Boss DS-1 Distortion

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.