Ok, this is not a new purchase, but it is an important one. I bought it back in the mid 1990's, very deliberately, and haven't regretted it. This pedal is still very much available, and very easily obtained. So I'm talking about it to draw your attention to some thoughts, and only some of them are directly about guitar.
See, when I bought this pedal, it was partially a reaction- in 1995, when I bought it, there were several trends going on, so I'm talking about those trends, to give you context-
First, and much more popularly, there was the "Metal head" trend- guitar players were influenced by grunge in their clothing choices, but Metallica, and Pantera in their gear choices- Solid State amps, driven by a"rectified" gain stage ( not that you asked, but "rectified" gain is a kind of "supersaturation" for volume, and as such should be considered as an "alternative" to traditional gain- like fuzz and distortion pedals). But, second, there was a more subtle trend, started by people like Eric Johnson, and Bill Finnegan.- The whole notion of transparency - the idea was to keep the signal "transparent"- that effects should be shunned, in a way- although Finnegan made his name on an effect pedal- the famous "Klon Centaur" which supposedly kept all the characteristics of your playing- pick attack, finger vibrato, bends, etc, etc- intact, whilst providing an overdriven supersaturation of that signal. Can you see what both have in common? Whether the metal attack, or the Klon approach, the idea in either event was clarity, and some idealized version of "tone". I saw it then, and I still see it as the 'emperor's new clothes". To me, the whole point of any gear beyond an acoustic guitar is to give you what you don't have- to change the sound you would naturally make. I don't have the kind of megalomania I think it would take to believe that the sounds my hands make upon striking pieces of metal with some sort of resonator would be greater than the physics of it. I need tricks to get around the physics of it.
So, in 1995, I already had my MXR Distortion +, and a Stratocaster, feeding a Sovtek MiG 50 head, and a Fender 3x12 bass cabinet- that gave me a pretty massive very grunge-y sound. I bought the Boss OS-2 to give me a sound I was shooting for, post- grunge- one that involved more clarity but that was no less artificial- I was shooting for the sound that would come around in 1999-2001, with the garage rock stuff- sounds that everybody from The Strokes to The Hives would exploit- a dirty, trebley, biting sound, heavily indebted to the Velvet Underground, Flat Duo Jets, and Roky Erikson. I'm I'm talking about this old pedal now is to point out how purchases you make can become part of trends, even when they are reaction to trends- I'm saying that you cannot purchase rebellion, only make a choice. I thought, in 1995, I was rebelling against all trends, but instead I was simply investing, as were thousands of others, in what would be the next trend.
But, lest you think I am puffing myself up, here- choosing the OS-2 reveals an insecurity, as well. See, had I really wanted to pursue my vision, I would've bought a new Amp, possibly a new guitar. (Unrelated, but pertinent: I did buy a new guitar in 1996, and got rid of that Strat, and by switching to the Epiphone, that I still have, upped my playing game, tremendously. I fried out the Amp, and got rid of the cab) See, I just bought the pedal because it was less than 100 bucks, and that's about what my level of commitment was. I "knew" that my "playing in a band" days were numbered. Now, I was probably right, given that I couldn't find a group of guys I wanted to be in a band, and never have, twenty years later, and given that my days jobs have all paid me hundreds of times more than bands ever did, and I'm far more emotionally stable not being in a band- but still- that "knowing"- that's an insecurity revealed by the purchase. I think that kind of thinking keeps Boss in business- they make lots of mid-priced pedals that approximate what much more expensive gear does, in devices that will never break. It's the same sort of thinking that keeps bar bands going- you can't see Springsteen in Youngstown Ohio on a Saturday night? Ok, but you can see The Robbie Jay band, and they will deliver a rootsy rock sound, reliably, for less money. It's for fans, but not fanatics, you know?
So, does that count as point against the Boss OS-2, or a point against me". Here's my thought, and it's why I made this post- regardless of why I made the purchase, and what delusions/insecurities/ mistaken beliefs went into it- I still have it, 20 years later. Some days I get sick of it, and other days I discover new sounds from it, but I still have it, and it's still the same little object, right? Sometimes, it takes a while for something to manifest in a purchase- and the truth in this little box is that it provides a variety of distorted sounds for the guitar- some are fizzy, and brittle, and some are scratchy and wooly- but that's all it is. It's not good or bad, it's not trendy nor nostalgic. It simply is what it is. Everything else is my psychology. That's what you can take away, here. It doesn't matter if we're talking guitar pedals, or lipstick. The objects are just what they are, and the rest is just us.
