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Posted by: Mertay Sep 8 2017, 11:03 AM

https://www.boss.info/global/products/jb-2/

Posted by: yoncopin Sep 8 2017, 01:43 PM

At first I thought that was a great Photoshop job and this was a joke. Why wouldn't boss just put a MI crunch box in there just like JHS did and skip co-branding it? Unless it's only about marketing it.

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Sep 8 2017, 01:51 PM

What a great look! I also though that it was a joke at first. Those pots are beautiful. Nice to see Boss trying new designs.

Posted by: Mertay Sep 8 2017, 02:04 PM

From what I read JHS isn't a brand with good reputation, some say the owner has ties to a religious group that wants gay people dead. The owner of JHS denied that some time ago but many feels unconvinced.

Fitting 2 pedals and giving routing options in a boss enclosure the me is a success. Maybe JHS had a copyright cause looking at the AC v3, internally the board is very small and thin.

I always wanted something from boss thats capable of what the fulltone OCD can do, this might be the ticket and more. For those who aren't familiar with the JHS Angrie Charlie, Andy Timmons is probably the guy who made that pedal famous.

Posted by: yoncopin Sep 8 2017, 03:29 PM

My understanding was that JHS had a bad reputation because they just cloned pedal schematics verbatim and resold them.

Posted by: Mertay Sep 8 2017, 04:38 PM

That too, but everybody does that so its ok in the pedal biz

Posted by: Todd Simpson Sep 8 2017, 06:41 PM

I Saw this pedal on youtube and was pretty impressed by it. It's like having several pedals stuffed in one box which is very handy. I'll bet it will be a pinch cheaper than the jhs model, or at least I hope it will Boss pedals are often a bit less than boutique pedals. It's got such wide range of tone ability that it's hard to not want it your signal chain.

I hope this is the start of more collaboration between boutique shops and major vendors like BOSS. You can always try boss pedals in music stores, you can't try PRO TONE pedals typically unless they happen to have a used one which is very very very rare. I've never seen one in the wild. Also you do have to wait a few weeks to get your protone to see if you like it. Where as the boss pedals you can just try right there right then. It could be a good way for smaller vendors to make a bit more money just by licensing their tech to a bigger company.

Todd

Posted by: yoncopin Sep 8 2017, 09:12 PM

https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarpedals/comments/6yvph0/keeley_liking_all_the_jhs_hate_on_instagram/?st=J7CBGMCZ&sh=c3af8ed9

Posted by: Mertay Sep 8 2017, 10:45 PM

And this is from their site; https://www.jhspedals.com/jhs-supports-human-rights/

But thing is if I wanted to buy an OCD where I live it would be 3x the USA price, a JHS probably around 4x and this goes for many non US-EU countrys. Boss pedals go for around 2x, maybe a bit lower so I expect this to sell worldwide like crazy.

So this pedal sort of targets pedals like mxr EVH or friedman BE-OD also Fulltone OCD which are huge gaps in Boss dist./OD range of pedals. I'll agree there are other companys Boss could have worked with but this also seems fine aside the fishy-ethical side of things. It will probably take some time before I could get my hands on one but I'm hopefull it won't be disappointing.

PS; Also, I'd like to give credit to GMC'ers for being such gentleman's as no one made the pedals "B (low)-J (...) Mode" joke yet

Posted by: klasaine Sep 9 2017, 03:54 PM

Theoretically pretty cool.
I'd like to know a price point. An Angry Charlie (current version) is around $175.00 US.

Also, do you guys think that any Boss footswitch would work? Or any simple toggling off/on switch could work?

Posted by: Mertay Sep 9 2017, 04:03 PM

Saw this as pricing; https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/JB2

Not sure if it was the Rabea video I shared here but I do remember it works with fs footswitches.

Posted by: klasaine Sep 10 2017, 06:11 AM

$199.00 at Sweetwater (MSRP at $299.00 - ridiculous IMO)

My guess is that very few folks will pay that price for - lets face it - a 'Boss' pedal.
You can achieve pretty much all the same things with a stock BD2 and any of several other (dozens of) high gain pedals.
A BD2 you can find for $50 or less and a brand new OCD is only about $116.00.

For less than $175.00 you can do most of what that new Boss pedal will do.
It's gonna have come way down in actual street price. You can find most of those 'Waza Craft' pedals for $150 or less and some (the drive) for a hundred bucks.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Sep 10 2017, 08:21 AM

Ouch on the price! I was hoping it would be about as much, maybe a bit more than a boss overdrive but that does not seem to be the case. However, it's the same price as a Version 3 Angry Charilie which is also $199 at sweetwater.com and other online retailers (But it doesn't have the 3 band eq of the version 3 jhs). Mertay has a good point about world wide sales as they have to pay even more for boutique pedals than they do for boss pedals so it may be one of the only ways to a semi boutique pedal without paying through the nose for folks in some countries.

Here is the U.S. that price is gonna put folks off a bit imho. Folks don't expect that kind price for an overdrive from boss. Granted, it's a quasi jhs overdrive, quasi boutique, but it's still a boss pedal. I was really hoping they'd put it out closer to 100-150 street. But we shall see how it goes.

Posted by: Mertay Sep 10 2017, 10:03 AM

Thats exactly what they're trying to change at Boss. Before Waza pedals they spoke to many shops, guitar players and realized the restriction on their image being Boss wouldn't make expensive stuff.

Then came the Waza pedals and ds/sd1x. I don't know much on the "X" pedals (a friend has a ds1x, much better than I expected when tried) but the Waza stuff sold well, so my guess is now they're pushing the price point even more.

They did a pretty good job till now with the switchers, katana, waza...my expectations are still positive but for that price on a pedal I simply have to try before buying.

Posted by: klasaine Sep 10 2017, 03:50 PM

Well here's the thing with the Waza pedals ...
I've yet to see one in the wild. I don't know any guitar players that have one. None of the guitar players I know have ever even mentioned a Waza pedal to me. I don't care what Boss says about them - nobody (here) has or plays them.
As I pointed out in my last post, Waza pedals are going for around a hundred bucks for the ODs and $149.00 for the delay and chorus. Used - even less. $74 for the drive models ('sold' ebay listings).

This JB-2 thing is great idea. I would like one but I'm not throwing down more than $150.00.
I'm patient. My prediction is after one year of production you'll start seeing used JB2s for $150 or less.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Sep 10 2017, 09:09 PM

I'm guessing the price used will make it much more attractive in the states Still lacks the 3 band eq of the angry charlie version 3 so it's more like one one of the early revs. 150 seems like a more attractive price point. But that's here in the states, like Mertay says, only the boss products are even remotely affordable in certain countries where boutique pedals cost up to 3 times list price. ouch. Boss has global distribution making them a bit easier to find.

Posted by: klasaine Sep 10 2017, 10:44 PM

Yeah, I get that.
But still, you need an external footswitch to access the switching features. So space wise, it's really the same as having two pedals. To that end, buying a nice crunchy OD and a stock Blues Driver, regardless of what country you're in, will be more cost effective.

The list price of a Fulldrive III, from the fulltone website is $135.00. Yeah, different animal but come on, that's also a two function OD where you can change the order of the boost and drive. And that's a handmade, all analog pedal.

$199 for a Boss pedal is a no go (IMO).

Posted by: Todd Simpson Sep 11 2017, 02:25 AM

Like I said before I"m with ya on that The price point is a pinch high for boss product. Maybe on the used market. But yeah, I can't see buying one myself at the street price. But I"m here in the land of milk and honey where every pedal is just a click away.
Just a different situation on pedals outside the states, like Mertay says. Getting pedals in to Turkey isn't as easy as one would like.

Posted by: Mertay Sep 11 2017, 11:59 PM

A bit too mid forward to my liking but can easily dial it out with an eq. Unless its the pedals output pushing the amp a bit, the breakup sounds very amp-like to me.

Sweeping the sweetwater dist. section, I don't think its thats bad when compared to similar priced stuff though I can admit there's still competition. The JHS side alone is comparable to an mxr 5150 or friedman be-od which both are 200 bucks and the hot stuff shredders want these days (personally I don't care much for the EVH tone). But its not in stock everywhere even in the USA so who knows when I'll ge my hands on it...

Posted by: Todd Simpson Sep 12 2017, 01:56 AM

I can't see your vid? Which pedals are featured in the vid? The EVH has a very EVH amp tone IMHO ( of course others may completely disagree, it's a forum after all) which is great if you want that tone. But if you don't then it's probably not the pedal for you. The new pedal from MISHA looks cool and has a gate built in which is handy Also, you don't have to wait three months while it's being built as they are built by MXR it's actually an MXR pedal that's branded differently. So thankfully there are no production delays as with some boutique companies. I still remember waiting 3 MONTHS! for my first boutique overdrive.
Also, mxr pedals have global distro so they are usually not that hard to find.
IT's called the PRECISION DRIVE and runs about $220 street. But it includes a handy gate which means you can skip buying $100 or more gate pedal Here is pete thorn doing a demo.

Posted by: Mertay Sep 12 2017, 08:59 AM

Odd, I can only see the video from your reply? here is the direct link; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7pKokFeEGw

We don't have horizon here price point really depends on who distributes, for example strymons aren't too badly priced here but they're out of my budget. Another example is t-rex pedals are actually cheaper here than USA, I also remember buying my ibanez clean boost the same price as USA...saw a friedman be-od at a store, there is no distributor of that brand here so the store owner got 1-2 onine for his customers (was insanely high priced).

So I always have to do my homework, checking/comparing prices from US websites to get the best for my money. Lucky for me I have friends at 2 major stores and distributors here (which I can get discount if I pay cash) so big brands like boss, mxr, ehx are covered among a few more.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Sep 12 2017, 04:18 PM

The Misha pedals are built by MXR so anyone that carries MXR should be able to get them

Posted by: Mertay Sep 12 2017, 11:21 PM

Ah then probably its because its new I didn't see it yet here.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Sep 14 2017, 08:13 PM

It's very new. Ask your local stores if they are going to carry them. Since it's an MXR product, it should be available in their distribution chain which is great!! They are boutique designed but built by mxr so you don't have to wait 3 months per pedal

Posted by: Mertay Dec 17 2017, 05:07 PM

Ok so I finally tried one with a mesa

BD-2 side; Its been a while since I played one but didn't feel any different from the regular one. Maybe they might have tweaked the tone knob to be a tiny bit smoother, I remember the bd-2 can get a bit harsh on extreme settings but this was simply bright. Might be because the amp but hard to say without comparing side-by-side.

AC side; Instand Andy timmons tone(s) when used on the clean channel of a Mesa, simple as that also as a booster, first time I felt a Mesa V's 3rd channel actually sound like petrucci solo tone. It sounds a bit darker than the bd-2 side cause can acheve all the distortion needed.

They compliment each other excellent. On a clean amp, use the bd-2 with low gain for slight breakup then go for the AC for your solo tone. The tone knobs are engineered excellent, the pedal overall has this album-ready balance and really easy to find a sweetspot. Maybe only downside is both sides have almost no bass but this was to be expected for me.

I was also expecting the other modes (boosting each other or parallel) to change the character of the pedal but that didn't happen. Like, parallel settings didn't bring out an OCD tone or something like that. Boost modes are nice, it can get shreddy if needed but the parallel wasn't as good as I expected. It was harder to adjust parallel mode, maybe I needed more time.

Its priced high but my experience was very positive, one can get/depend all his/her tone needs from that one pedal if needed. Hard to say if its worth the price but if I demo'd it at a store in a limited time+noisey environment, I probably would be so positive cause it takes a while to have an idea how one can use it in his chain so my advice is avoiding such limitations when trying.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Dec 18 2017, 10:01 AM

Yeah, they seem like a solid pedal with a good amount of flexibility in tone and it doesn't hurt that it's got a pinch of boutique flavor thrown in there for good measure. To bad it bumps the price up, but such is life when you get near boutique world eh? Maybe buying one of these used would be a better idea if one were going to buy one. At least the new car smell would be worn off so that one could get a bit better price on the unit. But yeah, they seem cool If pricey.

Posted by: Mertay Dec 18 2017, 10:57 AM

I'd guess finding one wouldn't be easy used.

I currently have 3 drive pedals from very low-gain to shred, this alone (in theory) can replace all of them. But also say if I would buy this and not like (for example) AC, it wouldn't make much sense to sell it just to get a bd-2 pedal...

Also I guess it was my first boutiqe pedal experience More than anything the tone knob and how well+easy it sit in a mix impressed me, atleast with the mesa. Like you, I'm a tweaker too but if one doesn't have the time or experience, for such the price is more worth it.

Posted by: Mertay Feb 15 2018, 05:46 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=wMlr9zt-eCg

So this video caused JHS owner to get angry and somehow both Keeley and Wampler got involved etc. etc. I didn't care enough to read in detail

it just made me laugh at the end of the video about the guy getting curious if the boss version was better priced

PS; Mooer comparison in video