100 Boss pedals

[JohnH]

I came across this very comprehensive online piece from Guitar Player magazine, featuring every Boss effects pedal, from their first OD1 in 1977, up to the 100th last year. Heaps of info plus reviews, and sound clips for every one.

100 Boss pedals

Ever wondered what an Extortion or a Tera-echo sounded like?

[newey]

Very cool! Although, the "e-magazine" format is hard to navigate.

I thought Boss had started earlier than 1977, and I hadn't realized how many models they had made, and then discontinued, over the years.

For our younger members, the big buzz about Boss pedals back in the day was their size- they were so much more compact than others. Back in the late '60s-early 70's I had a fuzztone. Like most of that era, it was in a round enclosure about the size of a salad plate. I had another pedal that was similarly huge.

During the 70s, the idea of a pedalboard began to take off, and Boss' compact design was a response to that movement, and facilitated the movement in return.

[sumgai]

newey,

That would've been a Dallas-Arbiter FuzzFace that was shaped (and sized) about like a saucer. The "standard" shaped/sized FuzzTone was a Gibson thing from 1961, give or take several months (and according to whose timeline/history you're reading).

For those of you who think you've just invented something new, history repeats itself constantly. In fact, I invite you to tell us all here just when the first instance of "fuzz" was brought about, recorded or otherwise.

Other than that.... I too was under the inpression that Boss pedals were older than 1977. Hmmm....

Aha! I thought so - check this out: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_Corporation

A bit different in that their first pedal wasn't a fuzz/distortion unit (as stated in the link above), but still and all. And by now, the count is a little over hundred different units. Even so, I don't think there's another page on the 'Web that has a sound sample for every unit posted, that's gotta be some kinda record.





sumgai

[haydukej]

Pretty cool. I've tried searching for prior mentioning of this Effects Database site by Discofreqs and didn't find anything. Please pardon if my searchfu failed me. Seems like a noble concept as well, including descriptions and links to available soundbytes (you tube demos). He only has 33 Boss pedals listed though, and really who needs to hear a demonstration of a volume pedal?

[JohnH]

Ok, on the timeline issue, I apologise, they are referring just to the Boss Compact pedals, being those familiar little brightly-coloured bricks that are so useful for getting into ones car when one has locked the keys inside. On that basis the OD1, in 1977, was apparently Numero Uno.

Yes, there were other ones before it.

Warning: Once you are playing around in that e-book, there is a lot of downloading happening. I used a weeks worth of my cell phone data on one train ride home!.

[newey]

newey,

That would've been a Dallas-Arbiter FuzzFace that was shaped (and sized) about like a saucer.

Nope, although I'm sure it was a clone/copy thereof. Mine was a "Foxx" brand. Back in the day, they were the cheap alternative. Foxx, I now find, is still around but seems to have moved upmarket, into the "boutique" range. Back when I bought mine (with my allowance money, IIRC), it was one of the cheaper fuzz pedals out there.

This was in about 1969 or 1970. Not only was it big and round, the metal enclosure came covered in some sort of weird red flocking material like a cheap Santa suit. (As I recall, there were various colors available. For some reason, I picked the red one.) The flocking, of course, collected dirt from the floor (and from being stomped upon) and didn't last long. After about 6 months, it was peeling off in various places, making the pedal look like it had some sort of horrible skin disease.

This was the same time frame when Kustom was putting tuck and roll on their amps. Sooner or later, manufacturers realized that actual musicians needed equipment that was going to stand up to the road, and didn't want "cute". And consumers who weren't pros wanted same the equipment they saw their heroes playing onstage- and the amps and effects became more functionally designed. Pretty soon even Tolex started to disappear. . .

[sumgai]

Ah yes, I did "momentarily misplace" my memory that there were several clones of the Fuzz-Face. I do seem to recall now that those flocked units didn't sound tooooo bad, but when the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi came along, it was all over but the shouting for some time to come.

[newey]

And, of course, a pair of coiled cords to connect to the guitar and amp.