the
of me? of me?As the image above suggests, I really like Boss effects pedals: they're virtually indestructible, sound great (especially the made in Japan ones), and switch on/off silently. Although I currently have almost half of the 84 different Boss pedals ever made, I have no desire to collect every single one of them. For one reason, my disposable income will never, ever be able to compete with the guy who dropped over $1200 on three pristine-mint vintage Boss pedals (SP-1, SG-1, VB-2) from the same eBay seller in spring 2005, or the guy who paid $540 alone for a SP-1 in summer 2005. In addition, there are several Boss pedals that I have no desire to buy, or buy again (CS-3, the only Boss pedal I've ever sold). Sure, there's a few older MIJ Boss pedals and even a few newer ones that I'd like to have someday, but I've got a pretty good range of effects to work with right now. And although most Boss pedal owner's manuals are available for free as downloads at RolandUS.com, it would also be nice to own the instruction manual for every pedal I do have (right now I need manuals for the BF-2B, CE-2, CE-5, DC-3, DF-2, DS-2, DSD-2, GE-7B, LMB-3, PH-1R, PH-2, and PQ-3B), to complete my "Boss library".
Boss pedals are well known for their durability, so replacement parts for them are something of an oxymoron, but the rubber grommets that interact with the battery access thumbscrew (and also prevent the metal-on-metal thumbscrew/pedal cover clicking sound) tend to wear out or fall apart. My PQ-3B was bought used without one, but fortunately I found a close replacement at the big-box hardware store (Crown Bolt Inc.'s size 5/16" grommet, made of neoprene rubber). Speaking of the thumbscrew, recent Made in Taiwan pedals appear to use M3 x 10 mm machine screws, and the sheet metal screws that hold the base to the pedal case appear to be M3 x 6 mm (or maybe self-tapping pan head #4 x 1/4" screws). However, I haven't found suitable replacements for either, so please don't quote me on those dimensions.
Finally, a few notes about feeding these pedals -- first, if you use batteries, then try to avoid alkaline batteries if at all possible. You don't have to be Eric Johnson to hear the difference between alkaline and regular (carbon) batteries in most transistor-based fuzz pedals, but distortion/overdrive pedals and analog effects in general seem to sound better with carbon batteries. To my ears, eq and digital effects are the most tolerant to alkaline batteries. Secondly, most digital pedals eat batteries very quickly (if BossArea.com says its current draw is greater than 30-40 mA, then buy the proper AC adaptor or expect to replace batteries every hour of use, even if you use alkalines). Lastly, if your older Boss pedal says to only use an ACA-series AC adaptor, don't use a PSA 9V adaptor (ACA-series adaptors deliver 12V DC, which is converted to 9V DC inside these older pedals, because supposedly the AC adaptors made back then didn't deliver a consistent voltage). However, if you use a PSA-series adaptor with a daisy chain to power your pedalboard, then a ACA-series pedal can be used with PSA pedals (as explained by Andreas of Stinkfoot Electronics).