So there I was at my favorite guitar shop, when some fellow came in looking to swing a trade. He wanted a high class acoustic, and in return he would hand in a wad of electric gear. Among the gear was a BD-2. Well, I always liked the color of the pedal, but never tried one out. It took a while for the deal to go down, but as soon as that guy left the shop with his new axe, the shop manager handed me the BD-2! It only took a few moments before I learned that this puppy was LOUD. Since I always like pedals that provide a lot of volume boost, and since I always got GREAT deals on used pedals at this shop, I snapped it up, and basically let it gather dust for months.

Then I decided to check it beyond use as a volume booster. The pedal gives a lot more flexibility than one would expect with its simple controls. The trick is to play around with the Level and Gain controls to get the sound you want. Keep in mind that this is called a BLUES Driver, and you shouldn't be disappointed. For certain amps, this baby is just INCREDIBLE - it gives tube-like sound to my big old solid state Traynor. Cranking the Gain all the way up tends to darken the overall tone, which is very nice.

August 9/03 Update! According to The BOSS Book, the BD-2 was released in March 1995. And on a personal note, ever since I wrote the above review two years ago, I've noticed that the BD-2 is such a good general overdrive that it has seldom left my pedal board. Unlike other pedals which seem to be "choosy" about what amps they're matched with, the BD-2 gets along with everyone.