Boss DS-1 Distortion

Before i start, i'm going to say that there are way to many "negative reviewers" on this site who smash a product just because. Yes, i am currently trading in or keeping this pedal as a back up, but that does not mean i am going to give it terrible ratings. I am also not participating in the japan vs China boss debate either. Mine is a newer pedal (less than 3 years)

This is a very easy to use pedal. A basic understanding of what drive (gain level,) level (volume level,) and tone (think eq). This is the most basic and the most common pedal layout, but I wish there were an extra knob or two to provide some extra tonal options.

My setup is custom Fender highway one (2004, before they started producing the crappy ones...) with a dimarzio pro track HB in the bridge with a virtual vintage 50s in the middle and a virtual vint. blues in the neck, with a 500k volume pot installed > fender pt100 tuner > dunlop crybaby > ibanez TS-9 tube screamer > Boss DS-1 > traynor YCV 80 amp with a ibanez CS9 chorus and a boss DD7 in the efx loop. A simple setup, but it works.

I use this pedal with the tone at about 10 o'clock and the drive at about 3 o'clock, with the level control adjusted to compensate my surroundings.

This pedal is a bright and fizzy with the tone anywhere past, say 11 o'clock, but sounds kinda muddy on the bottom end (not too, too bad though) With the tone fiarly low you can get some nice tones though, but the "usuable" range of the tone wheel is not very large ( maybe 8 o'clock to 11 o'clock.) This pedal also doesn't have a lot of sustain, but to get a lead sound a couple it with the Ts-9 and with the added midrange and drive you have a nice lead combination. Throw some delay on top and you're set! On it's own, i can achieve a nice "pop rock" lead tone coupled with loads of delay (think the edge's tone at the end of one by u2) On it's own i don't really like it too much. Still, it's not a bad pedal, especially for the price.

Anybody else will tell you of the sheer brutal strength of boss pedals. I have honestly never seen a broken boss stomp box in my life!

I can't honestly reply to this. i've never had to deal with them because they're built so sturdy. Their website is very informative as well.

I definatley think this pedal is a great value for the money, and can achieve some nice tones. In other areas it falls short, (perhaps the heavier rock genres?)but can suit a lot of musical situations very nicely. Do not let some of the idiots with their negative reviews scare you off this pedal, try it for yourself first, and second keep in mind that its only $45 CAN!!! Also, don't get caught up in gear, because you'll always sound like you no mater what your setup!

3 controls, easy.

Sounds average, for all the hype. My strat sounds like a can of bees and my HSH ibanez sounds like a strat! I got it modded but it still doesn't sound half as good as some of the other digitech / ibanez pedals on the market.

Dunno, I sold it within 2 weeks.

Never used.

Sub-average sound, look elsewhere.

Three knobs, forget the manual, use your ears. Easy.

Used with my strat on kinmans, and the les paul with burstbucker pros. They go into a laney 30w practice amp or a marshall stack when gigging.

I try several combinations and settings to refine my tone by ear, before a session or a show. The DS-1 is by far the poorest sounding pedal I've used. It kills the lows and highs and gives me a thin, characterless and nasty noise. It gets worse when you turn the treble knob past 2 o'clock.

I heard there are mods that improve the sound but I don't have the patience or energy to waste on that - even my cheap dod overdrive sounds way better than this.

Dunno - I used it only a week.

Not used

Look elsewhere.

the only thing hard is choosing which setting youll keep... but hey.. its just 40 bucks... if you love the sounds so much you can save for two! haha

just 3 knobs... pretty easy

i use it pretty much as an overdrive... my current setup (i change it because whenever i try a new pedal, even if its not mine... ill try to find a real use for me and everything chances from time to time.. except the knobs on 2 or 3 pedals) is guitar - boss ns2 (a tuner in the send)- crybaby535Q - ds1 - zoom hl01 - ac2 - dd5 - amp
i use it to get some chunky stuff together with the zoom hl01, or to boost some solos (especially when using the neck pickup of my guitar... its a stock single coil and my settings are pretty much done for the bridge position, a dimarzio with a ridiculous high output)with the tone between 11 an 12 o clock.. level al the way up and the gain pretty much down... about 10 percent... and when im not using the zoom hl01 (btw hl01 stands for hyper lead 01.. its a distortion pedal... a heavy one) i can get some really nice tones.. i use it with the neck position and ad some wahwah stuff there... awesome... besides i use the amp with a little gain in the celan channel to keep it electric but still clean... (i own an ibanez tb100)

but you can also use it as a heavier distortion... it has an awesome range.. i'm really considering buying another one... have one as a moderate rock dist, and one as a fusion dist (tine around 9, level around 1, and gain around 3 oclock) and having a tubescreamer or any other overdrive (i really havnt decide between the ts9 or the zw44)

always in my pedalboard... and its boss... it will last a lifetime

get one... at least give it a chance and dedicate time to get that perfect tone.. youll surely find 2 or 3 settings youll love... and its pretty unexpensive!

Very easy, only 3 knobs which are tone, level and distortion/gain or drive. Editing patch just by turning the knob with 3 way:-
1) Starting from min to max (which i use on the distortion and the
level knobs or for all 3 knobs like the way i use before)
2) Starting from 12 o'clock and use that as the starting poing to
boost or cut, i use this way on the tone knob to cut treble or
boost more treble.
3) Starting from max to min which is not too recommended get to
noisy for the level knob LOL

I havent refer to the manual since i bought it becos i dont need them yet, too simple to get the sound depending on how the amp settings and characters. My DS-1 are stock and made in Taiwan, more or less not much difference than the Japanese model. (Try one before not my cup of tea)

Im using this setup with variety of amp (Roland JC-120, Marshall JCM800, JCM900, Peavey VTM120, Peavey Valveking, Triple XXX, 5150/6505 Series, Laney VH100r and etc that are provided during gigs and inside the studio, for teaching, im using this with a Behringer transistor/digital amp on clean (this amp overdrive channel need more push and im switching the clean and dirty channel to get a crunch and lead sound or stick with the dirty channel and roll my guitar volume to around 6 to 8. Im using this with my Ibanez RG350 and Squier and Fender Stratocaster (need a noise gate for Strat too much gain can make the amp feedback with insane capacity) I like how the pedal respond to my volume pot changes and the way it react to the amp. Im not to particular to get a sound from other artist or something i just want to get my own sound and if im in a cover band, usually i find a sound that suit the songs and refine it with my touch. My setup with my band usually goes something like this lately:-

Wah>>compressor>>eq (x2)>>SD-1(boost for lead)>>DS-1>>MT-2>>eq>>flanger>>gate>>eq>>chorus>>delay (x2)>>to amp

Yeah, i depend on it a lot especially i dont have any amp that i can drag along to gigs and simple to setup and get the same or similar sound everytime my band perform onstage. And i have been using it without a backup for all this years and it still never breakdown on me.

My style of music are something like the range of rock/metal with a touch of pop/funk here and there, and it suit my crunch and lead need for this reason. I have been playing since the last 10 years and get more serious last 5 to 6 years. Other Boss pedals that i own right now are the SD-1 Super Overdrive, MT-2 Metalzone and CH-1 Super Chorus , other than that are loan to me from a good friend of mine. I love the pedals but if i have more cash i might just get a different type of overdrive and distortion to fill in my needs and compare with what i have now. I love all the thing that this pedal can give me but i wish it have a 2 knobs for the tone with one for the bass and the other for treble. I try some distortion pedals from Digitech and this one just suit me well, it just preference i guess.

Drive, level, tone. Same as pretty much every basic distortion out there.

Kind of a mixed bag; I actually got the most of out of this pedal by using it as a lead boost after an OS-2. I was able to get some creamy lead sounds with a decent sustain through this method.

By itself, this pedal either seemed a little to abrasive or a little more "fat" than I wanted from a distortion pedal. I was looking for a smoth, harmonically rich sound (like Everclear's So Much For The Afterglow and Good Time for a Bad Attidue albums, or the solo from Dishwalla's "Counting Blue Cars") and the DS never seemed to deliver that. I actually got decent fuzz sounds out of it... but I've already got a Russian Big Muff Pi so it was kind of un-needed.

Standard Boss, which is to say it'll probably outlive me.

Not talked to them

Despite my negative comments in the Sound Quality I'm hesitant to say this is a -bad- pedal; after all it's 40 bucks new and I'm familiar with the concept of getting what you pay for.

I ended up removing this pedal from my chain and relying on my Big Muff Pi when I discovered the DS-1 isn't true bypass and was indeed (apparently) sucking quite a bit of tone in bypass mode. However it's an excellent unit for beginners (low cost, fairly versatile) and even pros with tastes different than mine can find space on the board for a DS-1.

The bad reviews I have read of the DS-1 all stem from some ******* not knowing how to use the sound controls. It always takes some tweaking, be it of the level, tone, or distortion control. There are no hard and fast rules for using them. Just tweak them until you like the sound; it can take a while. Have patience and have fun screwing with them, and you'll find a sound you like. Trust me. I'm a distortion freak, and this is my all-time favorite pedal, just over the Ibanez Tube Screamer (which, by the way, I use in conjunction with this)!

I use this with a mid-90s Mexican-made Fender Stratocaster, a Tube Screamer, Vox wah-wah, a delay, and occasionally a flanger, all plugged into the front end of a late 90's Fender Blues Junior. I can conjure up an extremely authentic Pearl Jam, Jonny Lang, Shadows Fall, Buddy Guy, and Steve Cropper out of that setup. I use the tone on 9 o'clock, level on 11 o'clock, and distortion on 3 o'clock (all corresponding to hands, not dial numbers). The DS-1 never disappoints and always delivers great distortion, tube warmth, and killer grit and gain whenever I want it. It's the workhorse of my rig, with the exceptions of my guitar and amp; it should also be noted that my Tube Screamer is almost always switched on, but the DS-1 sounds great by itself as well when I need it to. Moreso than my Tube Screamer even, the DS-1 is my go-to distortion tone.

This bastard will withstand the nuclear holocaust.

Never had to contact them; see above.

I'm an alternative rock guitarist, tending toward the heavier sounds of that subset of rock. After having been doing this for over a dozen years, I haven't found anything as useful as the Boss DS-1--not a Tube Screamer (though it's close), not a DOD Hard Rock Distortion, not a Big Muff Pi--nothing. It has a warm-sounding distortion that produces huge gain that I'm unable to get with the small tube amp I'm able to afford on a limited budget. I'm not crazy about the mid-scooped tone--all the bands I've heard who use that sound are garbage. A graphic EQ wouldn't really help the pedal; I've learned to adapt my amp's clean tone and the pedal's tone to work together. This is by far the most versatile piece of my rig, and I couldn't do without it--ever.

Very easy, gain, volume and tone. Couldn't be easier!

First of all I'd like to say I use two basic kinds of distortion, a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive for a bluesy Tube Screamer type of sound, and this pedal.. The DS-1 has more of a crisp, rectified 80's sound. Think of Dokken, Bon Jovi, classic rock like Bad Company etc. I imagine you could get a good nu-metal sound out of it too, and I guess some bluesy sounds with the gain down. Through an amp the reproduces too much high end, like my Champ 600 with a 6" speaker it sounds harsh and horrible, it's quite top endy. But through a Marshall 4x12 or my Traynor 2x12 combo it's awesome. I have the tone about 12 o'clock, the gain about 3/4 way up and the volume around half. Mine is also an older "long dash" MIJ unit.

I've owned it for about 25 years and it hasn't failed yet.

Never dealt with them

I've been playing almost 30 years, I do mostly classic rock, blues, twangy retro stuff etc, but used to be a metal head and still enjoy that sometimes! This pedal sounds better with a humbucker guitar doing hard rock/metal stuff, might have to experiment a bit to get good sounds with single coil. I plug in my RR Jackson into this then to my Marshall 4x12 and it's instant hair metal heaven! The ultimate pedal for smooth compressed 80's type distortion..

This is my second pedal from Boss, and actually this is very easy to tweak to get a good sound from it. No fuss, no manual needed especially if you are used to play straight to amp for your basic sound. Controls are tone, level and gain (or distortion).

Refer to my other post in the Boss CH-1 for my latest gears. That are what i still use now. For any gigs im using the amplifier they provided (which usually either Marshall or Peavey, once in a while i might get to abuse my pedals with amplifier like Hughes n Kettner, Mesa Boogie, Crate or Randall). At home im using Marshall MG15dfx combo. This pedal would sound noisy with high level of gain and level, especially the way im using it with the amplifier overdrive channel (im setting the amp at a milder crunch usually use to play blues or rock n roll rhythm works)

I can get any pedals in my arsenal to sound like what i want, that is the most important thing. The only defects is the midrange drop when engaged but it could be help with an aid of an eq pedal. The only problem for me is when im using it as my main distortion it sound pretty buzzy when the gain control are maz.

Well yeah, i have use this without a backup until now and i have 2 of them on stage, one as a sustaining crunch sound and the other are used with a Boss MT-2 (not both pedals together but either one), for a mid scooped crunch sound with single note fill in parts becos im using the MT-2 as a power chords riffings. As i wont know if it gonna break or something im gonna give it a 9 becos of my experience with me.

No comment

Well you can refer my previous post on the Boss SD-1 and CH-1, for other xtra reviews. I try the Digitech Distortion which is okay but doesnt suit me well, and the DS-1 now are being used as my crunch as im preferring the SD-1 as my main lead sound now.

I used this for 1 yr practise and gigs and i can honestly say that this is just a very average sounding pedal. When i first got it i thought it was the dogs nuts but actually its not. Its like a 'generic' pedal that covers some ground-can be used as a boost or as a crunch or heavy distortion....however, all sounds are a bit weedy and actually not very good.
Its easy to use three knobs to make a sound but the sound isnt that good.

I am lucky enough to play through top quality gear and ive been playing 20 yrs. All i can say about this pedal is that its just ok. Nothing special about this. But then its a cheopo discount pedal from BOSS not a top quality type so dont expect too much. Its better than a 'crappo -cheap -beginner type' but this is soooooo average. Check out some of the others out there-and then youll realise.

Absolutely dependable cos its a boss which means that it could withstand the immense force of an extremally fat lady's arse smashing onto it .....er.....or something similar.....!

Dont know

Playing a long time and loads of experience-but so what really. Make no mistake this is a cheap pedal that is up to the job of bedroom players and for gigging BUT play this long enough and you will grow to dislike its bland sound. Its just so average sounding. So uninspiring. Do your self a favour and try out something non BOSS but not el cheopo and then youll see the difference.
I love the build quality and the price-but bored with the dull sound.
Ive found that its better to have one fantastic piece of kit than loads of cheap stuff so save up and buy something expensive.