BOSS Pedals You've Never Heard Of

Okay, in this article I am basically going to be both the good cop and the bad cop (you know, like that one guy from the LEGO Movie?) My goal is to stump you by showing you a ton of BOSS pedals you’ve probably never seen (bad cop) and help you understand that these pedals you've never seen are awesome (good cop).

Honestly, it’ll make more sense once we actually dive in, so let's go.

BOSS TE-2 Tera Echo

The first notable pedal is from 2013, the BOSS TE-2 Tera Echo. I've shown this in one episode, which may undo some of the “you've never seen it” factor, but this is a very, very unique delay pedal. It is built for absolutely being an ambient effect, and eschews any claims of being tame or traditional. It has a very interesting, unheard of sound inside of it that I can only describe as some sort of runaway, spacey, infinite ambience.

This is a truly unique pedal. There’s just something about how it echoes and delays, this predetermined ducking where it doesn't get in the way.

Personally, I like using the TE-2 as a pad. If you go back and watch this episode of the JHS Show, I'll also show you how to pair this with a slide guitar sound-- which I guarantee is better than anything Rhett Shull’s ever played. #sickburn

BOSS PW-2 Power Driver

The BOSS PW-2 Power Driver came out in 1996 and it was only made from July of ’96 until May of ’97 (only 11 months total, for those keeping score at home). To my knowledge, this is the shortest run of a BOSS pedal ever. They only made 19,000-- which, for BOSS, is an incredibly small production run. They only produced PW-2s for 11 months, but for the next ten years, you could find these new, still in the box, sitting around music stores everywhere. For some reason, no one wanted to buy it.

But here's what's crazy. The PW-2 Power Driver is amazing. It's also one of the only BOSS pedals that uses unorthodox knob titles: fat and muscle. You'll never see that on a BOSS pedal. DOD? Yes. All day. But BOSS is the kind of company that likes to call a spade a spade.**

**Yeah, I just quoted Oscar Wilde in an article about guitar pedals. I’m fancy like that.

I’m going to make a big statement here. The PW-2 Power Driver is basically BOSS’s Big Muff. Yes, the PW-2 is underrated as heck, but that doesn’t change how good it is. Some people say it's like Oasis in a box, ideal for powerful and wild chord playing, and I’m inclined to agree. Basically, get yourself a PW-2 and rock out like Paul Arthurs is watching.

BOSS BC-2 Combo Drive

This next pedal is from 2011, the BOSS BC-2 Combo Drive. Now, I’d say that 2011 was BOSS’s dark period, but they still produced some quality gear that year. Case in point: the BC-2. The enclosure shows a more industrial thing going on, and the auburn coloring is beautiful.

You've probably never seen this. When I went to Japan, I had never seen this. I walked into a guitar shop in Tokyo and saw roughly 400 of these sitting on the shelf. Apparently this was such a big seller in Japan that they didn’t even bother to market it in the United States?

The BC-2 pairs really well with a Fender-type amp. Basically, if you pair the BC-2 with a higher wattage and some clean Princeton tones, it makes the amp sound identical to a slightly crunchy Vox. That's not an easy thing to do.

BOSS FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster

The BOSS FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster has a funny origin story. BOSS originally released this circuit as the DF-2 Super Distortion & Feedbacker around ’83 or ’84. A few years later, thanks to a cease and desist letter from Dimarzio (who were already manufacturing a super distortion pickup), BOSS rebranded the DF-2 Super Distortion & Feedbacker as the DF-2 Super Feedbacker & Distortion. Because copyrights are weird, y’all.

Now, of course, we know it as the FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster. This pedal has a super power: if you hold down the foot switch it creates feedback without even being near your amp. That’s some Doctor Strange-level reality-bending power right there.

BOSS DN-2 Dyna Drive

The BOSS DN-2 Dyna Drive is actually still in production, which means you can buy it right now.

No, seriously, get in your car, drive to the nearest music store and buy one. I’ll wait.

I love this pedal mainly because of its special DSP technology that comes from BOSS’s tube amplifiers. The jury’s still out on what exactly this circuit is, but I think it's an overdrive distortion that's fairly original to the BOSS line.

Now, here's what's interesting. There's a lot of pedals that are touch dynamic, meaning that when I pick lightly, they're clean, and when I dig in, they're distorted. This happens because when you pick lightly, you send a little bit of voltage from the pickup through the cable to the amp or pedal. When you pick harder, that's a louder signal, more voltage, and it distorts the overdrive pedal that you're using. This is known as touch sensitivity, but the DN-2 takes it to a new level. With some Skynet-level artificial intelligence, the DN-2 is actively listening for and digitally tracking the signal, which means that no matter how softly or loudly I pick my strings, there will be no volume difference. This is groundbreaking work in the world of overdrive.

BOSS PQ-4 Parametric Equalizer

The BOSS PQ-4 Parametric Equalizer is a rare bird. Let me break the ice by admitting that these pedals are stupid expensive. I have one in my collection which I got for a really good deal, but that’s the exception, not the rule. It’s basically a matter of supply and demand. They didn't make this for long-- only between 1991 to 1997 --so the demand is naturally going to be greater than the supply. Because mathematics.

But here’s what’s really bonkers about the PQ-4: to my knowledge this is the only BOSS pedal with the number four in its name. This is mindblowing. Four is a bad omen in Japanese culture because the Japanese word for it is sometimes pronounced shi, which sounds like their word for death. Basically, what the number thirteen is in the US, the number four is in Japan. So, very sensibly, they've avoided using the number four throughout the entire history of BOSS.

Until the PQ-4. This thing exists as an enigma, and there’s no satisfactory answer for why BOSS suddenly decided to throw several thousand years of Japanese culture out the window. I have a theory, of course. I think some dumb American was involved in developing this pedal, had no idea about the four thing and pushed for the name PQ-4 so aggressively that BOSS finally said, “Okay, fine.” Sounds like something we’d do, to be honest.

Death omens aside, the PQ-4 is a pretty rad pedal. If I were trying to sell this at JHS, I’d use the tagline: “When you can't get enough EQ control out of your amp, buy the BOSS PQ-4.”

BOSS MO-2 Multi Overtone

The BOSS MO-2 Multi Overtone hit the shelves in 2013. As the name suggests, the MO-2 adds multiple overtones to the signal, which produces an effect that is some odd combination of detuning, chorus and rotary. Really, the best way to explain this is to just play it, so go back and listen to this jam if you haven’t already.

The MO-2 does include a stereo output, but I didn’t use it. I’ve got better things to do with my time, so I ran it in mono mode and jammed my heart out.

BOSS DB-5 Boss Driver

Now, until I heard about the BOSS PW-2 and its 11 month production run, I always thought that the BOSS DB-5 Boss Driver was the rarest, most unproduced BOSS pedal. After all, the DB-5 only had a run of about three years, roughly 1977 to 1980. What’s really wild is that the compact series as we know it also dropped in 1977, which means that the DB-5 and the compact series co-existed in the BOSS catalog for three years.

Even apart from that, thet DB-5 is a weird pedal. It has three settings that can only be used independently: equalizer, compressor or distortion. Now, I’m always going to pick distortion when I can-- it just sounds more metal --and in this case the DB-5 distortion mode really is some type of original, really unique fuzz. It’s almost but not quite an octave fuzz.

At the end of the day, this article is a lesson in not following the crowd. Sure, the cool kids at school, the jocks and the cheerleaders, they’re telling you to play the most popular pedals, but you can be your own person. Make your own choices. I don’t want to tell you how to live your life, but I also kind of do, so here we are.

Don’t keep buying the same stuff. Stop it. That's the point of today, play a Tera Echo, get a Combo Drive, and just be different.