Boss BD-2 Blues Driver Pedal  

It does have a fairly low selection of knobs, but they do their jobs perfectly.

the thing could kill someone and then play a whole show.

This thing is a ver good value in my humble opinion.

this thing is actually really good, it sounds a lot like an old JCM800 with the gain all the way and the tone at '12. Buy this thing even if you aren't a blues player, it's one of the two pedals I use constantly!

Pretty standard. Lack of tonal options limits this one quite a bit for me. Like most pedals with just a "tone" knob, it will sound good with certain amps/guitars, and not so good with others.

I'm not exactly with the consensus on this one. I figure there must be  others like me out there, so I'll pass along my experience... The BD-2  does not sound "smooth" to my ears at all, though it's often described  as such. I find it blistering, actually. Pretty brittle. Harsh,  ice-picky, fizzy (pick your adjective)... I can't seem to get the tone  back far enough to lessen that quality until it's back so far that the  whole sound turns to mush (if that makes any sense?). Add to that some major compression - which  prevents string separation and limits the pedal to being more useful for  leads and chunky riffs - which is fine if that's what you need... but  if you play rhythm and need chord clarity, you may want to check out the BOSS OD-3 instead. Great at low gain and much more rhythm-favoring compression and tone. So many people never give that circuit a shot.

It's popular now, pretty much an industry standard. The price has been raised and, in my opinion, it's no longer such a great value. Especially with how limited the eq options are.

It's a good pedal - some will find it "great." But I think you can do better for less.

The BD-2’s is a fairly smooth sounding and extremely versatile overdrive (OD) that is capable of producing a wide range of OD effects that go from extremely subtle to quite hard. 

This pedal utilizes high-quality tantalum capacitors, which help

preserve the subtle nuances and dynamics of your playing technique and results in a tone that cleans up well in response to light picking or ramping down your guitar’s volume knob.  Also, though I described the sound as smooth, it is “edgier” and has a wider dynamic range than the classic Ibanez Tubescreamer or Boss SD-1 type circuit.  The BD-2 features a bright sound with a scooped midrange tone similar to a classic Fender Blackface amplifier pushed into overdrive, but with a greatly increased amount of gain available.  Through a clean amp, with the BD-2’s gain knob set below 9:00 o’clock, you can totally nail Ed King’s rhythm tone on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.  With the gain knob dimed, you can get a heavy fuzz tone reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”.

Even though this is a distortion/overdrive pedal..it really kind of isn't. It's not for hair metal, etc...it's for very subtle overdrive..which is how it should be used. With the gain turned way, way down. It seems like any review I've read about this pedal complains about the distortion, or lack thereof. You're missing the whole point. There are hundreds of distortion pedals out there..that's not what this is all about. But if you need to be told that, then I'm wasting my breath. This pedal is also better than the T/S (which sounds like it's being played through a 6" speaker cab...waaaaay too boxey sounding and raspy. Use the Blues Driver with a Telecaster on the neck pup, or a Les Paul with both pups on, and you'll understand the point I'm trying to make.

built like a tank

well worth the money

this makes a Tube Screamer sound like a Behringer stomp box

You have to turn the gain down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Top notch

any decent pedal will be $...get used to it.

as advertised