Boss DS-1 Distortion

This pedal is very basic. You will have no problems with it.

There are three knobs. Tone, Dist, Level. Learn how to use them and you can get everything from mellow blues rythm to screaming treble dist. A big plus is that it really captures the sound of your guitar. Best dist I've ever heard or used. Works good with any decent amp + guitar.

I would never need a backup. This one is rock solid. Like another reviewer said, an elephant could use this one and it wouldn't break.

Never dealt with them, and I doubt I'll ever have to.

I use this one for my band. It's without any doubt the best disortion pedal I've ever used. It sounds A+ and it's very easy to get a wide variety of sounds from it.

I've never had much problem using it. Simply set the level so that there is no volume jump/cut when you switch from clean and vice versa. Tone nob is easy enough, as well as the gain.

My set up is my 72 Telecaster Deluxe-->Dunlop Crybaby 535Q Wah-->Boss TU-2-->Boss DS-1-->Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I can get some great classic rock, indie, alternative, and punk sounds out of this pedal. There's a lot of negative reviews for this, but it really depends on your set up. My Hot Rod puts out some amazing cleans, so the pedal has a great platform to go off of. Naturally, this pedal does have high treble, so to balance that out I bring the tone nob to a little bit lower than 12 O'Clock and keep the treble on my amps EQ at a reasonable level. The real secret to getting the most out of this pedal is a good set up, and the right EQ setting on the amp itself. Otherwise it is not going to be up to par.

Never had a problem with it, especially since I have a One Spot power adapter for all my pedals. Once it drains the battery the distortion starts sounding muddy.

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This pedal was thrown in for free with my amp and has really worked well for me. In conjunction with the great fender cleans I get from my Hot Rod, it's great. Obviously not the best distortion out there, but it works very well for what I'm using it for. It is definately better than the distortion I was getting from any of the solid state amps I've had in the past.

3knobs. It can't be easier. Battery removal is really simple and professional.

I'm using Marshall MG100DFX combo. DS-1 is very nice distortion pedal for that price so it gives you deep, dynamic sound with good trebles. Somebody who says that ds-1 is so trebly, must use tone knob ;) THAT'S NOT distortion for metal. It's a rock stuff. Palm mute WILL NOT give you floor-quake with this dist. ;)

Yeah I can really depend on it. I will play gigs without backup-distortion. ds-1 got never-die heavy steel box. Inside it looks great. Safe stuff.

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I play rock, sometimes with hm elements. I'm playing over 5 years. I own Epi Classic Quilt Top with Seymour SH-1 bridge and marshall MG100DFX.

Three knobs, not hard to figure them out.

Great overall distortion, I've even used it at a boost for my Big Muff and amp overdrive. Unfortunately it lacks in bass. Metallic, bright sound. Right now I use it with the tone knob in the 10 o'clock position and the Dist knob all the way down and it works great, I just wish it could go a little cleaner.

It's a Boss pedal so it is as sturdy as a cast-iron brick. Would and have gigged without a backup.

Never had to deal with Boss customer assistance.

I play classic (or what I like to call "dirty") rock with a Peavey Classic 30, an Ibanez AF75 guitar and a few other pedals. This thing works great for what it does, except for the weakness in the bass department.

Three knobs. A 1 year old can manage that.

I disagree with the guys who claim this pedal gives you great sound quality by tweaking the tone knob. They either haven't played through a good overdrive/distortion or they're tone deaf.

This was my second distortion pedal 10 years back when I was too poor to afford anything better. Once I gave the tube screamer a try, I never looked back. Even at this price range there are much better sounding pedals, eg. the digitech bad monkey, the lowly SD-1 and so on. If you spend around $100-150 you can get far better sounding effects from a wide range of pedal manufacturers. The MI Audio tube zone, crunch box, skreddy screwdriver, Banzai overdrives, crowther audio, Barber burn unit, direct drive, etc are all very nice sounding distort/od pedals which are not as nasty sounding as the boss ds-1.

It doesn't matter what amp I've played it through, it has always been trashed by better sounding OD/dist pedals which cost much less than this. Some of the newer Danelectro fab-series pedals even sound better.

This pedal is sort of acceptable with a fat humbucker guitar like my Les Paul with DiMarzios, but with single coils it sound like angry hornet.

If it sounds like crap on a half way decent amp, it's not going to sound much better on a Marshall 100w stack, or on a 5W Ibanez valbee. Try something like the barber direct drive or LTD on a simple 15 watt transistor amp and see how beautiful they sound compared to the DS-1.

My DS-1 was with me for about two years till it developed an intermittent power problem. I got that fixed and it's working ok now. As for reliability, I'd always carry a spare, not that I'm ever going to use the DS-1.

Dunno

Ok beginners pedal. Not suitable for gigging. I'd look elsewhere, there are tons of better dist/od stompboxes at even cheaper prices.

Three knobs. So easy a caveman could use it. Is that offensive?

It sounds good. People who complain that it is too trebly - that's what the tone knob is for. With the gain cranked and the tone at 9 o'clock it gets a great hard rock distortion sound. It sounds better running through the clean channel of my Mesa Boogie F50 in this way than the distortion on the amp does. And that's an $1100 amp. It's good used as a booster if you already have some dirt going too. Just keep the tone knob down.

Cliche - "It's a Boss". Well, it's a cliche because everyone says it, and they're right.

Never dealt with them, because their pedals are about as tough as a Sherman tank. They should drop a bunch of these on North Korea to kill Kim Jong Il.

I have two of 'em. One as a basic distortion, the other as a boost. For $40 you can't go wrong. If it sounds bad to you, you have a crappy amp, or don't know how to tweak the tone knob.

3 controls so easy to use.

What's with the rave reviews of this pedal? It sound very shrill and tinny with my Ibanez (humbucker) and Reverend (single coile). I can't stand the sound. It sound terribly nasty. It fizzle out when volume turned down. It kill all the bass. Even amp distortion from my cheap 12w Crate amp sound far faaar better than this crap.

I dunno man, I sold this 1 wk after I got it.

Never used.

I now know why they made this pedal - it was created by classical musicians fans at Boss Corp. Anyone who play this will give up useing distortion forever. I never played a worse distortion ever.

It's very to use but.......

It's my first pedal, I never like the sound of it, seriously it's a very very weak pedal, I sold it away once I've tried out other pedals, sadly I never try out the modded version of this pedal though

Never dealt with them

I play metal and rock and this pedal just doensn't do it

3 knobs - easy as it can get.

I liked it when this was my first dirt pedal say 10 yrs ago, I was young and naive and didn't know about anything else. Then I played with the better pedals, the Maxon TS etc, and then came the Skreddy, the Tim, the Eternity, the Barber direct drive and others.

It was then that I realized how awful the DS-1 sounds. Like others say it kills bass, sounds nasty and harsh and totally sucks tone. It absolutely stinks with a single coil pup, and does marginally better with huge high output humbuckers.

I've modded mine three to four times, but no matter what you do, you cant polish a turd. This pedal can only go that far, and they you're stuck with its limitations.

Boss pedals have seldom failed me. Well twice, actually, but not this DS-1. So I guess yeah, I'd depend on it, but for what?

Hahaha...

If you'd asked me 10 yrs ago I'd have said this is a decent pedal. Today I'd laugh at anyone who said that. It's an ok cheap pedal to get started and get modding, but if you wanna gig with this, god save you and your audience.

Not real easy to get a good sound unless you play with it for a while when new to learn its character.

It depends on what your after. I have three units I compaired. An original electro-harmonix transister hot tubes, a Keeley Baked mod Ibenez TS9 and this one. I have to tell you that if you keep the tone down at 8 o'clock (7 being the low) and crank the dist up all the way, I can get this baby to give a fatter and ballsier sound than my Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+. The DS-1 has a natural scooped sound, and I have my amp EQ scooped as well. In terms of relitive sound, the unit is not an overdrive, but a distortion. The other two units will give a cleaner, sharper edge to the natural tone, and maintain the overall sound, but they will not go to the level that this unit will. I tell you I can get the first phrases of VH you really got me to come out with a nice fat realism. I play through a small monitor cabinet for recording with a Mike, and I even have a piezo horn for a full range speaker sound. I loose no clairity, but the tone will kill you on this so a little goes a long way. No problem with noise. I was thinking of getting this modded by Keeley, but i am really happy as it is. Still thinking about that. I also have an original Thomas Int. Cry Baby 95-910511, Elec-Harm. Bad Stone Phase, and 1980 MXR Flanger. This stuff all from 1980, other than the amp a little later. I had a Fender Super Reverb with 4-10 tilt back combo and wish I never let that go.

So far very dependable, but remember to unplug this unit. I have found that his and my Boss OC-3 will kill a battery in a very short time.

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I get an awesome sound, but maybe this is just my own taste. If you are looking for warmth then stick with OD units. They shoot for a cranked power stage of an amp and break it up while maintaining the tone for the most part. That is what my TS9 is for. When I want more than that this unit fits my ears well. It reminds me of my old MXR Distortion II that I gave away years ago and wish I still had. I gave that up for the Mesa and real tubes, which by the way I love the sound of, but when switching directly from the cranked pre-amp sound to the DS-1, I notice that the Boogie has more midrange, and if any of you know what a plane jane boogie sounds like without EQ, the DS-1 makes the Boogie sould like that-even with the boogie scooped already, in comapirison. I wish this site would allow sound samples, so I could provide a wave. Hearing is believeing.