Boss DS-1 Distortion

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.