From fat crunch to ultra high-gain distortion, the BOSS ST-2 Power Stack distortion pedal 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 the years of amp-modeling research BOSS has done to bring you real stack sounds in a compact stompbox.
Tower of Power
The ST-2 Power Stack distortion pedal delivers the playing feel and power that are hallmarks of stack amps. It was derived from BOSS' extensive analysis of the sound and characteristics of a vast number of classic guitar amps. This distortion effect delivers authentic tone and expression that responds naturally to picking nuances and volume changes on your guitar. But emulation is only the beginning, as the ST-2 has the ability to go beyond the sound of real amps.
Crunch, Drive, Ultra High Gain
The ST-2 lets you enjoy a rich, clean tone when playing soft, and smoothly transition into a fat crunch as you play harder-great for rock ballads or songs that require dramatic tone shifts. Imagine the powerful, driving sound of a stack amplifier. An authentic classic-rock tone is here as well, with crisp overtones. Turn up the Sound knob for a heavy-metal tone. The ST-2 allows extreme high gain, but offers a powerful low-end and sharp edge at the same time.
Sound Knob
The SOUND knob is a controller that is uniquely BOSS. Simply set it to the tone type you're looking for. The SOUND knob not only changes gain but sound character as well, from brisk crunch and spectacular drive to earth-shaking ultrahigh gain.
Road-Tough BOSS construction
BOSS compact pedals are world-famous for their great sound as well as their road-tough construction, consistency, and reliability. The ST-2 Power Stack inherits this BOSS-proven design, offering guitarists a solidly constructed pedal that's built to withstand decades of demanding use.
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
Custom Guitar's Friend Gold Coverage
Gold Coverage goes above and beyond the manufacturer's warranty to protect your gear from unexpected breakdowns, accidental damage from handling
and failures. This plan covers your product for one, two, three or up to five years from your date of purchase, costs just pennies per day and gives you a
complete "no-worry" solution for protecting your investment.
Gold Coverage Includes:
Unexpected and unintentional spills, drops and cracks
Normal wear and tear
Power surges
Dust, internal heat and humidity
Other plan features include:
For products over $200, No Lemon Policy applies. If it fails for the same defect 3 times, it is replaced on the 4th breakdown. (Does not apply to failures due to drops, spills, and cracks)
For products under $200 experiencing the above failures, a Custom Guitar's Friend gift card will be issued for the full price of the product + tax.
Shipping fees covered if required for repair or replacement
Plans are transferable in the event merchandise is sold
Plans are renewable on new gear
*Limitations and exclusions apply. See terms and conditions for program details
Term for New Gear begins on date of purchase but does not replace the store return policy or manufacturer coverage.
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Let's not beat around the bush here - when we're talking "stack" amps, we're talking about the classic sense of the word - Marshall. Make no mistake about it. This isn't another dirt pedal, this is a Marshall amp modeler. The models are more or less represented 3 general sound settings - Crunch (1959 Plexi), Drive (JCM800), and Ultra (JCM 2000 or some sort of modded high-gain Marshall), represent the range of Marshall tones that span decades.
Its really simple - as the sound knob is turned, not only does the gain increase, but the character of the tone changes a bit as well (the mids tighten as the gain is pushed into metal territory); hence it being a "sound" knob and not merely a gain knob.
What's great about this pedal is that if you're looking for something to give you that Marshall bite, its all right here and then some. Because this is designed as sort of an amp-within-a-pedal, whatever setting you have the sound knob at will respond to a boost or overdrive in a similar manner as the amp its emulating. In other words, if you have it on "Crunch", and put an boost in front of it, it will sound like a Plexi with a boost; it won't simply push the gain into Drive or Ultra settings. If you're familiar with amp models then you get what I'm saying.
Because of its versatility, this can get you a mild grit for blues or country, chunky drive for rock, or high gain for metal (it won't sound like a Mesa Dual Rec, however). "Crunch" at a high setting with a single coil Strat = Hendrix territory. "Drive" with a mid boost and humbucker = Slayer. You get the idea.
A slight disappointment for me is that this is still at the end of the day just a pedal/preamp type effect. It would be REALLY cool of there was a speaker cabinet-simulated stereo output to plug directly into a mixer or practice with headphones. Like a Tech 21 Sansamp, this could be a gigging musician's pocket powerhouse. Another issue that might be a deal breaker for some is that like with alot of amp modelers, the sound suffers from a bit of top end fizz in the higher gain settings. Not too much, but its there.
Boss ST-2 Power Stack Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal
.The online videos do a decent job of demonstrating how this thing sounds, both alone and in ensemble. At bucks, I figured it was worth a shot. Since I still have the original GP 100 and it does a great job of imitating a stack, I assumed Roland ( Boss) should know how to do that, right? Well. almost.It's true, this thing sounds like a recording of a stack and it can emulate several different levels of high-gain amps.It even cleans up when you turn the guitar-volume down, so it behaves like a real amp.... almost... but not quite.When you turn the guitar down too low, say below four, the digital pedal does not have enough signal to process, so it starts to crap out and sound weak.I know that for many modern players, this is not a huge problem, since they almost always have their volume higher and rely on electronics to get the sound they want.For old school players who are used to operating the volume knob for different tones and dynamic control, this doesn't quite cut it. Other than that, it is a valuable and affordable addition to your arsenal of tones.
Boss ST-2 Power Stack Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal
.Power Stack has all the sweet spots of your distortion needs. This is very usable during gigs when the house amp is crap. It creates a "big" sound and a very good presence.For me it's a 3 in 1 pedal. By having ST-2, I don't need OD-3(for Crunch), Crunchbox(for raspy dirt) and Metal Zone(for heavier stuffs) during gigs. Now, my OD-3 is to give boost in front of ST-2 during those scarce solos. I recommend this pedal if you are using a 15-watt (tube) amp like me. It makes small amp sound huge. With some tweaking on the EQ of a solid state amp, it also does the job very well.
Boss ST-2 Power Stack Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal
.Some of these reviews I have seen for this pedal are completely worthless and invalid. This is a distortion pedal and NOT AN OVERDRIVE PEDAL. Some of these people think that a distortion pedal is used on a distortion channel on the amp. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You must use a clean channel for a distortion pedal. Set yourself a good clean channel to the best of your ability and then turn the distortion pedal on. If you have to use a distortion pedal on a tube amp, then you obviously did something wrong. I can't understand why someone would buy a tube amp and use a distortion on the clean channel. Just doesn't make any since. This is why some of you are experiencing really thin sounds through a tube amp. IT'S NOT AN OVERDRIVE PEDAL! You can use an OD pedal with the distortion channel engaged. Also, don't use an overdrive pedal on a solid state amp. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?? There are no tube to overdrive! Do you plan on overdriving the AC/DC in your wall. I mean, c'mon. Know the gear you use for once.
Boss ST-2 Power Stack Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal
. Nothing much more to say. If you use a humbucker and want a great heavy old school sound that cleans up very, very well, then you should be happy.
I'm into classic Van Halen/AC/DC tone and I really like this. I use a medium output dimarzio humbucker. I set the output and about 10 o'clock which is somewhat louder than going clean.
I set the bass, treble, and "sound" (gain) at 2 o'clock. I am 56 and covered Led Zeppelin, Foghat, ZZ Top, Black Sabbath in the 70's (to my great amusement!) and have lots of tube amps and pedals and this pedal makes it quick to get what I consider a classic hard rock/old metal sound from a humbucker. What clinches it for for is that when I roll off the guitar volumes I get a wonderful, clean and bright spanky tone like EVH used to get when he rolled the volume down. So I really can go in my opinion from very bright and clean to total distortion and I don't have to endlessly tweak the thing to do it.
Boss ST-2 Power Stack Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal
.I tested this pedal out at [@] before buying it from MF. It sounded pretty good at [@]. However once I hooked it up to my amp and effects chain, it sounded really terrible. I use a Fender Deville 2x12 and play an Epiphone SG. This pedal is really, really noisy in the signal path. I was hoping to get a nice Mesa/Marshall high-gain tone from it. Unfortunatelty to get anywhere near this tone you have to crank up the gain to the point where's there very audible static when the effect is turned on. Somehow I'm getting a better high-gain sound from my amp's distortion than from this pedal, which is weird considering the Fender Hot Rod series aren't really known for high-gain tone. The noise in the signal chain is a deal-breaker for me. I only have 3 other pedals, an Way Huge Aqua Puss, Boss Super-Chorus and a Dunlop standard Wah. There shouldn't be that much noise in the chain with only 4 pedals. Honestly I kind of feel like this pedal is a rip-off. For the price Boss is asking, there should be much better and quieter circutry in this box. I also feel like for the above-average cost for distortion units, there should be more EQ filters than just one bass knob and one treble. Overall, I'm really disaapointed with this unit. At this price point you should at least get a quiet pedal that you can tweak to your liking. Not a one-trick pony that's pretty much useless on stage and in studio due to the ridiculous amount of noise it generates.
Boss ST-2 Power Stack Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal
.I must admit that I am a recovering tone snob and own/have had a good collection of boutique dirt pedals. I've also never been a big fan of boss dirt pedals as a whole. I do have several boss boxes a ce-2, bf-2, rv-5 and a dd-7 and they all get the job done and fit my budget. Well, I sold off some of my dirt pedals to fund Santa and was in need of distortion pedal to get me thru until my next boutique acquisition... after seeing a few videos, I figured the ST-2 would get me thru and I must say, I'm quite impressed. It is bonehead simple to use offers more dirt than I'll ever need, cleans up like my amp and boutique pedals do and even does a nice jazzy scofield/rat low gain thing. The tone and dynamics are much more than I was expecting in this price range and this pedal may be on my board much longer than anticipated. The ST-2 should be in the boss lineup, at least in some capacity for years to come and should get tone snobs taking notice and icing their wallets. A guality dirt pedal that covers smooth jazz, blues, classic and hair rock and then gets into modern mesa-ish territory. High gain settings may not be tight enough for some serious medal heads. Hope this helped you out! Enjoy!
Boss ST-2 Power Stack Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal
.The problem with a lot of distortion, overdrives or fuzz pedals is that they are either too weak or have too much saturation. This pedal's controls are dynamic to each other, similar to the way a Mesa-Boogie amp's controls operate. Great stack tones from a little edge, "Pete Townsend" sound to a "Priest / Accept" Balls to the wall thick Marshall scream. There is very little feedback when you turn up the gain, which is a big plus. Also it does not reduce the tone quality of your amp, the way that some pedals can make a fine tube amp sound like a low end low watt practice amp. I have used this on several amps,(trans & tube), different brands, and it sounds awesome through each one. I may order another one for my pedal board just to have two different O/D settings.Get this pedal!!!!! Great job Boss.
Boss ST-2 Power Stack Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal
.A lot of people are negative on BOSS distortion pedals and digital modeling in stompboxes, so it's not surprising that the BOSS Power Stack has some doubters. Don't believe the "noise", though, try it for yourself.
If you already have a Marshall half-stack, this pedal probably wasn't meant for you anyway. For the rest of us, it does a very nice job mimicking both clean and distorted sounds of a large Marshall cabinet. Really excels for lead guitar work. If you desire even more low end, check out the Marshall Jackhammer, but this an excellent pedal.
Boss ST-2 Power Stack Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal
.As another below has stated, this is the best Boss OD / Dist pedal I've ever tried. I am not crazy about Boss pedals in the first place. They always sound "Bossy" to me and not in a good way. Sure they are durable, reliable, and reasonably priced but they never really did it for me. I was intrigued by this one because I wanted to add a Marshall tone to my rig without throwing down $200 to $250 for a Zvex pedal or a Carl Martin pedal. This did it. I now get harmonically rich overdrive and musical feedback on demand, especially with a boost after this pedal. It is a lively pedal and the controls are noticably responsive and adjustable. I rarely review gear but this one is definitely a keeper. Treat yourself and pick one up.
Boss ST-2 Power Stack Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal
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