Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

Great drive pedal, works well in front of my Laney Supercub 12R amp and encourages some nice valve breakup. Also stacks well with a Boss Super Overdrive. With my setup, the tone needs to be at around 9 o'clock or can start to sound rather fizzy. A versatile, sturdy, and good value pedal. Tried various overdrives from Wampler and MXR and settled on this.

My school had this pedal for theater musicians to use during performances. It was simple to use and offered everything from subtle drive to thick distortion. It was probably over 10 years old when I was using it, but it performed like a beast. If you prefer mid-frequency emphasis, there are better options. I, however, simply loved this Blues Overdriver.

A unique drive that every guitarist needs

The Blues Driver is a unique drive that has such a great range of uses. Boost and edge of breakup, all the way to nasty, dirty gain - perfect for pretty much all styles of music. It also works great with both humbucker and single coil equipped guitars for pretty much anything you could need. Every guitarist needs one of these on their board so just get one and stick it on there for when you need it!

Amazingly warm overdrive.

Playing blues and hard rock live. Using this pedal at the front end of gain gradient (successive steps up in overdrive). Gives great initial breakup to tube amp. Warm and easy to achieve nice fat sound.Have used it alone with fender twin for dirty blues...did the job very well.Overall, love the versatility. Can be used for boost / initial break-up / heavier overdrive.As many point out, not a good pedal for metal unless used in combination with some other gain source (other pedals / amp overdrive).

As Good As I Hoped For

I'm an intermediate guitar player and the Blues Driver is my first effects pedal. It's a popular tried-and-true model, and it's easy to see why. Everything I played immediately sounded bolder and more like my influences. Basic position barre chords now sound a lot more like punk-rock guitar heroes Steve Jones, East Bay Ray, and Brian Baker than before. Playing chugga-chugga power-chords now sounds much more metal. Basic blues rhythms are more soulful and throaty. I don't quite have the single-note tone that I love dialed in yet, but I'm having fun working on it. Fwiw, I'm playing a Gretsch Streamliner through a Blackstar 3-watt Fly, and because I live in an apartment I keep volumes low, except when playing through headphones.

Essential pedal

Just what I needed to get that deeper, grittier sound. Or a smooth, balanced tone. Really versatile and gives you plenty of options within the dials to hone in on your preferred sound. I'm a total novice when it comes to pedals, and this is among my first three (along with a big muff and a looper). I think this is what I will consider an essential tool in my little guitar playing room.

Great pedal for my setup

I combine this with a Fender Pro Jr IV for playing at home and with my family. While my amp sounds great, I can't get that overdriven sound without cranking it up. The Blues Driver allows me to get the overdrive I'm looking for without driving my family mad. However, when they're gone, this pedal is very responsive and sounds even better when pushed.

Great versatile pedal

I jam weekly with a buddy and he had this pedal and I liked his tone so much I bought one. It's classic and warm and rich BUT I was surprised how much distortion you could get with it dialing it to the max. A big surprise. Not quite metal but not too far away Mostly a warm OD but great pleasing tone wherever you dial it . Bought one for my son in law who's like 35 and would never have purchased it bc he plays other stuff (Satriani, Eric Johnson , Vai. ). but he loves it.

Perfect Tube Tone in Front of any Amp

Been chasing tone for years and Loving Every Minute of It. Played in many bands for years. Played through many amps over the years, some tube but more than lately I have been determined to make the switch to solid state modeling because it is becoming so good and the versatility is hard to beat. Also tube amps are hard to move and I wanna keep them at home. See my reviews of Fender Mustang 3 and Peavey VIP 3. I use an A/B/Y splitter with these two amps. It's really something to hear them together.The first pedal in my chain before the amp splitter is the Boss Blues Driver 2. I set gain at center, level at center, tone at low. This gives me a transparent TUBE sizzle. I leave it on all the time. It makes these amps sparkle with tube presence and balanced harmonics. ... MoreBeen chasing tone for years and Loving Every Minute of It. Played in many bands for years. Played through many amps over the years, some tube but more than lately I have been determined to make the switch to solid state modeling because it is becoming so good and the versatility is hard to beat. Also tube amps are hard to move and I wanna keep them at home. See my reviews of Fender Mustang 3 and Peavey VIP 3. I use an A/B/Y splitter with these two amps. It's really something to hear them together.The first pedal in my chain before the amp splitter is the Boss Blues Driver 2. I set gain at center, level at center, tone at low. This gives me a transparent TUBE sizzle. I leave it on all the time. It makes these amps sparkle with tube presence and balanced harmonics. These amps already sound great but this added sparkle is the icing on the cake. When running into a clean setting on the amps I set all knobs at center. It is perfect tube response. Every amp becomes a Tube like amp. Tube amps are ultra expensive, they are moderately heavy and none sound as good as my setup as it is. I also run it in front of a Zoom G3 or a Zoom G1xon when recording and it adds that missing tube sparkle by thickening the sound. Recordings are flat out stellar. This pedal excels at clean settings but it can do great crunch. I play Journey, Styx, Boston, Tom Petty, ZZ Top, Def Le lots of classic Rock since we are a flashback band. Now for Billy Idol Flesh For Fantasy, this pedal at center knobs straight into a distortion makes it a double gain stage that is transparent and lively. It enhances, the lighter you play the more clearity stays defined and when you hit it hard both definition and crunch combine and make it sound like two guitars. This pedal by itself into an ultra clean amp sounds like a Fender twin or a Fender deluxe reverb. In my opinion the two best Clean amps out there, and I believe that the pedal actually enhances these amps as well. This is my opinion of the perfect tube gain

The best blues pedal - Boss Quality

Love the sound I get when playing the blues on my Strat! My new favorite pedal. Has the grunge and growl needed for the blues. I've had other pedal a but they don't measure up. I can always depend on Boss to make a quality product. I have 3 other Boss pedals and tuner pedal.