Boss Waza Amp

webrthomson

Plectrum said:

A baffling product at an even more baffling price point.

This should be the review, plus the fact that it sounds shite pretty much the whole way through!

When you think 3K amps, Diezel, Friedman, Boogie - Boss is not what comes to mind!

digitalscream

There's another point here...resale value of these will be miniscule. Look at the Line 6 HD147, for example.

I honestly can't see what they were thinking. It seems something along the lines of:

1 - Let's make a modelling amp.
2 - Let's take away all the functionality that makes modelling more useful than valve amps, because guitarists are idiots and get confused easily.
3 - Let's take away all the effects, because then we can sell them more pedals.
4 - Let's make it really difficult to change amp models.
5 - In fact, let's charge them for changing amp models.
6 - Profit?

But...that'd be crazy...right?

professorben

digitalscream said:

There's another point here...resale value of these will be miniscule. Look at the Line 6 HD147, for example.

I honestly can't see what they were thinking. It seems something along the lines of:

1 - Let's make a modelling amp.
2 - Let's take away all the functionality that makes modelling more useful than valve amps, because guitarists are idiots and get confused easily.
3 - Let's take away all the effects, because then we can sell them more pedals.
4 - Let's make it really difficult to change amp models.
5 - In fact, let's charge them for changing amp models.
6 - Profit?

But...that'd be crazy...right?

Surely it's a 'forever amp' 

digitalscream

professorben said:

Surely it's a 'forever amp' 

It probably will be, because one guy (and one guy only) will be stupid enough to buy it, and nobody else on the planet will ever want to take it off his hands.

bingefeller

I want to hear the Steve Vai Tone Capsule! 

professorben

digitalscream said:

professorben said:

Surely it's a 'forever amp' 

It probably will be, because one guy (and one guy only) will be stupid enough to buy it, and nobody else on the planet will ever want to take it off his hands.

I'm cancelling my order. 

Nerine

I didn't hear many differences between the Steve Vai capsule and the standard Waza Brown tbh. 
I think Vai's sound has largely been based around hot rodded British voiced amplifiers (could be wrong) such as Soldanos and Carvins and Marshalls and stuff. So the Waza Brown should be pretty much in that ball park anyway. 

An an odd product for Steve to put his name to really... That said, I think he has used Boss pedals quite a lot. But I don't see him playing out with this amp any time soon. 

Also, speaking of Vai, there's a video going round of the G3 thing. Him and Satriani and Guthrie. Guthrie creams the pair of them IMO. 

ChrisMusic

大村孝佳 meets BOSS WAZA AMP｜【デジマート・マガジン特集】


duration 6:20

earwighoney

I think this video might be a better representation



The amp still doesn't sound great.  In all the videos to my ears anyway it sounds like a DS-1 being played through a unspectacular solid state amp. 

bingefeller

Just wait until Boss sends one to Pete Thorn and I bet he will make it sound good so he will.

ICBM

Nerine said:

I think Vai's sound has largely been based around hot rodded British voiced amplifiers (could be wrong) such as Soldanos and Carvins and Marshalls and stuff. So the Waza Brown should be pretty much in that ball park anyway. 

An an odd product for Steve to put his name to really... That said, I think he has used Boss pedals quite a lot. But I don't see him playing out with this amp any time soon.

I thought Vai's sound was based around a Tube Screamer and a Boss DS-1…

The problem for me is that this amp doesn't sound as good as a TS and a DS-1 into an old Peavey. Grand total about £200.

professorben

bingefeller said:

Just wait until Boss sends one to Pete Thorn and I bet he will make it sound good so he will.

Will be interesting to see IF they send him one, that will be the litmus test, along with Burgs (aka Brett Kingman)

professorben

ICBM said:

Nerine said:

I think Vai's sound has largely been based around hot rodded British voiced amplifiers (could be wrong) such as Soldanos and Carvins and Marshalls and stuff. So the Waza Brown should be pretty much in that ball park anyway. 

An an odd product for Steve to put his name to really... That said, I think he has used Boss pedals quite a lot. But I don't see him playing out with this amp any time soon.

I thought Vai's sound was based around a Tube Screamer and a Boss DS-1…

The problem for me is that this amp doesn't sound as good as a TS and a DS-1 into an old Peavey. Grand total about £200.

I've heard rumours that he only had a DS-1 on his board for the buffer.....
could be bollocks tho, as far as I'm aware he has always been a hot rodded Marshall guy in the Zappa years, through to Flexible
then started to experiment with Carvins and Bogners etc

ICBM

professorben said:

I've heard rumours that he only had a DS-1 on his board for the buffer...

Hardly, when the TS also has a perfectly good buffer, he had that signature Jemini pedal with both circuits in it, and he's on record as describing what he uses the two different sounds for…



Notice he uses the 'DS-1' side into the amp's clean channel.

The tones in this demo absolutely piss on the Waza thing too. I couldn't say if that's because the pedal sounds great, that the valve Carvin sounds better, or just that it's Vai playing.

bingefeller

Boss should keep away from amps to be honest and stick with pedals and let Roland concentrate on the smaller combo amps.  Boss should have put their time and money into developing a new modeller.  

monquixote

ICBM said:

professorben said:

I've heard rumours that he only had a DS-1 on his board for the buffer...

Hardly, when the TS also has a perfectly good buffer, he had that signature Jemini pedal with both circuits in it, and he's on record as describing what he uses the two different sounds for…



Notice he uses the 'DS-1' side into the amp's clean channel.

The tones in this demo absolutely piss on the Waza thing too. I couldn't say if that's because the pedal sounds great, that the valve Carvin sounds better, or just that it's Vai playing.

In fairness Vai would sound better than Chappers with just about anything.

digitalscream

bingefeller said:

Boss should keep away from amps to be honest and stick with pedals and let Roland concentrate on the smaller combo amps.  Boss should have put their time and money into developing a new modeller.  

It's possible that this is the development of a new modeller - the incredibly expensive forerunner of a replacement for COSM (which is long overdue). Of course, if it doesn't take off then they may take that as an indictment of the quality of the modelling rather than the business plan for the amp, which would be completely missing the point (but not entirely surprising).

There's a lot of mental gymnastics involved in that much optimism, mind.

digitalscream

ICBM said:

professorben said:

I've heard rumours that he only had a DS-1 on his board for the buffer...

Hardly, when the TS also has a perfectly good buffer, he had that signature Jemini pedal with both circuits in it, and he's on record as describing what he uses the two different sounds for…



Notice he uses the 'DS-1' side into the amp's clean channel.

The tones in this demo absolutely piss on the Waza thing too. I couldn't say if that's because the pedal sounds great, that the valve Carvin sounds better, or just that it's Vai playing.

On an entirely different note...the jam at the end was a bit "meh", right up until that whammy bit in the last few seconds. FFS, Steve, can't you just go 10 minutes without making us all feel inadequate?

bingefeller

digitalscream said:

bingefeller said:

Boss should keep away from amps to be honest and stick with pedals and let Roland concentrate on the smaller combo amps.  Boss should have put their time and money into developing a new modeller.  

It's possible that this is the development of a new modeller - the incredibly expensive forerunner of a replacement for COSM (which is long overdue). Of course, if it doesn't take off then they may take that as an indictment of the quality of the modelling rather than the business plan for the amp, which would be completely missing the point (but not entirely surprising).

There's a lot of mental gymnastics involved in that much optimism, mind.

i really hope not. 

The other thing I'm hoping for is a Micro Blues Cube with bass, middle and treble controls.!

Sporky

digitalscream said:

It's possible that this is the development of a new modeller - the incredibly expensive forerunner of a replacement for COSM (which is long overdue). 

That makes sense to me - just as the V-Grand developed into the LX7, the VG-8 into the VG-9 and so on.