The 5 best and the 5 worst Boss Waza Craft pedals.
Boss's premium line takes the classics and polishes them. Sometimes the polish is the point. Sometimes the original was already the point.
Waza Craft is Boss saying out loud what every modder has been saying for years: the green compact circuits are vehicles. Toggle a switch, add a second mode, remap the gain stage, and a $99 mass-market staple becomes a $179 boutique-feel pedal. The execution is honest. Some of the entries are obviously better than their non-W parents. Some are exactly the same pedal with a fancier knob and a higher invoice.
What follows is the working line for an everyday gigging board. The pedals that earned a spot replaced something I was already paying double for. The pedals that didn't are the ones where the W upgrade is a story, not a sound.
Column · The best
The 5 that earn their slot.
Boss · BD-2W Blues Driver
The one Waza upgrade nobody argues with.
Standard mode is the original BD-2 with a slightly cleaner low end. Custom mode adds the touch sensitivity the BD-2 never had — it cleans up off the volume knob like a real transparent OD. The Custom mode alone is what a JHS Morning Glory does, except you keep the original BD-2 grit for free in the other position. The single best Waza Craft pedal Boss has ever made.
Boss · CE-2W Waza Craft Chorus
The classic CE-2 plus a CE-1 mode that actually nails the CE-1.
The CE-2W earns the W by adding a true CE-1 emulation — the wider, watery, slightly noisier chorus the CE-2 trimmed off. With a vibrato side included, the pedal covers every Boss chorus tone a working board needs. The mono CE-2 mode is still my preferred everyday chorus; the CE-1 mode is what I switch to for big chord moments. This is the right kind of W.
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Boss · DM-2W Delay
Analog warmth + a longer max delay time. The right reissue.
The original DM-2 maxed out around 300ms. The DM-2W extends Custom mode to 800ms — enough for slap, dotted-eighth, and short ambient lines without losing the bucket-brigade character. The pedal sounds like a Memory Man for half the price and a quarter of the board real estate.
Boss · DC-2W Dimension C
A faithful Dimension C reissue without the vintage tax.
The DC-2 was a $1500-on-Reverb cult pedal. The DC-2W puts it back in production at $199. Same four-button chorus voice, same Andy Summers shimmer, plus a 'Mode 2' that's a little wider per setting. Boss's most generous Waza Craft — they could have priced this at $300 and it would have sold.
Boss · TB-2W Tone Bender
A Sola Sound Tone Bender Mk II at gig volume.
The Tone Bender Mk II is the Gibson Les Paul of fuzz pedals — distinctive, opinionated, hard to source. The TB-2W is Boss's licensed reissue and it is shockingly faithful. The high-gain side has the Page wooliness; the low-gain side is the Beck-with-Yardbirds setting. The build is Boss-tank reliable. The competition is a $1800 original.
Column · The worst
The 5 I'd sell first.
Boss · SD-1W Super Overdrive
The Custom mode is fine. The pedal didn't need a Waza.
The original SD-1 is one of the best $50 pedals on the market. The W version costs three times as much and gives you a slightly cleaner low end. The premise of Waza Craft is to fix what was missing — there was nothing missing on the SD-1. The W version is a tax on a pedal that didn't ask for one.
Boss · MT-2W Metal Zone
The Metal Zone is famous because the Metal Zone is a Metal Zone.
The MT-2W adds a Custom mode that 'fixes' the famous mid scoop. That mid scoop is the entire identity of the pedal. The Custom mode turns the MT-2 into a generic high-gain pedal. If you want a generic high-gain pedal, the EHX Metal Muff and the Wampler Pinnacle are both better at it. The MT-2W is a Waza in search of a need.
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Boss · HM-2W Heavy Metal
The chainsaw, slightly polished. The chainsaw doesn't want to be polished.
The HM-2 is Swedish death metal's signature box. It works because it is feral and undynamic. The HM-2W adds a Custom mode with restored low-end clarity — which is the opposite of what the pedal exists to do. The Custom mode is a Boss high-gain pedal we already have nine of. If you want HM-2 sounds, buy a $90 original.
Boss · VB-2W Vibrato
The cult original at a less cult price tag.
The VB-2 is a 1982 cult pedal — true vibrato with an unbypass mode that lingers. The VB-2W faithfully reissues it and adds a Custom mode that smooths out the LFO shape. The whole point of the VB-2 was the weird LFO shape. The smoother version is fine and forgettable. The original mode is great. The W badge is what costs you the $80 surcharge.
Boss · TU-3W Tuner
A tuner doesn't need a Waza.
Boss made a Waza Craft version of the TU-3 tuner. It has higher-precision tuning and a slightly faster response. It is also a tuner — a fundamental utility that almost no working guitarist evaluates on premium-tier metrics. A $99 TU-3 tunes guitars. A $169 TU-3W also tunes guitars. There is no version of this pedal that meets a real need the TU-3 doesn't.
Waza Craft is the right idea applied unevenly. The BD-2W is what every premium reissue should be. The TU-3W is what happens when the premium-reissue idea finds a pedal that didn't need it. Buy the BD-2W. Keep your TU-3. — Jason
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