All user reviews of 3/5 for the Boss ST-2 Power Stack

From fat crunch to ultra high-gain distortion, the ST-2 Power Stack delivers famous BOSS distortion with a stunning amount of power that’s akin to coveted tube amps and professional amp stacks. The SOUND knob simultaneously blends gain amount and sound character, so you can quickly dial up anything from vintage crunch and punchy drive to full-assault distortion. To add further detail to your tone, simply tweak the onboard two-band EQ to taste. The ST-2 is one very unique distortion pedal, calling on BOSS’ years of amp modeling research to bring you real stack sounds in a compact stompbox.

Original distortion sound reminiscent of tube-based stack amplifiers
Provides a wide range of tones, from vintage crunch to ultra high-gain modern distortion
Faithful and accurate response to picking nuances and volume changes
SOUND knob controls both gain level and sound character
Two-band EQ with dedicated BASS and TREBLE knobs
Road-tough BOSS construction

A newish boss pedal by Boss. Geared towards...anybody who wants a 'big' sounding distortion, which is...EVERY guitar player out there really..


UTILIZATION

Again, simple boss design with just a few knobs and the single sized compact pedal.

SOUND QUALITY

The sound...it's hit or miss with this one as it seems. A few of my guitar player buddies love it and some of them hate it. Be being one of the latter. I don't find anything particularly amazing with this pedal. To me it sounds like a well EQ-ed metal zone with slightly more mids. Oh and there's no mid knob on this either, how inconvenient considering the guitar is a midrange instrument.

No it doesn't sound like a stack to me, but it does sound like a well EQ-ed distortion pedal. By that I mean it's usable for certain purposes but I could definitely see myself using other pedals if given the choice. It's a very tight distortion and it's not bee-hive sounding like the older generation boss distortion pedals so that's nice. However, it's still definitely got that boss distortion sound, but just rounded off a bit so it's not shrill. But it doesn't sag like a tube amp, whatsoever.

Also if you fiddle with the knobs you don't really get completely different sounds, more like you get the same sound, just with less gain or less treble and bass. It's not so versatile in my opinion.



OVERALL OPINION

Don't believe the hype with this one. I know I saw the same Marty Friedman demo you did. But I'm definitely not convinced with this pedal. It sounds nothing like what it's supposed to be, a 'stack' although that in itself is so vague to the point where it sounds pretty much like nothing. What kind of stack? a vintage marshall? a boogie? a vox? There's just so many colors that calling it a 'stack' just doesn't help narrow it down to anything. Overall in my opinion it's just another distortion pedal that sounds slightly better than the older boss distortion pedals but nothing revolutionary. Which means, solidstate distortion pedal. NOT tube.