Ugly Guitar Truth: BOSS 40th Anniversary Box Set

BOSS pedals just announced that they are reissuing some of their first pedal they have ever produced. The SP-1 Spectrum, OD-1 Over Drive, and PH-1 Phaser are being produced in a hand-made, small batch manufactured in Japan. Vintage pedal collectors and enthusiasts of vintage effects know the importance of such pedals. Before now, to find and acquire one of these pedal out in the wild would mean throwing down big money. The Spectrum pedal can fetch around $500 on the open market. So is this a treasure to be had or a gimmick to be avoided. Let check it out...

It's A Gamble

There is a phenomenon in the guitar world especially guitar pedals. When a item is discontinued it either fades to obscurity, or rises to near-legendary status. The later happened with the Klon and King of Tone, and the former has happened to many non-nameless pedals. However, rereleasing vintage pedals isn't money in the bank necessarily. The Tuber Screamer is a great case in point. The TS-808 in currently available in a rereleased form, but it bares such a strong resemblance to the TS-9 and is heavily clone and copied that the effect is readily available in countless iterations. So the strongest motivation to by an 808 or this box set is nostalgia.

Money Grab

We have to mention the price of the set. $900 for the three pedals. Yes it comes in a really nice display box. but at today's market value, these pedals would only set you back about $700. The real gem here is the Spectrum. It is a single band parametric EQ. That means you can choose to boost or cut one frequency. You can pick up a brand new Empress Para EQ pedal that blows this out of the water for half the price of the vintage pedal. The OD-1 and PH-1 are both obsolete and replaceable by pedals that no more than what their vintage counterparts fetch. Is this an attempt to capitalize on the vintage pedal market by BOSS? Ehh, well...


Because They Can

If BOSS put out these pedals as a part of their regular run with inflated prices, then I wouldn't hesitate to dismiss this as a cheap money grab. However, they are only made 1,500 of these sets. That probably less than one per each guitar shop in the US let alone the world. This a milestone for BOSS. The set was crafted by hand in Japan in small numbers. BOSS has sold millions of pedals. They don't need to jack up the prices of 1,500 units. Everything about this set is focused towards a serious collector. The price an limited run are to insure exclusivity. I'm sure there are those willing to pay that price for three pedals that will remain in a box.


Conclusion

When I first heard about these pedals, I thought that they were going to be like the WAZA line. But this is something all together different. These are a special collectors item. Pedal Nostalgia has been a thing for a while now, and BOSS is giving the market something that it has wanted for a while now. I'm not going to buy this set. I don't have that kind of money to throw at pedal I don't intend to use. However, if they rerelease the Slow Gear that might be a different story...

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