Boss DS-1 Distortion

Very straight forward, not much to say here. Very good ease of use.

Here comes the tricky part. This pedal is sooooo famous that everyone thinks sounds great, in my opinion it sounds okay. It's very acid like and rough, not very definite, not a great product. I always keep the tone control at from 11 to 13 o clock otherwise it sucks. The distortion potentiometer instead it's pretty good. You can get a cheapy overdrive, a nice distortion and a hi gain distortion almost fuzzy. This last kind is very good, but my fuzz factory sounds waaaaaay better. Anyway, the sound is ok, not very good but acceptable for most first starters or punks. I will mod the crap out of this pedal and add a keeley mod myself(ultra mod and seeying eye in one shot), no comparison between that and the stock one.

Hey, as they say everywhere: IT'S A BOSS. Probably made with diamonds..

Never needed.

Overall this little cheapy pedal does the plain distortion job, but for most guitarist it will probably need the keeley mods. I will soon mod it and put a review with the mod. In the end, this pedal is ACCEPTABLE.

3 knobs and away you go - they don't get much simpler than this.

I have used this pedal for years through all sorts of amps and with various guitars and have always liked the sound it generates. The only time it ever sounded weak and useless was when I was trying to play it at low volumes - it sucks. Soon as you get at least some pre-amp and speaker distortion she starts to fly, add some power tube distortion and its screaming. It works on all my amps from a 5W single ender to my Mesa 55W (clean channel works best). To my ears, when playing chords it manages to sound unhinged but still deliver good basic note clarity, play a lead or a riff and the there is a lovely harmonic snarl under the notes - particularly on the plain strings.
When its idling its as noisy as hell - but when I am using it I am not trying trying to be subtle and moody. Given the number of recordings that include this effect I can't see how it could ever be judged as sounding bad.

Bullet, tank and missle proof. Mine has been stomped to death and it has NEVER failed.

Never had to deal with them.

Rock, grunge, electric blues right down to jazzy stuff. Of the pedals that have passed through my hands the DS1 and my Fulltone OCD are the ones that always remain on my pedal board. If it were stolen I would I would buy another 2nd hand one, maybe 2 because they are SO cheap, for a small number of dollars and continue to happily wail away on my guitar.

I think these pedals are underated and very misunderstood. They are a simple and enduring design that need to played reasonably loud to do their thing. They work particularly well with valve amps, especially when the amps unadulterated sound is just crunching. Play them through a heavily distorted channel and they just get lost as the pedals signal is adding nothing new to that the amps.

IMHO one of these should be on the pedal board of anyone who loves to play rough and raunchy guitar - no question.

3 knobs...Gain, Volume and Tone. It's easy to set up and changing the battery is as simple as using the thumb screw.

I got this pedal as an all-around distortion pedal that I've read several guitarists use and thought it would be great for most applications. It's not, but it isn't terrible either. I've noticed that this pedal sounds better in live settings or where the amp is turned up loud. I usually used this to distort my amps clean channel. I would usually use the distortion effect at 50% or greater. It's good for classic rock to 80's metal. My biggest complaint is that the pedal is not very open. It's pretty boxy and fizzy if the amp isn't blasting and even when it is, I usually had to do some serious EQing to get it to match up. After doing some research, most people who rave about the DS-1, have the older MIJ models or a modded pedal. I can see why since the MIT DS-1's are fairly bland for distortion sound. Mine is stock and I'm planning to get it modded by Keeley when I can justify the expense. The pedal struggles with dynamics, it's super compressed. Rolling back the distortions make the pedal sound weak and thin.

I've had it for 4 years with gigging and it's still going fine. I take good care of my stuff, but it's still a very sturdy pedal.

The DS-1 isn't a bad pedal. It's not a great one either. If you're in a jam and need something cheap, it's a good way to go. If stolen, I'd not really worry about it as my Satchurator has taken it's place on my pedal board. I don't feel negatively about the DS-1, but I definitely made conscious decisions over the last few years to explore better distortion options because I felt it didn't meet my needs. It's hard to describe, but the distortion was not open and dynamic enough for what I wanted.

Pretty Simple only 3 dials 2 are very self explanatory the tone control annoyed me though either too much or not enough could really use a 3 band EQ. but at the price of these now they are dirt cheap. plus i modified mine a few years back i dont remember exactly the mod wether i joined all the tone wires together bypassing the pot or what exactly. but now mine just gives distortion and boost with NO TONE COLORATION at all and through the front of a good amp sounds great.can easily get those early VAI tones through my X100B
the slightly down rating is due to the fact i had to modify the tone control which wasnt hard at all

With the no coloration tone mod i love the sound although i havent used it as much since getting my ENGL Savage 120 se if i play my carvin i cant go without it!

its boss no problems whatsoever

not needed

I reccommend anyone with a slight electronical tinkering mind like mine to mod the tone control out of the circuit you get nothing but a distorted and boosted guitar tone so if it sounds bad its possibly your guitar or you are looking for overdrive not distortion.!

Considering it has 3 knobs, this pedal should be very easy to use. However, much tweaking is needed to find your preferred tone. This is a very simple stompbox and it can be very versatile, especially if you play around with the tone knob.

I was looking for a pedal with a nice and heavy distortion to play lead parts and solos. I purchased the DS-1 but was disappointed at its low output. I couldn't get enough boost out of it, not even with the level knob at its max. My super overdrive boss pedal is easily louder at 12 o'clock!! I ended up buying the LS-2 line selector and the volume problem was solved, besides helping me switch between rythm and leads in a clean, one-stomp way. I use the tone knob at 9 o'clock, because of its thicker sound and the fact that I have a mexican strat. I tend to play with lots of distortion, nearly maxing it out to get that lovely metal sounding sustain.

I use the DS-1 with my great Peavey Classic 30 combo. I don't really use this pedal for power chords, just for picking and some riffs which sound awesome and very intense. I don't like the idea or sound of a 30 watt peavey blowing out extra heavy chords (I would suggest a Crate or Marshall for those purposes). The single coils and the boost make this pedal very noisy if you're not playing, but i never have my lead loop on except for the exact seconds I use it, so it's no problem for me.

The tone knob past 12 o'clock makes this pedal sound crappy unless you dig the vibe of the Revolution song by The Beatles at the intro! In that case you can always lower down the distortion and play with other set ups. In my opinion, this pedal will only suit me in a very specific way (can't play around with it much if I want "my" sound). For the price, it can sound well for leads, or rythm riffs BUT for solos I would buy a louder pedal or buy it with the LS-2 line selector which will come in handy someday anyways.

Boss is extremely well known for their amazingly built pedals. I do use it without a backup and to be honest I haven't had the need to think about one. These are cool tanks, light years ahead of other plastic pedals out there. Probably the worst that can happen is the paint coming of the corners if it takes a fall !!

I haven't dealt with them, which is a good sign. I own 4 Boss stomp boxes, my other guitarrist has three and we have never ever found a problem.

I play indie-rock but on the heavier side. For my soloing purposes this pedal suits me well but I must say I needed the boost of the LS-2, otherwise this pedal isn't loud enough. If this pedal were stolen, I don't think I would buy it again because I can't take advantage of its versatility, there's only one cool setup for me. Right now, I would go for a Big Muff or a ProCo Rat which are a bit more expensive but you'll get many more cool sounds out of them. I mean, the DS-1 helps me and I'm very happy with my sound, but I feel kind of "stuck" with it.
I have to stress the fact that I play a mexican Strat, and single coils aren't best friends with this pedal. Humbuckers would definitely suit it better.
I'm giving this pedal an overall 7.

I have always liked Boss pedals. They are tough and simple to use. In the case of the DS-1 I wouldn't call it cheap,more like limited. If you want real crunch you will need to look in other directions. I did get an interesting sound when I used it with a stereo Flanger.

Weak as far as distortion is concerned. Needs help to get a better sound. Real Rock /Metal sound need a lot wider distortion range

As said Boss Gear are durable,and I always have a back up.

I attempted to get a battery box cover for another pedal I have with no sucsess

Simple to use

I a/b'd this pedal with some real heavyweights (MI Audio Crunchbox, Fultone OCD, EH Big Muff...). The point is that while they all had their own sound, the ds-1 just sounded SO amateur! Someone once likened it to a toy? I think that's the best way to describe it. No dynamics, thin sounding, buzzy, just plain weak in my opinion. I have gotten it to sound good using higher end amps, but I believe it was the amp giving me the super tone, NOT the ds-1. I guess this is a good starter distortion? I wouldn't gig with it, it just doesn't deliver. I understand Keeley makes a good modded version of this pedal? I always thought that this pedal probably suffered from cheap parts and bad craftsmanship(poor design). I'll check out the keeley version, simply out of curiousity, but my heart belongs to the REAL sounds of the OCD and the Crunchbox (and the big muff for certain occasions).

Biss makes pretty solid stuff

n/a

I don't like this pedal and only have one because it somehow ended up in my apartment and I have no idea who it belonged to or how it got there? If the owner were to show up one day and ask for it back, I'd return it without any fuss. I just think that tone is important to a guitaist and there is so much gear available these days, that for an extra $30 or so, you can buy something that is at least useable?

Three knobs: A Tone knob, Level, and your Distortion Knob. Battery compartment is pretty easy to get into as well. Not at all complicated, though getting good tones out of it is anohter can of worms.

Ok, I run a modded PRS SE Singlecut (with Gibson Busrtbuckers) and an Epi Les Paul also modded with a Burstbucker in the neck and a Dimarzio Evolution in the bridge. All thru a Peavey Valveking 100 watt all tube amp, using 6L6 "ruby" tubes (4 of them). Being a little short on funds for gear, I bought this as what I thought would be a good upgrade from the only other pedal I own, which ends up being one of those FAB Distortions I bought four years ago. I like using the preamp gain for any distortion, so I use my dist pedals as gain boosts for the most part. Well, it's not a replacement for the FAB (I actually liked the FAB better!). Tends to be a bit more noisy on some settings, which you'll get wth any dist pedal, but high dist levels, I would'nt even bother messing with the tone knob. It's quite scooped and gets real thin on settings past 12 o'clock. The distortion is allright, albeit also thin sounding. For $40, not terrible, but not great either.

Well made, metal housing. Boss pedals seem bulit to last, so you can gig with this absolutley. I've but just got it last week, so I can't say how it's been for me personally, but my speculation is it probably wont give me problems.

Well I've only been playing for five years, but I got a pretty good notion of what a good dist pedal should be. My advice is to use as a boost. Now it'll give some meat to your rythms, I wont knock that, but for leads, nuh-uh. Use with a good overdrive pedal and the ds-1 will reward you with a nice kick to your lead tone, bt by itself it's allright for the price but there are better options. This is my view about it, it might work for other music styles, but it's a good clean boost pedal, and I'll probably have it modded one of these days to maximize it's potential usage.

If you can't figure out how to nuse this pedal, then maybe you should play acoustic?

I hate this pedal. It's cheap. It's a toy. It may be ok for some 15yr old kid playing in his bedroom, but for a gigging musician, a professional, this pedal simply will NOT do. Spend the $$ and get an MI Audio Crunchbox or Big Muff, or something along those lines, but if you decide on this pedal, just know that it's below average.

Boss makes tough pedals

Like I said, this pedal is cheap and you get what you pay for.

There are only three knobs it is pretty easy to use. But there are definitely some differences depending on what kind of amp you use. It is very hard to get this pedal to sound good through a solid state amp, on the flip side, it is easy to get a great sound out of this when placed in front of a tube amp. This is the most sold pedal in the world, and 90% of users do not know how to use it

Again, solid state is usually a nightmare and it can make a tube sing if you know how to use it

I have used mine to hold my truck from rolling down the hill.

Its a boss.

If you can not get a good sound out of this and you are using good tubes then there might be something wrong with you.