My 10 Favorite Boss Pedals And How I Use Them

hey guys today we're gonna talk about my 10 favorite boss pedals and how I use them [Music] now in the last decade and a half boutique pedals have come into the market and boss pedals have lost some other desirability now keep in mind they're pretty much still number one when I started out playing guitar boss pedals pretty much were the high end pedals at least in my community where I started playing guitar you know there was a mix ours that were very good as well and there was all these knockoff pedals I actually owned pedals that were series 10 pedals if you remember that brand was a st. Louis music company brand so I had those pedals and some other pedals and then eventually you graduated to your first boss pedals so I want to show you why I like boss pedals but more importantly why these 10 this is the actual order in which I would run these boss pedals now you can run them in many different orders sometimes you'll run tremolo before an overdrive or after some like to use their tuner pedal at the end of a chain and some at the beginning I've always used at the end because I use it like a mute switch and that way I don't have to worry about turning off any pedals that are loud if one of the pedals is hissing like an overdrive pedal and I turn the signal off sometimes before the hissing the hissing still comes through my amp this way I can actually shut this down now the other question will be why not run some of these pedals to the effects loop for this demonstration we're going to keep it simple it's guitar into pedals pedals into amp amp clean no reverb on the F I'm using my Archon and clean mode through a 212 selection cabinets I want to keep this in mind to all of these pedals you see right here have been purchased used except for the looper the looper I bought new alright first is the acoustic similar pedal this is the AC 3 now they make an AC 2 as well that was the first one that's now been discontinued the major difference is that the new one has reverb I don't really need the reverb but I bought this pedal like I said used for $45 at a used bookstore so in fact it was a Bookmans if you live in my area and this pedal reminds me why I like boss so much not only do they make their pedals look like skittles but they they make their pedals complement each other so sometimes if you have a pedal and it sounds good with another boss pedal it's gonna sound better this pedal definitely sounds better through an acoustic amp or through a PA with an acoustic preamp added now boss has a new Chris acoustic preamp pedal and I have not been able to try it yet but I plan to very soon because I'm very excited to see if the way I'm running this is gonna be better served with that method right now I'm running the app clean so let's give you a shot of that okay so when you turn the acoustic simulator pedal on you're gonna have reverb added immediately Oh a lot of people complain that it doesn't sound like an acoustic it just sounds thin well its acoustic like I mean this is definitely something designed to just I don't wanna say trick the audience but convince the audience that there's an acoustic somewhere in the mix or something's happening I say this is the good enough pedal for a mix I would not want to record with this pedal I don't think it's that caliber but for $45 and have something that you can loop or have in a small setlist or on a band live band situation that you have to worry about I think it's a fantastic pedal but what I like to do is match it to the ge7 pedal so let me show you that here's the cord with the acoustic pedal by itself and add that ge7 obviously a little louder we can back that off we want a little bit but that sweet spot [Laughter] [Music] to me the EQ adds the ability to use your guitar like percussion like you would acoustic even though I'm dumping the string it definitely mimics that kind of hollow acoustic sound now some people wouldn't say why not use a compressor you can use a compressor but to me it changes the dynamic definitely and adds a lot more sustain to the acoustics and acoustics to me don't have a lot of sustain so the compressor is not the right fit for my ear I don't really want to use it with the acoustic I feel this really works but I am excited to try that new boss preamp acoustic preamp so I'll have to give that a try this pedal I bought for $50 and I bought that from a local store the tu 3 I bought for $50 and I bought that off a reverb now there's the tu 2 as well that's the first precursor and this one's major differences it has an LED screen with an adjustable brightness the reason why I got the tu 3 was the only downfall de tu 2 is it sometimes in a if you're playing with a band and the daytime which is normally where someone like me that interacts with my friends and we jam at a party or something will be in the daytime or in the afternoon outside the LED is not that bright this has the ability to brighten it up a lot and that's a nice feature on the TU three a lot of players have switched from tu 2s to other brands just because of that feature getting a brighter LED and that that adds that but no more importantly it actually condemn down to the tu 2 if you find it's just too bright for your eyes so it's really cool it's a it's a nice pedal because it adds a buffer to your signal chain if you need that as well and if it doesn't even matter if it's on it's always going to be adding that buffer that's one of the downfalls of the boss pedals is that they're buffered and not true bypass I've never had that attitude when it comes to pedals what I've always looked at is they're they're there to add to the sound I already have the amp they were they're going to do that or not do that buffered isn't a bad word in my vocabulary and neither is true bypass there's there's benefits to both I don't know if I'd want all 10 buffered pedals in the loop but I don't know if I don't want all 10 true bypass pedals a loop you have to kind of experiment with pedals and there is no go steadfast rule of this is bad and this is good definitely use your ears because that's the best way to figure out quality every time it's better than a price tag and it's definitely better than just the word of mouth of you know what's the community saying you know that's a good way to get a reference a starting point so if I suggest or somebody what else suggests a product maybe check it out but definitely use your ears to make your final decision let's go on to my favorite the the reverb the 63 fender reverb this one's no longer made and it's pretty obnoxiously priced now the reverb I bought used for ninety dollars when they started going up in price and I bought that from a store as well for that reason I want a reference that I do like the RB six I don't have one but I am purchasing one right now it's on its way and not to replace this but I want to have it as well because I like that reverb a lot I do prefer this one better but not for the prices people are getting for it I wish boss could reissue it in the non fenders logo you know just give us that kind of pedal or bring it back I understand that the three fender pedals probably didn't do that well for the boss fender collaboration except I think this pedal was the star in the show this reverb is great I'm gonna go ahead and turn it on right now whoa there it is clean here's the reverb to me it's even feels like it's gonna splash you know I was yeah I was actually odds of putting in this in my top ten because it is a pedal that you can't get any more and they are asking astronomical prices and I want to add to that to chaos so like I said I'll promise to do a follow-up of the our v6 and I'll do a comparison with that later because I think it's the our v6 is a great boss reverb as well okay the DD 3 the DD 3 is my favorite delay from boss for sure and the reason that's important is boss has a philosophy their corporate mantra is never look back boss has always been a company that's innovated they've always kind of added new pedals to the lineup over the years and they until recently until of course the market kind of pressured them to they never really pedals once they stop making a pedal they made their newer version sometimes an improvement sometime perceive not an improvement but either way they made a new version they never went back to the old version and of course you know us this guitar player is really demanding them to go back all these manufacturers like hey make it like it was make the thing like you did and so they've had to reissue that or go back to it a little bit but the DD three even though there's been the DD six and I think there was a DD v the DD seven and those are great they stat they still haven't stopped making the DD three it's it's a favorite by Paul Gilbert and Joe Bonamassa those guys we're using them easily in the early parts of their career I think Paul Gerber still uses his it's definitely one his favorite this is definitely a favorite I like this pedal so much I bought this used at Guitar Center should mention that again about this use the guitar Center for sixty dollars okay so let's go to the super overdrive sd1 and why I like this I like the SuperDrive sd1 a lot one of my favorite [Music] I love this pedal I mean I love it so you guys know when I did my video last year when I got my Goldtop Les Paul a lot of you guys said my the tone in that video was killer if you look in the comments you'll see that and that's the pedal I was using now so for reference I actually have the Wazza craft version I got it used I think I paid again $50 or something like this $40 the was a craft is fine my official stance on watercraft is all the walls of crafts I've tried like the blues driver have been fine but oh for some reason I always like them in standard mode not the custom mode which is the Wazza mode more and not that I dislike the Wazza mode I just seem to always like the original so that being said I don't see the point tip for me to buy the Wazza if I like the original more so some of you guys you're you know your mileage will vary your taste will vary um actually through happenstance I actually come across one of these for $25.00 and so I had to buy one of those you know for $25.00 over trying [Music] I love this pedal here's why I love it I love it because this pedal cuts through a mix as an overdrive as a light overdrive it's great if you look at the way I'm running it I actually run the level on ten always I run the gain at about two maybe three tone control depends on the guitar in the amp okay so that's that's something that I always see in videos people go hey you know you need a gesture controls but unless you know the entire rig that's going on the controls are dependent on what else other factors are going on the room I'm in the dampening them using the amp the you know cabinet guitar pickups pick you name it it's all factored in so that's where these controls line up but no matter what the guitar I always tend to run the level at about ten I just drive it now another question would be what do I think about comparing the ds1 I have a ds1 and I like the ds1 a lot it's a cool fun pedal it's definitely like this historic pedal let's say it's a piece of boss history for sure I love the sd1 a lot more than the ds1 the ds1 to me is fizzy and distorted it sounds great it's kind of a fun pedal to have it definitely takes you back when you play one and go oh yeah remember when everybody had one of these and that was the sound and I think I can pull a lot of great tones from it but without a doubt the sd1 is an a pedal that I I actually covet it's my favorite pedal from the boss family it OverDrive's my fart in the OverDrive's world's st one's my favorite that brings me the second favorite which is the bt - that's my second favorite overdrive I want to do that I want to feel it really kind of make the amp move whoa hit those speakers going but the overdrive on the on the Biddy - [Music] I definitely dig that next that brings us to the tremolo now why not their chorus pedal flanger phaser I have those obviously why the tremolo for boss and it's because I'm not a big chorus flanger guy I use phaser a little bit but the tremolo on the boss paddles to me is the only really effect that to me it lands itself into the boutique pedals I want to say it like that but it's true some of the tremolo that I own are very nice and they're definitely on the high end there in the 200 range plus pedals and they sound fantastic obviously the deja vibe is fantastic the SU Pro tremolo is amazing I love those pedals and I like them better than this boss pedal for sure however I bought this pedal I think for $50 or $40 from a local music store used and again you can't beat that is that's pretty crazy and it sounds great to me it just has the right amount [Music] the reason why it's not my favorite compared to the other ones is not because the boss somehow lacks in quality to those more expensive pedals one thing I think tremolo should have is a little bit of overdrive I feel like tremolo always sucks a little to tone down right cuz it's like you can feel the notes and then the tremolo kind of is dropping down and a lot of the really nice higher end ones have a little bit of way to drive or drive the level or drive the the control this one has a rate a wave and a depth but not a level controller drive I feel like that one feature would make this pedal fantastic although you can add you know your SD one [Music] I decided for this collection not to do any of the double pedals if you guys know what I'm talking about and the reason is is because this will keep it more straightforward and the double pedals do take up a lot of room there are obviously different price points and I do like these pedals better than all the double pedals but as much as I love the tremolo pedal I really like their leslie rotary speaker simulator double pedal it is fantastic I love that pedal a lot in fact for the record that pedal I like more than the tremolo and I like the RC 20 more than the RC one but I just decided to exclude the double pedals from this lineup keep it more simple those two are honorable mentions why the RC one why not the RC 3 the RC 2 those are great pedals well I prefer the RC 2 to the RC 3 I think the RC 3 getting you 100 banks is really cool but it limited the already limited drum track feature of the RC - I feel like the drum tracks on RC 2 looper if you're not familiar with that looper has dropped built-in drum tracks we're very limited to begin with and so then limited it even more in the next model was not a you know an exciting thing plus those pedals are in the $180 range 100 $120 used this one is $100 pedal new and what I absolutely love about it is on the led you get when you record it goes in a circle so it tells you where the 1 is it's gonna let you know where the song starts again so what I have now is the acoustic pedal and the equalizer pedal and I'm gonna go ahead and loop so we're gonna go ahead and start the loop [Laughter] [Music] so now we have that lovely I'm gonna go ahead and overlay with my SD one and my 83 delay [Music] [Music] [Laughter] all right so that brings us to the cs3 compressor pedal now let's turn this one down now and the compressor pedal from this by boss gets a lot of love and hate from a lot of guitar players there's a lot of high-end compressor pedals out there you know believe it or not I'm a really big fan of compression I use a lot and I have a bunch of compressors and there's some compressors I just really really love but the boss cs3 has been a classic for me now I know there's a CS 1 and cs2 but the cs3 for some reason has always spoke to me there's something about how over the top compressed it sounds it really kind of let's get that delay kaha to me what I want is when I'm playing just some staccato kind of note that hit on you that to me if you really want to feel that in the mix where you feel the the pick attack in other words you're muting and pick attack you got there gonna I love that so what I love is they can add it to my sd-1 so here's nasty one add this without adding delay right so we're not run delay it's a great way to add a lot of sustain so against cs3 compressor $50 I bought that used that was an ebay fine or a reverb I can't remember which one but I was online but what about my honorable mention for the pedal that just almost made the list and the one that will never make the list well the one that almost made the list was the JB to the angry driver it's the best distortion pedal boss has ever made in my opinion overall now it's not the same kind of distortion this is more aggressive if I was really into a more aggressive distortion tone this would be the one I would I would go for I think this is gonna catapult boss into a new category of good sounding OverDrive's and it's $200 so it's a lot pricier than the other bosses this is a proposition I didn't find one used so I did buy this new for $200 so this is definitely my honorable mention it was really tough to not put this on the list and if it was gonna go on the pedal board it would replace the Blues driver because it does that and has more to it so there's definitely definitely this was a close call I could have flipped a coin almost before not picking this one all right so that's my 10 favorite boss pedals and why I like them and I hope you enjoyed this video was kind of fun to make I never thought about putting 10 boss pedals together and I like videos like this because again it shows that it's you know the quality is out there at any price point the fact is you can buy two or three of these new are used for less than one boutique pedal and I thought that was an interesting thing to check out but now I'm curious what you guys think which ones was I wrong on which ones are you like man I can't believe he likes that pedal I you know I hated that pedal tell me why you didn't like it I'm really was curious and tell me what pedal I missed what pedal didn't go on the list now keep in mind the list had to contain pedals I owned I know one of them so you know is going to be the dm2 why didn't I say the DM 2 over the DD 3 I love the DM - I have a DM - I have the wasa crafty M - I don't have an original but I like the DD three more I don't know what it is I just do other than that I'm curious to see what you guys think like said let me know your alternative pedals which ones you love more than these which ones you like less than these and if you learned anything today let me know that - if you learned any way to run the pedals as always thank you guys for hanging out and joining me today it's always fun to geek out on some pedals and until next time know your gear [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Phillip McKnight

Views: 298,134

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Id: bsMJ0ujDlfY

Length: 20min 39sec (1239 seconds)

Published: Wed May 30 2018