Boss DS-1 Distortion

This pedal is very easy to use, it has a simple layout of only 3 knobs, tone, level, and distortion. You can get a wide variety of tones out this pedal.

i use a vintage v99 guitar with a cube 15x amp, and this pedal is a great addition to my collection. With it i can get close to the sound of my favourite artist, slash. However if you turn the distortion up to high you get a strong buzzing sound, and if you turn the tone up past 12 o'clock it sounds very trebaly. But dont let that put you of it is still a very good pedal

This pedal is very reliable, i would definately use it in a gig without a backup, this pedal can take a punch.

i have had no need to deal with the customer support

i play alot of classic rock e.g guns 'n' roses, velvet revolver, and this pedal can handle it very well. I have a few other pedals and if this one was lost or stolen i would definately buy another one. I did wish that it had more knobs so that you could get a wider variety of tones. I considered lots of other pedals like the boss ds2 but this one is cheap and sounds great.

Very easy, a no brainer

Bottom line is that for the most part, this pedal really sucks. It is not versatile in the least, it sounds buzzy and unnatural, it has low output... Just a piece of useless garbage. if you've ever played a REAL distortion or overdrive pedal, you'll immediately be able to see how bad this pedal is. I can't imagine a real musician using this at all. Its completely useless to me.

All boss pedals are built really well.

N/A

This pedal just plain sucks. I have no real use for it at all. If it were lost or stolen, I would not shed a tear. If you want a REAL distortion pedal, look elsewhere. This one just sucks.

There are only 3 knobs on this pedal. Very little to mess with, and very easy to use. It comes with an instruction manual, but a monkey could easily figure this pedal out without it. The manual does come with some preset suggestions, but that's about the only use for it.

I use a Fender/Fender rig, a Strat going into a Princeton. This pedal handles everything from gritty blues to AC/DC distortion, but beyond that, it's not very good. Basically, I use it for low-level gains and for a boost on my high gain settings. The tone control can't be cranked much higher than 3 before it starts to sound trebly and ear-piercing. I usually keep my tone level at about 2, and set the gain wherever I feel like. This is not the greatest distortion pedal I've ever owned, but it's the only one that I've never considered getting rid of, so that speaks volumes about the pedal's usefulness.

This baby is built like a bank vault. I wouldn't be the least bit concerned about dropping it from a high place. It has never failed me, and I can't even imagine it failing me. The Boss lineup contains some of the best put together pedals in the world, and the DS-1 is no exception.

The bottom line is this: You don't need customer support on this pedal. It will not fail you.

No matter how my pedal board changes over the years, the DS-1 will always be in it. It's cheap. It's easy. It's useful.

Very easy to get a great sound of it but at the same time it is also easy to get a bad sound if u do not familiar with your amp, it only has
3 knobs (Tone, Level and Distortion). I do not need a freaking manual with this pedal, I straight away kick it in. Mine is the Taiwanese version and I bought this way back from 2003/2004, the 2nd and the 3rd one quite something around 2006. And i don't modify or upgrade them at all. But I am not sure yet maybe until I get my hand on the Analogman and the Keeley pedals.

I am using any amplifiers that are accessible to me with this pedals, either a tube amp or even a small solid state amp. For guitars, I'm using from the 61's Stratocaster, Jackson (Soloist, Dinky, and the Rhoads), Dillion Les Paul, Peavey Wolfgang and Ibanez RG Series (350 and the 450). It will of course be noisy with 2 of them side by side....hahahaha, for me this pedal is awesome especially when i can't lug around my amps and other rack units. And of course I am able to replicate from classic rock to the Dixie Dregs and even Rusty Cooley lead and crunch sound. A lot of people need to know that I have seen a lot of my teachers (from jazz to rock) being using this pedals when they are in a short notice gigs and they still sound like when they're abusing their tube amps. I give it a 10 but then to achieve my lead sound I need 2 of this pedals.

Yes, it never ever break down on me yet. And I've been using them since the day I play (borrow them from friends, and some studios prepare effects pedal). I never bring a backup pedals like I have them anyway. Until the day I stop playing if i do i will give it a 9 as nobody can predicts what the future hold.

I play every style (a jack of all trade...but I'm still sucks at jazz comping), I have been playing for 10 years plus and I own a variety of Boss pedals too. And yes I would buy them again if they're lost. I don't know if they need to improve them but comparing them to the MIJ, i wish it would slightly smoother sounding. But I just love them as they react well to my dynamics and volume on the guitar (and trust me I mostly practise with my RG350 stock)straight to a small solid state Laney LX12H as my Peavey Rage 158 can kick some serious butts for a 15 watters (it sound like a massive 30 watters with the volume on 3 man). And i'm using this as a tool for teaching to as I need sometimes at least more than just a sound from the amp the school provide me with.

I set the amp to clean and use 3 units of this pedals with one as a volume/ gain boost with the level at 9 to 12 o'clock, the tone around 12 o'clock and i either cut it or push it, with the gain around 9 o'clock or lower. Meanwhile the 2nd one is use as a drive boost or slightly lighter crunch with the level at 12 o'clock and above, the tone around 12 to 3 o'clock and the gain from 3 to 6 o'clock. Meanwhile the last one are use as my rhythm playing with the setting level are 12 o'clock or more, the tone around 12 to 3 o'clock and the gain usually nearly max. The amp are usually set up with the mid and bass full to the max (sometimes the bass/mid need to be cut depend on the amp), and the treble from 12 to 3 o'clock. The volume are set to depend on the venue that i played usually when teaching i set the volume at around 9 to 12 o'clock and when performing i do go beyond that let say 12 o'clock and above. As long as the soundman happy and I must be happy with the sound that I produce.

Very easy to use

i've never heard nothing orrible like this, the first half of drive control doesn't change the sound. the sound is like a can

nice case, like all boss pedals

bleah!!

very easy to use, Tone-Level-Dist. Thats it.

This pedal can be pretty buzzy, which bothers me because it doesn't produce that much gain and it makes more noise than my MT-2.
Other than that, this pedal has a good sound. Dial the gain in at about half and the tone at 3-oclock and you'll get a decent AC/DC noise out of it. Put the gain to full and the tone at about 10oclock and you can get some early Maiden tone (not spot on, but it works for me) so all in all, not a bad distortion, just don't try to use it for metallica or COB.

Its BOSS, 'nuff said

no idea

I love Maiden, and this pedal can give me a sound that i'm pretty happy with. You can also get a bunch of other classic (as in 'old') sounds from it. And so: an 8

Can 3 knobs and a simple circuit prgramming get any easier? Nope.

Some sounds are devestating, probably because my amp and guitar are so old. But some (Fusion, Natural Clip) are amazing! The sound of the DS-1 is just plain great.

The DS-1 is very reliable. I played 2 hours just now, and no messed up noises.

I haven't had any problems.

So, I can't tell.
But a 5-year warranty works fine for me.

I play pure rock (my band slogan). The DS-1 helps me play more pure than before.

I would buy it again if stolen.

This seems better than all amps with distortion I've played.

very easy to use, it's set up just like most distortion pedals: Vol, Tone and Dist.

I LOATHE this pedal!!! It sounds like complete an utter crap! No dynamics, no character, no balls at all! It's a child's toy, a beginners first distortion pedal. I cannot imagine a real professional using this? I know a lot of pros claim to use it, but I think maybe they're using the Keeley version? I just think this pedal sucks. I really have nothing good to say about it. I was keeping it in bag as a backup for gigs, in case my real pedal (MI Audio Crunchbox)ever died. Well, it ran out of batteries one night and we were playing for a crowd of 12, so instead of running to the store for another 9 volt or taking the one out of the DS-1 and putting it in the Crunchbox, I just used the DS-1. BIG mistake!! This ***** pedal sounded awful and in turn put me in a bad mood and ruined the gig for me. The bottom line is that this pedal sounds like ****.

Boss makes good solid stuff

N/A

I give it a 1, because in my opinion, this pedal sucks. I have no use for it, other than maybe as a paper weight?

Three knob pedal, stomp on it to activate. Pretty simple. In the manual, it shows settings for different styles and such.

Keep in mind, I got mine in 2006 so it may sound different than older models.

I run a custom Saga LP copy, Dean VX, and fender 02' made in mexico standard stratocaster, through this, into a 2007 Crate GLX1200 full stack. On a clean channel, with the tone in between ten and eleven o'clock, and distortion mirroring the tone, and level past 12 o'clock, I can get a good Led Zeppelin sound. And the rhythm channel on my amp sucks, but with this pedal, it sounds pretty good.

It's a pretty ok pedal, but I will do the Keeley S.E.M soon though.

It has taken a few falls onto concrete and worked fine, so yes very reliable.

Never needed too. So I rate it a five for not knowing.

Overall, for fourty dollars, it's a steal. Good sounds, good quality, I mean, it is a BOSS! (Excuse the lame pun)


(myspace.com/sologuitaristlee

Knob twisting. If you don't know how to twist a knob then you're in trouble!

It's a crap shoot with these things. I bought one new a couple of years ago and I just wasn't into it. It wasn't the sound I was looking for, or wanted, at the time. Tinny,raspy,buzzy,trashy, kinda "artificial" sounding, etc..etc..I got rid of it. Just recently I got another one for grins. The used one was a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SOUNDING pedal. Both were MIT's (made in Taiwan)but the 2nd one was ALOT more transparent and musical than the first one.(I think the used one was a 1990's version). Much more organic sounding....not "artificial" at all. Lots of gain and a nice eq range. Not buzzy or tinny. The used one had no mods so it was a stock pedal. I've played on a number of DS-1's and no 2 ever really sounded the same to me. I use Strats through vintage tube amps, so that usually is a good indication of what a pedal can or cannot do. Anyway, I lucked out with the 2nd one so it's a keeper. My opinion is...well, it's a crap shoot. You may get one that sounds good you may not. I've also played on one that had the analogman mod and that was killer. If you're not happy with you're DS-1 send it to Analog Mike...

Boss pedals are workhorses. They'll hang in there with you.

Have had no experience with contacting them so I can't comment.

It's a "sound". It's like having a different color crayon in your crayon box. If you have only one crayon, then your probably gonna get bored coloring in your coloring book! Get a few more different colored crayons.

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.

Very easy

Sounds good, settings will really depend on your amp settings. This really can sound very good. I currently use this on a clean channel of a Mesa Mark III since I dont really care for the drive channel of that amp(can be too woofy and flabby) I currently own a Bogner XTC 101B, Soldano SLO100, CAA OD100 SE+, DR Z Z28, and a Hiwatt clone. So I have heard top notch stuff before. For the price this pedal is pretty good, it can sound pretty compressed but thats not to big of a deal. Just be liberal with the gain you probably will never need it past half way.

In all honesty the pedal is really as good as the gear you match it up with. Ofcourse this pedal infront of any amp with the mids scooped out will sound horrible. This pedal really needs the mids there to achieve a full tone.

Built very well

Never needed them and I think most people would just buy a new pedal than deal with them anyway if something happened.

Very good buy, good sound for the price.

Awerage easy, be careful with tone controls.

Not so good. I try a few distortions. DS1 sound a bit nasty and thin.

Here in Indonesia we dont get many choises for guitars or fx pedals but Boss and Ibanez, Digitech etc can available or you need to special order from some stores. DS1 easy to get in the second hand market.

I play a thailand made NNG guitar PRS santana copy with 2 humbucker. Sometime the amp distortion sound better, other time I use a old ibanes tubescreamer copy it sounds much better, more full sound and less nasty.

It feel solid but dont know, my one is second hand it looks very much used.

Here in indonesia not much customer support. The local electronics repair shop do many service for guitar and amps.

Not so good my ibanez drive fx sound much nicer.

If you can't figure this one out, maybe you should only play acoustic?

How do I explain? Well, this pedal has taken quite a beating in reviews. I used to LOATHE this pedal, then one day I played it at a rehearsal studio, with my Les Paul DC with a duncan super distortion pickup in the bridge, through the studios mrashall jubilee head and a marshal 4x12. It sounded AWESOME! It never sounded that good before? The moral or the story is: For those who say this pedal sux, what gear are you using it with? I have the feeling that some people may be playing with some ****** bottom of the line guitar and some crap amp. If you play with quality gear, you will have a VERY different result. besides, for the $40 you pay for this, what do u expect?

Well, say what u want about boss pedals, but they are tougher than tough!I've own quite a few boss pedals and have never had one crap out on me.

n/a

This isn't a bad pedal, it's just not a great one. Like I said, for $40 u get what u pay for.

I got a "silver knob" old japan made ds-1 that is supposed to be much better than the later taiwan or china made units. It is easy to use because there are just three controls, mine came without a manual but it ain't rocket science to figure it out.

Sounds blah. Very thin sounding. Thought my amp was busted. Dont know what's so great about this japan made ds-1. It sounded the same as my band mates black knob taiwan made ds-1. I can do some hard rock rhythm with it but cant use it for solos. We tried with a boss cs-3 compressor before and after the ds-1, and a combination of a chorus and delay to fatten up the tone, but it just made it sound very unnatural. My SD-1 sounds so much better and fuller.

Ive just had it a few weeks. Dont know about how reliable it is but I always take a backup.

Not used them.

Very thin sounding effect, I didn't like it. I went back to my sd-1

3 knobs how much easier would it get but you have to forget the turn all knobs up theory to use it well never turn the tone past 1 o'clock it sounds super thin.

like i said
tone- o-1 o clock
distortion- anywhere not a big difference b/t 12 and full on
level- i have found i used a whammy/boost in front of it and it caused it to clip very easily. at about 3 o clock its the same volume as the bypass signal. also as said in one of the other review; its sounds good in front of a tube amp that's just barely over driven.

boss builds there pedals like a rock i use a powered pedal board so idk whether it dies quickly but its tough.

it does one sound really well but overall its not a versitile pedal. if you tone everything back a little you get more fullness and less thin sounds

Three controls, easy to use, tone control also cuts out lows when cranked up, takes a while to get the right sound.

I use a '72 telecaster loaded with Lindy Fralin's replacement pickups that sound sweetly warm, and a beautiful 1988 burny "super grade" Japanese les paul running on Duncan JB and Jazz pickups. The guitars both sound wonderful when played direct, which is a very important factor in producing great tone.

I play these through a fender blues deville 2x12, a hot rod and a blues deluxe for practise and Laney LX412A with 4x12" celestion drivers or an LV300T or 412S depending on the gig.

I've been trying out a whole variety of overdrive and distort effects, and use the amp tube overdrive much of the time. I also use a boss blues driver, SD-1, and a digitech bad monkey drive.

Tried many combinations of effects, tried driving the tubes by maxing out the volume on the DS1, and stacking the DS with low gain effects before and after the DS1.

The DS1 in itself sounds very shrill and buzzy. It's rather nasal and I can't seem to get a good tone setting that doesn't kill lows and give me decent treble at the same time. I got my DS1 modded and it does sound a little better now but still not so good compare to the other drive effects.

I've used it a couple of times for gigging, but I've always been told my SD1 or bad monkey sound far better, specially with the tele which comes out sounding very much like angry hornets. Will probably keep it and play around a bit but wont use it for gigs.

My bad monkey and SD1 do a far better job of maintaining the wide open sound of a tele and driving my tubes nicely at the same time.

Dont know as I have not had it long. I would always take a backup, since I've had my boss BD2 die on me once halfway through a gig.

Haven't used them for the DS1 yet.

Cheap entry into the disto world but there are better sounding alternatives, look at the bad monkey and tube screamer clones or the boss sd1.

Very simple except tone is where level is on some other boss drives so can be confusing at first. But its very easy

Sound sgreat when used correctly, will sound different on various amps. On my Reeves hiwatt clone it sounds awesome, just keep drive low and level high and use it as a booster(trust me there is still enough high gain) this way gives you thick high gain with low noise. Keep the tone between 10 0clock and noon add more if you want more bite and treble.

Great pedal and sounds great. I have been playing for 25 years and do have lots of different equipment including Bogner xtc, Soldano SL100, DR Z z28 a whole bunch of Carvin electrics.

This pedal will sound good for you just use it lightly and remember this will work better on an amp that has its mids driven more. It will give you satriani and vai tones. Mine is a stock model.

Very slight rolling off some of the chimey highs or crispness when bypassed versus when not in chain at all, but its only slight. Just dont have to many boss pedals in a row and you should be fine.

Just make sure you are using this with an amp that is just about breaking or where you amp is already giving you a good crunch.

Very well made, boss probably makes the most durable stomp boxes

Never had to deal with them which is good and besides most stores swap these out if the one you had went bad.

Overall its a very good pedal no issues at all. I play every thing and I use a Reeves custom 6 for home use and recording, need somethign to pushed it into Bogner XTC red channel territory and this does this to a tee. Great pedal.

This particular DS-1 I am reviewing was made in the early 2000's. The circuit is still the same as it was in 1978 with no changes. It is easy to get a good sound out of it as long as you know what you are doing, i.e. move your guitar controls from 10 to something lower and play on a valve amplifier that can take advantage of the boost in the preamp stages.

I'll give this a 7 because most users forget to use a quality valve amplifier with the pedal, which should be mentioned in the manual like it was in 1978.

If you are using a solid state amp your review ends right here with a "5" out of "10." If you are using a valve amplifier, keep reading.
--------

The Boss DS-1 overdrives the preamp stage of most 2 and 1 channel boutique amplifiers (Bogner Ecstasy, Carvin Legacy, Mesa Lonestar, Fender Twin, etc.) and creates more distortion to push the amp. When dialed correctly on the pedal, your guitar, and amplifier, you can get some superb distortion tones out of this box. This is why Joe Satriani and Steve Vai use this box, even in it's original form.

The DS-1 was meant to be used in conjunction with a valve amplifier and with different guitar settings than "all 10 on the knobs." When used correctly, it is a perfect "10" pedal.

BOSS pedals by Roland are some of the most dependable pedals ever created. The design is the same as it was in 1978. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is most likely the BOSS philosophy.

Never had to deal with BOSS for repairs, but most pedals do carry a warranty of 5 years. I did call them for amplifier recommendations with the pedal and they recommended any valve amp that can have the preamp stage loaded. (Which is most quality valve amplifiers manufactured today.)

The new DS-1's have the same circuit as the 1978-81 models - don't let anyone fool you otherwise. They are tonally 100% the same, even when analyzed for frequency response.

The DS-1 is cheap at an average of $39.99 USD at most retailers. When used properly, with a valve (tube) amplifier, you can get amazing full distortion tones out of it.

A solid "9"

Fairly easy to figure out, mine has got hte keeley ultra mod and sounds fantastic...more on this later.

This is the reason I am writing this review. I had searched far and wide on the net looking for some idea of what to expect from this pedal. I am a huge Satch fan and thought this pedal would help provide that coveted tone. I had Keeley mod mine because I loved the sound bites on his website. Now, for EVERYONE who has reviewed this pedal...here is my take. When I first got it back from Keeley, I thought it sounded as bad as the original. It sucked. Very bright, overly aggressive....complete shit. I was using it thru a JSX head thru the clean channel and could not figure out why even Satch or Vai would bother with this thing. I was about to throw it out and then I struck gold!!!!!! I killed some of the treble on the clean channel and played with the tone controls on the amp and the pedal. I left the tone on the pedal at 10pm and left the treble on the amp at 4. OH MY GOD.... The real tone of this pedal came shining thru. suddenly I had SWTA and Vai all in one. Monster Tone with balls to boot. It was easy to nail early Satch or Vai. I am in love with what this pedal can do, but it is very dependent on where you run your tone controls.

Its a Boss pedal, you could drive over it and it would still work. enough said.

HUH?

If you put the time in to playing around with this and your rig, you will be rewarded but its going to take time to figure it out. When you hit on that tone, this pedalis the Mac Daddy of them all....why do you think Vai, Satriani and Gilbert all own and still use DS-1's......I'm not making this up!!!!!!!!!! And Keeley does a great job modding this pedal!

I've got in my hands a "special" DS-1 with silver/gray knobs that says it's made in Japan, of a particular sweet vintage that is much sought after. It appears rather easy to figure out how it works without the manual, use your ears, easy.

I'm one of those over-obsessed stomp box crazies who pretty much blows almost his entire income on gear, much to the displeasure of the missus. I've tried out almost every overdrive, distort, fuzz and "death metal" type distortion boxes around, from cheap off the shelf danelectros to exotic stuff like custom made hand-crafted moollon gear from Korea.

I use a variety of guitars, from the stock Fender H-1 strat, an Ibanez RG, a Gibson explorer, an SG and a Yamaha AES 920. Once in a while the old "lead-butt" epiphone les paul equipped with JB's comes out. They go into a relatively small pedal chain, one compressor, one od/distort and possibly a second, one phaser/flanger, one delay and one eq. This is played off a 1966 fender twin reverb blackface, or a Genz Benz El-diablo 100 or a mesa boogie dual rectifier solo head.

Sound-wise this pedal is a mixed bag. It most definitely sits within the "distortion" class of effects, nothing subtle about this one here and none of that "mild transparent overdrive" nonsense. The tone is rather shrill on the strat or any single coil pickups but does fairly well with a very low to mild distortion setting. The gibson does ok with a higher distortion setting. The tone control is pretty much unuseable - moving it out of a 11-11.30 setting produces very shrill sounds when cranked up, or muddy bassy sounds when turned down. It has some volume boost but not much.

All in all a pretty simple pedal, but the sound quality lacks character and depth. The tone could have a lot more depth and juice, which even a cheap "bad monkey" or SD-1 can do.

This pedal is very solidly built, but my particular unit has been exhibiting problems on and off, very intermittent. It would suddenly drop volume/gain by nearly 80% and sound awful, like you're playing a very bad sounding distorted "sitar" (Ravi shankar in the 70's through a bad overdrive?). If I powered it off for about 3-4 minutes and powered on again, all would be well. Dunno what the matter is - definitely not the cables or power as we checked that time and time again, and this pedal is far too old for warranty repairs.

Dunno, mine is too old for support.

This is a mixed bag. It's cheap enough for anyone to give dist/od a shot. Sound wise, I've used better.

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.

not easy getting a good tone from it, because when you're using a tube amp, it will sound different on stage as it is at home. on stage the amp will cut off the buzziness and sawing sound, because of the tubes.

Also there's many problems using the tone knob, i always put it right down to zero, or one.

When dialed in correctly, PERFECT!!

I always used tubescreamers and a bluesdriver and a fulltone fulldrive, but I sold them all, and i placed my old ds-1 on(perchased years ealrier for my very first gig!!)

It is looking for the right tone, and in my opinion is it, working as a boost. level op, gain down en tone very little. work that into my fender bassman, wich is set volume to about 5(crancs it up a little), use the guitar's volume and tone for rythm, clean or lead and you've got the perfect tone for any guitar!! solo's do come out and cuts through the mix and rythm is softer with less treble and fits right in. the ds-1 reacts way better on picking strength, better than the fulltone!!

never broke down in all these years

don't know, butt sometimes i'm thinking of modding my ds-1 but don't know the people to ask( in the netherlands)

playing alternative pop it's great, but it's also right in blues, jazz, rock, heavy rock, metal etc!!

it depends on how you play!
(take ted nugent for example, plaing with blues-tones in a metalband)

i have used it in many styles anyway!!

Three knobs. But on a distortion pedal, three knobs are all you ever really need. You got your level knob, your tone knob, and your drive knob. Like a safe cracking adventure, you have to dial in the sweet spot for the guitar amp and situation.

Great hot overdrive; not for metal and a bit edgy for mellow applications, great in the middle, sweet distortion.

This has the ibanez tube screamer enamel look with the big knobs, I can't see much hurting this pedal.

I play this in my chain with a ts-9 and a wah and an analog delay and eq- Because I play a vintage amp with only a clean channel, this is a valuable tool to start the distortion process. Its got such a nice algorythm, its super.

Just like any pedal, try it our before you buy it. But for the price of this, its a no brainer.

Though the simple 3-control setup appears trivial to use, it is not very easy to get a good tone out of this pedal.

I played the DS-1 with my Ibanez RG450 and a Gibson SG, into a Fender G-DEC at home or a marshall 100w head and matched speakers for gigging.

I bought this pedal online after reading rave reviews about how everybody who's anybody in the music scene uses this pedal (Vai etc). I also have a couple of other od and distort pedals (maxon, ibanez ts clones etc). The first time I plugged in the DS-1 I thought my pedal was fried. The tone control was all the way at max and it sounded like angry hornets in a tin can. A bit of tweaking made the sound slightly better but not much.

At any setting the effect is quite harsh and very artificial sounding. It really sounded like something cobbled up from spare parts lying in the garage. I have a couple of other boss pedals (chorus and delay) and I can't believe this tin can has a boss name on it.

I really thought my pedal was busted and packed it up to send it back, but I tracked down someone else who has a DS-1 and asked to try it out - the sound was pretty much the same.

Why anyone would recommend this pedal is beyond me - when you can buy better sounding pedals at the same price. Even the boss SD-1 sounds far far superior.

Dunno - I only used it a couple of times and sold it after that.

Never dealt with them.

I play rock, blues and some funk. This pedal flat out sucks at that. Heck, this pedal sucks at everything I've tried, and it sure can't do metal. What do I love about this pedal? Hmmm.. let's see... I love the fact that I could get rid of it to another poor sucker at almost no loss to me.If it were stolen, I'd track down the thief and buy him a beer. Compared this with other products - yes, I use a maxon OD (some TS clone) and an ibanez in the same ballpark distortion level.

It's pretty easy to use. There are three knobs: tone, level and distortion. It came with a manuel; probably shouldn't have to use it, but if you've never delt with distortion pedals before, it's nice to have around. However, it was somewhat hard to get a decent tone out of it, but there's more on that below.

This is the pedal's one weakness. It does not sound that good at all. I use a Fender Roc Pro 1000 combo hybrid amp with a Fender GE112 extention cabinet. It can get some pretty sweet clean tones, but it won't break up, so this is why I bought. This was a mistake. To start off, the pedal is extremely noisy. It sounds like there is a swarm of killer bees coming from my amp. I've tried using a noise suppressor (that didn't work). However, that is not the main problem. The main problem is that this pedal sounds like crap. It's tone is lacking. No matter how many different EQ setting I tried with my amp, this pedal insists on sounding like a pedal a little child made. It is incredibly brittle. When you stomp on it, your amp sounds like it was enclosed in a tiny metal can. Overall it's too hard to get for me to find the smooth distortion tone that is was looking for. However, you do have to keep in mind that is did cost only $40 (although I have gotten MUCH better pedals for less than that!).

It's a BOSS. You can drop it down the stairs, throw it at a brick wall, play with it in the smokey haze of a bar, put cigarettes out with it, spill beer on it, and say really mean things to it and it would work (however, I advise that you don't try some of those things). I guess reliability is what this pedal has got going for it.

I play rock, so after talking to some people and explaining to them my tight budget, I thought that it would only be logical to buy it. My advice: if you already have this pedal, get it modified by Robert Keeley (www.robertkeeley.com). This is what I did, and WOW!!! The tone is AMAZING!!! I guess you have to keep in mind that for people on a tight budet, this is not that bad. But for the giging musician, which is what I am, the pedal is lacking. Definately get it modded.

The pedal is very simple to use. 3 knobs. Volume, Tone, and Distortion. The manual offers a bunch of settings you can use. And a few empty ones so you can write your own settings.

If you want an all around distortion try a ds-1. It has a very Marshallesque sound. Most people would say to go for the modded one from robert keely or analog man.com. I have not tried those but the Ds-1 is so unbeleivable common in music though. Everyone from John Fruciante, Kurt Cobain, To Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Literally tons of people. The stock pedal I will admit has some midrange issue, but that is what the Modded pedals accomodate. They add more control over the midrange. It's hard to get a good review of a pedal because most people rate it based on what they play not on what it's for. It isn't the BEST pedal for metal, but can get alot of distortion, and it can get down to a mild overdrive-ish sound a la The Tube screamer. It can work well infront of an amp to add that extra kick for a lead tone. It does create a small his though when doing this but most pedals will. Try out a regular one and then keep in mind that a modded one will have a better tone. It's also really cheap. The DS-1 is about 50 bucks unmodded, about 100 modded. Overall though the sound is still nice.
P.S. It is wicked infront of a wah pedal. You don't get that annoying clipping you get with a High gain distortion.

Boss pedals are usually built like tanks. You can use this without a backup no prob, but at 50 bucks a pop, you can get two for what you'd usually pay for one of the other pedals.

I've had boss pedals for over ten years and never need to get anything fixed.

I play mostly punk and metal. This does not give the amount of distortion that I would like, but it would pass if you had a loud enough amp. If it were stolen I probably would buy another one. I love it's variability. I have the HM-2 and it is pretty much for only one style. This pedal can get tons of low and tons of high. (but the tone suffers on either. That is where the mod comes in. Which I plan on getting) but if you want a generally midish tone anyway, with the distortion allowing variability then this is your pedal. Most tone comes from the amp anyway. I usually run this through A Washburn SB. Mohogany body with maple top. Rosewood fingerboard. I'm running through a REXX preamp/amp with a homemade cabinet sporting cheap roland speakers HA.

use this pedal straight into your amps Return. this is always the best way to hook up distortions to your amp.

Guitar > DS 1 > Amp's Return(-input)

you'll be surprised how good your pedals will sound when used as pre-amp.

very easy..only has three knobs..

i use this with a dd3 super chorus and for lead i add in an overdrive turbo.using a 79 strat..i tried it through a behringer vintage and it sounded awesome for blues,,rock but not metal...i had to turn the tone at about 3 to 4,distortion at about 4 and level at about 4 also..the sound gets too thin when the tone is past the halfway mark..use neck pikup..run your amp clean and turn down your treble..you'll get a very bluesy rock tone,,very clapton like..i can't give this a ten coz there's other distortion out there that could sound better,but this pedal aint too bad..

never had a boss break down..

never had to call them so i don't know

this style is good for rock and blues..been playing for about 15years..i use a 79 strat and a 95 lp standard.if this was stolen,i'd probably try a mxr distortion..i like it but don't love it..i've compared it with a rat pedal..two different sound..it's all preference george lynch was interviewed about his effects and people thought he was using a 1000,dollar pedal.it was interesting when he told them it's a stock ds1 store bought.just because it's cheap doesn't mean it's crap,ibanez tube screamer wasn't even selling when it was 40 bucks until srv came along then it became 200.00 bucks.

as long as you can read the letters on the front and turn the 3 knobs, you'll be fine.

got this last night and been playing it like crazy.. hard to believe my neighbours haven't complained yet, but my point is i LOVE the sound of this pedal.

i've seen alot of reviews in alot of places where people bash this pedal due to it's shrillness or fizziness, but i personally love it. i'm an overdrive kind of guy, and this is only my 2nd distortion pedal and it's already my cup of tea.

i run the ds-1 after my overdrives into a vox ad15vt amp set for ac30tb, and after tweaking the tone knob on the pedal i've come up with a great distortion sound that isn't too fizzy or shrill at all. i've got the warmth of the tube preamp still coming through, and the ds-1's distortion is extremely transparent and great on the ears.

good ol' classic distortion from boss, doesn't get any simpler or better than this.

hehe... what do people say about these things? IT'S A BOSS!!

1. throw it off a building
2. bonk your brother on the head with it
3. drop it like it's a bomb on north korea.. etc etc..

yeah, i have a few boss pedals and this bad boy is here to stay and built to last. 'nuff said.

never had to deal with boss, don't think i will in fact.

but my local music store has my back on all my purchases hence the 10, and with a five year warranty you really can't go wrong.

if you play electric, you play it cuz you're drawn to either some form of overdrive or distortion.

now there are alot of pedals out there - cheap ones, boutique ones, generic ones, standards... etc etc

say what you want about boss, but the ds-1 is a time-tested truly great product. all the good stuff i've read about it is true now that i finally have one. i'd definitely recommend it.

Easy to figure out. Tone knob is kind of touchy. Goes from slightly muddy to slightly too bright in a very small turn. Some tweaking and it could sound good. There isn't much of a drastic change in distortion unless you're very high or very low. At 0, there is still lots of distortion, a but less though. Past 3 o'clock and you're ripping!

Stock, it is great for the price. Because it's so cheap though, you don't have to be afraid of modding it. $40 brand new is a bargain.

I have a 1996 Gibson LP Studio, into a jimi hendrix wah, into the ds-1, then to an me-50 for delay, chorus, sometimes compression and into a Traynor YCV50 Blue. The pedal sounds really good. Could be a little fuller sounding, but for the price, totally worth it. It doesn't sound very well with and already overdriven amp. Sounds sloppy and bad.

It's not noisy at all, very quiet. It's very good.

I modded it though by pulling out diodes 4 and 5 and now it's a great boost pedal. It got a LOT louder, and a lot less distorted, but can still get pretty distorted by cranking the distortion knob. It goes great now with and overdriven channel. With this mod, I'd give sound quality a 9, because it could still be better. Great with tube amps!

It's a boss, they never break.

Their website is nice. I've never dealt with customer service.

I like this pedal a lot after the mod. Stock, it's still very good. If it was lost or stolen, I'd get a new one fast.

Stock, it's great for rock. It would almost be nice to have 2 of these, one stock and one boost, but I'm pretty happy for now.

Overall, great product. Boss makes great pedals.

The things real simple to use. A distortion knob which controls the gain. A level knob which is the volume. And Tone which is A Built in EQ. TO turn it on you just step on the pedal button.

I play Either my squire Strat or Ibanez S470DXQM through a Line 6 Spider III 15 watt amp set on the clean channel. so far it isn't really noisy unless I use the single coil on my Ibanez (that does that with all pedals and amps though) This thing is great for alternative and grunge sounds. Like to get Kurt cobains tone You put the tone at 11 Oclock The LEvel all the way up and the distortion all the way up. But don't try to get his exact tone. Experiment with it first. I Know with my really old DOD chorus pedal it gets a little fuzzy but not too bad.

It's made out of a metal body so it holds up really nice. I would gig with it but I would bring an extra if I didn't have a power supply (in case the battery went dead.)

I got it from guitar center and they helped me pick out a nice power supply.

I play Grunge and Punk music and this thing matches what I play real nice. Some of the music I play consists of Nirvana (Kurt played a DS-1) The Offspring and Pearl Jam.
I've been playing for 4 or 5 years now. I own A Crybaby A DOD chorus A line 6 spider III. I'd buy it again If I lost it. My favorite thing is It's real simple to use and gets great hard rock tone. I don't hate anything about it. I compared it to Line 6 POD Danelectro T-bone. A ZOOM G1X and out off all this one was the best by far. This has been on all of my recordings. But make sure you try other stuff first you never know something else might suit you better.

It has three knobs - tone, level and distortion. As simple as you can get. Tap the pedal to switch between clean and distorted sounds.

Quite a few people have a misconception about the tone. Many people remark on the 'tinny' or 'high' sound. Many people also recommend setting the tone to about 2 to get a good sound.

However, if you plug in the guitar to your amp, and cut the amplifier gain to zero, or if you plug in to the auxiliary/CD input on your amp, then the tone control works as you would expect, and you get a great sound. The tinny sound is obtained only if the gain on the amp is high - the equalizing circuitry in most amps throws the tone out of balance.

The sound is good for a generic rock sound ... you can tweak with the settings to get sounds that suit either soloing or accompanying. A light touch of distortion provides a warm tone to the sound. It has very low noise.

Sturdy metal build.

I play my Jackson JS-1 through a Peavey 158 Rage. Though both of these are low-end, basic gear, the pedal generates a good sound. I liked the distortion from the pedal much more than that built-in in the Peavey amp.

Simplicity at it's finest. I bought mine that has the "Monte Allums" mod, toggle switch on the front of the pedal. This kicks ass, as it has yet another 3 tonal ranges it can cover, rather than the "Stock" DS-1. I bought mine from eBay, perfect condition, and it didn't come with a manual, but no drama, it's easy to setup, and it's easy and fast to find the setting your looking for!

My one is the Taiwan version, but I'm not sure what the difference is between the japanese and taiwan versions.

This pedal is very good to get that added distortion I was hunting for. The monte allum mod makes this pedal sound a whole lot better, than stock versions I've tried in Music shops. I use this with my strat and fender champ amplifier.

But alas it doesn't quite cut it for me, as it is clean hard distortion, and therefore not the best for shredding and good fuzzy metal, therefore I have also just recently bought a BOSS HM-2 Heavy Metal distortion. It is still yet to come, but when it does I'll review it. With these two distortions working togther, I'll have a blistering fuzzy overdriven distorted sound that will rape anything else.

But this gets a perfect sound for AC/DC kind of rock, etc.

This is a pre 1980's pedal, making it over 20 years old, with maybe more than one original owner. It's NEVER cut out on me, or stuffed up. I can always sleep at night knowing this baby won't fuck up on me last minute.

Never delt with them, but I have heard they are quite nice about helping out with pedals, etc.

Not the stand-alone distortion for me. I'm looking for a more overdriven fuzzy metal tone, perfect for ripping hard solos and good metal tuned down riffs.

But with this as my backup distortion, working with my lead BOSS HM-2, it should be perfect.

But if you are looking to buy the DS-1, make sure it has the Monte Allums mod intalled. If not, buy it off their website, it's cheap and apparently easy to install. It's even easier if you find one with it allready in it.

NEED MOAR FUZZ!

Ok, 3 controls but watch the tone dial.

I have a slightly older made in japan ds-1 with weird metallic / aluminum looking controls. Dunno if they were swapped out by the previous owner. I bought it because my gig-mate lost his gear and we needed something for him to jam with urgently, for practice sessions.

It sounds sort of ok for a distortion, but I wouldnt gig with it, sounds too tinny and harsh. He plays an american strat through it with overwound single coil pickups from wolfetone I think.

There are many better distorter pedals around, at the same price. We replaced this with a digitech bad monkey and it sounds far better.

Dunno, this pedal looks like it's been used as a football, still works. But god knows for how long.

Never used. this pedal was probably 3rd or 4th-hand. It sure looks it.

Ok pedal for practice/jamming but I wouldnt take this for serious playing. Sounds sub-average.

Well there are just three controls so it's not rocket science.

This was one of my first distortion pedals I used for a year or so. I didn't have much experience with effects. The distortion is harsh and fizzy, very thin sounding and lacks sustain. Some of you praising this unit should take the time to try out other pedals. Forget the botique pedals like the blackstone, lovepedal etc, just pick up an el-cheapo box like the bad monkey overdrive or even a boss blues driver or SD-1, they all sound FAR better than this noisemaker.

After I disposed of this orange tin of noise, I'm not surprised ad how much better my tone sounds now. I'm giving it a 2 because it does sound sort of acceptable in some settings.

Just don't get the tone way up - it sounds like the oft spoken about bees-in-tin-can cacophony.

Mine was about a year old when the power supply went flaky. It wouldn't play off the mains - I had to use a battery. Then the on/off switch started acting up. It often wouldn't register I'd pressed the switch, it would take a few attempts before it would switch off. This was especially embarassing during a few gigs when the stupid thing would refuse to switch on just when I'm launching into that huge power chord.

Look elsewhere. I have no idea why people praise this box of noise, but I suppose they haven't tried better stomp boxes. As soon as I heard some better stomp boxes I got rid of this **thing** .. the boss SD-1 which I got modded sounds faaaaar better, nicer, warmer, more sustain and really more organic.

very easy to use

ok folks, i have here a vintage ds-1 circa 1986 as stated buy the serial#. very warm compared to the the modern units. tone control is very usable, never harsh. has that 80's analog style distortion. great alone or adding gain to a slightly overdriven amp. great for anything except nu-metal. a little noise, but its analog and a little white noise is ok. works with single coils, p-90s, humbuckers, any amp.

its a boss and it lasted this long

got it for free back in 96, put it away until now, plugged it in and marveled at the tone. compared to a friends keeley ds-1 ultra and completley blew it away! they just dont make them like they used to. i cant believe how harsh the new ones are. you'll never know until try a vintage unit. people, save your cash, get on ebay and find one!

very easy to get a good sound, three knobs only, though i would like a little more bass on it. the drive pot can approximate almost any od/dist from the tubescreamer to the heavy metal. i bought it new with manual which gave suggestions on how to get certain settings.

the distortion is really good, i can get almost any sound from blues, hard rock (lynch mob,badlands) to ac/dc, malmsteen, van halen, whitesnake judas priest. what is lacking is clean boost and extreme metal sounds but i don't use those sounds everyday. i use a yamaha rgz, boss od-1, super chorus, delay, pitch shifter and heavy metal into a marshall combo. there's some noise sometimes but its probably the cords or the switches on the guitar.

its built in the legendary boss quality. i've seen a ds-1 before floating on two inches of water during an outdoor gig but it did'nt fail. its my new take-one-pedal-only pedal.

they have very informative websites plus the boss area

i've played blues, some crossover country; southern, classic, hard rock and metal since i was in my teens and i'm now 40! i definitely would buy boss pedals if it would get lost. this thing deserves its tag as a legend and it makes me wonder why many hate this pedal. you just need to tweak your pedals and amp's knob to get the sound you need. i think boss should make a ds-3 with high and low eq to make it more versatile. my ds-1 is an mit so i don't know how different it is from the mij, but its really the workingman and the (guitar hero's) distortion pedal.

Hard to get a decent sound, but it is in there.

I use a USA Custom Strat (w/ S.D. neck humbucker) into a Fender Deluxe Reverb. In other words I live in Toneville.

Or used to, until I got this pedal.

I have a real love/hate relationship wih this thing. Sometimes the sound is exactly what I'm after, other times it sounds like a drowning cat.

I am intrigued by the people on this site who say they turn the tone right up. I find that if you turn it past 10am it sounds like someones chucked a few forks in a blender.

Last night I was jammin and could not believe how awful it sounded. Thought maybe the batteries were going or something. Sounded like the TV aerial just broke, you know that fuzzy screen sound. AND THEN....maybe it was just a matter of the tubes in my amp warming up....maybe an overhead UFO boosted my signal....but I entered the TONE ZONE. It was the perfect distortion ive been searching for. Everyone in my band was like WOW, what did you do? Hope it's not a one off.

Really i should give this thing a 5, but after last night it's getting a 10. It was almost mythical.

SSOB A STI

3 knobs ! easy as it can be.

It sounds really excellent. Better then the MT-2 and SD-1 because they sound less natural. De DS-1 is more clear and cuts through the mix much better. I own the MT2, SD1 and DS1, and I really find the DS1 the best.
!!!! You have to use it as a boost in front of your amp. Through clean channel it's useless.
My setup: guitar (seymour duncan sh6 pups) > Boss GE7 eq. > DS1 > Rocktron noise gate > amp (on od, with gain on 3/10)
To me as good as the Proco Rat.

10 years of gigs no problems

dont know

excellent

Very easy to use and very easy to get any type of tone out of it. It comes with a manual that is pretty good, and it shows some factory setting that you can try. It has settings for "hard rock" "Fuzz" :"american rock" and a few more.

I can get very very close to Black sabbath tone with this pedal. "Tone" at just past half. "Dist" maxxed out and the "volume" at just past half also, try that out!

I'am useing a ****** little Crate amp at the momment with a dean ml and an epi SG. When I upgrade to a better amp it will probley sound 100% better.

It's a bit noisy if you have eveything maxxed out (which I do sometimes for fun lol) but aside from that by anything just a wee bit of feedback

would take it to me with a gig everynight if I was in a band. If this thing crapped out on stage I would be in shock cause this thing is built so good. "Like a tank as many people say" lol

Nothing has gone wrong yet. One thing though...I cant register it online or by sending the form in. I bought it from america and I live in Canada so...

Hard rock and metal are my style and it matches up perfectly! If it was stolen or lost I would order another one right away. For 39 bucks I dont understand why someone would steal it... must be really strapped for cash...

Couldn't be simpler. Tone, level and distortion. If you can't figure that out you're probably a chimp with dementia.

I absolutely LOVE this pedal. I work in a guitar shop and the other day we hooked up every distortion pedal all in a row to play them all off against each other. The best two out of our stock was this and the Marshall Guvnor 2- they actually sound pretty similar. DS1 totally owns way more expensive distortions. But you've got to have the tone knob turned right down! even on a level setting this thing is SO trebly that it hurts. But set the tone to about one and a half out of ten and it's fantastic. I've noticed a lot of distortion pedals are like this actually. Maybe they're all designed by people who've spent their whole lives surrounded by too much volume and they've all lost all the high-end from their own hearing? Just a theory. Seeing as it's such a cheap pedal the unwanted hiss is really low n all. Although I have heard more expensive pedals that had way less or no hiss to em. But this one's blooming good nethertheless.

A ha! I'm not alone in what has happened on occasion with mine (which I bought second hand so it could have been properly hammered- I just don't know!) And that would be- VOLUME DROP! One dude who's wrote a review on here even seems to think that this is a design flaw rather than a fault. Dude, your pedal is shafted! Of course it aint supposed to be quieter when it's turned on! And doesn't it just seem to be a common fault?! Almost everyone reports getting a big volume drop either always or (As in the case with mine) intermittently. As faults go, this is pretty ****** bad. Imagine if half way through a gig your distortion suddenly was half the volume of your clean. Imagine if you were playing Smells like teen spirit- you'd look like such a prick! Mind you, if you're covering smells like teen spirit you probably sodding deserve it to happen. NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR THAT SONG COVERED AT GIGS BY BANDS ANYMORE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY LIKE IT, COZ EVERYONE'S HEARD IT A BILLION BILLION TIMES, TRY SOMETHING ELSE FOR ONCE!!!! But I digress, it happened to me in practice luckily. But the n it worked fine for weeks before catching "level-drop-fever" again. I still use it for gigs but now I make sure I've got another distortion pedal in my set-up in case the wee orange beauty dies on me. Shame really, if it wasn't for this totally annoying and REALLY common fault It'd probably be the best pedal in the world- considering it's price obviously.

We don't stock BOSS pedals in the guitar shop I work in so I really don't know. But I believe they're part of Roland who for reasons completely inexplainable still seem to have a reputation for making good keyboards. I don't care if you like em, they're rubbish- fact! So no idea what BOSS are like to deal with. But with a huge firm like BOSS any complaints/ customer care is gonna be up to your dealer rather than the manufacturer. Buy local, keep music shops alive coz they're closing every day, and please please please if you're gonna buy online don't use us as your proxy internet show-room and then sod off back to the internet when we're unable to match the price. IT'S COZ THE INTERNET DON'T HAVE THE OVERHEADS OF KEEPING A SHOW-ROOM AND KNOWLEDGEABLE STAFF TO HELP YOU OUT, THAT'S WHY SHOPS ARE A BIT MORE PRICEY *********!

I can't help but feel I've strayed slightly from time to time in this review away from the BOSS DS1. Camel's final judgment overall- Amazing sound, but one hell of an Achilles heel in the really common occurring fault. Such a shame, coz the tone of the thing just breathes pure quality which shouldn't happen at this price point. Actually, how much are they anyway to buy brand new? Mine was twenty five english pounds second hand so they must be proper cheap yeah? I'd totally recommend it, I still use mine even though I know it could bail on me coz it really is worth the risk. But make sure you've got a back-up pedal coz one day it WILL let you down. In summery then the BOSS DS1 is like a genius who occasionally has a nervous breakdown. And where the **** would music be without them?!

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.

As easy as it could ever be.

As you know;
Tone, Adjust Treble or Bass
Level, The Output volume
Dist, Adjust the Distortion level.

Changes batteries is a breeze, just like all Boss Pedals,
and a power supply makes the thing even easier

People right this off as a simple distortion pedal.
But that's what's so great about it.

It's a brilliant pedal, set high with my single coils, this things snarls.

It get a bit noisy with the Dist up past three o clock, but a Noise reducer pedal sorts that out no trouble

It's a Boss.

If you don't know Boss already, maybe you're new to effects pedals, these things are metal bricks with wire in.

Never needed to speak to anyone, probably never will.

Along with the CE-3 Chorus, this was the first pedal I bought.

I play this pedal and the Boss SD-1 as my main drive sounds, as the amp I own is shameful on all but clean settings.

I use it for the heavier stuff in the sort of Indie, RadioBloc sound area.

It's great, but if you want versatility, go for the SD-1.

The DS-1 Distortion is great, but only at doing one thing; straight up distortion tones.

For a bit of everything, go for the Super Overdrive (Or both, like me) are it can be very subtle if required.

If it lost it, I would search the market very hard to make sure there was nothing better available for the money, then buy a new one.

Don't let my comments about the SD put you off, this pedal is super great

This effect unit has recessed knobs you are unlikely to step on by mistake, and the casing is all metal, not plastic, two features you should demand as standard on all your effect pedals. I like the disposition of the controls and the range of sound is worth the buy. It has everything a distortion pedal needs and nothing it doesnt, especially useless eqs or dumb names for the control knobs. I gave a 10 because in my opinion it simply is the best solid-state distortion pedal on the market.

Those who say it can't play metal really mean that "they" can't play metal. Either that or they moan that a simple 50$ pedal can't reproduce the sound of thousand dollars worth of studio equipment.

If you really take the time to seriously fine tune your amp and your guitar, this pedal can produce an excellent, clear and articulated tone that is perfect for metal. If you are still not happy and need a wall of buzz to hide your hideous misnotes, buy a metalzone instead.

My usual setup is: a DiMarzio humbucker or EMG81, the pedal, and a Peavey Transtube Supreme on the clean chan (high 5, mid 6.5, low 7) or an all-tube combo with everything flat.

My pedal setups are: tone 50% dist 90% level 50%

Again, take the time to tweak your gear, its worth it. From 0 to 50% the tone knob roams the midrange and you can get a slushy, loose sound cool for old school blues. Set the tone too high and you get a handful of razors shoved down your ear.

I got mine second hand. The only problem was the ac adaptor jack. Its solderings broke away from the board. I just had to re-melt them in place, it took 5 seconds. I take care of my gear. Never had the slightest problem elsewise. I use it instead of my amp distortion and if it would break, I would just plug my guitar right into my amp and use the distortion on my amp instead.

its a BOSS!

Essential piece of gear for any self-respecting guitar player.

this pedal is pretty easy to get a good sound out of, alot of the quality of the sound really depends on your amp and guitar.

like any distortion pedal, it sounds alot different in your bedroom and on stage. it's not particularily noisy onstage, but i do wish it had more boost. while it's well voiced and not weak at all, i wish it could go louder than it does as you increase the level control, this would make it alot more flexible, or even cleaner sounding on lower distortion settings. but, seeing as it was released in 1979, i don't have a problem with it, distortion pedals were expected to be alot different back then.

i have never ever had a problem with any of my boss pedals, and i have over 8 of them.

i've heard their customer support nothing to write home about, but then again, alot of major companies lack in this department.

i play rock and classic heavy metal, and this is the most important piece of gear in my whole setup. it gives me my basic tone, and is good for so much more. i bring down the volume on my guitar for a dynamic overdrive, or i set the tone and distortion knobs to face the top corners of the pedal, and max the level for my heavier sound. often, i don't even need this much gain. like i said, i wish it had more output, but i'm buying an MXR Distortion+ to help me out, and i have a hunch these two pedals will work wonderfully together.

TONE - LEVEL - DISTORTION.....does it get any easier ? It's all you need on a distortion pedal anyway...

I bought this pedal for a specific sound I was looking for... Ironically it was for Bob Mould's HUSKER DU guitar tones (specifically from "Zen Acrade" thru "Candy apple grey" era's)... I know that Bob used an MXR distortion + for his sound...that's where the irony comes in. I plugged into an MXR distortion + through a Fender twin reverb (which is the amp that I swear by). I was not impressed with the MXR distortion + or the newer III model... So I figured, well let's try the "coveted" DS-1.. BAM... that was the sound I was looking for right out of the box... Once I got it home and put it in my pedal board rig I was hooked. With my Boss CE-5 chorus and Boss compressor/sustainer and the DS-1 all run through my Fender 65 reissue Twin Reverb... I can get 90% of that HUSKER DU tone I was looking for.. Even with my 70's reissue strat with single coils it sounds very "Bob'ish".... There is a bit of noise if you go to high on the level / distortion settings... I set it like this... LEVEL 3-4...TONE 4-5...DISTORTION 7-8... Even with gobs of distortion, chords articulate exceptionally well. Individual notes still retain their clarity.. This is not for the NU-METAL / Death metal... buffs... You won't really get that "chugga, chugga" palm muting "Master of Puppets" metal with this.... But if you want a great distortion pedal for ringing chords ...this is perfect.

It's a Boss. Unless there is a manufacturer defect out of the box.. It's going to survive a lot of abuse/ gigs/ practices.... Boss makes tough pedals...

Never dealt with Boss for anything.. Never had any problems with any of their products...

Like I stated above.. this is an excellent pedal for that early-mid 80's melodic punk/indie tone..(think HUSKER DU, BLACK FLAG, PIXIES...etc..etc..) And of course Nirvana must be mentioned here.. although they came a bit later... The MXR distortion plus does not even compare in my book to the DS-1, 2 completely different animals here. The DS-1 is way harsher in the mid range which I love... I've been playing guitar for 20 + years and have tried tons and tons of amps / effects / and guitars... So I hope my review helps someone with their decision... I would buy this pedal again ASAP...

3 knobs... i wish it was a tad louder...

Excellent dirt and a nice basic sound... i like to use the tone @ 10-11 o'clock, the level full and dist at about 3-4 o'clock... nice warm mesa-style distortion... i use in a chain in the following order:

EH small stone>Boss OD3>Boss DS1>Zoom Tri-Metal>Boss BF2>Boss CE5>Traynor Custom Valve 1-12 w/ vintage Sunn 2-12...

The Zoom is my "scooped" recto-like tone, the OD3 gives me a nice vintage roar (like a Marshall SL-well, kinda)& the DS1 functions as a nice "in between" distortion tone... it sounds great through a good tube amp, and in conjunction with the OD3 as well... yes, it might be a bit "generic" but that is just another way of saying versatile!!!

Seems fine for such a cheap pedal

I play in an experimental metal band - Nosebleeder http://www.myspace.com/nosebleeder666
- and we play many different genres... folk/thrash/punk/bossa-nova.... this is my basic crunch tone & i love it... i've never felt the need to mod it... a great distortion that goes from blues to mid-spiky metal...

How can you get lost with three knobs OMG Duhhh

pretty easy even when i frost saw and hear it i was interested in it
Tone-Sharpness(a bit of noise comes out of it if you go 4 and above)
Level-Volume knob noobs!!!(can never be as good as true bypass but only lose 1-5% of your tone naa not really a big deal)
Dist- distortion level. don't use 10. go from 4(for blues) and 6-8 for hard rock

guys esp. new players please don't annoy people(and yourself) and read the manual b4 plugging it in

Can emulate some of Satriani's and Vai's sound from her
pretty good for what i pay but sadly can be improved with some mods done to it.

i got some of hendrix's tone out of this but pushing the tone to position 6 with distortion of 4-7>can sound close to 'foxey lady', 'voodoo child' and 'purple haze'
my guitar has DiMarzio Fred in the bridge which helps it better

Not good for metal cause not heavy and smooth sounding. anyone who buys this pedal for metal will definitely be dissappointed(hahahah what idiots). Go for a Ibanez TS-9DX of Boss MT-2

very clear sounding but you have to be experienced in sound setting to dial good toens out of her>nvr trust kids within age of 14-17 to be good at sound setting

Yea used it for a couple of gigs
sounds great according to my guitar tech but needs modding for perfection

my first DS-1 died on me even before plugging it in so guys make sure you have your receipts to change it for a working one
this one replaced the broken one and lasted for quite a while already

Yea pretty good, they changed it for a new working one for me

Well sound is very personal but this is my personal testimony>it 90% matches what i'm looking for
amp OD/Distortion are ok but i found them pretty muddy compared to this pedal

this pedal Mainly targets players that are into hard rock, blues, punk, Jimi Hendrix stuff and shred!!!

ps. if you guys have single coil guitars, change them to better hum cancelling pickups cause this pedal can get noisy and too bitey for some ears
works best with humbucker or single coil stack guitars

Three big knobs (Tone, Level, Distortion) on an ugly little orange box. They can be adjusted "on the fly" with your foot. Plug it in and go.

For what it is, I adore the sound of this pedal. I play a Mexican Strat or Korean PRS SE through it, into a 50-watt 70's Fender Bassman 10, or ABY'd with a Crate Powerblock & generic 4X12. I typically play it with the distortion knob turned down, maybe 1/3 from the bottom, with the tone knob at 1/2, just to add a bit of dirt to my tone. I don't know that I'd use it for a "lead" tone, (for that I've got a Digitech DF-7 on a "midded-out" Big Muff setting), but for good, crunchy rhythm, it's wonderful. Low distortion sounds very vintage and warm through a good reverb, and high distortion is a wonderfully shrill twang (through single-coils). Through humbuckers, this thing really reminds me of Queens of the Stone Age, not really metal or anything, just good, fuzzy "rawk" tone.

It's a bit noisy through single-coils, but that's to be expected. Also, it gets an "8" in this category, 'cause if you're expecting to "chug-chug" or shred with it, you oughta look elsewhere.

Here's the best part. I've owned this pedal for 6-7 years, and have used it extensively for recording/performing. It's always sounded great. About a year ago, my basement flooded with about 2 1/2 feet of sewage. As one can imagine, it was a sad and disgusting affair in which I lost many pieces of gear. After the mess drained away, I was heartbroken. My beloved DS-1 (and a few other pedals) was on the ground, and had been completely submerged. Well, long story short, a month after the disaster, I pulled the ugly orange box out of a pile of the gear I'd thrown in my garage, cleaned it up a bit, and plugged it in, just to see what would happen. It worked like the day I bought it! Amazing, and a glowing recommendation for anything Boss makes.

Never had to talk to 'em, because their gear survives just about anything, apparently.

I play weird "alt-rock" in sort of a Jesus Lizard or Birthday Party vein. This pedal suits me just fine in getting either a good overdriven dirt or a chimey, shrill racket. That being said, I really don't think it's well-suited for "metal" or anything requiring that mid-scooped "Dimebag" sound. I've been playing for about 10 years now, and have experienced a lot of gear, but overall, the DS-1, going through a Fender tube amp, is my favorite sound. When I feared it was ruined, I had decided to buy another, but of course when I plugged it in and it worked like a dream, I was elated.

An amazing product, hands down, and the only reason I'm not giving it a "10" in this category is because it's sound is very distinct, and not for everyone.

This pedal is simple for it has only three knobs. I give it an 8 because the secret is to spend some time adjusting the knobs very carefully until the pieces of sound work great for your ears. I prefer to plug and play... but it's hard to get a good sound like that. Unless the configuration is set (after hours were spent on it).

The manual is very interesting, although the simplicity of the pedal makes the manual not so important. The good thing about the manual is the suggestions it shows. There are a couple of them that pleased me.

I wasn't aiming at any artist's sound, in fact I wanted to hear what I had in my ears and heart at that time. But some famous people use it: Joe Satriani, Kurt Cobain, Steve Vai... just to name a few.

The distortion is good, but I think it's a little harsh and noisy to me, even though I play with single coils. I don't believe it's nice to play metal. This pedal is for hard rock. It has a more natural sound. The DS-1 has an equalization curve on its on (like every other pedal) that is a bit "bassy" to me even with an EQ Pedal set right after.

My setup is: Custom made strat copy with three Fender Tex-Mex plugged in the DS-1, CS-3, GE-7, SansAmp Classic into a Marshall JCM 900 50w.

It has worked very well for me, although I don't play live.
I often bump into Boss pedals that have experienced years of heavy use, but still doing the job as it was the first day on it.

Never had to contact them.

I play rock... from Elvis Presley and The Beatles to Nirvana and Metallica. It's a good pedal for hard rock. I don't think it works for 50's and 60's good old rock n' roll.

I've been playing for about 10 years. I've had a bunch of guitars (Yamaha, Washburn, Epiphone, Kramer...). I had a Fender Richie Sambora MIM and a Marshall VS30 that I traded in for the JCM 900. I was a left-handed man who played right-handed guitar. After seven years, I read a lot about brain usage and emotional effects... and decided to switch to left-handed guitar. The best thing I did after starting playing this six-string instrument!

It it was stolen, I wouldn't buy it again. I think it's bassy and noisy for my taste. It may be good for playing grunge, though. I would try a different pedal, maybe a Jackhammer or a SuperOverdrive. There is a Boss pedal that's been discontinued that has a very clear sound and natural distortion, but I can't remember its name!

I like the mellow sound I could get from the DS-1. If it wasn't so "bassy", I wouldn't complain about anything. The noise part would be solved with a silent pickup.

I compared the DS-1 with the DS-2 that I also got. The DS-2 has a more distinctive sound to my ear, although it isn't so natural as the DS-1. It's hard to put sound into words, the best thing is to try it and then create an unique perspective of it.

I wish it was clearer and not so harsh. If it got a different curve, if it had more gain on the low-mids (600hz), it would please me better, perhaps.

It helped, of course! I got near one of the sounds in my head, but there are details that are very important.

My suggestion is: go for the sound in your head. Don't buy it because someone told you to or recommended it. Don't buy it because a famous guy used it. If you're going to buy any gear do it for the sound there is in your head and heart. Equipment is meant to help you get the sound of your head right into your ears and beating together with the sound of your heart.

You wont find an easier to use distortion.

I cant get any sound that is good out of this pedal. Its horrible. I liked it when I first played guitar and thought it was da bomb. Its been 12 or so years and I just tried this thing out today.

I cant believe I actually liked it once.

Its horrible. Thats the only word I can use to describe. Noisy, thin, cruddy sounding distortion that makes my Les Paul Standard thru my Mesa Boogie sound like a cheap wal-mart setup.

Its a boss, so its like a roach....it will most likely survive a nuclear war and make it out ok.

Ive never dealt with Boss's support.

I play rock, blues, some metal. Ive been playing about 15 years.;

distortion, tone, level. how hard could it get?

this pedal gave me the great clangy bite i was looking for with the tone all the way up, and i found a great dark side to it as well. unlike the big muff's low end, this one never sounds muted or awkward, but really inspires me. with the distortion toned down, this gives my amps' natural overdrive a good boost. one complaint, however, is that it's not the quietest pedal i've ever owned.

it's a boss, man.

it did what i wanted it to do.

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.

N/A

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.

n/a

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.

NA

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.

Plug in the AC adapter. Plug something into the input. Run a cable from the output to an amp or into the mix. Depress the pedal. Toggle around the knobs until you get what you desire. That's how easy it is to operate. I didn't need a manual.

I can get some nasty sounds out of this pedal. However, I don't own a guitar. I use this pedal for distorting vocals and synthesizers, and it gets the job done nicely. If I toggle everything just right, I can sound like Bill Leeb from Front Line Assembly, and that makes me very happy.
It can get noisy if you crank the distortion all the way up and the tone all the way up. The tone is a type of low pass/ high pass filter mixed with an equalizer. The lower the tone is, fewer high frequencies are let through and low frequencies pass (dark), and the higher the tone is, the less low frequencies are allowed through and high frequencies pass (bright). The higher the distortion is set, the more noise is created by increasing the tone.
Sometimes I feel like the pedal subtracts the fullness of sounds I run though it and makes them thinner than they were originally. But, it depends on the specific sound I'm running though and the pedal's settings.

This thing was designed for an elephant and can take any kind of ass stomping you try to deliver. I punch it to distort my vocals live and it hasn't died yet. And I bought it used.

Never talked to them, can't have an opinion.

I play industrial music and this pedal is essential for my live effected vocals.
If you're looking for a distortion pedal and you're short on cash and can't afford the higher grade ones like the Black 13 (which sounds ungodly awesome), get this. It's $40 new. It will survive anything you put it through except perhaps spilled liquids and molten lava. Beware this pedal making your signal sound thinner, though. The sound lies entirely in the knobs.
If it were lost or stolen, I would get a new one, or maybe upgrade to one of the newer DS's to get a gruffer sound.
I love the fact it can take a beating. It's made mostly out of metal, not plastic, which I like. All pedals should be built as sturdy as this. Just don't use it when you're drunk, the knobs might break off if you miss. Even if they don't, drunk people don't play as well as sober people do anyways.

Three knobs - how much easier can it get?

The stock pedal sounds like garbage. My Jackson strat clone sounds absolutely nasty. My les paul sounds a little better, fatter, but still harsh and shrill, nothing like a les paul. DS1 kills all your bass. Increasing tone makes it sound like a weak thin tin can. It has a raspy tinny metallic tone which I can't stand.

I modded mine and it sounds a lot better. This pedal does have potential, but I really wonder why boss released something like this. It must be modded before playing, otherwise you will give up guitar.

Rock solid, for the past 10 years.

Never needed

It's an ok pedal if you're experimenting with mods. I won't buy this to actually play on stage. There are a lot of better sounding distortion and od pedals around, even at a much cheaper price, eg the behringer od/dist, ibanez etc.

Pretty simple.

Unmoddified this gets about a 5. After I put a monte allums rectifier, cmat, tri-gain kit in it it now gets a 9 as far as pedals go . Way loud now also.

If you can use a soldering iron and install a mod , this pedal goes from average to awesome . If your into the sound of a amp barely starting to break up , no pedal will match a good tube amp . Pedals seem to be best when you need more than a little break up. Would I buy it again ? Its good value even without the mod.

Easy as pie, three simple controls and you don't even need the manual.

I had a very early Taiwan made DS-1 god knows how many years ago. I was a student and that was all I could afford, with my squier strat, a simple one guitar one pedal setup.

After I started working and could afford to experiment with other pedals, every single dirt pedal I used sounded better than the ds-1. Mind you I still have my first ds-1, all battered bruised and ugly looking, for sentimental reasons. I bought it out of hard saved pocket money, and quite a few missed lunches.

The ds-1 somehow sucks away the guitar's native tone and character, and introduces a sterile buzzy fizzy distortion, which on a single coil pickup sounds really nasty. Humbuckers do a tad better but still sounds nasty. My les paul doesn't like this pedal, and comes out sounding like a drunk tramp playing a distorted violin with his teeth.

Not noisy per se, in that it doesn't introduce unwanted noise unless the gain is cranked all the way up, but then again which dirt pedal doesn't behave that way?

The tone control is really silly. If it's up beyond 9:30-10:00 position, it literally sucks away and kills all your bass, making your axe sound like an ice pick scratching a blackboard.

Sort of reliable. Mine crapped out two years back and the in/out sockets needed to be replaced. I thought they were metal, but they're all plastic inside. The second time, the sockets were ok but there was a wiring problem. I guess after all these years, one of the wires got cut off at the solder point, and all it needed was resoldering.

Boss pedals are not nearly as infallible as people make them out to be, so never gig without a backup, I've learnt that the hard way many years ago, and had to use the amp's distortion which sounded terrible.

Never needed. My pedal started conking out waaaaaaay after warranty expry.

I really don't know why they have to keep producing the same pedal year after year, when there are far more modern designs and better designs which don't kill the lows, and eat up your guitar's tone. Even the simple SD-1 and BD-2 are miles ahead of the DS-1 in terms of sheer character and tone.

I only keep my DS-1 for sentimental reasons, and never use it. It looks like a war relic and is an interesting conversation piece.

Three controls, as simple as it gets? Not until you see how weirdly the tone knob behaves.

This was my 1st dist stomp box, till I heard the blues driver and sd1 overdrives. I used it with a cheap Jackson strat copy, and later a Tokai with P90's. It sounds like rusty fizz with either. My ampli is a second hand Fender 1968 deluxe reverb which is a lovely amp but this pedal makes it sound like a small transistor radio. I heard abt mods to pedals but I rather pay a little more and get a great pedal out of the box. I dont like messin around with the pedal guts and innards.

My guitar is not the best but it has a nice balanced tone but when I stopmed on this box all the base vanished and all I got was fizzy treble and harsh mids.

Absolutely no clue. It feels solid and looks solid but I dumped mine after a month. Maybe it woulda lasted maybe not. I dunno.

No idea dudes. I dumped my pedal.

This pedal is for making a lot of noise. There aint nothin subtle about this dirt bag. Something like sex pistols or ramones I guess, get a dirty loud guitar, put it thru this pedal and sound dirtier and louder but totally lacking any beauty. It can be used for a very limited range of music mostly for rhythm. I play any lead solo thru this pedal it sounds like a wailing tin can, oh my god help me kil myself that's what I feel.

Easy to use with only 3 knobs but not so easy to get a great tone. The tone ctrl knob does weird sh*t to your tone.

I play at home with small(er) practice amps. I use a Fender MIA tele through my effects to a Marshall MG15MSII Micro Stack at home. For gigs, we use a larger louder Marshall which sounds a lot better.

The ds-1 really kills the lows specially if you have the tone knob beyond 10 o'clock. You can test this my playing some muted chords and listening to the "chunk" sound with and without the ds-1 engaged. With the ds-1 on, there's really no depth and lows, quite a bit of nasty fizzy mids and highs.

When I play the ds-1 into the 50 watt or 100 watt stage amps, it sounds a bit better, but there are other dirt pedals which sound a LOT better than the ds-1. The metal zone when set to low gain sounds a lot richer and with more harmonic content. I also use a naxon overdrive which sounds a lot smoother and richer than the ds-1.

It may be good for some older AD/DC rhythm, some ZZ-top rhythm and the likes, but I simply cannot solo through this pedal, it sounds truly nasty and farty.

It was reliable for a while. I bought mine used, a year ago and used it for 9 months before I sold it. There was a weird problem with it. I would get sound when the unit is bypassed, and an intermittent nothing when switched on. I really dont know much about the electronics, but I guess they used cheap parts from god knows which country, but I can make a guess. I believe this is not an uncommon problem with boss pedals.

Dunno, I bought it second hand.

Nope, this ain't for me. I got an SD-1 and an electro harmonix overdrive which sound far better than this ______. I don't know how people still sing its praises, maybe it was a great pedal in the 80's but with all the choice and tones available today, you'd be hard pressed to find something that sounds worse.

If it were stolen, I'd thank the thief. Anything I wish it had? Hell yeah, I wish it had something, even a little itsy bitsy something that made it sound the remotest bit musical rather than sound like a paper shredder being fed CD's.

Well there are only 3 knobs and the place where the batery goes is easy to open

I dont like it it would be great if yo want to get a old radio sound but i dont like it

I will dont us it at stage or studio because i dont like it i will probably i use for warm up my hands after the show.

I buy it on Ebay and here in Peru there isn??t any costumer support

I play metal and rock like Santana but this pedal is for punk.

It is important to remember that this pedal was designed when amps were just amps with no bells & whistles or channel switching!
To get good use out of the DS-1 you must use it into a clean tube amp with the bright switch off! It's like a treble booster with gain. Into a bright overdriven amp it'll sound like crap... you can crunch an old twin and make it sound like a Marhall with nthis pedal. Very dynamic.

Use it with a CLEAN tube Amp!

Joe Satriani uses it in the clean channel of his peavey tube amp.

Ostensibly easy insofar as there's only three knobs, but as another reviewer below astutely noted, there is no good sound to be had out of this pedal, and the least-bad sound takes a fair bit of fiddling to achieve

The tone must be kept below 10 o'clock or it'll sound head-searingly bright in a harsh, grating way. Keep the gain lower than 10 too if you want anything approaching clarity. This pedal sounds cold, clinical & never far from harsh at any setting, even if used as a boost with the gain on 0.
It sounds passable in a cheesy 80's Dokkeny cock rock way, if used via a tube Marshall with a compressor before it & a sprig of reverb. With a Marshall it can also do a convincing 80s speedcore sound ?? la Bad Brains. Through any kind of bright-voiced amp eg Fender, it sounds indescribably awful for anything.
I have a 70s MXR distortion + that does something similar but with way more warmth & better definition (a lot less volume though. Damn, is it too much to ask that someone might get it ALL right??)

Definitely reliable. The most expensive feature of Boss pedals are the tough casing. The actual interior components I'm sure are bottom of the barrel.

Never dealt with Roland. I've been reliably informed that they're....unaccomodating.

This was my first distortion pedal, given to me by my parents for Christmas 1989. It was a Japanese one that I used for a few years til it was stolen. Recently I bought another one in a moment of nostalgic sentimentality (these moments are dangerous), but I really found I had no use for it. It sounded just as I remembered the old one sounding, but it was my ears that had done the evolving! Boss currently do ONE good pedal: the OD-3 overdrive. Get that one if you use a tube amp. It has way more bottom end, warmth, guts, balls & transparency than the DS-1 & more than enough gain on tap (if not, you need to practise!)
The DS-1 deserves credit for being there first even if the party's a lame one, but really in today's market there is infinitely more choice than 27 years ago. Much better distortion units can be had for not much more. It's worth going the extra yard.
Thank you ver'much

Very easy to use as it only has three knobs. The instructions are not really needed.

The sound quality is good if you play punk for instance. I got my Ds1 modified by a company called Pedaldoc and it sounds much better now. I like Hendrix sound and it gets pretty close now.

This is not a pedal it is a tank. No way your are going to break it even if you throw it out of the windon of a 20th floor.

I have never met anybody who had to contact Boss because one of his pedals had broken down. As stated above this think is a really really sturdy.

Good enough sound but much better after being modified. I believe there are lots of companies modifying the Ds1 now so google it and see what you can find.