@@PBOD it's Kurt Bllous secret weapon. Just use the OD setting, full volume and tone/gain around 9 o'clock into a overdiven amp. Instant crushing metal tone!
setting it as you describe, with the volume all the way up, works great as a boost in front of a medium gain amp or a high gain amp with the gain turned down, to really kick it into that super tight, super high gain territory for downtuned or extended range extreme metal, without getting flubby or overly piercing. Turning the tone down helps keep some of the low end intact, since the low cut is so extreme. I'm actually a huge fan of overdrive tones like that boosting an HM-2 with the gain there at zero, so that the OD character combines with the sound and EQ of the HM-2, and then running that into the amp, or a RAT pedal if you're going straight into a power amp or an IR loader. I run all three pedals into plexi amp sims.
makes my Les Paul tuned to Drop B or my 7 string tuned to drop sound like the most beautiful chaos. I pair that with another boosted amp on medium hard rock levels of gain, somewhere between AC/DC and Three Days Grace, and turn down the swedish chainsaw so that the other amp is prominent and I get to keep my clarity and articulation, but get that filthy high gain saturation that death metal requires. I use a Joyo Uzi as my initial overdrive in the chainsaw signal chain, but TBF the OS-2 would totally do the trick.
I love the OS-2. To me it's not an SD-1 or DS-2, it's a unique animal. I like that compression. With the color knob to the left, you can cop some compressed, slightly harsh Derek & the Dominoes or Deep Purple tones (with a Strat and an AC30) and like you said, blending the two modes creates this uniquely fuzzy, compressed overdrive that does surprisingly well when you back off the volume knob. My only two complaints about the pedal are the noise and also it tends to get lost in a band mix.
Hey y'all!! I posted a comment on the PBOD post about owning the pedal, before actually watching the video. I loved the the section that puts it up against the DS2 and the Proco Rat, because a lot of online discussion pointed at the DS2 and the OS2 being the closest to a Rat distortion sound, and I definitely agree with that! Once i came upon the OS2, I felt that was the Boss equivalent of the Rat, and have been happy with it ever since! You're absolutely right about the magic of the OS2 being in running both sides in parallel, it just works well with some many different configurations. OS2 is super spanky and dynamic. Awesome video
Cheers for the kind words, it makes the time and effort we put into these videos worth it 👍 there is some magic to be had with this little box for sure if you know where to look. Now to the real question, ice cream on pizza? 😂😂
@@PBOD not going to lie, vanilla ice cream on top of a pepperoni pizza, or on top of french fries is not the worst thing. Tried it out because i saw the Ninja Turtles do it on an episode lol. try it!
The OS-2 actually works for high gain boost with metal. There's a comment below that explains how it should be setup, with the gain and tone knobs at 9 o'clock and the color knob at around 11 o'clock. Turn the volume all the way up, and run that into a light crunch like tone like a jumped Plexi with both gain knobs at somewhere just shy of noon, the blue channel on an EVH 5150 with the gain at 9 o'clock, or an Orange at around 10 o'clock right before the extra gain stage kicks in. The only OD/Distortion pedal that comes close is the OCD, The Joyo Uzi, or the Precision Drive, and tbh I prefer the Precision Drive or the Uzi, but the OS-2 is by no means bad. I like it better than a TS9, or an SD-1, especially for tuning down.
Cool, thanks for letting me know. It's nice to know that there are some settings that make it make sense, as it falls a bit flat as a stand alone drive or distortion 👍
@@PBOD I recently joined the PBOD facebook group. I posted the pic with the stereo chainsaw board with the Joyo Oxford Sound and the Uzi/Eyemaster/Turbo Rat clone.
@@PBOD I keep the gain low. The more you turn the gain and voice knobs clockwise, the more noise the pedal makes, so you have to balance those two knobs against one another. I also feel like the voice knob also changes how the pedal reacts to an external boost in front of it, where the more you turn it up, the more of a breakup reaction to an external boost pedal it's going to have. As a result, I keep the gain at 9 o'clock, and just put the Argos Drive in front of it with the volume dimed and the gain there also at 9 o'clock. With the boost off, even with active pickups or an invader pickup the sound is clean; tick on the overdrive, and he have medium-high gain, at suitable levels for blending with another distortion or preamp, for double tracking, or for playing pop-mosh or pop-djent - think ADTR, or how Periphery would sound if they used Orange instead of Peavey. The Argos is a clone of the Horizon Devices Precision Drive, as well. Relatively dense saturation, but clear and cleaned up enough to play full chords. It's a tone that also lends itself well to pop punk or mainstream rock if you play a Strat or a Tele through it. I play it as a preamp pedal, so it goes direct to the PA, or I use it to add a separate voiced gain tone to the clean channel to my Joyo Meteor II Bantamp. I have a friend who used to have a Terror Stamp, and one time for shits and giggles we put the Oxford in the FX loop of that thing, and it basically did just what I thought it would - made the little hybrid pedal amp into a two channel amp. The Argos + Terror Stamp + Oxford Sound and DI box with a cab sim in the loop was a very nice little compact setup for metal. I also feel like it would work well with something like a Hughes & Kettner Stompman, if the pedal amp route is your jam. Regardless, if used properly with a gate, it works well as a preamp, in the FX loop of a clean amp, in front of a clean amp, or in front of or behind a lower gain crunch channel or a distortion channel with the gain turned way down. At one point I was running the Oxford into a GFS Twin Clean Drive to emulate pushed EL34 power tubes. As long as I turned the volume down on the Oxford and got most of the volume from the Guitar Fetish pedal, I was fine. The other possibility is you got a defective unit, which does unfortunately happen.
@@needsLITHIUM it gives great clean-but-not-totaly-clean timbres with drive al low or zero values (and color somewhere blending); even great as a booster after a good distortion pedal
I don't think anyone would just use the OS-2 for OD or Dis. They want to mix sounds. For me it's very good. It didn't suck at all. I like the sound of it. I set the color in the middle of the dive around 1-2 pm and use Boss SD-1 for OD, Mt-2 for Dis.
@@PBOD I compared the Boss SD-1 with the Boss OS-2 in Overdrive mode. I found the OS-2 to have a fuller midrange than the SD-1, and I compared the Boss DS-1 with the Boss OS-2 in Distortion mode for The DS-1 has a much larger midrange. Compared to OS-2 in the middle sound area Quite a lot has decreased, but when using Boss OS-2 to mix the sound, Instead, there was a sound that said something special had happened.
It gets a fair amount of hate on the Facebook group. Most hated might be a stretch, but there are some negative feelings towards this one online. I'm glad you're enjoying it though, I.ended up getting some decent tones out of it eventually too 👍
This was my first pedal, bought twenty something years ago (second hand from a store that's been long outlived by the pedal, which I still have). Imagine you're a teenager that only has a cheap Cort electric with a cheap Squier 10W bedroom amp with a horrible farty fuzz type one setting drive. Then you get this pedal, and it can decently do AC/DC, it can do Guns N' Roses, it can do Nirvana, it can do Metallica even and other hi gain scooped tones. Hell, it could do Norwegian black metal if that's your thing. Talk about bang for your buck. I later on used it with some early digital multieffects cause it took affordable digital guitar modellers like further 10-15 years for the gain sounds to not sound like sandpaper. If people complain that it doesn't sound exactly like an SD-1 or a DS-1 then they should get those. Even after all those years I still like about the OS-2 that when wanting an overdrive sound, you can widen it with a splash of distortion, and when using distortion you can un-scoop it with a splash of overdrive.
That my first ever pedal ..I bought it 300 pesos. Good as knew but I mod it separating the drive knob and distortion knob. With extra knob for distortion boosting the mids. 😊
Both sounded a bit more compressed than other boss drives and distortions to my ear. There are some sweet spots that get some rather nice tones though, so I'm glad I explored it a bit more 👍
2:18 Why does the Mosky Black Rat sound absolutely amazing in this video but total garbage in every single other video I've since watched? Is it just that it is used on a humbucker here but (probably) on single coils everywhere else?!
I'm sure it's been said here, but the OS-2 is NOT a DS-1 and SD-1 combo. There are 2 unique circuits in the OS-2. And the Color knob is a mix knob. The circuits are parallel, not OD into DIST.
Aye, a section of this video was comparing the distortion tones against circuits that were reported to be similar. What did you think of the comparison? Did you think the individual pedal sounded better or the OS-2?
Well most hated boss pedal? That's a pretty far stretch. I seem to fall back on the os-2 a lot. I like the sounds I can get out of it although, I'm not a guy that likes a gaggle of pedals. As for pizza and ice cream, nobody can agree on those either right? Good video!
Maybe I used a bit of hyperbole here, but it sure got quite the negative reputation. I think boss are pretty good at this kind of thing, so there is always at least a useable sound in the somewhere. It may not be as glamorous as the SD1, but it's not a bad little pedal. Cheers for the kind words 👍
Any "good" pedal will sound bad if not in good hands. Those who got good pair of ears found this pedal being versatile and able to emulate closely any gain pedals. The Color Knob does the magic. In the end, it's a personal preference. Cheers for the good video. I like pizza with ice cream by the way 😉
Yeah, I think it's because it's not one of those pedals where you get instant gratification that people decided it wasn't good. If you dig beneath the surface a little, there are tones to be had. Cheers for watching gent and I appreciate the comment too 👍
The OS-2 sucks. But the DS-2 is amazing! The OS-2 is a worse sounding SD-1 and DS-1 smoshed together. If you want an underrated Boss drive, get the DS-2. It's a hot rodded DS-1. It sounds different and has two modes, but it is great in its own rite.
It really surprised me how good it sounded in certain points in the demo. I was expecting it to be totally disappointing based on the consensus 👍 Cheers for the comment
I had a great deal of fun with this one but what do you think? Worth it or the individual pedals are better?
There were some fab tones to be had with all pedals involved today 👍
"Most hated Boss pedal" WTF? It's my favourite OD pedal ever! The OS2 is just the SD1 on steroids and can get super fuzzy if you need it to be.
It gets a lot of hate online, but those who like it really love it. I'm glad you're getting some great tones out of it 👍
@@PBOD it's Kurt Bllous secret weapon. Just use the OD setting, full volume and tone/gain around 9 o'clock into a overdiven amp. Instant crushing metal tone!
I love the os2, it's been My main distortion for 2 years now. The sweetspot is the colour nob at 11 o'clock and the tone and drive knobs at 9 💯
Those straight od and D's modes leave a little to be desired but there is gold in that there colour knob
setting it as you describe, with the volume all the way up, works great as a boost in front of a medium gain amp or a high gain amp with the gain turned down, to really kick it into that super tight, super high gain territory for downtuned or extended range extreme metal, without getting flubby or overly piercing. Turning the tone down helps keep some of the low end intact, since the low cut is so extreme. I'm actually a huge fan of overdrive tones like that boosting an HM-2 with the gain there at zero, so that the OD character combines with the sound and EQ of the HM-2, and then running that into the amp, or a RAT pedal if you're going straight into a power amp or an IR loader. I run all three pedals into plexi amp sims.
makes my Les Paul tuned to Drop B or my 7 string tuned to drop sound like the most beautiful chaos. I pair that with another boosted amp on medium hard rock levels of gain, somewhere between AC/DC and Three Days Grace, and turn down the swedish chainsaw so that the other amp is prominent and I get to keep my clarity and articulation, but get that filthy high gain saturation that death metal requires. I use a Joyo Uzi as my initial overdrive in the chainsaw signal chain, but TBF the OS-2 would totally do the trick.
I love the OS-2. To me it's not an SD-1 or DS-2, it's a unique animal. I like that compression. With the color knob to the left, you can cop some compressed, slightly harsh Derek & the Dominoes or Deep Purple tones (with a Strat and an AC30) and like you said, blending the two modes creates this uniquely fuzzy, compressed overdrive that does surprisingly well when you back off the volume knob. My only two complaints about the pedal are the noise and also it tends to get lost in a band mix.
Absolutely bang on. It's a unique beast and if you treat it that way, you can get some great results 👍
Hey y'all!! I posted a comment on the PBOD post about owning the pedal, before actually watching the video. I loved the the section that puts it up against the DS2 and the Proco Rat, because a lot of online discussion pointed at the DS2 and the OS2 being the closest to a Rat distortion sound, and I definitely agree with that! Once i came upon the OS2, I felt that was the Boss equivalent of the Rat, and have been happy with it ever since! You're absolutely right about the magic of the OS2 being in running both sides in parallel, it just works well with some many different configurations. OS2 is super spanky and dynamic. Awesome video
Cheers for the kind words, it makes the time and effort we put into these videos worth it 👍 there is some magic to be had with this little box for sure if you know where to look. Now to the real question, ice cream on pizza? 😂😂
@@PBOD not going to lie, vanilla ice cream on top of a pepperoni pizza, or on top of french fries is not the worst thing. Tried it out because i saw the Ninja Turtles do it on an episode lol. try it!
The problem is, if I try it and like it then this whole video premise is a lie! haha
Never expected to have Pizza, Ice Cream and pedals in one video. Doesn’t disappoint
You all good for the new rebrand "pizzaboards of dairy"
This stomp is like Pizza and spaghetti mix together or Ice cream with soft drink on beneath
this is my fav dist pedal into a JCM800, nothing compares.
I'm glad it's getting the love it deserves 👍
This demo was excellent but it mostly made me really want a Turbo Distortion.
Thanks very much. I appreciate the kind words. You should treat yourself to a turbo distortion for being so kind 👍
The OS-2 actually works for high gain boost with metal. There's a comment below that explains how it should be setup, with the gain and tone knobs at 9 o'clock and the color knob at around 11 o'clock. Turn the volume all the way up, and run that into a light crunch like tone like a jumped Plexi with both gain knobs at somewhere just shy of noon, the blue channel on an EVH 5150 with the gain at 9 o'clock, or an Orange at around 10 o'clock right before the extra gain stage kicks in. The only OD/Distortion pedal that comes close is the OCD, The Joyo Uzi, or the Precision Drive, and tbh I prefer the Precision Drive or the Uzi, but the OS-2 is by no means bad. I like it better than a TS9, or an SD-1, especially for tuning down.
Cool, thanks for letting me know. It's nice to know that there are some settings that make it make sense, as it falls a bit flat as a stand alone drive or distortion 👍
@@PBOD I recently joined the PBOD facebook group. I posted the pic with the stereo chainsaw board with the Joyo Oxford Sound and the Uzi/Eyemaster/Turbo Rat clone.
Nice one. How are you finding the Oxford sound? I got one in a couple of months back and found it has a really high noise floor
@@PBOD I keep the gain low. The more you turn the gain and voice knobs clockwise, the more noise the pedal makes, so you have to balance those two knobs against one another. I also feel like the voice knob also changes how the pedal reacts to an external boost in front of it, where the more you turn it up, the more of a breakup reaction to an external boost pedal it's going to have. As a result, I keep the gain at 9 o'clock, and just put the Argos Drive in front of it with the volume dimed and the gain there also at 9 o'clock. With the boost off, even with active pickups or an invader pickup the sound is clean; tick on the overdrive, and he have medium-high gain, at suitable levels for blending with another distortion or preamp, for double tracking, or for playing pop-mosh or pop-djent - think ADTR, or how Periphery would sound if they used Orange instead of Peavey. The Argos is a clone of the Horizon Devices Precision Drive, as well. Relatively dense saturation, but clear and cleaned up enough to play full chords. It's a tone that also lends itself well to pop punk or mainstream rock if you play a Strat or a Tele through it. I play it as a preamp pedal, so it goes direct to the PA, or I use it to add a separate voiced gain tone to the clean channel to my Joyo Meteor II Bantamp. I have a friend who used to have a Terror Stamp, and one time for shits and giggles we put the Oxford in the FX loop of that thing, and it basically did just what I thought it would - made the little hybrid pedal amp into a two channel amp. The Argos + Terror Stamp + Oxford Sound and DI box with a cab sim in the loop was a very nice little compact setup for metal. I also feel like it would work well with something like a Hughes & Kettner Stompman, if the pedal amp route is your jam. Regardless, if used properly with a gate, it works well as a preamp, in the FX loop of a clean amp, in front of a clean amp, or in front of or behind a lower gain crunch channel or a distortion channel with the gain turned way down. At one point I was running the Oxford into a GFS Twin Clean Drive to emulate pushed EL34 power tubes. As long as I turned the volume down on the Oxford and got most of the volume from the Guitar Fetish pedal, I was fine. The other possibility is you got a defective unit, which does unfortunately happen.
@@needsLITHIUM it gives great clean-but-not-totaly-clean timbres with drive al low or zero values (and color somewhere blending); even great as a booster after a good distortion pedal
I don't think anyone would just use the OS-2 for OD or Dis. They want to mix sounds. For me it's very good. It didn't suck at all. I like the sound of it. I set the color in the middle of the dive around 1-2 pm and use Boss SD-1 for OD, Mt-2 for Dis.
Yeah, colour in the middle is where it's at. It gives a much fuller tone that way 👍
@@PBOD I compared the Boss SD-1 with the Boss OS-2 in Overdrive mode. I found the OS-2 to have a fuller midrange than the SD-1, and I compared the Boss DS-1 with the Boss OS-2 in Distortion mode for The DS-1 has a much larger midrange. Compared to OS-2 in the middle sound area Quite a lot has decreased, but when using Boss OS-2 to mix the sound, Instead, there was a sound that said something special had happened.
where did you get that from? most hated? maybe you personally hate it but it sounds great if you know how to use it
It gets a fair amount of hate on the Facebook group. Most hated might be a stretch, but there are some negative feelings towards this one online. I'm glad you're enjoying it though, I.ended up getting some decent tones out of it eventually too 👍
@@PBOD awesome,nice video anyways!!!
Thx for explanations and pedals sounds to help us to understand what happened with OS-2.
It's not a bad pedal, I think it just gets unfairly compared to the SD and DS where it does it's own thing better 👍
This is a versatile pedal. You can emulate any amp type/pedal. It's kinda Swiss knife.
It's got it's uses. I find it a bit more compressed sounding than some alternatives, but I think it has it's place 👍
@@PBOD True. It's a bit compressed especially in the DS side but I think it'll be best if paired with EQ as you can cut/boost certain frequencies.
This was my first pedal, bought twenty something years ago (second hand from a store that's been long outlived by the pedal, which I still have). Imagine you're a teenager that only has a cheap Cort electric with a cheap Squier 10W bedroom amp with a horrible farty fuzz type one setting drive. Then you get this pedal, and it can decently do AC/DC, it can do Guns N' Roses, it can do Nirvana, it can do Metallica even and other hi gain scooped tones. Hell, it could do Norwegian black metal if that's your thing. Talk about bang for your buck. I later on used it with some early digital multieffects cause it took affordable digital guitar modellers like further 10-15 years for the gain sounds to not sound like sandpaper. If people complain that it doesn't sound exactly like an SD-1 or a DS-1 then they should get those. Even after all those years I still like about the OS-2 that when wanting an overdrive sound, you can widen it with a splash of distortion, and when using distortion you can un-scoop it with a splash of overdrive.
That’s a great love story of a dude and their pedal right there ;)
Love my OS-2. Great pedal.
It's got some tones in it, for sure
When you compared it to the ds2, the tone on the os2 was fantastic!
Why thank you very much. That'll show those haters 👍
That my first ever pedal ..I bought it 300 pesos. Good as knew but I mod it separating the drive knob and distortion knob. With extra knob for distortion boosting the mids. 😊
Sounds good 👍 I bet this thing could really come to life with some mods
level max, tone all the way down, dist 9 oclock, color 8 oclock. Cave In setting is the best.
Ooft, I bet that's sludgy af
I owned this. Thought the OD was real good but distortion was lousy. It’s kind of a boss overdrive with a scoop knob.
Both sounded a bit more compressed than other boss drives and distortions to my ear. There are some sweet spots that get some rather nice tones though, so I'm glad I explored it a bit more 👍
2:18 Why does the Mosky Black Rat sound absolutely amazing in this video but total garbage in every single other video I've since watched? Is it just that it is used on a humbucker here but (probably) on single coils everywhere else?!
The Mosky black rat is amazing, I don't know how others are getting it to sound bad. Glad you enjoyed the tones 👍
IN YOUR HANDS, THEY ALL SOUNDED GREAT.
Bless you 👍 thank you for the kind words
Great pedal
It definitely has its uses 👍
I'm sure it's been said here, but the OS-2 is NOT a DS-1 and SD-1 combo. There are 2 unique circuits in the OS-2.
And the Color knob is a mix knob. The circuits are parallel, not OD into DIST.
Aye, a section of this video was comparing the distortion tones against circuits that were reported to be similar.
What did you think of the comparison? Did you think the individual pedal sounded better or the OS-2?
Prefer the seperate pedals, but it's not terrible.
I think that might be the kindest words ever written about this pedal 😂😂
Well most hated boss pedal? That's a pretty far stretch. I seem to fall back on the os-2 a lot. I like the sounds I can get out of it although, I'm not a guy that likes a gaggle of pedals. As for pizza and ice cream, nobody can agree on those either right? Good video!
Maybe I used a bit of hyperbole here, but it sure got quite the negative reputation. I think boss are pretty good at this kind of thing, so there is always at least a useable sound in the somewhere. It may not be as glamorous as the SD1, but it's not a bad little pedal. Cheers for the kind words 👍
So that actually sounded pretty good 👍
Right?
Any "good" pedal will sound bad if not in good hands. Those who got good pair of ears found this pedal being versatile and able to emulate closely any gain pedals. The Color Knob does the magic. In the end, it's a personal preference. Cheers for the good video. I like pizza with ice cream by the way 😉
Yeah, I think it's because it's not one of those pedals where you get instant gratification that people decided it wasn't good. If you dig beneath the surface a little, there are tones to be had. Cheers for watching gent and I appreciate the comment too 👍
It made my pretty white Marshall origin 20 a real dirty girl,,,love the OS2
Aye, it gets a lot of hate but there are tones to be had in that there os2
The OS-2 sucks. But the DS-2 is amazing! The OS-2 is a worse sounding SD-1 and DS-1 smoshed together. If you want an underrated Boss drive, get the DS-2. It's a hot rodded DS-1. It sounds different and has two modes, but it is great in its own rite.
I do own one, in fact, didn't I show it off on this video?
Is an odd pedal. Diff to get a good tone out off it
Yeah, it's got its own thing going on huh? It's got some good tones in it, you just have to work with it too find them
Sounds a lot better than the DS-1 and 2, honestly. It sounds a lot more organic and pleasing to my ears.
It really surprised me how good it sounded in certain points in the demo. I was expecting it to be totally disappointing based on the consensus 👍 Cheers for the comment