Hello dudes and dudettes.
This is the review for the Boss Blues Driver.
Also called a BD2
I have two of these pedals.
One is the original Boss BD2 Pedal.
Sounds great, really good pedal. Used it for years.
And then I discovered, another one.
Which is called, the Keeley modified BD2.
Modified by a guy called Robert Keeley.
You can see his website at robertkeeley.com
He modifies pedals and makes them sound better.
And the difference is quite remarkable really.
It gives you a lot more grunt, kind of a lower end sound with these
Keeley modified blues drivers.
If we just talk about the standard one for a second, it's a really
straightforward kind of a boss pedal.
Boss pedals are really good strong pedals, solid metal things. You know.
They take a regular battery underneath the lid of the pedal.
It's pretty simple controls on these things.
And they take a regular 9 volt power adapter in the back.
The Keeley one is essentially, it looks the same except they've added
a little, I think it's called the 'Fat Switch'.
It's the little switch that I'll go through with you in just a sec.
Essentially looks the same, just sounds a little different.
They change various components inside the pedal.
I think it's capacitors and stuff if my memory serves me right,
but I could be wrong.
Okay, so here are the two different pedals side by side.
The one on the left hand side is the Keeley pedal.
You can tell, two ways you can tell the Keeley pedal
First of all, it's got a blue 'on' switch.
And the boss traditional one has a red one
Second thing that's slightly more obvious
is the Keeley one has this little switch here.
I think they call it the 'Fat Switch'
I've always had it up actually.
I haven't experimented much with it being down
so, maybe we'll have a little look at that in a sec.
The three controls on each one
First one, is the level control.
Which as I said before, the thing that you want to probably be doing
is setting that so it's the same volume as your clean sound.
Unless you want it to be a volume boost in which case you'd set it slightly
louder than your clean sound.
We've also got here a tone control.
Which is generally adding more top end or more low end to your sound,
depending on what it is that you want it to achieve.
And last of all, you've got your gain which is how much distortion
you have on.
So that's enough on pedals at the moment.
This is just again, my fender teli cast bridge pick up
It's a hum blocker it's been put in the teli.
And messer boogie express 525 amplifier.
Set on the clean channel with no distortion.
So, if we have a look at the different variations in kind of color you got here.
If you turn your gain quite low,
You get a bit of crunch.
And then,
-music plays-
The clean sound.
Here it is, just a really low gain.
So, it's kind of, you know, a little bit crunchier
it's a really nice Blues Driver.
It's using not too much gain kind of effect.
If we crank that up a little bit.
You're back into having a little bit more
Here it's quite bitey.
It's got quite a good level of crunch there without it being over the top.
If we whack it up,
This is kind of around the setting I normally have it I guess.
It's quite chunky, you know. You got a nice, -music plays-
Nice distortion.
Of course you can wind it right up to max.
Which is pretty damn heavy.
It's not- it's still kind of bluesy.
It's not like a heavy metal kind of distortion.
It's just a nice crunchy blues distortion.
Generally, I've found this to be better set lower.
This is kind of the maximum I guess.
Where I think it sounds good.
Tone control, very versatile.
Again, if we wind it right up,
it's really crunchy and really bright.
Wind it back the other way.
All that top end disappeared,
so it doesn't tend to sound quite so nice there.
It's not bad.
Either side of 12 o'clock is not bad.
tend to prefer on the brighter side.
Maybe it's because my hearing has gone a bit.
But otherwise, tend to have my guitar sounds a little brighter than normal.
That's kind of where you're looking at there.
Somewhere between say 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock would be the normal kind
of settings for your tone control in this instance.
So, if we just -music plays-
Just have a flick of that switch now on the Keely one.
Not a whole heap of difference.
Seems just a little touch fatter here
with the uh. -music plays-
Seems to be affecting the kinda upper mid range a little bit.
But it's, yeah.
Generally I've always just had that switch up if you've got the Keely one.
Okay, so if you haven't got the Keely one,
what's going on?
So, basically, the pedal's gonna be pretty much the same.
-music plays-
So, if I turn it off now.
Turn the Keely one back on
And back again.
The regular boss one is kind of, I'd describe it as being slightly
thinner.
It doesn't have quite the same amount of grunt as the Keeley one has.
So, this is for me, quite a preferred kind of, they call it a mod.
Yeah, a modification of the pedal.
So, but I still think this is a great pedal.
It's got all the same thing
You can run the gain low
Sorry, that was the wrong control there.
You can turn the gain down low and get the -music plays
Off. With a little bit of crunch.
Turn the level up a little bit actually.
Or you can run it up again up around the sound or something.
Gain back down a bit.
Often, as you turn the gain up, you've got to turn the level down
to keep it at the same volume.
If we wind it right up, you know, go into the full thing.
-music plays-
You know, it's got a pretty decent kind of proper level of distortion there
with the old blues driver.
Now, just one little find
so, both of these, great pedals.
I prefer the Keeley modified one.
But you know, the plain Boss Blues Driver
if you're looking for a first distortion pedal,
is a really good one.
Just a cool little trick for you that you might like.
If you put your pedals quite close together like that,
a common trick is to have
say, one with quite low level gain
So as being, you kind of hear,
-music plays-
Your rhythm sound if you like.
And then another one,
Off.
-Music plays-
As being your lead sound.
So, if you put your foot down on the two of them at the same time
of course it turns one on and one off
So, you'd have your rhythm.
Jump on them both at the same time.
And then, -music plays-
Back off we go.
And you're back to your rhythm sound again
So, that's a cool little trick
If you get a couple of this boss style pedal
with the two things together.
That's a really nifty little trick.
Definitely worth checking out.
Both of these are running on batteries at the moment.
But of course, they both have the
the little thing, space in the top there
For you to plug your 9 volt power adapter in
which is definitely a good idea.
And my phone is ringing, so I'm going to have to go answer that now.
But uh, yeah. Hopefully that gives you
a good look at your Boss Blues Driver Pedal.
I hope you enjoyed my little review of the boss blues driver
and the Keeley modified boss blues driver.
Don't forget to check out the website where I give you links to
all the manufacturers.
And loads more info about gear
and playing, and stuff.
You know, discouraged. I'm sure you've been there.
If you haven't, you should go and check it out!
I'll see you soon for another pedal review
See ya.