15 Famous Guitarists and their BOSS Pedals

Are BOSS pedals for pros? As far as I’m concerned, that’s never been an issue - of course they are! - but it seems that some people feel like they are but one step in a journey towards boutique pedals. If you’ve thought this same thing, then it’s time I put you right.

What you need is for somebody to put together a list of top name famous guitarists who frequently use BOSS pedals. A list that will impress, regardless of which styles of genres you might prefer to play.

If only somebody did that for you, eh?

Okay, okay, I’ll get on with it. I’ve picked 15 guitarists today, all of whom have made some notable music with the help of BOSS pedals. For some, it’s one significant pedal or song: for others, it's their entire pedal board. All of them understand that BOSS pedals are good enough for the world’s stages and studios. All of them make glorious sounds that you should be paying attention to. Let’s see who is on this list!

The Purple One is largely and rightfully known as one of the most gifted musicians the earth has ever beheld. This includes his magnificent skills on the guitar, whether that’s the tearjerking scream of a solo in Purple Rain, or his cheeky improv on the famous live cut of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. He’s always just on it, ripping out classy leads with a nonchalance that just makes everything cooler.

Prince was a big fan of BOSS pedals, using no less than three of their drive pedals: the SD-1 Super Overdrive, BD-2 Blues Driver and MT-2 Metal Zone.

Before he was so rudely interrupted by his singer, Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro was making a triumphant comeback to the world’s stages, armed with epic JA songs and a pedalboard filled with BOSS compacts. Dave tends to use his Marshall amps for most of his crunch, but he flavours that with a DS-1 for solos, and also makes plentiful use of a DD-3 Delay, CH-1 Chorus and an OC-3 Octaver.

From David Lee Roth to Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie to Motley Crue, John 5 has won himself some of rock music’s most prestigious sideman gigs. This Tele-lover is one of the finest guitarists around, and uses a humble BOSS SD-1 in front of his roaring Marshalls to toughen up his tone. In addition, he also uses an OC-3 Super Octave, DM-2 Delay and a CH-1 Chorus.

Steve Vai routinely creates some of the most beautiful guitar tones ever, so it is most certainly worth paying attention to what equipment he uses. Steve uses a DS-1 Distortion, and reckons it makes up for around 70% of his live tone. 

Top tip: He uses the DS-1 to push an already slightly dirty amp, which seems to be far and away the most effective way to engage with this famous Orange box!

Nirvana's main man may be at the opposite end of the rock spectrum from Steve Vai, but they both shared a love for the DS-1! Indeed, this was Kurt’s main distortion pedal right up until the tour for In Utero, when he retired it in favour of…a DS-2!

Another fan of the DS-2 Turbo Distortion is John Frusciante, a man who was in the running for a while to be something of a latter-day guitar hero. He uses a lot of pedals live (including several enormous Moogerfoogers) but his main source of gain is BOSS’s other orange box.

Bauhaus’ mercurial guitarist is a more creative and interesting player than he often gets credit for. His parts are as much sound design as traditional playing, and he works around the songs elliptically, forming shards of sound that embellish the band’s creepy, dark sound.

Ash uses loads of BOSS pedals, including the DS-1 Distortion, TR-2 Tremolo, DD-7 Delay, BF-3 Flanger and RV-5 Reverb.

Robert Smith’s pedalboard is 100% BOSS pedals. The Cure’s visionary gets loads of mileage from his pedalboard and also favours Roland Cube amps, even when playing huge arenas and festivals! This somewhat iconoclastic approach is based purely on him getting the results he wants to hear from his pedals (and the inspiration), not about constantly upgrading to the newest stuff. Given how influential he is, that’s as good an advert for these pedals as anything, I reckon.

Eagle Joe Walsh is not only a tone hound, but also a gearhead, who is meticulous in his choices. His decision to use a large number of BOSS pedals speaks directly to their quality, sitting as they do for him between vintage guitars and champagne-quality amps. A selection of Walsh-approved BOSS pedals include the CE-5 Chorus Ensemble, DD-6 Delay, CS-3 Compression Sustainer and OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion amongst others.

King Buzzo from the Melvins has such an influential sound that Digitech even made a Buzz Box pedal in the 90s to capture and sell their unofficial take on it. But what does Buzz use himself? In addition to the OD-1 Overdrive, he also uses the somewhat unorthodox choice of the ODB-3 Bass Overdrive. With his guitar! Great idea!

Pink Floyd’s lead guitar legend has a sound and feel that most players would die for, so it’s always worth paying attention to what he uses. Arguably, his most famous sounds are smooth, lightly overdriven tones with loads of sustain. That said, most of the solos we love best (Time and Comfortably Numb spring to Mind) were played with fuzz pedals.

But there’s another effect - and a very unlikely one - that Gilmour got into during the 80s, and used on a number of Pink Floyd tracks. 

The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal. Yes, the black metal one! It was apparently his main gain source during the Momentary Lapse of Reason album. A great example of this is Sorrow, from that record. It’s also all over the Delicate Sound of Thunder live album.

Andy Timmons has one of the most tasteful tones around, with his signature ‘halo’ effect (using multiple delays in tandem) being something that many, many players have ‘borrowed’ since. Timmons is all about melody and touch, with one overdrive pedal in particular providing him with the flavour he prefers: the BOSS BD-2 Blues Driver. Is this the most essential BOSS pedal outside of a TU-3 Tuner?

When you're in a 'power trio' three-piece like, say, The Police, you need to use effects to broaden the sound. Andy Summers was keenly aware of this, using a Telecaster with a built-in mid boost, and a number of time-based and modulation effects to expand his notes and fill up the ambience.
His flanger was an Electro-Harmonix Electriss Mistress (captured today in the Walking on the Moon flanger), but he was also famed for using an original BOSS CE-1 Chorus Ensemble (in the original two-button format) and a CE-2 Chorus in later Police efforts.

Another prog-adjacent band who enjoy stomping on effects pedals would be Radiohead. All three guitarists actually use BOSS pedals, but I’ll single out lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood for his heroic use of tone-mangling effects. The full list of his pedals literally requires its own website, but here’s a few BOSS favourites that are oft-used by him: SD-1 Super Overdrive, BF-3 Flanger, RV-3 Reverb, RE-20 and RE-202 Space Echoes and basically LOTS more.

My final choice today is a player who has built their entire sound around the creative use of effects. Robin Guthrie of The Cocteau Twins is more a painter of sound than a player of scales. He uses every stompbox and rack unit that he can get his hands on to create textures and sonics for the band’s beautifully ethereal sounds. Amongst the roomfuls of pedals he has are loads of BOSS, including the BF-2 Flanger, HM-2 Heavy Metal and the VB-2 Vibrato.

So, there are 15 exceptional musicians who all choose BOSS pedals live, in the studio, and everywhere. I’ve got funk rockers, goth rockers, proggers, superstars and arty creatives in this list, all making their own unique marks with BOSS compact pedals.

BOSS pedals have become iconic objects in their own right, with their colour-coded metal chassis and industry-standard design. Every guitarist in every country in the world recognises BOSS pedals. There have been over 140 unique models made since the late 70s, and over 19 million of them sold across the globe. They are classics, and as we’ve seen today, they are chosen by the world’s greatest artists.

Join them!

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