Quality

As always, Boss did not sacrifice any quality in the design of this product. The DN-2 has a hard metal casing with a rubber stomp pad and hard plastic knobs. I am quite sure that this baby could survive a two-story fall (although I wouldn’t be the one to test that).

Tone

The big hype about this pedal was its ability to adjust the level of distortion based on the picking velocity. However, I wish that Boss had included an on/off switch for this feature because for some types of guitar playing, such as tapping, you need lots of sustain but the pedal won’t give it to you because you’re not picking hard enough. This was one of the major turnoffs for me about this pedal. Another thing is that contrary to what I thought, the volume does not change as you change your picking velocity. It must change the volume along with the drive, or something like that. Kudos to Boss for thinking of that.

Aside from the dynamic overdrive feature, the tone of the pedal was good. It was nice and crisp stayed true to your picking technique, just like a real overdriven tube amp would. The only thing was it lacked the bass that I needed to get that extra oomph in my playing.

Overall

This pedal definitely is not one of my favorites, but it has its uses. I wouldn’t use this as my main distortion pedal due to its lack of flexibility. It;s good at styles like jazz, funk, and blues, but it won’t deliver the heavy distortion you need for metal or hard rock. Although, it might be good for a recording environment; you could just record the parts where you need the transition from light to heavy overdrive (or vice versa) with the DN-2, and then do the rest with a similar sounding overdrive or distortion pedal. Overall, though, I do not think that this pedal was worth the $120 that it cost me. I am going to return it tomorrow and buy a Marshall Guv’nor (check back soon for a review of it), which is half the price and double the value.

1. Gibson Reverse Flying V - When the Gibson Flying V was first released in 1958 and it revolutionized the look of an electric guitar. Now, when I first heard that Gibson had released a reverse Flying V, I didn’t think they could pull it off. Well, I was most certainly wrong. Gibson announced the release of a limited edition run if these babies, only 300 are out there. Get ‘em while they’re hot.
2. Fender American Standard Series - This year, Fender re-released their American Standard series with a few upgrades. One of the major new features is a redesigned bridge. They added improved bent steel saddles and a copper-infused high mass block to improve the sustain and resonance of the instrument. Some other upgrades include a new neck treatment, a thinner finish undercoat that is supposed to improve resonance, a new case, and new colors.
3. Gibson Les Paul w/ Floyd Rose - Can I get an AMEN! It’s about time they did something like this. The Les Paul was bound to get a whammy bar eventually… and not just a whammy bar, an entire Floyd Rose bridge!
4. Ibanez Steve Vai Jemini Distortion - Not only does this pedal capture the sound of the legend who’s name it bears, it also is easy on the eyes. I must say, whoever thought of the idea to give it a tie dye paint job is a genius. But whoever named the pedal needs to graduate the first grade.
5. Seymour Duncan Blackouts - Seymour Duncan finally solved the one problem of active humbuckers: the hum. The hum was caused by the unbalanced differential preamp. They figured out how to get the same sound as an active humbucker, bu still using balanced inputs. This makes amazing sounding humbuckers that are nearly hum-free.

My Method

This is a method that I used early on in my guitar playing, and it helped me a lot. Here you go:

1. Make sure to keep your sound recorder (whether it be a cell phone or an actual voice recorder) on you at all times. This is crucial, because inspiration can strike at anywhere.
2. Once a cool beat pops into your head, don’t hesitate. Get out your voice recorder and hum the beat into it. Even if it’s not all that great, record it anyways. Sure, people may stare, but just wait ’til you get up on stage and start blowing peoples’ brains out with your insane song. Who’s the stupid one now?
3. After you have recorded a decent amount of riffs, sit down with your guitar and play back some of the stuff that you’ve recorded. This is probably the most difficult part (which isn’t very difficult at all) of the method: learning to play the song on the guitar. Here’s some tips on that:
   • Listen to the riff and repeat it over and over in your head. Then, moving fret by fret, search for a note on the guitar that matches the one in the song. Once you get the first one, the rest are usually located close by.
   • If you found that the stretch between two notes is too far, try play that same note on a string next to it. Remember, each string is offset by five half-step (except for the G and B, which is offset by four) in regular EADGBe tuning.
   • Also, experiment with different tunings. I like to use DADGBe tuning in some songs because it is easier to make a powerchord; you just have to bar the two lower strings. Try a couple different ones and see which suits you best.
4. Select about 3-5 of your favorite ones and put them in order, leaving one to be the chorus.
5. Practice playing them all in succession until you have it down-pat.
6. Melt faces.

Quality

When I first opened the box, I had a good feeling about it. The pedal is made mostly of metal or hard plastic, and that gives it a very sturdy feel. All of the screws were in tight and I didn’t hear any stray pieces moving around inside. I actually dropped it down a flight of stairs and it still worked fine. The only flaw that I found with the design was that the pedal was a little too tight, and this made it hard when I tried to do a smooth transition between the back and forward position. Included in the box was a “leather-esque” carrying pouch, which I was utterly dissatisfied with. The “leather” felt thin and the seams were weak. And after some vigorous searching, I did manage to find a “Made in China” tag hidden deep inside the pouch. But don’t worry, the pedal (gladly) was made in the good ol’ USA.

Tone

Man, this baby sure can whine. When it is all the way back it delivers a smooth, bassy tone. Push it forward, and the treble screams at you. And might I say, it delivers a pristine bow-chika-wow-wow. The pedal has an excellent range and delivers very little noise. My only complaint is that it doesn’t behave well when you add a lot of distortion. It adds a bunch of noise and exaggerates the volume. It makes it sound very loud when the pedal is forward and barely audible when the pedal is back. But it sounds great if you use the distortion in moderation, or even just put the wah before the distortion.

Overall

This pedal is definitely a wise investment for people who like to play jazz, funk, blues, Jimi Hendrix stuff, etc. But for those rock players who like to kick their distortion all the way up, then this isn’t the pedal for you. If you crave those crazy Tom Morello effects, I’d suggest going with the cheaper Cry Baby.