BOSS

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BOSS CORPORATION

Type	Public
Founded	1976
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California
Industry	Musical instruments
Parent	Roland Corporation
Slogan	"a sound innovator"
Website	www.bossus.com/

A typical compact effects pedal.

For other uses, see Boss.

BOSS is a division of the Roland Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer that specializes in musical equipment and accessories. The company is famous for its colorful line of compact effects pedals with agronomic titles for guitar and bass guitar.

1 History
2 Japan/Taiwan
3 Products
4 Artists who have used BOSS products
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

When Roland decided to make a subsidiary of itself dedicated to guitars in the early 1970s, they decided to call it MEG (Musical Engineering Group). Being the outward looking company that has been their mantra from day one, they realized Meg is a girls name in America and may dissuade buyers, many of them male, from buying their products. So they searched for a name that would connote power and mastership, and eventually came up with BOSS.

The earliest BOSS product was called B-100 The BOSS, released in 1976. This came with a clip-on pre-amp and a pickup to amplify acoustic guitars. At this point the BOSS company had not been formed and it was still technically a Roland product.

The first proper BOSS foot pedal effect, in 1976, was called the CE-1 Chorus Ensemble. It was a fairly large, mains-powered unit. It was popular with artists at the time such as Andy Summers and can be heard on various recordings. However the real breakthrough came the year later.

BOSS's renowned line of compact pedals began in 1977 with the release of three pedals: an Overdrive pedal (OD-1), a Phaser pedal (PH-1) and a parametric equalizer called the Spectrum (SP-1). The now famous BOSS DS-1 was released the next year, in 1978. Also released in this year is the T Wah (TW-1) pedal. Their first compact Chorus pedal (CE-2) came the next year 1979, and their first Flanger pedal (BF-2) the next 1980. In 1983 Boss broke new ground with the release of the DD-2 Digital Delay, the first mass produced digital delay in a compact pedal format. In 1987 BOSS released nine new pedals, including the Turbo Distortion (DS-2). The Metal Zone (MT-2) was released in 1991. A big selling point has always been reliability - many compare the metal cases to a tank. As well as BOSS's compact pedals sporting heavy-duty metal cases, they are colour coded in distinctive, bright colours. The pedals all share the same 'footprint', making it easy for guitarists to develop pedal-boards for the standard size.

Boss introduced COSM, Roland's proprietary version of digital modeling technology, into their AC-3 Acoustic Simulator pedal in 2006. Boss has since released several pedals using COSM, including the FBM-1 '59 Fender Bassman pedal and FDR-1 '65 Fender Deluxe Reverb pedal, introduced at the Winter NAMM show in January 2007.

All Boss compact pedals use a "buffered bypass" type of silent footswitching utilizing Field Effect Transistors (FETs) that produce no clicks or pops. Most guitarists feel that although buffered bypass switching is not as transparent as "true bypass" switching, the Boss version of buffered bypass is one of the best of its type causing very little signal degradation.

[edit] Japan/Taiwan

BOSS compact pedals were originally produced in Japan, until circa 1990 where production moved to Taiwan. Some users claim there is a sound difference between the two, although there is no conclusive evidence to prove the superiority of either. Earlier units came with a metal screw securing the battery compartment, later models retained the metal screw, adding a plastic knob for tool-less battery removal. The labels on the bottom of the pedals come in several different colours including Black, Silver, Green, Pink and Blue. Apart from this the basic design has remained unchanged for over 25 years.

In recent years older Boss compact pedals have begun to command a high premium on the used market. Some pedals, such as the relatively rare VB-2 Vibrato, SP-1 Spectrum, and DC-2 Dimension C, are highly sought after by collectors.

[edit] Products

BOSS has released many devices, including:

[edit] Compact Pedals

Distortion/Overdrive
- BD-2 Blues Driver
- DN-2 Dyna Drive
- DS-1 Distortion
- DS-2 Turbo Distortion
- FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz
- FZ-3 Fuzz
- FZ-5 Fuzz
- HM-2 Heavy Metal
- HM-3 Hyper Metal
- MT-2 Metal Zone
- MD-2 Mega Distortion
- ML-2 Metal Core
- OD-1 Overdrive
- OD-2 TURBO Overdrive
- OD-2r TURBO Overdrive
- OD-3 Overdrive
- OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion
- PW-2 Power Driver
- SD-1 Super Overdrive
- SD-2 DUAL Overdrive
- XT-2 Xtortion
Delay/Reverb
- DD-2 Digital Delay
- DD-3 Digital Delay
- DD-5 Digital Delay
- DD-6 Digital Delay
- DD-20 Giga Delay
- DM-2 Delay
- DM-3 Delay
- RV-3 Reverb/Delay
- RV-5 Digital Reverb
Modulation
- BF-2 Flanger
- BF-3 Flanger
- CE-3 Chorus
- CE-5 Chorus Ensemble
- CH-1 Super Chorus
- HF-2 HiBand Flanger
- PH-1 Phaser
- PH-1r Phaser
- PH-2 Super Phaser
- PH-3 Phase Shifter
- PN-2 Tremelo/Pan
- TR-2 Tremolo
Tone Shapers
- AC-2 Acoustic Simulator
- AC-3 Acoustic Simulator
- AW-3 Dynamic Wah
- GE-6 Graphic Equalizer
- GE-7 Graphic Equlaizer
- SP-1 Spectrum
- TW-1 T-Wah
Compression
- CS-1 Compression Sustainer
- CS-2 Compression Sustainer
- CS-3 Compression Sustainer
Pitchers
- OC-2 Octave
- OC-3 Super Octave
- PS-5 Super Shifter
Bass Pedals
- BF-2B Bass Flanger
- CE-2B Bass Chorus
- CEB-3 Bass Chorus
- GEB-7 Bass Equalizer
- LMB-3 Bass Limiter Enhancer
- ODB-3 Bass Overdrive
- PQ-3B Bass Parametric Equalizer
- SYB-3 Bass Synthesizer
Tuners
- TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
Other Compact Pedals
- LS-2 Line Selector
- NS-2 Noise Suppressor
- RC-2 Loop Station
Digital Modeling Pedals
- FBM-1 '59 Fender Bassman Amp Pedal
- FDR-1 '65 Fender Deluxe Reverb Amp Peda

[edit] Twin Pedals, Loop Stations & V-Wahs

Twin Pedals
- CE-20 Chorus Ensemble
- DD-20 Giga Delay
- EQ-20 Advanced EQ
- OD-20 Drive Zone
- RT-20 Rotary Ensemble
Loop Stations
- RC-50 Loop Station
- RC-20 Loop Station
- RC-20XL Loop Station
- RC-2 Loop Station
Wah Pedals
- PW-10 Modelling Wah

[edit] Multi-Effects

Racks/Half-Racks
- GT-Pro Guitar Effects Processor
- VF-1 24-bit Multiple Effects Processor
Guitar Floor Pedals
- GT-5 24-bit Guitar Effects Processor
- GT-3 24-bit Guitar Effects Processor
- GT-6 24-bit Guitar Effects Processor
- GT-8 24-bit Guitar Effects Processor
- ME-50 Guitar Multiple Effects
- ME-30 Guitar Mulitple Effects
Bass Floor Pedals
- GT-6B Bass Effects Processor
- ME-50B Bass Multiple Effects
Systems
- GS-10 Guitar Effects System with USB Audio Interface

[edit] Acoustic Processors

AD Series
- AD-3 Acoustic Instrument Processor
- AD-5 Acoustic Instrument Processor
- AD-8 Acoustic Guitar Processor

[edit] Recording Products

BR Series
- BR-600 Digital Recorder
- BR-864 8-Track Digital Studio
- BR-900CD Digital Recording Studio
- BR-1180CD Digital Recording Studio
- BR-1200CD Digital Recording Studio
- BR-1600CD Digital Recording Studio
- BR-1600CD Version 2 Digital Recording Studio
- MICRO BR Digital Recorder

[edit] Samplers & Vocal Effects

SP Series
- SP-303 Dr. Sample
- SP-505 Groove Sampling Workstation
- VT-1 Voice Transformer
- SP-202 Dr. Sample
- SP-404

++ SP 606 ++ SP 808

[edit] Rhythm Machines & Metronomes

Doctor Beat
- DB-12 Dr. Beat
- DB-30 Dr. Beat
- DB-60 Dr. Beat
- DB-66 Dr. Beat
- DB-88 Dr. Beat
- DB-90 Dr. Beat
Doctor Rhythm
- DR-3 Dr. Rhythm
- DR-110 Dr. Rhythm
- DR-670 Dr. Rhythm
- DR-770 Dr. Rhythm
- DR-880 Dr. Rhythm
JamStation
- JS-5 JamStation

[edit] Tuners

TU Series
- TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
- TU-6 Guitar Tuner
- TU-8 Guitar & Bass Auto Tuner
- TU-12 Chromatic Tuner
- TU-12H Chromatic Tuner
- TU-15 Chromatic Tuner
- TU-80 Tuner & Metronome

[edit] Artists who have used BOSS products

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

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