The BC-2 isanother affordable, robust and good quality pedal from Boss. The pedal
gives you three basic functions; a clean boost; a crunch tone; and a heavier gain tone. Imagine the tonal range of a good blues combo amp, and you can begin to build the picture of what Boss are trying to achieve. The BC-2 has the now familiar function of a 'blend' style control, using this control, you can take your tone right from clean boost, to very slight break-up, to bluesy crunch, hard-rock crunch, heavy distortion, and everything in-between.
Most people know what a basic Boss pedal looks like, they usually have four knobs, this one is no different, they usually take up a small amount of footprint on your pedal board, and they are usually housed in a sturdy metal casing - again the BC-2 is no different.
In terms of sound, which is what we all really care about, the pedal excels where previous Boss distortion pedals have maybe left you wanting more. Boss are famous for their modulation and time-based effects… and pretty much every guitarist has owned a DS-1 distortion at some point in their lives.
The BC-2 will perhaps be another flagship Boss pedal. The frequencies chucked out by the higher gain tones deliver more high and low-end, but without any of those nasty 5-10kHz harmonics you often find from digital pedals. The more mellow crunch sound leans more towards the high and low-mids (as it should do), to offer you a very practical and smooth drive.
Even the clean-boost was tonally intriguing, inspiring me to play some gypsy jazz and early Les Paul style chops.
Overall, the one thing I'd always like to have a bit more control over is the EQ, but I think this is all relative to how you are as a player. Younger guitarists often go for the familiarity of Boss products, and with too much control over EQ this can actually sometimes make it harder to find what you are looking for… especially if you don't know exactly what you are looking for.
I've always felt the most important knob on a distortion pedal is actually the mid EQ knob, and the BC-2 doesn't have one. As I explained earlier though, they sort of take care of this for you in the crunch section of the pedal, and the high and low knobs are great for heavier distortion sounds.
Boss has certainly done a fantastic job here, even my analogue-junkie cameraman was impressed by the tones being kicked out by the BC-2. Definitely worth checking out if you are in the market for something with versatility and… well… balls.