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Any good/decent lesser known Boss dirt?


iodine74

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One of these days I'll grab an MD-2 for $30 or so, just to see what's up...

 

the EQ is crazy and its hard to get the sweet spot. Always to much bass... same with treble... the distortion texture is complete different and not the typical 80's br00tz style. Anyway, try also some low gain settings :thu:

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FWIW;
HM-3 - is like an IC Muff
XT-2 - just has too much treble / bass cut so sounds harsh no matter where you set the knobs.
OD-2 - has output issues, but otherwise sounds like a tubescreamer to me. It's a bit more honky than a TS9.
BD-2 - apparently a decendent of the OD-2. It's flatter in the mids but there's a treble spike which makes it painful with bright amps.
OD-3 - apparently an improved BD-2. Sounds better my ears - no treble spike.
OD-1 - sounds and acts like a tubescreamer
SD-1 - Sounded like an OD-1 with a tone control, but I didn't have them side-by-side.
DS-2 - Sounds like a slightly better DS-1 in mode 1. Mode 2 boosts the mids for soloing.
FZ-2 - Harsh heavy industrial fuzz with a slight octave element. Too much for me but Reznor should get one.
FZ-3 - mellower, sort of like a fuzz face I guess. Not bad.

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FWIW;

HM-3 - is like an IC Muff

XT-2 - just has too much treble / bass cut so sounds harsh no matter where you set the knobs.

OD-2 - has output issues, but otherwise sounds like a tubescreamer to me. It's a bit more honky than a TS9.

BD-2 - apparently a decendent of the OD-2. It's flatter in the mids but there's a treble spike which makes it painful with bright amps.

OD-3 - apparently an improved BD-2. Sounds better my ears - no treble spike.

OD-1 - sounds and acts like a tubescreamer

SD-1 - Sounded like an OD-1 with a tone control, but I didn't have them side-by-side.

DS-2 - Sounds like a slightly better DS-1 in mode 1. Mode 2 boosts the mids for soloing.

FZ-2 - Harsh heavy industrial fuzz with a slight octave element. Too much for me but Reznor should get one.

FZ-3 - mellower, sort of like a fuzz face I guess. Not bad.

 

 

Basically true, since the Tubescreamer was derived from the OD-1. However, I find MY OD-1 to be somewhat rougher sounding, more tweed-ish, than most Tubscreamers I've tried. And I quite dig that. I figure this goes for all of them, something to do with the asymmetrical clipping that Boss uses, yes? Only reason it would go off my board at this point is if it gives out on me.

 

Aside from that, I'd like to try an HM-2 and an FZ-2 someday. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

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There's been first hand accounts here of the metallizer being terrible.

 

HM-2 is a distortion, sounds great in low tunings as well as on bass. Less presence than a rat, not as much mid scoop as a muff. The actual clipping sounds nothing like a muff, though.

 

FZ-2 is great if you like octave fuzzes. The gain boost is incredible when stacked with another pedal.

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Basically true, since the Tubescreamer was derived from the OD-1.

 

 

Yeah I've heard that. Maxon try to claim on their website that they invented the 808 in 74 or thereabouts, but it's pretty suspicious that it wasn't marketed for 4 years which happened to be the year following Boss' OD-1 release.

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I've never come across any boss dirt pedal that sounded super lame, but impo pretty much all of em sound kinda mediocre -at best- compared to all the awesome peds out there nowadays. Though for the price they're usually a safe bet I guess.

Never cared much for their high gain metal distortions, and the ds-1 sounds like an even more cold/harsh/fizzy/thin Rat to me. The DS-2 was a small step up, just because of the bigger range of tones, but still a bag of meh impo. Used to have an SD-1 too: Muddy and dark compared to the other TS type overdrives in the price range. Might have been my amp, or just my taste, rather than an accurate unbiased observation ofcourse, but I couldn't get rid of it fast enough:)

FZ-3: Not much bad to say about this one. Doesn't do anything special or exceptional, but it's just a really nice sounding bread and butter fuzz for when you don't need more than a civilised somewhat classic sounding fuzz.
FZ-5: cosm+dirt = fail. Not completely unuseable, but in that price range there's a zillion other fuzz boxes I'd much rather buy instead.

The FZ-2 is where it's at for me. For the money it's the best superfuzz type of pedal I could find, at least when we're not counint diy/generic stuff. To verry useable and pretty different sounding fuzz modes plus a clean boost with a lot of headroom...Total win impo. Don't get this one unless you're into extreme nasty heavey filthy gore though, it won't jive with 'pretty' tunes:)

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