Boss BD-2: Blues Driver Pedal Demonstration (Part One) - 'Soul Singing' by The Black Crowes

[theinck]

Freaking awesome open G riff. I just bought a BD-2 20 mins ago for a great price, new and sealed. Dunno wherther to sell it and make a profit, or open it and mash up tha place with it in open G.

[rompotoo]

Too much equipment but pure sucking Epis and a poor guitarist.

[cornfedz]

Love how mom comes in at the end in her nighty to tell ya to turn it down!!! great stuff!

[attu89]

how the hell do you afford all this stuff man? you must be like some kinda millionaire :P lol

[bryansouza]

Are all those Gibsons ??? Great pedal & playing, which pedals better ? Bad Monkey this one, or a Digitech RP355 Multi ?

[RichieVallejos]

@bryansouza They are all epiphones. you can tell by the headstock and digitech makes bad monkey. I would go with an ibanez tube screamer though

[ladelburro1]

srv didn't use any pedal

[initiald31]

nice setup, not really my type of music, but you could play some chords so i can hear how it sounds. but overall it sounds great!

[dirtylarry69]

damn look at all that shit. you better be in a band little nigga

[craigmcarthur1]

I play in 2 bands

[guitardog0]

You must love your electric bill

[yyavve]

so many pedals and really poor skills

[craigmcarthur1]

I watched your videos dude. Is that a black kettle I see in the background?

[SurfGreenTelecaster]

@craigmcarthur1 Hilarious!! Your tone and playing is always killer.

[mikeSGman]

@craigmcarthur1 I love it!! What a witty way to tell that person to piss off; if you don't mind, I'm stealing that one!! lol. Good playing btw. Rock!

[Raydungey]

@yyavve Nothing wrong with the mans skills.

Great chops, great gear, and a great video...

Cheers!

[mybubsys]

Get a hair cut. NEXT

[Kroniodeath]

What a pedal board ... it's look like space shuttle lol

[MattiaC95]

wow

[BryanSmith66]

I like my BD-2. Going to mod it soon to make it better. You sure do have a fuck-load of gear there...I hope you are a musician for a living. nice studio!

[Rustyizcool]

tabs?

[craigmcarthur1]

Afraid not. Just played off the top of my head. Im sure there will be tabs on powertab or ultimate guitar

[Willemvanderdecken]

i don,t want to be narrowminded, but that sound you can get with any decent standard amp. Why buy a special pedal for that?

[craigmcarthur1]

Variety of tone. I get my clean tone from my Hiwatt, and heavy tone from channel one of my Boogie and a really heavy tone from channel two of my boogie. I use pedals to get the tones in between

[TheGhostOrchidMusic]

do you perfer the bd-2 over the sd-1?

[craigmcarthur1]

I prefer the bd-2

[Zevonfan524]

@craigmcarthur1 Can you get an early Green Day tone outta this? Say like Geek Stink Breath or When I Come Around?

[craigmcarthur1]

Probably if you messed around long enough. I have never tried to emulate Greenday with regards to tone to be honest

[punkeratheart]

......I always mic my 1x15 and my 2x10 with separate mics, and usually just record them on separate tracks, then during mix-down I can pan one to the right and the other to the left, and it's a very natural "guitarist in the room with you" kind of sound that comes out. I use a condenser on the big 15s and a dynamic on the 10s, and I put both mics through ONLY a tube preamp with +48V phantom power on the condenser, no compression, no eq, nothing, just the mic pre in to recording console.

[craigmcarthur1]

Sounds like a nice setup. I bought a few buffers from Gig Rig, 'Humdingers' I use the fx loop on Boogie and was finding a change to my tone, the humdingers have removed this problem. I use George L cables for my entire setup, so cable wise I am covered. The Pro 14 has some nce features, like class a pre and post amps which u can use to drive pedals slightly harder orfixing volume drops on a few old analog stomp boxes I use.

[craigmcarthur1]

I am more of a live gigging guitarist at the moment with occasional recording, play about 2 gis per week, so my current rig is very much geared up towards live use. Its a very different setup when recording, I very much agree with your stripped down approach in the studio and experimenting with good mic placement and amp eq'ing as opposed to fixing everything with post twiddling. Good to get some online debate and opinion from experienced people, alot of time on here its quite different haha

[punkeratheart]

PM me with an email address, and I will give you a cab design that will cost 15-20 euro, and take about 3 hours to build, and reinvent your definition of tone, even with the cheap stock speakers that come in combo amps, in these cabs, they are amazing.

[punkeratheart]

I meant my 2x15 and 2x10, not a 1x15. Classic 30 needs big speakers, and 12s have too much mid-spike, which is the last thing I want to add to an already mid-heavy C30, but the combo of equal amounts of 15s and 10s helps even the tone a lot, whether it's 1x15 +1x10 or 4x15 and a 4x10 (soon enough), it makes a good balance. the BOOM is in the 15s, and the vox-like chime is in the 10s, and my cabs are made by my hands, all solid wood, not mdf or ply. THAT makes a difference that you MUST hear!

[craigmcarthur1]

Sounds great, be interested in trying that in future. I'll send u my address. I have a Mesa Boogie Stereo recto 2x12 and a Bogner 1x12 I use at the moment. Next purchase will be an open back with C90's i think. Be interested to see your design. Our drummer knows a sound engineer who builds cabs and speakers etc, hes mentioned custom building cabs before.

[Sydoncid]

My man, you got some shit! Dig those Black Crowes "Soul Singing"!

[craigmcarthur1]

Black Crowes rock. fingers crossed they tour their new album in UK

[FargandSirHomerlots]

holy fuck, thats a lot of shit!!! I wish I could afford all that

[B4IrustB4Idecompose]

man your stacked!!! you hit the lotto didnt you?

[craigmcarthur1]

Haha afraid not, I had to work my ass off to buy that stuff

[Pacino0712]

nice pedals, I like the sound that each pedal makes a lot better than they do on the multi-effect boards, I like it but to be honest u might want to think about getting a board, I have seven pedals and it makes it a lot easier having a pedal board, and I know u have a lot more than seven there

[craigmcarthur1]

I agree. I have two pedal boards that I use for the two different rigs I use for gigging

[ticosexy22]

You have some serious equipment right there man, nice vid.

[actiondanmanwhore]

yeah too many pedals...

all you need is an overdrive and an analog delay :D

[punkeratheart]

Are you trying to fill a void deep inside you with effects pedals? I mean, obviously your fingers know where to go on that fingerboard, and you even have your own distinctive style. So why so much alteration at your feet? I can just tell from watching your left hand do it's thing, if you were locked in a room with a Les Paul and an old 4x10 deville, without a pedal in sight, then you would really find your sound. You are too good to need all those effects. Don't believe the hype!

[JaredBarry916]

Effects pedals are great man, they just allow you to get more distinct sounds and be more creative with your sound

[amarr1]

except all of those effects are necessary for the different sounds you'd need for an alternative/ambient/rock/progr­essive band.

[punkeratheart]

And I am not saying that you should never use effects. I have a flanger, a chorus, and compression pedal, and a seymour duncan twin tube classic. I use the chorus and flanger when I am doing a weird intro with arpeggios surrounded by clips from horror movies or news reports, and the twin tube is like an extension of my classic 30, more gain without having to put an ss gain stage between me and the amp. But you can't find your base tone from a series of pedals, they are toys. They get in the way.

[craigmcarthur1]

They can if you get too bogged down in the effects. But use a bucket load of pedals as you can see and i think it supplements my playing. I play in a band with 3 guitarists so a range of tones and different EQ parameters r required to cut thru the mix and isolate my playing form the other two guys. We are also quite progressive so a range of atmospheric tones are also required. My Gig Rig Pro 14 analog swithcing unit simplifies everything

[punkeratheart]

I realize that there is a purpose to effects, a novel purpose, but I also find that they are masking much of your playing. When the audio path goes from passive pickups, through preamp tubes, power tubes, then speaker, you become one with the entire setup, and every scale, every line, every hammer-on, and every light-moderate-hard pick stroke is an interaction between you and the sound, almost as if the guitar and amp are not there, and your hands are just making music. It's more "you", less FX.

[craigmcarthur1]

I agree, hence why I have also taken the time and expense to buy a gig rig pro 14 analog swtching unt, which allows me to completly remove every pedal on my board from the signal path thus producing the purest tones from my Boogie and Hwatt. But that only gives me 3 differing tones, clean, overdrive and really heavy overdrive, I sometimes require different sounds due to our style of music. But I completly agree with your opinion.

[punkeratheart]

Check out Effectrode, they have a multitude of ALL tube pedals, not "tube pedals" like the EHX and VOX pedals that have tubes in them, but effectrode pedals are actually tube driven from input to output, which means you get the benefits of FX (they have chorus, vibe, echo, compression, and of course, a KILLER OD) without the tone-suckage that occurs when you put a solid state gain stage between your guitar and your amp, and they are all hardwire bypass, so the tubes don't color when it's off.

[punkeratheart]

And yes, I know effectrode pedals are pricey, but they sound and FEEL so much better than IC, transistor, or OA driven effects.The OD is about 400 US dollars, probably 280 or so for you (euro), but it's a trio of ECC83s, first two cascaded in 4 gain stages, the third is used as the driver of active tone control! It's like they put the coolest vintage amp's preamp section in to a stand alone pedal unit, and I will be buying myself at least the compressor and OD, maybe the chorus too, or a leslie!

[craigmcarthur1]

Thanks I will do that. At the stage I am at now with regards to the gear that I buy, this is more the sort of thing I am looking for. I think you have to buy alot of mainstream units in order to learn about effects and how to use them before you start dropping $400 on on pedal. The only one thing thats worth looking at with regards to your signal chain is buffering. Some of the Boss style that use buffers can actually help your chain along. Worth looking into custom buffers

[punkeratheart]

Look around the net, it is actually a fairly cheap and easy-intermediate project to build your own tube buiffer! And when using modulation effects, especially chorus and flangers, always use silver-plated cable if you can, it helps bring through a bit more high end that is lost in the modulation. It's a difference that must be heard to be believed, not subtle AT ALL. Personally, I use effects sparingly, I am generally just playing my strats and teles with the gain on my amp at noon. . . . . . .

[punkeratheart]

. . . . . . . . with an all tube boost/OD (actually a late 40's motorola phono pre with the guitar plugged in to the right input-goes through one tube, right output through left input-through second tube-left output to amp, right side volume works as "gain", left volume is output volume "level"). It's a sweet sound, and if I need a deeper texture (bearing in mind I am recording, not gigging these days) I will double track the rhythm guitar. At the very least............

[ispogi]

hear hear!

[punkeratheart]

Seriously, watch this guy's fingers on the fretboard and his picking, and just imagine the sound that would be created from this if there was nothing but tubes and voltage between the magnets on his guitar and the magnets in his cabinet. I am actually more able to see how good this guy really is when I watch the video with the sound off, but of course that's boring, so I don't watch silent videos much. Just try playing the same thing, maybe a little TUBE DRIVEN reverb, tremolo, compression, etc.

[Shereeeeeeen]

whoa man nice collection you got there on the wall. the blue one is a beauty

[whatchamacallit]

Hello. Love the demo. I actually like the way you play that riff from Black Crowes. I would like to know how to play that song. How do you tune the guitar, but generally how do you play it? I love that song!

[craigmcarthur1]

Thanks. I play it in this video in Open G tuning(DGDGBD) the original is in the same tuning but in F so down a tone. There should be several tabs of this riff on the usual tab websites

[wooki321]

oh shit, I also want so much pedals!!!!!

[ac5786]

dude how would you compare the BD-2 to the Boss OD-3? i have an OD-3 but i think its to bassy...and which sounds heavier or more gain tnx...

[craigmcarthur1]

I much prefer the BD-2 if I am honest, its a nice pedal for the money, works well as a boost and as an overdrive. The Keeley Phat mod is excellent. Look at the Fulltone OCD aswell if your looking for an similar type of overdrive. Both the OD-3 and BD-2 offer similar levels of gain.

[Gr33nPanther]

how do u take the toggle switch's, rythm and treble, little circle off the guitar? nice tone

[craigmcarthur1]

Just unscrew the metal ring that holds the toggle switch in place, remove the washer. Then gentley pry the plastic ring off. Use some guitar polish to gently remove the glue that sticks the ring to the guitar. Then screw the toggle switch back in place. Easy.

[kriszpaul]

perfect sound:)

[steamlilly]

The door is haunted! O_0

[craigmcarthur1]

The Mesa Boogie Tremoverb has been discontinued dude, so you would need to pick one up secondhand and prices vary alot depending on the country and the condition of the amp.

I would very much recommend this amp if ur looking for that saturated rectifier sound.

[chriscoooley]

you should make a video simply explaining how you've got everything set up and all your patches and whatnot. sick gear, i dont got any decent gear atm, but its coming. so try making a setup explanation vid, thanks

[craigmcarthur1]

Its in the pipeline dude. When I finish building my new rig I will od a video going thru it all. Cheers

[amarr1]

nice... what tuning is your guitar in

[craigmcarthur1]

Video description dude

[amarr1]

sorry im an idiot

[craigmcarthur1]

Haha no probs man

[frankiekamp]

do you have a video just showcasing all of your pedals? if not you should make one.

[craigmcarthur1]

Not yet dude. I havent finished my new live rig yet. When I finish it I am gonna post some vids of me having the custom floorboard built etc.....then a full rig demo. Cheers

[Noirie93]

Sorry dude,

I mean the finish on the Guitar

[craigmcarthur1]

Hey man, its Trans Red I think.

[Noirie93]

Whats that the finish?

[craigmcarthur1]

Not sure what ur askin dude? Song at the end? Isnt a song, it is just me messing about playing random stuff in open G tuning.

[zakaria889]

of all guitars u hav which is ur favourite?

[craigmcarthur1]

My new PRS Single Cut.  Its a beauty!

[stringsNstuff]

HOLY SHIT DUDE!

You have alot of pedals!

[theclaw195]

wow, thats quite some fucking gear rofl. are all of those gibsons or some epiphone? O_O

[craigmcarthur1]

Epiphones in there dude. They are good guitars, especially if u replace the pups and electronics.

[oblivian516]

Epiphone with pup change, new pots, new tuners, new bridge, and new strings pwns gibson (if you can find one with decent quality).

[amarr1]

i like napolean complex thats a cool song

[craigmcarthur1]

Cheers dude, its an old song of ours. There is a live video of it on youtube of us playing it at our first gig! You should check it out if your interested. Thanks

[Der1metzger]

Hey, This is sort of a dumb question i guess, But what all do you need in the way of amps for tourning?

I mean i have a 150 watt crate right now (i play guitar) but are their other kinds of amps or something i should have? I know some one who was telling me that you need a couple different kinds of amps for guitar to play a small place, But he's not always a realiable source.

[craigmcarthur1]

I use two heads, one for clean, one for heavy at the moment, both 100 watt +, in my live rig. If I were touring I would have those two, with spare valves and fuses incase anything goes. I would also have a spare head incase one breaks down. I would maybe consider taking a smaller combo amp for small venues, as to get the best from a 100 watt tube head it needs to be cranked, so volume might be an issue. Depends where ur playing and which amps u use cuurently.

[craigmcarthur1]

If your crate sounds good at lower volumes and is reliable that would probs be enought, but nice to have a spare incase it breaks down on tour!

[Der1metzger]

Thanks alot dude! Yeah it sounds great at any volume, the biggest problem is that low isnt exactly low on it, So practice can be sort of hard at times xD

Thanks alot for the information... Also what's a good effect to get a really fat sound?

[craigmcarthur1]

Mmmm fat sound. EQ pedals allow u tho shape your tone abit more. An overdrive pedal used as a boost can fatten your sound. Chorus pedals simulate more than one guitar being played, so if setup correctly they can fatten your tone, There r loads dude!

[Der1metzger]

Hah sweet thanks, I'm a bit of a noob at effect pedals, What do you mean by using it as a boost? Thanks alot for your help.

[craigmcarthur1]

Boost, as in it goves u slightly more gain and a volume lift. I use an SMF Ego Boost, its a transparent booster, so I use it to boost the volume for solos, and if needs be add some gain.

[Der1metzger]

Ooh alright, i get it... Thanks alot for everything man, You've been a big help =)

[craigmcarthur1]

You can use most overdrive pedals as a boost dude. You just turn down the gain to its minimum or very low and crank the volome of level knob up full = more volume and some gain, good boost for solos!

[Der1metzger]

Haha nice, Alright, On my Crate i have a pedal that controls the three three chanels and effects, So would i need to buy another pedal to use that with my amp? Like it has over drive and distorion, But you need to use them seperatly.

I'm guessing it's Distortion and overdrive, One says "Solo" and the other is "Rythem"

[craigmcarthur1]

I dont understand the question dude. Can u rephrase?

[Der1metzger]

Haha whoops, I messed that question up.

On my amp i have one pedal that controls the different chanels, I have clean, Distortion and Overrive, So would i need to get another overdrive pedal to use for a boost, Right?

Haha sorry that i suck at guitar, I played bass for like three years then acoustic guitar for a while, I'm good at actully playing, I just don't know much about equipment and all.

[craigmcarthur1]

It depends on what u need dude. For some people 3 channels is enough. 1 for clean, 1 for rhythmn and one for lead. If u need more then u need additional pedals such as a boost for lead.

[amarr1]

thats what i use my blues driver for because then i can add some dirt and boost my level, not just my level like the mxr microamp or other boost pedals

[craigmcarthur1]

Yeh it works well as a boost pedal. I recently purchased a Smart People Factory Ego Boost pedal, its a lovely gain/volume boost pedal with some neice features, u should check it out.

[frogswallop]

Vinyl Future kicks arse! This might seem like a cheap shot, but do you take requests of covers?

[craigmcarthur1]

Thanks for the kind words dude. We dont really play covers, the only time we have is for audition purposes and for messing about at rehearsal, we play some Dream Theater and Oceansize etc.

[frogswallop]

Sweet to know you cover dream theater, but I wondering about you playing some covers on youtube haha - They kick arse, too, I'd buy similar rig if only I wasn't on minimum wage

[craigmcarthur1]

There r a few audition videos on youtube somewhere, very rough. I think we played Money by Pink Floyd, the Warmth by Incubus and Creep by Radiohead at auditions for a singer like 18months ago. If I find the links I will mail them to u.

[zosozoso2]

Do you sell your Tremoverb?

[craigmcarthur1]

Nop, its in the vid dude! You see it at the start sitting on my 2x12!

[zosozoso2]

You can always ask, hehe! As you see, I have a Rect-O-Verb head, and Im thinking about getting the TOV instead, cant really decide that decision.

Keep Rocking!

[craigmcarthur1]

Oh you asking if I would sell it to you? I have played Recto-verbs, good amps, but I prefer the Tremoverb (obviously I am biased). Having said that I dont use the Tremolo unit much, not a fan of it!

[zosozoso2]

Gret to hear that you played ROV, I like it quite much, but look for more "vintage" sounds as well. What do you think is better by the TOV, I mean tonevise.

[craigmcarthur1]

I use my TOV purely for overdrive tones. I dont use the clean, I use a seperate amp for that. Only posted these vids as a request for someone.

The Vintage Hi Gain tone in CH1 is awesome , I use that for my proggy/rock stuff, awesome bass response, heavy but every note is cystal and clean despite the overdrive and gain.

[craigmcarthur1]

Then the Modern Hi Gain setting in CH2 has that raw recto tone. More aggressive than any other rectifier I have played, sooo much bass, heavy as tones but you retain the clarity of the notes. Only amp that has been close for power and clarity is my bandmates Roadking! Thats a machine, soudns uber!

[zosozoso2]

Sounds good! Thanks!

[soundwrks]

You have to much awesome stuff.

Give me some of it. Please.

[rovit]

haha the door opens.. who could that be?

[craigmcarthur1]

Haha I just noticed that! It was my brother!

[tjey]

ah ok i see... :) but u should try, :) or have it prepared for new vids ;)

btw. syncing sound and vid isnt hard ..

just record Vid + Mic from camera both with direct sound from PC..

Those 3 (1- video, 2- Audio, 3- audio) put into some Video managing software like (sony vegas, Adobe premiere, etc.) 1 and 2 is already synchronized.. but audio 2 sux.. so watch amplitudes of Sound in audio 2 and sync them with audio 3's amplitudes of sound.. :)

pls try it sometime :P

"its all about quality"

[craigmcarthur1]

Sounds great dude! But I am a busy man and time is tight at the moment, I have a long ass list of demo requests!  I will try and get round to a better setup for recording these vids at some point. Thanks very much for the advice man.

[tjey]

nah, i am so glad, that u are glad ^^.. because i thought , that u will just piss me off , for that i am someone "nobody" who's trying to say you something, what to do :)

but if you do this, i would appreciate it a lot..

take care ;)

[craigmcarthur1]

I promise I will get round to it at some point dude!

[tjey]

Wow .. thx :) so i wish you good luck with doin it :p

[tjey]

lol .. :/ it should sound the best.. when you recorded this directly into pc :(

[craigmcarthur1]

Its just recorded with the camera's mic. I can never be bothered miccing up my amp then syncing the vid lol!