Boss OD-200 Hybrid Drive Pedal Reviews

Having 105 pedals I kept looking for the one who cut the mustard. This one not only cuts the mustard but it slices and dices too. Smooth creamy tone is so easy to achieve. AJ took care again and I am enjoying this pedal, as long as my 21 son keeps his gand off it. Yea, he loves the tone too.

The Brown Sound on it alone is worth it. I like the Boost function that you can use in tandem with the OD you select. I find it very easy to dial in your sound. A favorite of mine is the Brown Sound and Fuzz. Also, try the Parallel parameter to have your OD and Boost work in parallel with each other. you can't go wrong with this.

I bought this hoping and praying to simplify my board for my surf band. I had a cheap noise gate to kill 60 cycle hum, a very light OD and a clean boost (usually Pantheon and TC Spark). The dream was get this and replace all three, leaving more spacing room on my board. This thing is very much marketed as a flexible high gain tool. I didn't really expect it to be good at clean to very low gain boosting, but good lord this thing delivers. Stacking the Blues Driver with a Centaur boost really kicks my Quilter Mach 3 into another universe. Everything is cutting, clear, punchy, as much or as little gain as I want to dial in. My rig never sounded better. And now my pedalboard is less jam packed, simpler, yet more versatile. I also play higher gain stuff outside of my main band and it of course kicks butt for this too. Totally blown away by this thing. I claimed I hated digital drives every day up until the day this arrived. To be fair, I still don't like most digital drives I've tried, but this one is different.

The sound few other pedals can make:

Parallel fuzz and Metal Zone / Metal Core / X-Metal, as quiet as you want with the included noise gate. The distortion side controls the bite and punch, the fuzz side controls the harmonic complexity.

I think the Source Audio pedals can do this sound also, but since I don't have them I cannot be sure. What this pedal has that the only competitor (in the blended fuzz/metal distortion area) lacks is a MIDI out.

I know this pedal is supposed to be versatile, and maybe it is, but that sweet blended fuzz and metal distortion is so fantastic that I never turn it off.

I must add that one's speaker cab and EQ following this pedal make a huge contribution to the sound. I use it into an MXR 10 band and then an IR box with a Fryette speaker cab on one side, with their Eminence speakers, and a DP-77 speaker on the other side. Other IRs don't make quite the same heavenly roar.

Great Powerhouse of tones and flexibility. The OD 200, is a sound palette that provides you great options when it comes to tone shaping and effects routing. You can chose from the 12 overdrives or distortion effects that the unit comes with, and tweak the sound of your selected overdrives towards your liking. The ability to chose an effect, and pair it with another one, either in series or parallel configurations, is an awesome plus feature! Also, you can pre or post boost your effects as well. I was surprised of the unit's effects tone accuracy when it comes to replicating the sounds of some of my favorite overdrives. I own a BOSS BD 2 Blues Driver, and when playing side by side both, the OD 200 and the BD 2 Blues Driver, the tonal resemblance was "TOP NOTCH", as a matter of fact, you can squeeze better tonal options with the OD 200 over the BD 2 Blues Driver, since the OD 200, has Bass, Middle, and High tone control knobs, contrary to the BD 2 Blues Driver that only has one dedicated tone knob; "more tone knobs, better tone shaping options", or you just can patch the OD 200 with another overdrive of your choosing.

Many thanks to my dear Sales Engineer, Logan Miller. Logan always helps me a lot when it comes to choosing the right gear and accessories for my rigs. ; "Logan is a Human Enciclopedia" when it comes to pro sound knowledge!

I decided to try out the MD-200 first. It was so good I bought the DD and OD as well. They are all exceptional! However this OD was the biggest surprise of the bunch. I play several different guitars and all I've got to do is select a different saved preset until I find the one that works for whatever I'm playing. Plus the manual mode is great to mess with if I'm in the mood for something different. I've replaced tons of individual pedals with these three boxes. They've cured my G.A.S. for new pedals! No more constant rotation.

I've owned a DS-1X for about 4 years (and love it) and was considering buying a OD-1X to pair with it, but after reading about the OD-200, it seemed like the best of both of worlds - and it is. After playing through this unit extensively for about 2 weeks, I'm very pleased the with incredible tones, but the flexibility and tweakability is where it really shines. I've A/B'd my old DS-1X with the patch on the OD-200 and it's indistinguishable to my ear - it's got a beautiful smoothness and eq that I can't get with any of my other boutique pedals (Bearfoot - Model H / Rockbox - Boiling Point). I'm still playing with the boost options, but for now and sticking with my Wampler Tumnus for stacking. I love the OD-1X patch as well and am having so much fun with my T-style guitars.

I'm favoring the DS-1X and OD-1X patches at the moment, but I definitely am liking the Stack Drive and Fat Drive patches too - the CNTR OD (Centaur patch) is also amazing for a smooth fine grit for rhythm.

My next step is too dig into the MIDI capabilities and pairing it with amp models in my Helix. Like most BOSS pedals, super sturdy and built like a tank. It only takes 20-30 minutes to master the interface and operation - super intuitive.

and ive been playing 52 years. its all here in one box....whatever you need it is here. and if youre reading this and havent purchased from Sweetwater yet what are you waiting for? Ask for Randy Poteete, tell him Fritz sent ya and get yourself one of these pedals. You wont regret it!!!

Purchased this after being blown away with The EQ 200 sounds and versatility . This pedals sound quality far exceeds its price. The 200 series pedals are the best value and stereo images from Boss in years.

I just spent about an hour learning all the modes and configurations this pedal is capable of....and yes, an hour of focused time is enough if you watched a good Youtube video explaining the pedal before you get started like i did. Some have voiced frustration over how powerful this pedal is...i use the word powerful because there is truly nothing else on the market like this pedal. It is the equivalent of an entire pedal board full of boost and drive pedals that can be combined in almost any way you can imagine. Add the nice noise gate to the signal path and you have a pedal board in a box. All of the drive tones are good, but the boost stacking is what really makes them amazing...just as good if not better than some of my boutique OD pedals. I am not saying i will get rid of any of my other pedals, but i sure could if i wanted too. This pedal is a game changer...but as my title states...you will need ample time and patience to setup all your favorite presets... I have a number of guitars with different pickups...this is awesome for tailoring my OD settings for each guitar...then it's showtime all the time...just hit a preset and out comes perfection...don't even need the midi control if you don't want to deal with the hassle.

Ok, I've said that before, but this time I mean it! User interface can be a little complicated, but that's to be expected when cramming over a dozen pedals into one unit and the amount of tweaking that can be done to each of those pedals.

The profiles and tones available are faithful models of their original counterparts. As such don't expect every voicing to sound good with your particular amp and/or guitar. Also don't expect each pedal to stack well with each other. That's not a bad thing, that's a good thing and means the Boss is accurately clipping your signal.

My favorite feature has to be the 3-band EQ. Many of the classic stomp boxes emulated here only offered a tone knob, or at most hi/lo knobs, but with the Boss you can really dial in some amazing sounds that weren't possible with the originals. A Centaur, TS808, or Big Muff with a 3 band EQ? Just one of those would be worth the cost of admission for most pedal heads.

The noise gate is exceptionally useful when stacking higher gain pedals and is adjustable for threshold and decay. It does a fantastic job keeping things tight.

My order from Sweetwater arrived a day earlier than expected.

I was skeptical at first, because I have never liked Boss overdrives in the past, but the idea of having 4 presets intrigued me. I typically have about 4 overdrive/distortion or fuzz pedals on my board at one time. Usually something like a morning glory/soul food/em drive 1st, followed by a higher gain pedal like a BB Preamp, followed by a fuzz pedal, followed by a high gain pedal for soaring leads. This pedal covers my needs well. It also provides ultra high gain for metal or 80s rock or whatever you might be in to.

I was pleased to find out this pedal does NOT have 4 presets...you can expand to 127 (though w/out using midi control that would be impossible to navigate efficiently--plus, who needs 127 gain stages or variations??). From a practical standpoint, say you want to use 6 presets. You go into the menu and expand the "extent" parameter from 4 to 6 presets. Then when you cycle through the memory button, you'll just go from Manual (which by default is whatever the knobs are currently set to), to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and back to manual again. In other words, with a lower # like 6 or even 10 presets, it is easy and quick enough to cycle through with your foot and without the need for an external footswitch or midi control. As you can tell by looking at the pedal, you'll only have the little indicator lights for Man, 1, 2, 3, and 4. But the main display in the upper left corner says (preset)-5, 6, et cetera as you scroll up.

Sounds: I can dial in with some tweaking a very good light overdrive with the KLON or Blues Driver Setting, and for each preset or setting there is an independent boost mode. So you can set that as a clean boost or an OD or drive on top of the preset sound (I don't believe you can run the clean boost indepently, but I guess you could pair with light OD pedal set to little to no gain and that would get you there).

I really like the new distortion sounds they have with their Multi-Dimensional Processing (MDP) because, too me, they sound more realistic (more analog). These are great for the higher gain settings.

The Fuzz is modeled after an EH Big Muff. It does a good job--you can get a convincing Big Muff sound from it.

I'm playing mine into a JTM 45 that is clean because the amp takes pedals incredibly well. I would really have to tweak it to run it into my deluxe reverb but the 3 band eq helps.

I didn't think I'd keep this pedal (but a trio of Boss 200s, the DD, MD, and this), but I knew I'd keep the MD200 and DD200. That said, this OD200 has been a huge surprise for me. It's a keeper, IMO. I put my Mondo VooDoo Labs board away and broke out my PedalTrain Classic 2. I just need a wah, compressor, OD200, MD200, DD200, and a reverb pedal now and I can cover just about any style of music.

The new firmware update takes my grade from an A to an A+++++.

For those using a Midi Controller, this pedal is an absolute must. What was once 5 presets, is now 128. (The EQ-200 is now 128 as well & I suspect the entire 200 series does).

There is too much functionality to discuss here, but to summarize; the boost doesn't have to be used as a boost. You can assign an entire Pedal Type (that's what this pedal is....its 12 OD Pedals) to the boost, so that means you can have 2 pedal types running at the same time.

Also, you can choose in series or parallel.

You can go from cleans to the dirtiest knarley filthy filth....and you can have them both on (in series OR parallel) at the same time. You can team up any combination of the 12 pedals.....and create 128 presets that you can build patches with.

Boutique snobs are always hipp to the next non-midi pedal with the quirky name & the fancy paint job. I'll put this solid yellow/orange behemoth with the functional name against any OD Pedal on the planet.

If your willing to read a manual, take some time.....and learn....this pedal is a grand slam winner.

I am really enjoying this pedal and I am considering selling my Strymon Sunset and keeping this on my board.

Any preconceived notions you have about digital modeling, just get over it. It's 2019 and Boss is really getting good with DSP and this pedal sounds fantastic. Of the 10 models, I've owned 2 of the real life counterparts - the Tube Screamer and I've owned Big Muffs for decades. The Fuzz model really does sound like a Big Muff but much quieter and the controls are much more linear. The distortion knob on a real Sovtek Big Muff is terribly unlinear with a big hockey stick bend in the middle. Boss has edited all that out, you just get the tone without all the weirdness. The Tube Screamer gain goes up higher than any real Tube Screamer I've used and the tone remains tight and focused and never farts out no matter how much you crank it. I use mainly the Tube Screamer, the Klon and the Blues OD. But I used them all except the two "X" drives as metal is not my thang.

The noise gate is very effective and useful in taming 60 cycle hum with my Strat. The tone controls are very active and powerful. Don't try running it on batteries, it will run down 3 Alkaline AAs pretty quick...

Unreal, this thing sounds so good. Super tight and gritty but without losing note definition or power. Even with the drive all the way up it doesn't loose its cool. I'm using my 4 watt Vox tube and it hits it like a normal distortion pedal does. The built in gate works really well. I think it completely eliminates the need for a separate noise reducer and you can set it to creatively gate fuzz. It's more compact than I thought it would be (about 1 and 2/3's a boss pedal wide and maybe a finger width longer) it looks awesome (sort of a road paint yellow makes a worn DS-2 look kind of greyish orange next to it) and its fairly intuitive to use. 3 band EQ is more practical than a tone knob. Of course I set it to 3 o'clock treble and bass and 9 o'clock mids and will probably never touch it again. If I had to list a gripe it would be with the three character display. I guess they had their reasons to use a 1980's calculator screen but its like reading a foreign language. It isn't instantly recognizable that H n t stands for x-metal or 5 t Y stands for stack drive. I can't even text brown which is b r upside-down A. Eager to try out the expression pedal options but at some point I actually need to go to work.

Love design. Looks far superior to outmoded OD-20 from 2007. It's about time for an updated model. Can't imagine having any other distortion pedal when you have this one, the OD-200 Analog/Digital Hybrid Drive Circuitry, with the 12 best drive modes. Have a Boss GT-1000, but the OD-200 is the distortion I will be putting in the effects loop of the GT-1000. Dialing in awesome tones will be quick, easy and replicatable.

I had doubts. MD 200 I unloaded. I have OD 20. Happy with that, can only get 3 or 4 workable sounds. If you can find 2 or 3 with OD 200 it's probably worth your $$. Noise gate is superior. After 2 decades of corksniffing, I'm willing to give BOSS another try. OD-1 with boost is where I found my tone. Everything else is just extra. I believe X drive is where you find digital. It's OK. Tubescream, fuzz and Klon dead on. All others wushu-washy IMO. You are likely either a distortion or an OD guy. I am of the latter, obviously. I bought for true bypass. I still have Tonebone HotBrit.

I won't repeat the earlier good reviews below but I agree with them: this pedal is capable of replacing all or nearly all of your overdrive, distortion, and fuzz. What you gain in the small and inexpensive (given what it replaces) package, though, comes at the cost of some complexity. First, expect a learning curve of about two hours, for (1) learning all it does, (2) updating the software, (3) choosing how many memory slots you want (up to 128 but more is not necessarily better!), and (4) dialing in your tones for each of the saved settings. Second, forever after, you must have a system to know what those settings are, because as of update 1.2 in May 2021, the display won't tell you. Really. It tells you the number and the boost, but it doesn't tell you the original effect, so if your memory setting is a Blues Driver that uses a Tube Screamer as a Boost, the display only tells you that it's a Tube Screamer. So you need to remember that #1 memory is your Blues Driver. This doesn't affect the manual setting where you select the effect with the knob, of course. It only effects the memory. And I hope and expect that update 1.3 will fix this by displaying both effects (perhaps blink or scroll them). In the meantime I have an index card to tell me what I saved under what number. No big deal, but worth mentioning. That's really the only flaw. I'd certainly buy this again. Nothing else gives this ability to choose, shape, save, and boost distortion in such an easy to use package. This is unequivocally an A+ pedal.

This is a godsend. I'm still working on the "just about to break up" sound, but for serious crunch, fuzz, brown, over the top stuff, it's perfect. I play through Fender Twins and I don't miss my Marshalls. All the tube goodness comes through.

The only ding is that to keep the cost low, it took me a day to understand the controls. That LED isn't so great for telling you what you've selected or what the setting is. I own two of the 500 series and their displays are terrific. But they cost more and take up more space on the board too.

Sound: Five stars
Functionality: Six stars
Documentation: Three stars. Typical Boss documentation where they include every detail but in random order. Oh well.
User interface: Four stars. Would be two, but I know it was to keep the cost low

Now to try and figure out MIDI.

The more time I spend with the Boss OD-200, the more I understand how to make it work for me. I have watched a few videos. Patience is required for the learning curve. The manual is needed to understand the meaning of the three-digit symbols in the small display. It also has levels, sub-menus. Turning dials randomly can be pointless or counter-productive. Following the logic of the sequences in the manual helps greatly. Plug the unit into the front end of an amp. No headphone option, no cab sims. Or plug it into the send/receive loop of a GT-1000. and use headphones for the GT-1000 cab sim output. Anyway when plugged in, patiently go through the 12 modes. Be prepared to do a lot of tweaking with the help of the manual. Save patches that are great or require a lot of work to dial in. Unit is software up-gradable via USB. Expression pedal option is nice for controlling parameters in real time. Once you have found and programmed 4 sounds to put in memory and a suitable option for manual mode you can spend all your energy playing. Use the manual, tweak, play. Sound is superb. Does it chug? Yes.

Really trying to get more sounds and functionality. I buy a lot of Boss gear. Biggest cognitive jump so far has been from going from the Boss ME-80 to the Boss GT-1000. Love the ability to plug into a 32 inch HD computer monitor and program with the Boss Tone Studio as a great visual aid for the Boss GT-1000. However, the Boss OD-200 has no such elaborate visual aid. Wish it did. It works with 3 digit symbols that are confusing, are there are levels, sub-levels. The only sound that I can use out of the 12 modes is X-Metal, in manual mode, with Boost switch enabled and memory switch disabled. So, one switch for X-Metal On/Off, and one switch for Boost ON/Off. That sound alone is worth the price of admission to the Boss OD-200. But there are 11 modes not used because I am incapable of getting a decent usable sound out of 11 modes. Thought the Brown sound would be awesome, but instead my reaction was WTF. The GT-1000 is by far the superior unit but when someone wants a different sound in 5 seconds, duh! I needed a much less complex unit for such occasions when I don't want to get fired. I get one great sound with the Boss OD-200 (X-Metal mode) plugging into the front of my Mesa Boogie Fillmore 50. The Fillmore 50 has beautiful clean but does not have the architecture to produce the sound I get from the OD-200 or the Mesa Boogie TC-100 head and Rectifier cab. Similarly, I can get a great recording sound by plugging the OD-200 into the new Fender Tone Master Deluxe and using the XLR out with deluxe cab sims. Real easy. The Fender Tone Master Deluxe is WYSIWYG but high quality digital. That solves all my problems. The OD-200 seems like a one-trick pony but it gets me the sound I love fast and other people love it too; the sound and the instant access to the sound.

I've had this for a few months now, and I'm quite happy. Plenty of different sounds in this thing, most of which I think sound fantastic. (And the ones I don't care for are probably more my personal tastes than anything.) The EQ is fantastic and something every drive pedal should have.

I do have some complaints, but they're all pretty minor:
- Not a fan of the yellow. I'd rather have something a bit more subtle since this is in my living room.
- The volumes of the drives could be leveled a bit better. Some are very clearly louder than others at the level.
- The interface isn't super intuitive, though once you read a bit of the manual, it's fine, and I haven't had to spend anytime remembering how to do things like change the boost part, or set the noise gate.
- It takes 3 AA batteries, rather than the typical 9v, and the battery isn't super great when compared to typical 9v Boss pedals. It's still fine, but I did get some rechargeable AAs so I don't have to mess with plugging it in all the time.
- The dots on the knobs are white, against chrome, so it's not always easy to tell where the knobs are set. I would have preferred black dots, and I might even consider grabbing a marker and doing that.

Speaking of the boost and noise gate, they're fantastic features to have! Between this and my Princeton Tone Master, I have noise gate, boost, drive, tremelo, and reverb, and there isn't a whole lot more I need. Normally the right switch is dedicated to switching presets (I think), but I configured it to turn the boost on and off. The boosts aren't quite as configurable as the drives (no EQ), but you can adjust the pre \-volume (which controls breakup), and post-volume, which affects the volume, so it's great for solos.

Lastly, it's a Boss pedal, so of course it's built like a tank. And I got a demo unit from Sweetwater, which basically means I got a virtually new unit for a decent discount. (Seriously, if it didn't say DEMO on the package, I would have assumed this was new.)

Tweakers delight. You could spend weeks rummaging around in all the settings and parameters. If you're the kind of player who stays up all night A/B'ing two of the same pedal to figure out which sounds better you'll love this thing. If you want something you can throw on the floor, plug in and rock, this might not be your baby. You'll be reading and re-reading the manual, there's no way you'll figure out how to access everything without it. For example it says it has 127 memory slots, but the only way to get more than 4 is to burrow into the manual to find and edit the parameter that opens up more slots. The nice thing is you can set it to any number of slots you want, so if you only want 10 or 12 you can set that amount. It only increments upwards, so if you're playing slot 3 and you want slot 2, you'll be stomping the memory switch through every preset until you wrap back around to the one you want.
That said, this thing sounds great! Throw on a thick slab of chorus, hit your bridge pickup and own the mix. Fat, juicy warbling harmonics, sustain that decays into feedback, chug and crunch or clean until you roll in the volume and hit it, this pedal will do all that. You can pile on the low freq roar but still have clear and articulate highs with the same patch. EVERYTHING is tweakable.
This pedal really needs 2 things. The display needs to have more characters. You have to have the manual in one hand while you decipher the hieroglyphic runes on the display. The other thing it needs is integration with Boss Tone Studio. I can't imagine what a complete PITA it would be to try and program a show into this thing. I was really looking forward to the midi feature but so far I can't get it to talk to my controller and the midi documentation is very basic.
Regardless, I still really like this pedal. It sounds so dang good that it's worth putting up with the irritations.

Mine was running version 1.0, so I did the upgrade by downloading the files and the upgrade software from Boss. That was easy, Now I've got 128 saved memory slots to play with, and accessing my saved 'presets' from a VooDoo Lab GCP. Amazing how much is built into this box. The sounds aren't perfect, but with a little tweaking I've got a large library to play with that's easily MIDI accessible.

There is a short learning curve to use it as a stomp box, a bit more if you're going to use the MIDI functionality but all in all it's a pretty easy box to master.

Boss has nailed the tones. This is vast improvement over the OD-20. What helped me was to make a spreadsheet listing the volume levels that matched the various gain "oclock" levels, so the oeveral volume matches the volume when the pedal is off. I did that for each of the 11 modes. When I had done that, it was useful in getting to the tones I want. At that point, I was able to program in which boost I wanted and what pre and post settings. After saving that, it is an easy click to kick im the boost for the solo.

So, Boss nailed the tone, but their nails are too short. There is a woeful lack of presets or memory locations. They have four as with the other OD-200 pedals. I am spoiled. I have an MD-500 and DD-500, as well as an Elektron Analog Drive (overdrive) pedal. All of those have 198 presets. This is crazy cool for gigging in a cover band, when I need different tones for several differnt songs. I would continue to use the Analog Drive, but it's problem is the sweep on the volume knob is narrow. On all the modes, it seems the Analog Drive is either off or too loud. Boss does a much better job with the sweep and once I got the right volume to match the gain, I was happy with all 11 modes. But, it is obvious that for gigging, I need to keep several other gain pedals on my board in addition to the OD-200, so I can quickly stomp the right tone. If Boss were to bring out an OD-500... that would get 5 stars.

I purchased this unit along with four other "200" series Boss pedals, because they all have Midi channel & scene switching capabilities. The sounds coming out of this unit are excellent, and it is easy to go from crunchy metal to bluesy rock, and I might add that it is also easy to modify the settings to taste.

Using a Boss ES-8 as midi controller, as well as all Boss midi cabling (recommended), I was able to set the 200 series pedals up to switch settings and presets 'on command' - saving my settings with the Boss ES-8 switcher - except this one.

This is the only pedal on the board (the other three are the 200 series echo-delay, synth & chorus) that absolutely does NOT communicate midi properly.

After going round and round with Boss on the midi settings, both myself and Boss surmised that I must have a defective unit that will not respond to Midi messages, or does so intermittently.

So I returned the one I purchased, and Sweetwater sent me another new one. Unfortunately, the same Midi communication problems exist with the new one I received. After carefully tweaking the settings on the unit so that the unit would receive Midi messages for program changes, it continues to fail at changing channels.

So, if you are purchasing this unit for it's Midi capabilities, don't bother until Boss figures out what is wrong with that part of the unit. If you are purchasing this unit for it's sounds alone & don't care about Midi I might suggest instead try the JHS Banzai Tree, 9 way/presets-settings Tube Screamer overdrive. They have done an outstanding job offering a very flexible pedal with multiple versions of the Tube Screamers over the years.

The tones are great, you get most of the great boss pedal tones in one unit with significanly upgraded sonics, the active EQ is really welcome, not all the old pedals had a 'MID' control, crucial to dialing on good tones.
The latest firmware V1.10 takes the user memory from 5 to 128 which is amazing, even though i think 5 is enough.

The V1.10 update broke a HUGE feature. On V1.0, as you change presets the drive type was briefly displayed on the screen to tell you what drive model is loaded. Since the update, this info has been replaced by an "always on" memory location number. So now as you go through your presets, unless you've written them down on paper or a spreadsheet, you have no idea what the drive model is.

It's not only for the DD-200, this update change is across the board for all 200 series pedals with the newer updates. It's a huge oversight, but that's the only negative i have. The pedal is worth every cent. I really hope they give a new update which restores this feature, just displaying the drive type for 2 seconds BEFORE it shows the 'always on' memory location would be enough to change my rating to 5 stars

Learning curve required. I am old and stupid. The best unit for idiots like me is the Boss ME-80 which has manual mode WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) with respect to the dedicated dials. The Boss OD-200 is more like the GT-1000, very high quality unit, but so deep and complex that I need a 32 inch monitor to program patches with. The Boss OD-200 does not have ability to connect a computer monitor and the hieroglyphics display is not intuitive. Three text style symbols per sound level, no graphics. Need the manual to see what the symbols mean. So many symbols, too much to absorb. Too many levels, sub levels. Like playing three dimensional chess with Spock. I just want to play guitar, not take a long confusing journey into software programming. Only sound that was remotely listenable was X-Metal (based on Boss ML-2). Hated 4 preset sounds. Only manual mode was playable, adjustable. Changed Memory/Boost switch to Boost. So have one good sound On/Off and one boost option On/Off. I would just rather have a Boss pedal like the Boss ML-2. I can easily dial in sounds on that because it is WYSIWYG. Will keep trying to use Boss OD-200, now that I am stuck with it for the time being. Hope I get inspiration or something. Thought I would be able to rock the 12 modes but only one mode was okay. Will try to get the expression pedal option going to see if that helps.

I was very interested in getting the Boss DS-1X Distortion pedal, but read in various reviews that the Boss OD-200 Hybrid Overdrive nails the Boss DS-1X distortion sound (X-Distortion) and offers more overdrive/distortion/boost options plus a noise gate for not a whole lot more expenditure price wise. I also read some negative reviews about the overall user interface on the pedal, but decided to "go for it". Well the interface is quite bizarre. You have to remember that while the the main overdrive selection knob will display which of the 12 algorithms are selected, that main overdrive display will be gone the minute you play around with other parameters like boost type or noise gate levels the LED display stays on those, e.g. the overdrive knob selection is what you have to go by from there on out to remember what main drive type your using. Not a user friendly display/menu system IMO. Then there are the drive sounds and boost options, which overall sound pretty bad. Of the 12 main drive types, I only thought the X-Distortion was fantastic sounding and that the "Centaur Drive" was a nice sounding transparent overdrive, "almost" as good as my JHS Morning Glory. But that's where the useable sounds ended for me. I found using any of the 15 boost types in combination with the 12 main drive types just raised the overall noise level of the signal and didn't really behave like stacking two separate overdrive pedals. And the built in noise gate had to be cranked to over 50 to really do anything with the increased noise. The overdrive sounds in this pedal overall weren't much better sounding than my circa 2003 Boss GS-10 unit with "COSM modelling" which I wasn't all that impressed with way back then (I got by with an original Boss Metal Zone pedal for over 20 years while the GS-10 sat in a box for most of them). I decided to return the OD-200 pedal and just order the Boss DS-1X pedal!