Boss DS-1 Distortion

How ease can a distortion pedal be?!? Look at the DS-1.
Tone, Gain, Volume. This is, what you need, this is what you get.

I have to make it clear: If you are a studio-nerd-guitar player, than you can probably find a better pedal for any unique sound setting you want to alaborate.
But if you are a live maniac and play anything out from the world of rock, then it??s THE guy.
I checked so much overdrive and distortion pedals, from stock to boutique, but I always have fallen back to the DS-1. At least for my live set up. Sure, for recording it will always be interesting to play around with various gears, to get more individual sounds, but if you need a solid and reliable pedal, that rocks your socks of - and that in a broad variety of styles - then I love the simlicity and over decades of usind artists prooved sound quality of that cheap but food pedal.

Don??t trust in any of that nerdy effect discussion. Or make your own picture: buy or borrow some high end boutiques (Fulltone OCD, Baldringer, Okko Diablo, etc..) and find your favorite spot on them. Then compare it with your good old DS-1. I always landed on that point: that this great allrounder covers all I need - if you have a good amp. I play with it from alternative rock with pumping metal riffs sometimes to psychedlic and bluesier stuff. It fits both - which is a thing, that I can??t say about the majority of overdrive/distortions.

I give a 9, cuse the search never ends... ;-)

Try to destroy it...

look above - I don??t know

As I stated: get it for your flexible and reliable live set up and live your GAS at other spots that worth it.

Very easy. Three knobs Tone, level, Distortion.

I was very taken by the range of tone you can get out of this box. OK there are better pedals out there but at three times the cost. It won't do the full on metal fire attack but gets close enough for my needs. I use a Standard Tele, Aria TA65 Semi through a Orange Crush 30R practice amp and a Marshall 100 head through custom built cabs (4X Cast Rim 12" Silver Cone Celestions). This pedal adds to my tonal range and increases the punch....which is what I was looking for. It's great for blues to add a little extra crunch and classic rock'n'roll springs forth from your amp.

IT A BOSS.Nuff said.

Who knows, I expect it's rubbish but you never should need them.

This pedal has been about for nearly 30 years and has more than earnt it's legendary status. OK it has its limitations but where else can you buy a true classic for this kind of cash?? I have been playing for over ten years now and I wish I had got hold of one of these when I first started out. Everyone should have one.

very easy to use I use it 2 ways With my Marshall mark 4 for my tribute band heavy cream it really nails the old school clapton 60s tone For all other gigs I use this first in chain with a boss bassman pedal then my wa out of a randall rg 75 (I beleieve this is the greatest clean tone I have found even better than my hotrod deluxe) I set the ds 1 for anything hard rock or metal and the bassman handles everything else blues country etc ..beleieve it or not this setup rocks and sounds very warm and tube like

see above

very dependable i have had this for quite a while no problems and the battery life is long

na

I have been making a living playing guitar since I was 14 so thats ..yikes!!! over 40 years!! I have a epie 335 a thin line tele strat with jeff beck pickups 2 variaxes a hotrod marshall randall trace elliot princeton 65 I play all styles and with these 2 pedals I can cover anything

As far as understanding how to use it. Very easy.

If you're thinking about getting this pedal for the sound most say it's good for. Get a fulltone OCD. Or something that has tubes. The Electro-harmonix English Muffin or Radial Tube Drive would be much better choices in my opinion with more options when dialed in. Spend the extra money and you won't be dissapointed.

Seems built well but I've had a few boss pedals that start to have volume problems.

No experience with it. Smaller companies are usually easier to deal with though.

It's a consumer pedal in my opinion. The kinda I would maybe tell my students to get for practice when I was teaching. Not pro quality.

Really easy to use, just 3 knobs, tone, level and distortion. Takes a bit to get the sound you're looking for but i'll bet you'll find it.

I use a mexican Strat and a GTX 35 (korean) through a line6 spider 3 (150w) and a 40w marshall. I really like the sound you can get out of this little orange box, i think that's the reason why Vai and Satriani use it. Just one problem, the output level is really low. And it really sounds like when you step in it(with the level knob set at the top), the volume is lower than the clean tone. Maybe is just that im going deaf and i can't hear some frecuences(i doubt it) but its really weird. i've tried 2 of them and they both do the same thing. For me when you turn the distortion effect on at the maximum level it must sound at least as loud as the guitar...AT LEAST! i dunno if there's some modification that can be done to fix this but if there's one i'll try it!

Got some scratches after a few months, now (i've own it for 2 years)....it has more obviously. xD

It's a really good distortion pedal. I play rock, fusion, alternative, indie... anything really, and this pedal can fit in almost every style. I just love the sound of it, i can't explain it with words (i dont even know what they mean when the talk about "Brown Sound" haha) but i love it. It has really good harmonics. The only thing i hate is what i said about the volume, it really bothers me sometimes. If anyone knows why or knows a solution email me!. If it was stolen or lost i'd probably try some other pedals to see if i can get a sound like this without the volume problem. if i couldnt i would buy it again deff.

Easy to use, not hard.
Battery is fairly easy to get at, no screw driver necessary.
In my opinion.

Not the best FOR ME with single coils. Better for my humbucking guitars.
Not a whole lot of "body", lows to it. Not warm, buzz saw sounding.
Though can be useful, not too much charter in my opinion.

Sturdy to me.

Decent distortion but I don't get the lows unless I eq.
Not too much charter, no warmth.
All in my opinion.

Its simple just three knobs. Two knobs to find your sound then one to balance it out. Its pretty easy to get the sound your looking for.

I can get the sound im looking for out of this. I think anyone can. The sounds are powerful. I play indie/pop punk. Its perfect and by putting the tone at 5-6 and distortion to 5 or lower i can get a little lighter distortion for playing blusier sounds. My setup is boss ds 1, mxr double shot,Marshall 1960a, Marshall 50w avt head. The mxr has a nice sound but just doesnt have the body and fullness the DS 1 has. The only thing wrong is that it is a little noisier then some more expensive distortions but its not that bad. Get a noise reducer if it bothers you that much. If you play live you probly wont even notice it.

look at it

I play pop punk (Starting Line, All Time Low) its perfect.
I can level it out just right and go from clean picking verses to smooth loud choruses. Even on higher dist settings its not muddy at all.
Ive been playing for about 4 years and have digi tech, mxr, and boss pedals and an esp 400 wih EMG acives. I love the sound i get with the marshall cab. The boss out shines all my pedals. The only thing i would change would be to make it quitier but id wish that for any pedal really.

The pedal has three controls: tone, level and dist.
quite simple to obtain the sound you want, but needed some time of practice for a correct impostation.
the istruction manual is useless.

it's got a very great sound, lots of harmonics and low-end, very good for hard rock (especially if used with a chorus and a ~200ms time delay), but also for heavy blues and heavy metal (like iron maiden, thin lizzy, etc.).
using the tone control too low (0-45%) can make the sound a bit confusing, better with an high tone (artificial harmonic sounds much better too!!).
the dist control is quite dynamic, at low dist is very very blues soundand at high dist (as i use it) is very heavy with a rich (of harmincs)sound.

very versatile dist pedal, you can't use it as a boost pedal, but it sounds all kind of music, from std. blues to hard rock and '70heavy metal. it was my first dist pedal and still is my main dist i use, very great pedal.

ok, i wish to give 0, but i can't!!
i sent an e-mail to roland (the italy division!) to have any information 'bout some pedal and never answer me!!!

i play guitar for 'bout 9years, started with rock and now i ply lots of blues and pink floyd and this pedal is always in my pedalboard, it's great for rythm and solo parts.

>Large Orange Box
>Three knobs (One Tone, One Level, One Distortion)
>9v Input

Simple, manual is just a waste of paper really.

Well i'm not going to go through my entire range of sounds, I play punk, simple as. In the preset book there is actually a preset called "British Punk". I just love this damn pedal. Especially when I try to blast some alt/indie ?? la Arctic Monkeys. Turn tone up full, meet the dist half way, level it up and... smoootthhh. It's just a big orange... mess of sound. It does get kind of loud, the further you turn it up, but you can't ask much more from single coils and p-90's eh?

I play it through my Line 6 Spider II 30, practise home amp, thus why i needed the pedal. Overall great sound, but a bit noisy.

Three words... Big Orange Brick

Company are fantastic to deal with. The American and British websites are terrible, the Japanese one is so much easier to direct and use.

Now I'm not usually one for stomp boxes or single effects. But the DS-1 is just perfect for the kind of music I play. I've been playing for about 3-4 years and don't really own any other effects, but if this was stolen I would kill. Then I'd probably steal the guy's wallet and run to buy another. It's an awesome price for a Boss aswell.

I have to admit the battery is a bit of a drag, but that's through fault of my own i.e. buying special offer 9v's from Poundland.

Epiphone Les Paul Junior '57 Reissue > Boss DS1 > Line 6 Spider II 30

^^^That's my setup^^^

The P-90 and the DS-1 are just perfect together. If anyone is thinking whether or not they need this and you play punk (i.e Green Day, Blink-182, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Ramones etc..) just buy this, because it'll be worth your while.

Very simple. Three knobs.

Unfortunatly this pedal was not a good match for my setup and it did not have the tone I was looking for. It was one of six pedals I weeded through before I found the right one to match with my amps and tone taste. I finally settled on an ibanez TS-9 Tube screamer. A far superior pedal. It is probably a good match for many other amps.

seems to be built well. Only had it 3 days before returning

don't know

I play blues rock and metal. I'm sure this pedal would be a good match for many other people. Just not me.