want, not what someone else thinks is best. A good example of this is my Boss AC-2 Acoustic simulator. After a year of hesitation (caused by haters of that pedal on forums), I finally got it and it's absolutely fantastic! Turns out the reason it gets hated is because everyone just plugs them into guitar amps which isn't what it's designed for, they're for acoustic/bass amps or PA's, and for switching to acoustic tones mid-song, rather than a permanent replacement of an acoustic guitar.
I liked the one I used with a solid state Fender amp; a Stage 100(original, no DSP one). I agree with everything you said, and I would add that many are expecting too much from it. If one goes by your tips for use, it works really well, and the sound will be great.
I've bought a bunch of pedals recently based in part on forum opinions and videos by various peeps on youtube. And the one I enjoy the most is the the "officially bad" Boss Metal Zone because it makes fun noises.
Yeah, that AC-2 is an interesting one. It's cool going into a really clean amp, but not much good for other purposes. And yes, it's for switching to an acoustic part or one song. I plan to sell mine since I only use it with chorus for a faux mandolin sound. It doesn't work with my rig.
hmm guitar players using gear improperly and blaming an entire pedigree of gear (digital) ? nawwww ... could never happen . guitar players going all over the internet proclaiming every single piece of gear thats i not presently on their board as "total garbage" nooo , that could never happen . guitar players acting like they own vintage tube analog gear and knowing the difference between a vintage tube amp and a 20 year old 20 dollar digitech doorstop well yes , most of the guys online who go on and on about how great tube gear is , i would be surprised if they ever saw a tube amp . the players who understand gear know it does not define us as musicians. yes it is important to some extent but its not something you JUDGE other people on . someone can have great tone and that might not have much to do with what they play thru , they may just be the type who knows how to make any rig sound good . thats the player i strive to be . also , putting others down online because they dont use the same gear you do is not going to get you a sexual partner , and if thats why you started making music well no wonder i dont have anything in common with these a-holes .
I used to use that pedal way back in the day. i thought it was great. I connected it to the PA system through a DI box. Very handy from changing to electric to acoustic guitar sounds and back again on the fly. Then I sold it because I got a guitar with the piezo pickups in it which I thought sounded better than the pedal did.
The jams in this video BLEW ME AWAY!!! Josh you are an inspiring shoegazer. Holy cow the sounds that are possible. What would Mozart or Chopin have created if they had access to tone like this??
Some trivia: Boss compact pedals began to use a different font for the number in the model number and the arrows for the input & output jacks beginning with the BC-2 & FB-2 (Waza models excluded). Regarding the number four, the PQ-4 is the only Boss compact pedal to use that number so far, but it has been used elsewhere in the Boss product line. In Japanese, 4 can be pronounced as yon or shi, but shi is also the word for death, hence the superstition. I also commented earlier that I have all of these. I commented too soon. In all these years, I haven't purchased a PW-2 yet. If thw DB-5creferenxe counts, I don't have one of those yet, either. Bonus trivia: the XT-2 also had a short production life and was available around the time of the PW-2. I don't have one, but IMO, it's one of the best-looking Boss pedals. The XT-2's color scheme is similar to what was originally planned for the DS-2. The DS-1 was almost going to be called "Red Zone".
When I was 18 (in 1993) I got a little Boss catalogue in English from a dealer. I studied it front to back and I asked constantly to my english teachers about the words I didn't know. Google Translate wasn't invented yet. Some of these pedals appeared on that catalogue and I remember seeing some of them in the store. I became a pedal freak. I was more attracted to pedals and processors than the guitars or basses I played while they were playable, sounded good and stayed in tune..but man I have a drawer full of pedals and multifx... Including my first Boss DS1 bought in 1992. BTW I know a store in Barcelona where you can find the Tera Echo and the Multi Overtone.
the pw-2 is my "clean tone" in my band, it's all over our record. it's SO unique, the EQ is almost like the HM-2, but has this... glassiness to the high end, i love it.
If you think the fz3 was good you should look out for the fz2 from the early 90’s two different fuzz settings (mod/vintage) and it had a separate clean(ish) boost setting. Best pedal I ever owned.
@@spoke4N Not hugely comparable; the FZ-2 is an octave fuzz, which is a really love-or-hate-it sound. The FZ-3 is a plain ol' fuzz face, but which doesn't freak out with buffers or active pickups. Very different pedals and liking one doesn't mean someone will like the other.
You don't get enough credit for your creativity in your playing dude,you know your way around the fretboard and understand how to use the effects (duh? Don't mean to sound patronising)
BOSS doesn't like to use the number 4 for their series of pedals because it sounds the same as the word "death". In Japanese, "shi" is the word for "four" and "death". Use Google Translate and type in each word one at a time. Just like the words, "there" and "their" and "they're" in the English language all sound the same, "four" and "death" sound the same. They're trying to avoid it sounding like this: "DD-Death, CE-Death, or PH-Death...every time they talk about the 4th version in a series... (Of course an HM-4 would be very cool, the Heavy Metal Death pedal!!!)
I am absolutely in love with the BC-2. I bought it almost by accident because I originally wanted to buy a Tera Echo from a second hand shop but before sending it to me they realised that the power input wasn't working properly. So they offered me a discount to anything they had, and they didn't have many pedals so I settled for that one because BOSS and they were offering it for dirt cheap. I didn't expect it to be so damn versatile, it can go from just offering a warmer tone to a full on Brian May-esque distortion. Cannot recommend it enough if you have the opportunity to get one for cheap.
I know most of the pedals you show here... I have some I think you don't show in the video (judging for the title of the sections, I'm still watching as I type), the XT-2 Xtortion with "contour" and "punch" controls (about two years production, around 20K units) and the MZ-2 Digital Metalizer which I'm sure you know because if you're a BOSS fan as you claim you can't not know that amazing box, but there are not a lot of them around. Have you considered that the PQ-4 might be about the bands on it? I mean, you have low, as a HPF, Presence as an LPF and then middle and high with parametric settings. Sounds like a 4 band EQ to me. Liked the video, BTW, specially for the FB-2 and the PQ-4, I did not know those two. I NEED an FB-2 now.
The FB-2 is the absolute favorite pedal in my board. The clean boost is great, the character knob allows for great mid boosts, and the feedback function is a great plus!
I have the FB2 as well and have just started to use it as the lead channel on the board - I "re-discovered" after having it sit in the cupboard for like 5 years. It's an excellent boost and the tweakable mid-hump makes it a great lead channel without massively changing tone.
@@JeffreyTheTaylor I guess the marketing was heavily focused on the feedback functionality, but they failed to show it was a great clean/mid boost as well.
@@felipevasconcellos4662 Yeah, it is hard to get guitarists to listen with their ears sometimes. But the thing is the feedback circuit DID work. So chalk it up to wrong place, wrong time.
The ''fat" and "muscle" knobs on the PW-2 sounds like a nod to the Lamb series pedals from DOD, especially given it was released in '96. I've heard of the Dyna Drive. I've seen several demos of it, and I really want one.
I love the Tera Echo and the Multi Overtone. The Multi-Dimensional Processing line is pretty fantastic all around. The Adaptive Distortion is very worth checking out from that series. Thanks for another great episode!
Boss pq4 is an amazing boost /eq to add to an old Marshall . It’s the perfect match. Instead of modding it can be the trick . I love it . Only parametric eq pedal I’ve enjoyed to be honest
Boss needs to bring back the Parametric EQ - seriously, Waza needs to get on this. I played one after seeing it hanging out in the used section at a GC. They're perfect and a great way for modern players to "visualize" EQ. Mind you - I have several modded Boss GE7s though the fact that Boss gave up on the Para - I can't even begin to understand why.
I think furman had a problem with it being called pq4 like their parametric eq . And it didn’t sell good . I love mine . It’s a rare bird and a cool club we are in with this lil beast
@@techdeathhippie6319 Thank you for the info. That's a shame - change the name and keep it in business. I've learned to really use the GE7 so I've bought like several of them - on guitar and bass boards and "loosies". Though, in a perfect world, these would all be Parametric EQs. Maybe it'll make a comeback.
I've been trying to hype the Tera echo since it came out. It is imo one of the best BOSS pedals ever, you can get so many amazing sounds with it! I'm very glad to see you giving this one some exposure. Such an underrated pedal!
Josh, Boss might not have made a dedicated boost--I'll have to take your word on that--but the Hyper Fuzz has a dedicated boost function on it. IDK if you were factoring that into what you said about them never making a boost.
the FB-2 is cool for lofi guitar sounds too, held down the footswitch and play one note for set the resonance.. low feedback and level settings and then play
I heard a demo of the Super Distortion Feedbacker before it hit the shops over here when the Roland Roadshow landed in Liverpool back then. Stuck in my mind ever since and last year I bought one, the Super Feedbacker Distortion: I like it.
Josh: Boss Micro-Rack series? Please tell me you’re familiar with these. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but RBF-10 and RPH-10 are things you need to know and experiment with. I’ll even tell you why if you wanna know why...
@cc c the flanger and phasor not only can cover any sound you want out of pretty much any other analog flanger or phasor (including 100% wet vibrato on the flanger) but they have a C/V jack to sync LFOs, blend two LFO rates, invert LFOs, drive with an external envelope control or even feed a C/V from a synth sequencer/arpeggiator. It’s ridiculously powerful and if I didn’t already have one of each, I would hate myself for letting this secret out.
I'm surprised the FB-2 is so rare/special. In fact i bought this pedal 10years ago, it was my first Booster and also my first Boss pedal and has remained on my pedalboard since, also used the feedback function a lot!
PQ-4 is for 4 band eq. Bass, Middle, Treble and Presence. Great eq pedal. Bought that one from a demo board in the music store for less than 50€ (2000 Bfr = Belgian francs). The Tera Echo is in my DD-500 delay from BOSS. And my first distortion pedal is a DF-2 SUPER feedbacker & Distortion. 😀
I have a BC-2 and it’s superb for a digital modelling unit. It’s an AC30 simulator. Most of those pedals came out in the last decade to low fanfare. I remember each one. I was getting disappointed with Boss back then, but then the Waza came along. I also have the PW-2 and the XT-2 which both came out in 1996 and sank without trace! I’m to keen on the PW-2, it’s noisy. I also have a mint DN-2 with the box. It’s based on the BD-2 but more touch sensitive. Looks stunning. PQ-4 is rare, and 4 is an unlucky number in Japan. The XT-2 should have been in this video too!!!!
