DIY Guide to Boss Pedals: Part 1

I love Boss pedals. You can't be a shoegazer without owning at least one. Despite their conformity and common size each pedal has its own personality and unique function. They are all built "like a tank" and rarely fail. I have this theory that everyone is a collector of something, and for me it must be these pedals. They really nailed many legendary sounds on the first try, I can only think of a few effects that they never successfully made their own--those being wah, whammy, fuzz, and vibe effects.

The DS-1 Distortion is easily the most recognizable guitar pedal in the world, and many a DIYer's first step into the world of pedal mods. I don't know of a guitar player who has never owned nor played through one before. Kurt Cobain used one until he broke it and graduated to a DS-2. The CE-2 Chorus on the other hand is THE sound of an entire decade. Stomp on a CE-2 and its like taking a time-warp back to the '80s. Boss pedals are like memory boxes that capture a particular feeling--a moment in time. At least the older ones do. The new ones are made of crap.

I'm gonna skip ahead a little to 1988: The year that changed everything. Glam Rock was in full swing and the Boss warehouses in Japan could not stock enough harmonizers and flangers to satisfy the new generation of garage youth whose bedroom walls were plastered with Whitesnake and Poison posters, their palms blistered from constant high-fiving after watching Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure for the first time. They demanded an all-in-one box that would grant them the godlike abilities of the guitar virtuosos--sizzling pinch harmonics, light speed heavy metal pick sweeping, and laser beam tapping solos. Boss was netting record profits and the corporate decision was of course to ramp up production while cutting costs. 1988 was the year that they moved production to Taiwan and it's common knowledge among collectors that Boss pedals were never the same again. In Taiwan they began to use cheaper components, not to mention the designs began to favor the falling prices of digital technology to more costly and outdated analog design. As things got even more complex we got the wonderful yet somewhat sterile-sounding COSM technology, which opened up the Boss world to digital modeling, with the disadvantage of using surface-mounted devices (SMD), which are so small and complex that they exclude any possibility of modding, tweaking or bending these newer pedals.

You might think the newer Boss pedals sound great. They sound just fine, as long as you've never heard the pre-Taiwan equivalent pedal. But if you have played a 2008 Made in Taiwan (MIT) digital PH-3 Phase Shifter after playing a 1986 Made in Japan (MIJ) analog PH-1r Phaser you will know the difference. It is something that can only be described as a fuller, richer, and more organic sound. New Boss isn't bad, but I no longer spend my money on them when I can get MIJ pedals for comparable prices on eBay. Although, that hasn't stopped people from discovering some interesting mods that you can do to coax out some of that MIJ vibe from MIT pedals.

I'm sure you are now wondering about your used Boss pedal you picked up at the pawn shop. There are a number of ways to date your Boss pedal. The easiest way is to just use the BOSS Serial Number Decoder to find out when your pedal was originally produced. You can find the serial number in the battery compartment inside the pedal. You can also date pedals by the sticker on the bottom of the pedal, they made several different colors but it's kind of pointless for dating and more of a novelty. Lastly, the original Boss compact pedals produced from 1977-1981 have silver thumb screws holding the battery cover. Anything after 1981 has a black screw. Silver screw pedals are highly sought after. The most sought-after compact pedals are in my opinion the SG-1 Slow Gear, SP-1 Spectrum, and VB-2 Vibrato. Check out some of the MIJ vs MIT shootouts below and check out BossArea for the most comprehensive reference on every single Boss pedal as well as amazingly informational and active forum.

Next time: We go back to 1977 and the early days of Boss, and we also examine COSM technology, the '00s and twin pedals, and take a closer look at some of the oddball and very unique novelty pedals that Boss produced. Cya there!

*pictures via BossArea