The Sound-O-Mat

Yet More Ebay Insanity

So, here's a completely insane auction going on, which is (granted, nice that it's new-in-box) BOSS VB-2 Vibrato, but for USD $595.00? But the guy selling it seems sincere and a nice guy, so we wish him well. If you have money to burn, here you go:

Boss VB-2 Vibrato THE RAREST BOSS PEDAL!! (NOT)

It sold for USD $460. Our biggest beefs are two things:

1. The Uni-Vibe is a far superior pedal, esp. if you can get your hands on the Stereo Chorus Uni-Vibe, which was used by Robin Guthrie of The Cocteau Twins and who the hell knows who else, but is an amazing pedal - we've got one and we wouldn't even sell that for $600 - and we've had a VB-2 and would like get to another, but it's just not anything like a Uni-Vibe since we got one. The Uni-Vibe is simply so much better, once you've had a chance to play with one.

2. Rarest BOSS Pedal our butts! We hate when the uninformed try to make claims like that. As of 2000, long after they stopped making the VB-2, the official "BOSS Book" lists the rarest pedals, as determined by how many were made (BOSS had sold over 7 million pedals by 2000, and will hit the 11 million mark in 2007.)

1. PW-2: Power-something
Basically a FET-based boost.
2. XT-2: Xtortion
We love our DF-2 "Super Distortion and Feedbacker" (vs. the "Feedback & Distortion", which are the later run pedals) but would love to even hear one of these.
3. FZ-2: something Fuzz
4. DW-2: Dynamic Auto-Wah
An OK pedal but didn't sell well because the "wah" sound is all about expression, in our opinion, and requires a pedal.
5. LM-2: Limiter & DC-3: Digital Dimension (tie)
The former is an awesome analog limiter that isn't clean but adds a nice tone, and the latter is perhaps the best chorus pedal ever made, and has been selling for about USD $110-150 recently.

And in our experience, to round out the list, the other four "MOST RARE" pedals would be, in no particular order:

• OD-1: Overdrive (first run)
The original, first-run Japan-made ones like Eddie Van Halen has had in his rig since before their first album and still does, as does Jeff Beck and others. You can tell the first run because the "O" in "OD-1" is under the "r" in "...drive" on the logo. Later models do not.
• SG-1: Slow Gear
The Slow Gear sold like shite, and people love it or hate it, but when they hear recordings we've done with it, everyone refuses to believe it was done with guitar. Sales on eBay have been between $450-650 in recent years - and we thought we made out selling ours for $200 ten years ago. Doh! We've tried and sold the Guyatone SV-1 "Slow Volume" but it just wasn't the same. We just got a Berhinger "SM-1 Slow Motion" and will see if that will work. Update: we got it, and we're getting close, but we're not quite getting the Slow Gear sound. But good stuff without much effort.
• CE-1: Chorus Ensemble
The pedal that started it all. Yes, a lot were made, but it's rare because it was the second (not the first!) BOSS Pedal ever made and nobody who has one would ever part with it. But it didn't sell at all for a long time when it first came out.
• DF-2: Super Distortion & Feedbacker
Not to be confused with the DF-2 "Super Feedbacker & Distortion", BOSS changed the name due to a lawsuit threat from Dimarco and unfortunately the circuit as well, and having owned both, the original is really much better, and we usually don't buy the "the first run was better" tone-argument crap.

Update: Of course, this sort of thing brings the nutters out of the woodwork, so here's one for sale in the U.K. for only approx. USD $550:

Boss VB 2 Vibrato pedal

In some ways we regret selling ours but the Uni-Vibe we have is just so much more to our liking!

Another Update: for the "rarest" pedal, there's another one up for $550 now, which makes three at once. One sold awhile back for $495.00 and the "eBay Greed Mentality" as well call it has set in - people see one item sell for a way too high price and they set the bar at that or higher. So one yuppie with too much disposable income was willing to drop $500 on one. Great. We'll wait, patiently, and get one or not.

The sad thing is we sold one years ago for $60. Doh!