Boss DF-2 Blind Eye Mod

My usual home set-up is a Fender-style guitar with EMG SA's, Wilkinson trem and locking tuners and Tech21 Trademark 10 amp. Makes very nice noises without eliciting cold stares, or worse, from the neighbours. When I play out I use a loaned Fender Twin or a Roland JC120. I like to play my effects into a clean amp but with this one I just put the amp on the clean,US eq setting on the verge of break-up. Not noisy, definitely less noise than before. Perhaps a little with the distortion level way up. The distortion is now way better than before its modification. Night and day, almost. Where it was once thin and reedy, it is now a FAT ROAR with chords, nice rich colours. Single lines still have that DS1 quality a bit but fatter, or is that phatter? Well, both. I'm very very pleased, almost ecstatic, but I got that from the dear wife just now ;) It's even better with the Keeley Comp - Sustain Central. I wouldn't want to add anything else apart from the reverb on the TM10, maybe a dash of delay from my AD9 or DM2. Why spoil this delicious dish with any other spice? I've long given up going for my favourite guitarists'(Gilmour, Holdsworth,Hackett, Belew)tone. But this one will give you the tone you need from blues rock, classic rock to heavy metal. Hey I may be on the wrong side of 40 (eh, it's the right side in many ways), but I still know how to rock! :) And what about that feedback function? Hey, it's fat too, the fundamental is nice and strong and the overtones come through punchier. More stable now, I couldn't take my foot off the pedal as I soared with a fat vibing sustain. This Mod has made me lose my hankering for the Zoom Trimetal - tried that and liked it immensely. You know, as I played this one the sigle most significant thought was that I do not need to look for any more distortion pedals - well, fat chance, being the gear slut that I am but you know what I mean. This won't be the last distortion pedal that I'll buy, but it's so good, for that thought to have come across my mind. Brrrr....

Hey, it's still a Boss pedal. Sprinkled with Keeley magic dust.

This is the very first review of a Boss DF2 Distortion Feedbacker that has been modded by ROBERT KEELEY with the same modifications as the ones he's doing for the Boss D1 distortion. The main difference is that you can't see the 'Seeing Eye' LED as there was no space on the control panel of the pedal. That evil-eye LED is inside the pedal. So, with Robert's blessing, I have dubbed this the DF2 'Blind Eye Mod' (BEM):) WYSIWYG usually but in this case WYDSIWYG! The Boss DF2 has been with me since I bought it new in 1987. I was intrigued with its feedbacker function, where stepping on the pedal while playing sigle lines brought on this emulation of a feedback tone. Easy as (eating)pie. The feedback can be controlled with the overtone knob, going from the fundamental to the upper harmonic overtones. I prefer this at about 1-2 o'clock where it gives this nice fundamental going into a blend with the harmonic. The rest of the original MIJ unmodded pedal is where I had problems with. It's basically a DS1 distortion. I found the original distortion quality ton to be bright, reedy and thin. No balls or grind, just a thin quite sustainy tone that left me distinctly unsatisfied. Bored with it, I took a permanent black marker to it and painted it around the sides - hmmmm......no improvement :) Well, into the box it went and for many years,neglected. Until now. I had read many posts on the HC Effects Forum about Robert's 'Seeing Eye Mod' (SEM)and with the nice opinions and positive remarks given by my trusted brethren on that forum, a light went on shining brightly in the dark recesses of my potty head - what if..... So the DF2 was resurrected form its slumber and put through its paces again. One thing about Boss pedals, they will withstand anything - being run over (I kid you not, but that's another story...), being bashed evry which way and being put into enforced hibernation. Still worked, no problems. Unfortunately, the distortion was even worse than I remembered it [no, it hasn't changed but I have - IMHO my tastes have improved ;)] So off it went to Robert in OK, USA. Oh, ease of use? Standard Boss pedal. Well, 4 nice range-topped black knobs labelled level,tone, distortion and feedback overtone. Clockwise for more, anti-clockwise for less (the knobs, not the pedal!). Stomp for on and stomp again for off. Only the feedback overtone knob requires a bit of fondling and caressing before you suss the function out completely.

Robert's superb reputation for fast, friendly, honest, expert service is is well-founded and he's such a kind gentleman. I feel as though I've got a life-time warranty or something and I've got absolutely no doubt that he'll open it up again for me if something were to go wrong.

My style? A mishmash of blues and rock with jazzy inflections would be close but not quite. I've been playing for 30 years now. I was an acoustic guitarist in the beginning, accompanying myself on 12-string then I got into playing electric guitar, inspired by Hackett and Gilmour. Apart from that Ibanez 12-string, which now sports an Earth pick-up, I've got an Ibanez RS505 (which will soon get new EMG's - 81 and 85). If stolen or lost, I would despair for awhile because this pedal has been with me since '87 but it's easily replaceable. DF2's are rather thin on the ground, I must admit but there're loads of used DS1's out there - just send it to Robert.