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AW-2 Auto Wah

  • Features:
  • Sound Quality:
  • Reliability/Durability:
  • Ease of Use:
  • Customer Support:
  • Overall Rating:
  • Brand:
    Boss
  • Model:
    AW-2 Auto Wah
Tags: brand#boss tax#aqb

Reviews

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AW-2 Auto Wah

Review By:
gremestorer
gremestorer on 5/26/10 8:55 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
EBaY
Price:
Features:
Sound Quality:

9

Reliability/Durability:

10

Ease of Use:

Second hand Boss AW2, no mods. See my review of the disappointing AW3. Ill make this very quick and simple. If you want a no-frills very useable auto wah, with no silly add-ins, no annoying tap tempo on a hair trigger, that has good low midrange presence, good range of depth and time.this is the one to get. This was when Boss made pedals that didnt try to do too much in one box; all badly.

Customer Support:
Overall Rating:

9

0 Comments Tags: brand#boss tax#aqb

AW-2 Auto Wah

Review By:
anon-zRTBn
anon-zRTBn on 5/20/07 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Price:
Features:
Sound Quality:
It does a decent touch-sensitive picking wah (with the rate and depth set to zero). The sound is a bit thin though and lacks the kind of fullness you get from an old Cry Baby with a Fasel inductor. It's also thinner than the EH DR Q. At low volumes there's a definite volume drop when it's switched on (this can be countered a bit with the manual control). At gigging volume the drop isn't as noticable. Doesn't like being run into distortion pedals much, it can thin out the sound until it's too brittle. The AW-2 can be very noisy indeed and is inclined to hum lots when used with a power supply (including the Boss PSA series). BTW - Fender guitars, Orange amp, Ccelestion speakers, Fender valve reverb. A mix of pedals usually including 1970s Jen Crybaby, RatII, VoodooLab Chorus, T-Rex trem, MXR Super-Comp, Line6 Echo Park (though not in that order). Put the AW-2 before compressors or distortion or the compression caused by the first pedal will keep the AW-2 constantly wha-ing every single note, and you probably don't want that.
Reliability/Durability:
Mine's very old and I got it second hand. It still works perfectly well so in that sense it's reliable. On the other hand it is very susceptible to interference from electromagnetic background. At last night's gig for example it was unusable because the house lighting dimmers made it hum at incredible volume - even when run off a battery. Nothing else used by an entire band was in the least bit bothered, nor was my 1970s Crybaby. No, it's not reliable enough to gig with because of the noise problem.
Ease of Use:
A very unintuitive pedal. Perhaps because it tries to do too much, which means all the controls interact greatly. As others have said it's possible to get a decent sound out of the AW-2 but you have to persist with it. The biggest problem is that the sensitivity knob is too sensitive. Even with a low-output guitar like a Strat once the sensitivity is set above 9-o-clock every single note is wah'd aonce the guitar volume is set above seven. The "manual" knob which sets the basic frequency of the effect (kind of like where you would put the pedal on a foot-wah to control the lowest point of the filter sweep) is also very sensitive and has a very narrow band. If it's good for the middle pickup it'll be too bassy for the neck. This control in particular seems to need constant fiddling with.
Customer Support:
Overall Rating:
The noise issues and the complexity reduce the overall rating quite a lot.
0 Comments Tags: brand#boss tax#aqb

AW-2 Auto Wah

Review By:
jmay66
jmay66 on 11/27/05 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Price:
$50.00 USD USED
Features:
Sound Quality:
I'm playing Gibsons and Fenders through a 1968 Vox AC30TB. This pedal is not noisy compared to wah and autowah pedals. This is a very misunderstood pedal judging by the other reviews. Boss designed this box to do three different effects and it does all quite well. Some reviewers have complained that they can hear a "swooshing" sound when the pedal is on, but they are not playing. They probably have it after a distortion pedal, and this is to be expected. When mine is on, it's very quiet. If you want to completyely eliminate the "swooshing", just turn the rate knob down all the way, it's that simple. Here are the three different effects this pedal produces: - For a standard Wah sound, turn the rate knob all the way down and this box is an autowah pedal. It's very easy to adjust and sounds great before a distortion pedal. Use the Manual control to adjust the wah tonal range. The sensitivity adjusts how loud you have to play to kick in the wah. The depth adjusts the...depth. - For a fixed Wah sound (just like the Dunlop Q-Zone pedal), turn the rate and the sensitivity knobs all the way down and use the manual to adjust the boosted frequency and the depth for...you guessed it, the depth of the effect. - For a modulated wah sound turn all the knobs halfway up and experiment from there. You can get anything from vibrato to pseudo-chorus to cyclic wah tones. there is a lot of range on all of the knobs and a lot of different effect possibilities. I've been through literally hundreds of vintage and boutique pedals and honestly, most pedals do not work great in a band situation. I've recently gone back to a few Boss pedals for modulation, delay and autowah and am using a Carl Martin HD'NB Mk II for overdrive and a Wolftone Chaos for fuzz. The Boss pedals are quieter, more rugged and sound better in a band context then most of the stuff out there. Boss has made many lousy sounding pedals IMHO, but this is not one of them. This pedal does a few things very well and it sounds great in a full band situation. There is nothing else that has ever been produced that does the Autowah thing this well. It replaced an EH Tube Zipper on my pedalboard.
Reliability/Durability:
Very roadworthy.
Ease of Use:
If you know effects units and how they work, it's a snap. If you're new to guitar effects, it might seem complicated.
Customer Support:
I've tried Boss CS a while ago for schematics and they wer completely unresponsive, the worst.
Overall Rating:
I think this will be one of the sought-after Boss pedals in about 15-20 years, like the Spectrum and the Dimension C. It is weird and can go way over the top unlike most Boss pedals which are more conservative. at $50 it's a bargain. I have had a Fulltone Clyde Deluxe (hated the notchy sweep, but nice overall tone), Teese RMC (very nice) and TDK and Fasel inductor vintage Cry Babies (great tone and value). The Boss AW-2 does not have the drippy vintage tone of the above, but it does sound great and works perfect with a full band.
0 Comments Tags: brand#boss tax#aqb

AW-2 Auto Wah

Review By:
Mike-qhynh
Mike-qhynh on 4/24/05 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Price:
Features:
Sound Quality:
62 reissue strat/Jap strat->George Dennis wah/o'drive->Tubescreamer 10->Boss OD2 turbo o'drive->MXR micro-amp boost->Boss BF-2 flanger->George Dennis tremolo/volume->Ibanez DL-10 delayBoss CH-1 chorus->Fender Super 210 all-tube combo. I didn't think I'd need this pedal given that the George Dennis wah is amazingly good and not tone-sucking.  BUT I had been thinking of getting a Dunlop Q-zone which is like a manual wah that you can hold any position in the wah sweep BUT this does that and with much less (ie none) tone sucking.  That's mainly what I use it for.  But the autowah is good except for a weird digital-sounding noise on some settings.
Reliability/Durability:
Boss...
Ease of Use:
A bit complicated- I don't think the manual is up to speed.  I learned more by experimenting than by reading it.
Customer Support:
Boss...  If it's not still made, they don't want to know you.
Overall Rating:
I really don't don't use it for auto-wah but for the q-zone effect.  I love it (used sparingly, of course) and it's going to be a part of my setup for years to come.  We play indie and this pedal makes some tones that you simply cannot get anywhere else.
0 Comments Tags: brand#boss tax#aqb

AW-2 Auto Wah

Review By:
eRay-bSmmL
eRay-bSmmL on 11/20/04 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Price:
Features:
Sound Quality:
settings 3.4.4.7  with a 1952 Les Paul played through twin Marshall Stacks.  ALso setting 0.3.3.7 using my Gibson ES-175 through any of six VOX amps the group currently owns. THe quality of the sound is worth it.  There is no noise, even at Hotel room levels.  My favorite artist is Matisse.
Reliability/Durability:
No comment.  My pedal configuration is tended to by my tech.
Ease of Use:
After reading the manual carefully, the setup process was easy.  At first I din't plug it correctly.  I purchased the pedal from Ebay and downloaded the manual in PDF.
Customer Support:
I have called Boss numerous times regarding my ideas on Waveform modification.  The engineers said they would consider my ideas, if backstage passes were offered.
Overall Rating:
Grunge, Jazz, Classic Rock, Disco, Childrens Music. 45 years playing.  Marshall, Vox, Fender Amps. Fender Strat, Telecaster, Gibson ES, LP Junior, LP, SG.  If it were lost I would throw a fit.  Heads would roll. I mostly like the flesh-colored box. Creatively speaking I would be up shizt creek without it.
0 Comments Tags: brand#boss tax#aqb
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