Boss harnesses the legendary RE-201 and CE-1 Preamps in a singularly impressive all-analog 3-in-1 BP-1W Waza Craft Booster/Preamp also with Clean Boost Mode and Dual Buffer options

One of the key elements to both the 1974 Roland RE-201 Space Echo, and 1976 Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble was their fabled preamps which were so instrumental in enhancing the output of those legendary devices. Here exactingly recreated in compact analog circuit format.

Boss’s engineers have done a superb job of fully capturing those two core characteristic preamps - with the RE-201 instantly Fat and Warming, while the CE-1 is Brighter and Chimier - and becomes grittier as you turn it up on account of its progressive asymmetrical clipping. The CE-1 preamp is often associated with delivering a sort of crunch sound when dimed - which you also find on the PastFX CE-1 derived chorus and boost. You need to use the Level and Gain dials in combination to get to the crunchier side of things - while the RE-201 side mostly just gets progressively more saturated - and of course in a really nice way.

And we mustn’t forget the Natural Clean Boost option which also warms things up just a touch - as will all Boss pedals everything sounds great at noon, and you already have a moderate boost - which you can then attenuate or increase per your requirements - the Natural option is a great way to boost certain overdrives and fuzzes in particular - making those more articulate - without impacting on their core colouring or tonality. That would be what I used as my always on tone-sweetener - possible just a touch ahead of the RE side.

And then of course you have the 2 Buffer options on the rear of the pedal. The STD Standard Mode is set by default and it’s deliberately as neutral as can be - I didn’t feel any impact to my core tonality when I added this pedal to the chain. By contrast the VTG Vintage Mode only comes on when the pedal is active - and this has a touch more warmth to it - which also results in a smidge more colouring - so you can treat that also as a further texturing agent / element for this pedal. Generally though I have preferred to stick with the excellent STD Buffer which is core to the Waza Craft editions.

This is a fantastic 3-in-1 Booster/Preamp - while for me it’s kind of missing a further Tone control or two which would make it even more malleable and adaptable. It works pretty brilliantly as is - as each of those boosts have a slightly different tonality / character to them - so they inherently have default distinctive integral EQs as such - and while it’s always nice for me to be able to fine tune that a little - I can conceded that it’s not essential here.

Compared to my semi-permanent Jackson Audio Prism - the BP-1W definitely covers the 3 different flavours of boost, and has the onboard buffer - it’s overall gain range is not quite as expansive - although it does possess superb volume headroom in particular. And I actually really use the twin EQ’s on my JA Prism all the time (little tweaks here and there) - so I feel I would miss those if I did a permanent swap.

In terms of fulfilling its brief - the BP-1W is spot on - it really does fully carry those legendary flavours - which are pretty instantly recognisable - and you have the added versatility of the Clean Boost Mode and Dual Buffer options. Boss always err on the side of keeping things clean and simple - and that’s exactly what they’ve done here. This is a fantastic Boost + Preamp + Tone Enhancer and I fully expect this to be another Boss bestseller.

Everything it does it does brilliantly - while I’m a hard taskmaster - and typically always want a little bit more!

I would think the vast majority would be very happy with one of these - available worldwide in early-to-mid November.

Controls - Level, Mode : RE / NAT / Ce, Gain, On Rear - Buffer : STD (Always on), VTG (Warmer, only on when active).