At AMAC 2014, Roland had much to display and be excited about. First up, Braegen Russell walked Australian Musician through the range of new Boss Waza Craft pedals, which were released at Summer NAMM and shipping to Australia in October. Three models were on view, the Boss BD-2W Blues Driver, Boss SD-1W Super Overdrive and DM-2W Delay.
The DM-2W Delay demo can be seen below on video as demonstrated by Braegen at AMAC 2014.
As for the other two in the Waza Craft series on display at AMAC, the BD-2W Blues Driver is a re-design of original 1995 Blues Driver pedal. It uses discrete analogue circuitry. Each mode, Standard and Custom are two separate circuits in the one pedal. Boss promises improved response and feel, plus a better reaction to the guitar and the way the guitarist plays. It was always a popular feature of the Blues Driver that when you played softly, it would clean up but when you dug in it became really dirty and that remains. In Custom mode, the low end and the low mids are tighter and more sustain from the compression. Consequently, Custom mode is great for soloing. “Think of it as a premium version,” says Braegen. “That’s the same with the 
SD-1W Waza Craft pedal, the Super Overdrive pedal which is still in the Boss line up after more than 30 years.” The Super Overdrive originally was a re-design of the 1977 OD-1, the only difference being that they added a tone pot. At the time that was great for guitarists because it meant they had so much more control. “The other thing about this pedal, the Super Overdrive, is that it is the most modded third party pedal to date because guitarists always wanted that little bit extra. Ten percent more of that throaty growl was what the mods were doing, so we’ve done that here with the custom mode. The X factor that guitarists wanted out of the Super Overdrive, that what you are getting out of the Custom mode.”
Braegen also worded us up on the new Blues Cube amps, the 60 watt Stage model and the 80 watt Artist. They feature cream tolex and a vintage grill with 1×12 speaker and open back cabinet, all the stylings of a classic combo. There are a lot of similarities in the tone between the two amps, due to high and low inputs in both. You get a clean channel (which simulates an 12AX7) and crunch channel (which simulates two 12AX7s), 3 band EQ, reverb, master and power control, which are in both. There’s also a USB out in the back, line out, phone out, plus a unique Dual Tone mode for blending channels to expand tonal possibilities. “It’s actually quite squelchy and bloomy,” says Braegen. “A nice tone. It’s pushing both of those into the power section simultaneously and you can mix and match how much of either you want. Power control is great in classic attenuator style, it enables us to bring it down to one half of one watt buts till crank those valves. That’s important, especially for late night practicing or small venues but trying to capture that sweet spot on your amplifier.”
Keyboard wise on the Roland stand, Mark van der Sluis showed us the new F130R and RP401R entry level pianos in modern and traditional cabinet styles, which looked attractive propositions for dealers.
Roland also previewed a brand new product which we can’t even talk about. A select few dealers and Australian Musician got a peek and all we can say is that it’s a game changer.