Aion Tachyon-BOSS SD-2 lead mode

[Thewintersoldier]

Wait, Boss did a MIAB? Sure did, way back in 1993. That's right, here's another sleeper pedal that I didn't know about until I started this whole Boss endeavor. The SD-2, while it might sound like the successor to the SD-1, is nothing like the mild overdrive of the original. This is the Modded JCM style pedal I didn't know I needed in my life.

The lead mode that this pedal is based on is a thick and juicy gain monster that gives better high gain marshall tones than many modern marshall amps 😂. The SD-2 is basically a channel switching amp in a box. The original has two channels, crunch which will be in a future build report and lead which is featured here. The channels could be switched remotely with a seperate footswitch. Truly ahead of it's time.

The pedal is also pretty hot rodded under the hood as well. With 5 seperate gain stages and LED clipping you can see it has more in common with an amp than many pedals of the day. You can also see where people like Dave Friedman got ideas for his pedals when looking at the schematic. So how's it sound? Like a nasty ass JCM style amp. I can pull some sick 80s style tones and lots of my favorite early 90s tones. In the sound clip I feel like I nailed the dookie/insomniac era tones that I grew up with in my teen years.

Black matte tayda box with UV print. Went with Makkari since Tachyon means moving at the of speed of light and who's faster than Makkari. Sick build with nasty tones.

[zombie_rock123]

Stunning build! Like you say it sounds killer and I had no idea. Thanks for bringing these forgotten gems to more ears, I think Boss' design philosophy has brought them the biggest brand recognition going at the expense of some of their shit flying so far until the radar that it's at home with the mole people.

Or I'm just an uneducated idiot 

[jwin615]

This is awesome.
As a Dookie-era millennial myself (I previously used "dial-up era millennial" but dookie era seems more fitting), this hits. How does it stack?
Would be a great "Slash in a box" board, if my fingers could still move.

[Bret608]

Is it wrong that the Slash possibilities are why I like the sound of this so much? I mean, I definitely hear Dookie-type sounds in there. For me, I'd mostly be using it for early-'90s Meat Puppets tones...I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on how the lower-gain channel sounds once you've built that one up.