Boss Micro Racks - Great or Garbage?

[@RobertBakerGuitar]

Duuuude you have to get them all and the rack!

[@LeonTodd]

All roads lead to micro rack!

[@JeffHendricks]

@@LeonTodd Gotta catch 'em all!!

[@rockstarjazzcat]

@@LeonTodd Robert is clearly correct about this! I remember when these came on the scene. Your valuable service, it's like vicarious therapy for Gen-X'ers that couldn't afford anything at the time. Rack on, brother!

[@TheCyberMantis]

.... says every gear addict on the planet.

[@rockstarjazzcat]

@Steve M Exactly!

[@antichristian74]

i've got full on G.A.S. for these units. i say get two flangers or phasers (RPH-10 is the hardest to come by), they, along with many of the others, can be stereo linked with some interesting options. check out the RCL-10, RSD-10, and RPS-10 - some of the functions can be controlled by any sound source (or CV up to 5V from what i've read)... then try to wrap your head around controlling the noise gate on a synth or guitar with a drum machine or CV source, sampling your guitar and then controlling the pitch of the sample with a keyboard or sequencer, or changing the pitch of a vocal track with a keyboard or sequencer... or a different vocal. a few of them have two outputs for either stereo operation or direct+effect and direct-effect, some can be linked as master/slave. there are so many unique functions on a lot of these units and some are capable of absolute madness. check out "exploring audio" and his review of the RPS-10... it is bat-crap crazy. i have doubles of most of these, but still need to get another RPD, RSD, RCE, RGE, ROD, RPW-7 and i will have a full double set... with 5 power supplies to run it all. i run them all through 2x24 channel patch bays. there are 13 units (RPQ-10 parametric eq, RGE-10 graphic eq, RCL-10 compressor/limiter/expander/noise gate, ROD-10 overdrive(x3)/distortion/fuzz, RCE-10 chorus, RBF-10 flanger, RPH-10 phaser, RRV-10 reverb, 5 of them are delays - RSD-10 sampler/delay, RPS-10 pitch shifter/delay, RPD-10 panning delay, RDD-10 digital delay, RDD-20 digital delay with longer delay time) + the RPW-7 power supply and nearly impossible to find BMR-5 half sized rack system with 5 spaces. there are also different versions of each, some are black with white knobs and some are grey with multi-coloured knobs. they were released between 1985 and 1990 i believe. some also had "pro" versions of them released... i really want to see Waza craft versions of them.

[@implayingsomebass4753]

I dig the chorus, it has that mellow CE-2 vibe to it with more control.

[@zombiemosher1139]

I own two of the RGE10s, I love them & feel it is the secret to my sound. Slayer also used these to boost their JCM800s.

[@metallaholic]

Glad to know I’m not the only one that feels obligated to riff some zakk when I throw a chorus pedal on. Pinch squeals intensifies.

[@LeonTodd]

Hahaha yep

[@Yupppi]

Nice! I got RPQ-10 a while ago and liked it quite a bit! It looks like a christmas tree with all the adjustments having different color leds. Two-band parametric eq that can get dirty in the front and back of itself. Until I made the mistake of having a 9VAC supply lying around for Rocktron Intellifex and forgot that the Boss didn't come with its own power supply. Now looking to replace some diodes... I hear the reverb and delay are nice as well. Guaranteed Boss tones. Been pestering Josh Scott from JHS to make a proper episode about these Boss micro racks, he's a Boss freak and I saw a couple on his "anti pedals" episode, I think he must have all of them.

[@gathda]

I remember those from a long time ago in the music store. They are really cute.

[@JeffHendricks]

Caught some "In The New Age" in there... :) Now you've got me wanting to grab these to use with my Portastudio!

[@LeonTodd]

RCA ins and outs on them would make that easy!

[@adam872]

I heard that too :-)

[@carlroberge7535]

These units are awesome! My first encounter with Distortion was when my uncle gave me an ROD 10 and I plugged it in a stereo/radio…. Not a guitar amp, a stereo and started to mess around with it. These units will always have a special place in my heart plus… BOSS and Roland have always been synonymous with quality and have never disappointed… whether it was a rack unit or a pedal format

[@paulmccormack2843]

That chorus on the heavy sound is full on crumsuckers guitar tone from the 80s .. sounds great

[@jamesflack8624]

Starting right away with The Big AL chord... Nice 😁

[@marchermans2318]

I know them also, but i didn't had money to buy them in the 80' .;-) Nice stuff

[@user-ec6xd2ig4c]

I have a collection of these cool Boss micro studio series together with the Boss BMR5 rack mount. I love using them because they sound great. I find them really cute to look at.

[@SDH2023]

I had these back in the day. The digital delay was especially awesome. Now I wish I’d kept the damn things.

[@travisrusselldc]

Very cool! Totally forgot about those. If you ever get your hands on the pitch shifter delay, I’d love to hear a demo/your thoughts on that one…

[@LeonTodd]

So tempted by that one

[@av8tordonny398]

Love the Boss Chorus sound. I had the digital delay mini, and I loved it!

[@sideshow1297]

I still have a Boss RBF10 Flanger I bought new in the mid-late 80s. Hitting that thing on is the closest thing I come to cool according to my kids. The thing absolutely soars!.

[@cshortlife9179]

Slayer used the RGE-10 in front of their amps as a boost. I think The Beast button on the KK JCM 800 is his Boost EQ setting from that EQ.

[@LeonTodd]

Oh for real! That's killer. Also, SLAAAAYYYER

[@jdg1279]

@@LeonTodd You can see Jeff Hanneman's settings in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKGZlqyOf7maaMU

[@CrownedWarriorBand]

I use an RCL-10 as an expander/gate in my guitar rig. I modded it slightly to decrease the decay.

[@kenichi407]

i remember we used to call these happy meal rack fx units... collect 'em all!

[@ianamossyd]

I still have my two ROD-10s 30 years on. Ran them in series into a Twin Reverb for live work. Sold my EQ and sampling delay to a mate who still uses them :)

[@LeonTodd]

They're awesome hey

[@stevenmgyori3826]

Well done Brother! " Cool little rack units!" Strat was cool with the chorus, Alex is a "Tickling Machine!" Hamer is " DFFN!" Thanks for sharing and Be Well All!

[@DocDisco241]

Holy crap man this is giving me a flashback

[@guitarrilho502]

These two in the fx loop of a marshall would be be just perfect for me

[@TheActressAndBishop]

I had the overdrive and the reverb back in the 80s. The reverb was good but surpassed by the quadraverb when I got that. The overdrive was great but at the time I was obsessed with using it as a preamp which wasn't it's forté. Great as a rack drive for a rack preamp

[@lonelyoak-originalamerican6659]

Great video as usual AND a King's X excerpt!! Fantastic!

[@matthewearl9824]

Lol I laughed right when you played the “Alex” chord!

[@kimmoparonen1737]

I've had a ROD-10 overdrive/distortion since 89' ! Very versatile, it has also a fuzz, 3-band eq with semi parametric mids and simulated line out. I keep the drive at zero, boost the mids around 1K and crank the output...great fat lead tone with an overdriven amp!

[@LeonTodd]

Semi parametric mids FTW!

[@ianfurqueron5850]

Neat. I'd forgotten about the other Boss half-rack units other than the SE-50 multi-effects unit I have (along with the SE-70 that succeeded it).

[@LeonTodd]

I really want to grab an SE-70 too

[@bossistheboss6996]

hey great vid! I own all the half rack as well as the pro series half racks, I really rate the delays as well as the ROD10, specifically the fuzz setting. The mixer (MX10) is a great tool but the most favourite of mine is the RPQ-10 eq. Thanks again for cool vids!!

[@RDamps]

Loved these old things

[@shoseinen]

wow you're from Australia, one of my fav countries. New Zealand maybe is my favorite just for the band Jakob xD The Boss RPS-10 and RSD-10 are fantastic for glitchy stuff like Autechre combining them with a Korg SQ1

[@donlee5722]

After the amps definitely had a rockman vibe with the distortion.

[@plaguesofwrath]

I own a RGE-10 and I absolutely love it.

[@clawfoot8400]

Love your videos man! I see these mini racks for sale a lot and always get tempted…

[@binface9]

After watching this video I went out* and bought the EQ, Reverb, and Delay units from this range. I love them and I would have never known about them had you not featured them. Cheers LT! (*on eBay and Reverb from my bed)

[@LeonTodd]

I see we use the same method of getting out and shopping :) Let me know when they arrive, keen to hear your thoughts on the delay especially!

[@binface9]

@@LeonTodd I really need to turn comment notifications back on. I think the pick of the bunch is the rrv-10 it's a decent sounding 12bit reverb and I particularly enjoy the +delay mode with its panning repeats from the second output. As far as I can gather its an RV2 in a different form factor; on the which suits me much better than a tiny but powerful pedal. The rdd-20 is also very cool. Seems to be a dd3 in mini rack format which is very cool, but with the added bonus of being able to control the rate and depth of the modulation. This really opens up the unit for use as a chorus or flanger on the shorter delay settings which might not otherwise see so much use. A question regarding your experiences with the eq unit: I realise there is a pad button on the back, but I find mine to be very quiet and thus incapable for really driving the front end of an amp, which is as legend has it how Jeff Hanneman used his. How does this tally with your experiences?

[@gingataff]

I could play that chorus dirty tone all day and night and only stop for breakfast (spoiler: I don’t eat breakfast)

[@LeonTodd]

Coffee and chorus

[@hoosierdaddy2308]

Very cool. I remember those. They had distortion too if I remember correctly. They were very cool. If they sounded good. Great video man. They sound ok to me. Boss stuff is always at least decent to me.

[@kalebaldwin5398]

Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King used/use RGE-10s.

[@t.kahraba763]

Your dirty explorer has a nice Alice in chains face lift tone it. Totally fucking awesome sound

[@coalfacechris1336]

Hardest thing with these (and the later versions like the SE50/70's), is powering them and mounting them. Be interesting to see the schematics for the EQ, and compare it to the GE-10 pedal.

[@LeonTodd]

Yeah I want to use them but now I need some mini rack converters!

[@MetallicAssault]

I personally think it would be fun to be tickled to death by Alex Lifeson but it's not worth not hearing that chord so good call. I always wondered if there's any difference between that EQ and the GE-10 pedal besides the shape.

[@dannybrock7026]

They should come back out with these ..

[@transparent6748]

Hey..great video 👍..no never had the chance to try out these boss units..believe they were already gone when I got my first electric guitar and way too expensive for me at that age anyway lol... I do own a boss catalog from 85 which shows 11 differently micro racks plus a rack power supply..🎸🌞

[@acactusnamedjosh708]

I'm wondering if these would be a more affordable alternative to Rockman's Rockmodules, since i was thinking about buying a Rockman Sustainor. Or if i should just go digital and buy a pod xt pro (or maybe one of digitech's rack preamp things)

[@jrr832]

Great or garbage there wasn't much competition back in the day. Still couldn't afford them even though they were budget items.

[@KoolKatDave]

Anyone know what pedals are available today to engage the on/off remotely?

[@twat75]

I had not seen that vertical boss rack for these. That would fit right next to my 8u nicely. Probably costs more than one of the units lol.

[@LeonTodd]

hahaha yeah those racks themselves are so rare

[@beaverhead01]

i watch most of ryans vids, he put one out the other day . i forgot to ask him how that 8 string he had custom built was doing. im the ahole that sent him the contacts to get his guitar bult over here in the phillipines,i guess hes still using my beat to hell chapman case that my cats destroyed lol. i gave it to my buddy who built the guitar to ship to the usa

[@charlesmagno28]

can you save presets?

[@wareikasounds7003]

Is it possiblw to link them to each other? Using only 1 signal?

[@LeonTodd]

Yeah simply run them in series

[@seventhsealhere]

While they sound ok and are cool I am not sure I ever understood their market rationale. They make drawers for racks where everyone places their top notch Boss (or other) pedals. But hey, it's a Boss! 🎸

[@reazallykhan8614]

I got the reverb and delay in this series... the only thing is that they are very noisy lol

[@lesterksi4521]

Hope that you would get the reverb and review it

[@TheCyberMantis]

Hmmm.... I never seen these things before. Were they popular in the USA back in the day? O_o

[@adam872]

With the dirt it sounds like instant Ty Tabor to me.

[@LeonTodd]

Big gretchen vibes!

[@peterjohnson4932]

So that video you mentioned by your mate Ryan... Link please!!!!

[@kevincross8372]

How about a comparison between the se70 and pitchfactor. I just found a boss mx10 mixer for the se70 and the !mastering effects from the later vf1 and I'm still impressed at the power they had back then. Of course it started with the micro line and moved foreword yet only recently have I been able to replace these units yet still use them!

[@LeonTodd]

I really need to nab an SE70!

[@derrickm5013]

try to recreate these tones on the fractal stuff, betcha can't. Not trying to be a dick but some of this old stuff just has a mojo that can't be beat.

[@LeonTodd]

There's now a compander in the Axe-Fx delay block to cop some of the funk from these old things so that might actually work!

[@MiamiTabor]

All roads do lead to high gain🤩

[@silverpairaducks]

Sytnh setups...get a bunch of korgs mini synths and style o phones and a rasberry pi....make your neighbors suicidal...

[@oneriffaday6162]

6min15 sound badass! :)

[@qwertpain]

I have Boss RPH-10 Phaser for sale 😋

[@MrMariodraiby1]

When u will buy a prs 20th standard 24 ? 😀

[@2979paul]

I had them in the 80,s funny

[@fillo1971]

Ma dove li hai rimediati? Bellissimi

[@LeonTodd]

Australian website Gumtree! Grazie

[@gammalrd8444]

Flanger 🤘🏻

[@Beddez1]

Holdsworth used some of these units

[@LeonTodd]

That makes sense, the chorus could definitely get that clean Holdsy thing

[@got2rock4]

Nice👍

[@TheCyberMantis]

They look like rack-style pedals. A novel idea maybe. :-/

[@fillo1971]

Quando sono Stati commercializzati avevo poco più di 14anni🤦‍♂️spettacolari

[@donsmith5385]

This is why digital chorus units are not preferred, so stiff sounding