The Boss DS-2 is a perfect distortion pedal for the money for my use. While it may not be as instantly recognizable as the DS-1, it has a lovely warm tone at lower drive levels and can produce some of the boldest lead tones when driven hard.
It's a Boss pedal, so the build quality is outstanding, Boss produce some of the best-made pedals in the world, so no complaints there.
It looks great, I wasn't a huge fan of the orange colour scheme at first, but I have to say it's grown on me and now I think it's a really cool looking pedal.
The controls are easy to use and navigate, it doesn't take that much tinkering to get it to sound how you might want.
The turbo function is cool, however I don't find myself using it too often as the regular drive sounds so great. I do use the turbo function sometimes, but only when I'm playing some dirty drop D Metal riffs, which isn't all the time since I'm more of a soul / blues kind of axeman. However, I actually bought this pedal because it has the turbo setting as that adds extra dynamics. It can produce subtle blues drive tones, all the way to screaming Metal leads - Very versatile.
I can't find any cons to be perfectly honest, this little beast of a pedal does everything I need it to very very well.
Conclusion: If you're in the market for a distortion pedal that can produce awesome drive dynamics, buy it. You won't be disappointed.
