1989 Roland Boss MG-10 Guitar Practice Amp

Vintage practice amp, from the famous effects and amp giants, made in Taiwan

Contemporary Americans may be among the most nostalgic humans to roam the Earth and this blogger is no exception. As mentioned in the post about the Squier 15 Practice Amp, this Boss amp was the first thing that I ever plugged a guitar into and made some horrible noise. So even though this little box isn't the world's greatest amp, I had to have one when I saw that they were still floating around 25 years later.

I plugged the Knight Warrior into this little guy when I got home on Friday night and messed around with it for about 20 minutes, before giving way to the Fender Eighty-Five and getting some real good Cobain-esque sounds. I'm not sure this will get very much use and I definitely bought it for the memories, but at least it is in impeccable shape.

The previous owner listed it as "never used" and I can believe it. You can see some white marks on the molding along the face of the amp, but those are the only and tiniest of imperfections. I definitely didn't remember this thing being so small, I think there are two 5-inch speakers inside. Other recent reviews claim that this takes Boss pedals very well, and that would make sense, but the only Boss pedals that I have are overdrive and distortion. This amp already comes with built-in distortion, possibly with the same components as the pedals, so I haven't made a point in plugging them in yet to find out.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.

1980s-90s Boss DS-1 OD-2 & SD-1 Effects Pedals

Vintage black label effects, industry standards, made in Japan and Taiwan

As promised, there are no shortage of effects posts. A month-long search for deals on vintage stompboxes yielded over a dozen candidates and the ones that made the cut will be featured. After the MXR Distortion +, I was able to score great deals on three Boss pedals, the DS-1 & SD-1 probably being the OD/Distortion pedals on most players' boards and the OS-2 was said to have a different feel, so one of those was swept up as well.

First thoughts are that the DS-1 is very noisy and the distortion a little muddy. I was hoping to get more of an 80s thrash metal sound with it, but maybe that's why they made the Metal Distortion pedal? The SD-1 has that classic Guns N Roses sound just nailed, but it's also noisy. At first I a bit worried that these pedals were bunk because of the noise, but I've read that the problem is common and many modifications are available to fix it.

The OS-2 is the only one of the three pedals that was made in Japan and the date ties to 1986. The DS-1 is 1990 and the SD-1 dates to 1981, but these pedals began coming out of Taiwan in 1989-90, so I'm guessing 1991 with some serial number referencing getting lost in the conversion. The OS-2 was putting out a sound close to that MXR pedal mentioned above, so I'll probably pair it with the DS-1 and put the SD-1 on a board with the MXR.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.

1990s Boss SE-50 Stereo Effects & SE-70 Super Effects Processors

The first rack mount multi-effects units from the top name in pedals are still favorites of gigging and recording musicians 20 years later

Released in 1990, the SE-50 Stereo Effects Processor immediately became a fixture on the rigs of the top players in the music world. James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica reportedly used the box to produce some of the sounds from their legendary Black Album in 1990-91 and Hammett had it atop his rack on the following tour.

When the SE-70 was released 3 years later, it improved on initial model and has since been used by acts as diverse as Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top to The Prodigy. The 70 is still the superior unit, it's not nearly as noisy as the 50 and the reverbs are definitely cleaner. One of the cooler effects on here is a Vocoder, which when used on vocals, creates that scattered, echoey sound that Tommy James got on Crimson and Clover. Kind of worth it for that alone.

These are still great to use on vocals and some interesting effects for guitars. Not really what you're looking for if you just want pure tone though. The distortions aren't nearly as good as the old pedals and you can get better delays and reverbs on newer, cheaper rack units. Still a great piece of gear for the gigging musician, I was able to pick up the Midi foot controller, so these units have the ability to store effects in presets and use the controller like a modern multi-effect stomp box.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.