Boss DS-1 Distortion

Great DISTORTION tones from this pedal. I use this pedal only with a clean amp. Either Solid State or Vintage Tube. If I wanna punch an already OVERDRIVEN amp I use a BOOST, OVERDRIVE pedal or FUZZ pedal. My ds-1 works well with my other pedal types and sounds good with humbuckers and single coils.

I have the MIJ version. I A-B'd it with the MIT version and to my ears there is a difference. My MIJ isnt as harsh in the high end and has more low-mid capabilities than the MIT. Both cross paths within some ranges and with amp EQ tweaking I could approximate the ranges I like with the MIJ on the MIT. I prefer the MIJ over the MIT for what I consider a better more "musical" tonal range, but I have jammed with both and had just as much fun with either.

Very easy! It's got three knobs, a footswitch and everything else you need for a distortion pedal.

Here's me setup: Epiphone Les Paul Standard - Dunlop Original Craybaby - Boss DS-1 - Rocktron Vertigo Vibe - Crate XT65R. It sounds absolutly fantastic! It really brings out the bite in the humbuckers of my Les Paul. My favorite artists are The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Ramones, Cream, Green Day, Social Distortion, Black Sabbath, The Who, Stevie Ray Vaughan and I've been able to nail the distortion of 9-out-of-10 of those artists (it's a little bit to harsh for the Stevie Ray sound.) I also of a Boss CH-1 SUPER Chorus that I haven't tried this with yet, but will as soon as I can find that pedal.

Very reliable. I completly trust Boss guitar products. I think that I can perform with it and not worry about it.

I play mostly Hard Rock, Punk, Blues, Rockabilly, Country, Grunge and this badass little pedal helps me in all those styles. I can't believe that I didn't buy this pedal before! I had other pedals such as the DOD Flashback Fuzz, that was a piece of crap. Then an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi Russian, that OK, but it was a little too bassy and harsh. If someone stole this thing I would find them and beat them with brass-knuckles.

Level, tone, gain, and a foot switch, how much simpler can you get.

This is be best sounding $39 I've ever heard.

Feels pretty sturdy, but I can't say know how it would hold up under long term hard use. In case anyone is still constantly (and needlessly) replacing batteries, I'll metion this again: Disconnect from the input jack when you're done for the day.

I love this thing. I've got other pedals, some more versatile or "better" for one thing or another, but the shear simplicity and sound of this one never fails to please me.

Three knobs, what couldn't be simpler.

It seems to me that the good people at Roland (makers of Boss pedals) have incorrectley labeled the pedal as a distorsion, when the should have labeled it as a tone-sucking, no good piece of crap. I was told by the store assistant that this pedal was excelent value for money, but it seems that they lied. It produces a hollow, muddy rattling that is comparable to the sound that cheap speakers make when used at high volume an awful vibrating drone. This pedal evidently is not true bypass, as when it is switched of and, even unplugged, from my setup it leave behind a lifeless cough in my Marshall, which I can only correct to my ears by turning the amp off, putting all the knobs to zero and resetting them again.

The tone control is a truly hapless piece of pathetic engineering by Boss. At it's most bassy position, it sounds like you have taken a nice old tube amp, removed the tubes and set all the controls to flat. As you increase the tone towards the more trebley end of the spectrum, it increasingly sounds like a 70 year old, 40 a day smoker continuously clearing their throat into a cheap PC microphone on a low quality recording seting. Sorry for the harshness, but this tone control produces a truly abominal sound.

Put it this way: If my house was on fire and I had to (for example) keep an extrermely rare and valuble ring or huge wad of cash from being burnt, I would sooner put it into the battery compartment of this pedal than place it in a fireproof safe.

Never dealt with them.

A sinful creation. Positivley horrific, other than at the small spot where it serves as a reasonable boost during a solo. Avoid.

It easy as a effect pedal. I think it's the easier kind.

Many amateur people has a big deal when it comes to choosing the distortion/overdrive pedal, many of them think that you need a 500$ pre-amp or a 300$ vintage overdrive unit. Yeah Right!

The other side of the story is that many pro's (Vai, Satriani, Rivers Kuomo, John Frusciante, Dave Navarro, George Lynch, Robert Smith, Kurt Kobain, etc...) are aware of the great skills of this circuit. As long as you have a good tube amp and a decent guitar, the tone will be at you hands. Doing so, you can focus your money into something different than the "overdrive pedal"

The best of it is that you can find them on Ebay for less than 30$!!!

Weakness: since Boss moved their production to Taiwan, all of their pedals are now manufactured with cheaper electronic components, so you have to make your way to the so called "pedal mod" and voila!!!!
Professional quality tone. Much like a Marshall at 10.

I like Rock ----> I play Rock.
I have a Strat and a Les paul and it sounds perfect with both of them.
With my Strat I use it all alone to get that classic Strat/Marshall tone. With the Paul I compress the signal with the Boss CS-3 to get a heavier wall of Marshall sound (think Slash) out of my 64'tremolux.


I would give it a 10 but; since you have to come with this modifications and stuff... Let's say an 9.

It's a classic piece of gear, it's like a Strat, a Marshall head, a Twin Reverb, etc...

People say:

"Built like a tank"
"Roaches and Boss pedals will survive the 3rd WW"

...all true.

Go and get one.
If you think you want an improved tone, go and mod it.

I've used and abused: Ts-9, Proco Rat, Fuzz Face, Danelectros, etc...

Now I'm a DS-1ner and I'll stick to it.

Merry Chritsmas!

I've already written my review of this pedal quite a while ago--this is an addendum that applies to ALL effects pedals.

1. A pedal will not make you sound like a famous artist you are trying to emulate. It can get you closer in the sense that you'll have the approximate tone. But a pedal will only emphasize your strengths and/or weaknesses as a player. Lowell George (of Little Feat fame) used two (yes, TWO) MXR Dyna Comps, in series, with the parameters/knobs maxed out; most of us would sound like crap trying to do that, but it worked with HIS style of play--which leads us to #2;

2. You may hear 1000 other guitarists (of varying degrees of ability and style) use a particular pedal and sound good, but it may not "fit" with YOUR style of picking, playing and/or choice of instrument/amplifier/other effects pedals. A pedal that sounds good coupled with a Telecaster and a Deluxe Reverb may not sound good with a Les Paul and a Marshall stack.

3. Replace your old patch cords--they add noise and can destroy the fidelity and character of a pedal.

4. See # 3, and this time I mean it! Replace them now!

5. Tweaking the parameter knobs (distortion/tone/volume/whatever) on a pedal is an art form in itself. I have kept people from getting rid of a pedal they were dissatisfied with by helping them to realize how the different parameters effect their tone, as well how Pedal "A" interacts with Pedal "B" (for example, if you are running your distortion before or after your wah, or running a flanger with your overdrive pedal engaged, etc). Add to this the fact that some pedals need delicate tweaking and some need heavy-handed twisting in order to achieve the desired effect.

6. See # 3, and this time, really do it--you'll be happy you did.

7. Almost all pedals add noise; either buy a noise suppressor or get used to it. If it adds too much noise after adding a noise suppressor, get rid of the pedal or GET OVER IT!

This pedal is not too easy to use: one tone, one volume, and one distortion knob, all are very sensitive, however i couldnt find an adapter for the pedal, i went to radioshack but it tells u the voltage but not the ampage, and on the head it says use boss adapters only, im sure thats not true, b/c with the right amp and volt. i assume u can use any ac adapter.

The sound is fairly nice, although u need compression and a separate equalizer to tweak around in order to get the sound you want, over all the sound is not bad, very good sustain even without compressor, i truly feel i get much more sound out of its price.

YES! out of all the other ratings i gave i have to give this one the highest, i cannot tell you how much abuse and beating this fellow has taken since i got it, i it in my packpack on the bottom one time and i forgot about it i was trying to find it, it happened to be on the very bottom closest to the skin of the packpack, some asshole took it and threw it down the stairs from third floor, wen i got it out i was like o shit this is gonna really fuck it up, but to my surprise i plugged it in the amp it sounded just as great, not the slightest difference at all and im usually a picky sound listener, but after that drop ive continued to take bad care of it, i stomp on it real hard, dropped it a few times, threw it, etc, and yet its still as if its new, not even a loosened screw! very dependable, take it on ur weekend gig, or practice with it in ur room and let a 50 ton truck run over it and shit its gonna play like its supposed to.

idk

this is my frist pedal, i run it through a cheap kareoke amp, ( it really sucks!!) but nevertheless it sounds fucking great, or maybe its cuz of my pickups????? i play it mainly through my yamaha pacifica 012, anyways my friend has one and it served him well, we both use our ds-1's very often, forget about the sound, u may not like it, personally it's alittle too "twanggy" for me, but thats not important b/c pedals are not supposed to make the ideal sound for u, equalizers do, besides, a freind of mine told me: pedals and guitars, everything are like girls (and guys if ur a gril) with different personalities to them, u just need to accept them (and use them) to use them for watever art u create is good.

I'm a member of the instrumental rock crowd (satch, vai, etc.), so after I saw all of those guys using it I thought I'd give it a try. Another quick note: I DO NOT use this for my main distortion--that comes from my amp. I use it for extra gain and touch sensitivity during solo passages, so that is the perspective this review is based around.

This pedal is very easy to use. Typical stomp box: click once to engage, and the little red light comes on to let you know that it is in operation. Click a second time to disengage the effect (and the little red light ;-) ). Has three knobs (tone, level, distortion), so dialing in your sound is fairly quick and easy.

As I said before, I use this pedal as a soloing tool. That said, it will color your tone somewhat, depending on how the tone control is set (I usually run mine between 9 and 11 o'clock). In regards to the level control, the more you turn it up, the more saturated your signal becomes. A word of caution though: the higher the level, the more noise it generates. As far as the distortion control goes, I've pretty much always set it at 1 o'clock and left it, as that pretty much gets the little bit of extra distortion I have wanted. All in all, it sounds very good, but the excessive noise bumps the rating down somewhat.

You could probably take it out and play street hockey with it the afternoon of the gig, and then turn around and use it that night. Rock solid, time after time, mile after mile, and I've never needed a backup.

Never had to deal with Boss customer support.

Aside from the excessive noise, this is fantastic for what I need it for. As for using it as my main distortion, I'm a tone freak, and I definetly would not get what I wanted in that regard. But for a solo boost pedal, it is fantastic--possibly/arguably the best out there for what it does. Even brand new, the price is a real deal. I would definetly recommend this for anyone looking for a pedal for this type of application.

3 knobs. Doesn't get easier to control than that.

eeehhhhh this is where the review heads south. I received this pedal as a gift years ago. Initially (since it was the first distortion I'd ever had), I thought it was kinda okay, but that dissillusion will wear off after playing with it for 5 minutes.

My setup at the time was a Fender Deluxe Reverb '65 and a Harmony guitar.

This thing hisses like a rattlesnake, and the screechy-ass "distortion" is almost sufficient to make your ears literally bleed. Plus it has no sense of sustain whatsoever.

Some reviewers on here rave about this pedal, but don't listen to them and save your money for a better sounding pedal, because the sound quality is reeeeaally bad.

Avoid this pedal like the plague.

Reliability-wise, it was a brick.

Never messed with them

So basically to sum things up, this is one dreadful sounding piece of equipment. I had to delete recordings I'd made with them afterwards because it seriously hurt my ears to listen to the screechy, hissy disortion you get from it. I play rock and metal mainly, and so anyone with that goal in mind should shy away from this product.

One guy earlier said "they should have painted it brown and called it the turd box!"
I couldn't agree more.

This is indeed a worthless piece of shit.

The three knobs look simple but are tricky once you want to get the tone you want out of this pedal.

I am curently using a peavey hp signature plugged into this thing first, the metal zone from boss, and my fender twin 65 reissue. I've had this pedal for 6 months, and at first I really hated it. I would only use the metal zone, but the twin makes such an accurate representation of your effects that the metal zone sounded really harsh. Once I spent some time with the pedal and found out the configuration that worked for me, I started loving this pedal. I put the tone knob at about 3/8ths, the volume at about 5/8ths, and the distortion just depends on what music Im playing. You can get really mellow distortion all the way to old metal with this baby. Now I just use the metal zone as my lead pedal, either using both pedals at the same time for hardcore distortion, or just the metal zone to make the lead parts just cut through. Also I dunno why so many people give this pedal so much crap, it says distortion on it, not overdrive. If you looking for tube like overdrive then get a blues overdrive pedal or something comparable, this pedal is made for distortion!!!

I totally can relly on this pedal. Its built like a tank and hasn't given me any problems since I got it.

Haven't dealt with them at all, and I dont think I will cause ive been hanging with the metal zone for at least 4 years now and it hasn't given me any problems what so ever.

I play anything from old metal, rock, hardrock, punk, and the ocassional blues and this thing gives me everything by just leaving my tone and volume settings as they are and just changing the distortion knob. By backing up my neck pickup, crancking up the reverb in my twin, and putting the distortion at mid level I get amazing blues like tones. If I select both pickups and put the distortion all the way down I get the classic old-school british rock. If I crank up the distortion knob to 3/4ths I get metal reasonance. This thing is just awesome, but needless to say, I am considering in getting one from analog man just to see if modded it would sound better. I just love this pedal and I would replace it if something ever happened to it, although I dont thin much will. It is so underpriced that every guitar player should get it just for the heck of having a distortion pedal that will give you a wide variety of tones and will last you forever.

Ease of use? Volume, tone & distortion knobs. Step on it to turn it on & off. Pretty darn easy to use!

It comes with a wee little manual that tells you what it does, how to use it, and has some sample settings.

I use my DS-1 with a PRS McCarty Standard, Hamer 25th Anniversary, Ibanez NDM1 and a G&L ASAT Special into either my Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue or my little '71 silverface Champ.
This pedal really nails that 80's "hard rock" sound. Dialing down the Distortion knob will let you save a decade off that, for a bluesier sound(I said "bluesier", not bluesy! But the DS-1 will work for blues in a pinch...). Some noise on higher gain settings, but that's what OD & Distortion pedals do. It's harsher than an Ibanez TubeSreamer, but I'm betting it's supposed to be...
My amps get a great, fairly mild crunch when pegged. Unfortunately: that's not always possible to do, and I like to play some heavier stuff every so often, so I use different Overdrives & Distortions depending on my mood.

The DS-1 is a classic, and deserves that status. I can get a great 80's crunch, and the manual's "fuzz" setting is close enough that I haven't broken down and bought a fuzz pedal yet.

This pedal is built like a brick...well, you get the picture. Sturdy as all get out. I dig the orange paintjob.

Never dealt with Boss. 5 year warranty, though. Can't beat that for the price!

I like to dabble in blues, hard rock, funk, classic rock...I'm all over the place. This pedal & a blackface Fender amp will cover a LOT of ground. I'm betting I could use it for any musical situation to some degree. I love the sound, the simplicity, and the rock-solid feel of the pedal, and for forty bucks I wouldn't think twice about buying it again if it went missing. I've been thinking about getting one for years. I own a TubeScreamer, Reverend Drivetrains(1st and 2nd version), a ProCo Rat, a Digitech Screamin' Blues and 2 Digitech Bad Monkeys. The DS-1 & the Bad Monkeys get all the play time these days.

It's verry easy of use cause it has only three knobs.

I use a silvertone sg with 2 humbuckers and don't use this pedal without an other cause I use it always as a booster for my bd-2.
That sounds good but, it is not everything.
The amp that I use is a Costum 65 watt.

It is a boss pedal so you can drive over it with a tank and than you could youse it but I should never use it on a gig without backup.

no expirience with it.

I play rock,blues,metal,rock'n'roll and it doesn't fit in my style.
I play about 3 years and I own a bd-2 a vox v848 and a mt-2.
What I'm going to do when it's stolen......PLEASE COME STEALE THIS THING!!!!!!!!!!
I wish it had a ts-808 sound :P
It doesn't help with my music but... it does help to so... i give it a 5.

This pedal is the basic level, tone, distortion. I think the controls are simple and straightforward.

The sound quality is lacking. Boss is owned by Roland. They make effects exactly how they make their amps. The effects I've tried by Boss are very solid state and low grade. Most anyone who is trying to get a good clear loud distortion should shy away from this pedal.

I use a 1960 Les Paul, or a '61 SG into either a Vox Ac30 or a 1960 Supro. Both guitar are great. Both amps are amazing. My pedalboard, which I use with both amps, consists of a Crybaby Wah, Fulltone Full-Drive 2, Vintage Rat, and a Tape Delay I made myself. All the effects are true bypass and sound great. I wasn't able to dial in any good distortion tones with the DS-1. I'm picky about my tone but this pedal didn't come anywhere near cutting it.

As cliche as this is, it's a Boss. They don't sound good, but you could throw it off the Empire State Building and it would probably work. Gigging with this would be counterproductive.

Never done anything with them.

I play just about any style of music. I've been a gigging musician in Atlanta for several years and this pedal was probably the first I bought in a quest to find my specific tone. I was looking for a tone that could encompass Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Radiohead, and Ok Go. I asked around and found the ProCo Rat. An absolutely amazing pedal.

http://www.procosound.com/ratindex.htm

The previous link has all the Rats on one page. The one I'm using is an older version of the "Vintage Rat." I would highly recommend this pedal to anyone looking for a good clear high-definiton distortion. The DS-1 is very tinny and harsh in my experience. As I said earlier, I use some pretty good equipment and there is no real weak link in my gear. All true bypass effects heading into a killer tube amp. The tone I get with the Rat is amazing, but with anything Boss it really kills the tone. Like I said, I'm very picky. Even so, the DS-1 didn't measure up. It didn't come anywhere close to being a kind of distortion I would ever want to touch, much less use.

It has 3 knobs! (count them! 1, 2, 3)

If I were a blind man with no sense of taste or smell then you could use this pedal to describe the meaning of shit to me.

It is almost useless on its own. But it does distort! I guess using it before a hot tube amp would do something useable. I still think that it sux the way it is.

I will modify it someday, until then it remains as a door stop or a paper weight.
I found it good to throw at those noisy f**ing ducks next door !!
I'm still looking for the guy who gave this to me, All I want to do is ask him ...."why"? ... then I'll bitch smack him.

As a door stop it is great, its heavy enough to hold down paper and the ducks hate it!

All boss pedals are reliable and road rugged.

I have never met anyone from Boss so I don't know if they are helpful or not.
The guy who designed this pedal is an arsehole!

Look, I like boss as much as the next "six string pinehead"
But you can shove this little orange box right up your clacker Mr Roland!

It should have been painted brown and called the turd box!
In fact I'll do that to it myself after I mod it (it should sound better then I hope) and when people ask me what it is then I'll say - "hey dude!, it's a piece of polished shit!"

LOL
By the way I play 80 rock ie EVH etc and have lots of stompboxes after 32 years of playing but this thing is the worst!

I will modify it!
My little TURD BOX WILL ROCK someday!.

It don't get much easier than a 3 knob distortion pedal! The controls are for TONE, LEVEL and DISTORTION. If you just set them all at 12 o'clock you get a classic Marshall-like distortion, which is just fine.
The LEVEL allows me to match my clean volume, or use the pedal as a solo booster and get those extras db's. and there's a good few extra db's here, which can be handy.

The DISTORTION control cranks from an early pre-amp distortion sound right thru to a fairly saturated, but not quite modern Metal, sound, in the Zeppelin/Sabbath kinda area. Lately I've started wishing I could back the distortion off even further, into sweet overdrive territory, but the DS 1 won't do it. I can get close by turning the volume down on my guitar, but this isn't always a good option, sounds great with my Strat but my Jazzmaster loses top-end if you use it's volume pot. I'm dreaming of an analog-man Boss Blues Driver to give me the sweet overdrive, but for the moment I'm just turning my tube amps up a little!

The TONE control is the weakness of this pedal, it can get harsh and sharp past about 11 o'clock, I never move it from around 10 or 11. That's OK for me but it's inflexible. I don't know what freq it's set at but I wish I could use it to mellow the tone more. The DS 1 can get sharp, and especially thru Fender amps it can be nasty, and the TONE control doesn't always save you. This seems to be a common problem with Boss pedals, especially their overdirves etc. Whose ears are they tuned for? If they put an internal trim pot in their pedals for the player to choose the range the TONE affects they would make a lot of people very happy!! it's all about the tone right? Guitar gear is about tone, please BOSS gimme the tone!!!!!! The one TRULY great thing about the tone tho is that it doesn't gut my bottom-end. That's the first thing I look for in a pedal, does it leave the lo frequencies intact? That's why I'm still using this after 19 years of looking for something better.

As this pedal has been my main distortion sound for most of my career I learnt a long time ago to check any amps I bought with this baby first. They had to pass the DS 1 nasty nasty test!! So I haven't had a lot of Fender amps thru the years!!!

I've been using this pedal for 19 years now, with a crowd of different guitars, amps and other effects. It's always been my main distortion sound, and it's worked well in almost every setup I've had. I've progressed from amp-death kinda punk sounds, to Zeppelin style Gibson-Marshall sounds, to more retro-vintage Stonesy kinda sounds. As I've got better guitars and learnt to play them I've wanted to hear their tone, rather than some pedal. The DS 1 has travelled the whole way with me and coped with my changing sounds by just turning the DISTORTION down!! Cranked up it's really a generic Marshall kinda sound, just about any guitar sounds the same thru it because it's sooooo distorted, but the first 2/3rds of the distortion range actually lets the tone, the harmonics and the dynamics of my guitar control the sound - just like a good tube amp.
When I had a Marshall JCM 800 I did some serious A/B recording tests matching the DS 1 against the pre-amp distortion of the Marshall, both with a Les Paul Standard and a USA Strat - and in the end I could hardly tell the difference between amp and pedal! The DS 1 had a more controlled and tight bottom end, and I didn't have to blow my head off to get the tone.
Now I'm playing a US Strat and a US Jazzmaster thru two tube amps, an Ampeg Jet-12, Class A with EL84 tubes (very VOx-ey tone), and a VADIS, Australian made 1960's point to point all tube amp with a more Fender style tone. I adapt my pedal setup for different gigs but mostly its a tuner, Cry Baby Wah, Boss flanger BF2, DS 1, Boss GE-7 EQ (this is on all the time to make up for the lack of bottom end in my small open-back combos) and then either a Line 6 DL-4 splitting to both amps, or a vintage Australian tube pre-amp splitting to the amps.
I like to run the Ampeg a little overdriven, but not much because it gets so loud, and the Vadis is clean. The DS 1 takes the sound of each amp and gives me a good Beatle AC30 tone in the Ampeg and a more sizzling Hendrix kinda sound in the Vadis.

19 Years of constant gigs and touring, being thrown in and out of bags, boxes, vans, stomped on thousands and thousands of times, beer, water, ash and food spilt on it, most of the 90's on the road in Europe, from minus 20 centigrade to over 40 in Australia, dodgy Eastern Euro power, been riveted to a board once, stripped and painted black along with all my pedals (so german guitar geeks would stop asking me geek pedal questions)... and it's never stopped working for a second, never crackled or buzzed or anything. It's pitted and scratched and dirty as hell and still works as good as the day I bought it!!

I remember being impressed that BOSS sold it with a 5 year warantee, and I kept my receipt because nothing could be trouble-free for 5 years right? Wrong. This is the single most reliable piece of equipment I've ever owned. I'm wearing out my own body parts faster!!

See above, I've never needed to contact Boss about anything.

I wish I wish
- it had a better TONE control
- I could turn the distortion down a little more and not have to buy the Overdrive pedal too.

If I lost it I'd buy another one the same day. I've been looking for a distortion pedal I like more and haven't found one. I've owned and played dozens, even the tube pre-amp pedals including the Mesa-Boogie and Matchless, I tour a lot and get to try lots and lots of gear. I wouldn't say it's the best, nothing's the best, I like it the best.

" Well this is my third pedal modded by Chad, and the
man is on his way to being one of the Mod Kings".
Really 1st rate mods, and your pedals produce first
rate sounds. Chad takes all the cheap sounds out of a
pedal and makes it sound like it should have sounded
in the first place. Thanks for the great sound I am
now turning heads with. Tried doing some mods myself,
and what a disaster. Thanks for bailing me out Chad.
It definitely is a talent, and you certainly have it.
Keep up the good work!"

I am using a Fender 72 thinline Tele, Fender Strat with Holy Grail Lace Sensor PU's, & Gibson Les Paul. I have a Peavey 50 watt Classic Blues amp, Traynor YCV50 blue amp, and a Roland JC-120 amp. I have a Cmats modded MT2, SD-1, & DS-1.. along with various other pedals and Rack mounts units too numerous to list. I have GAS. I am a pedal Freak. Chad's pedals are totally quiet and the soldering is first rate. I am saving to also have Chad do the TS-9 mod on another SD-1.. wow what a sound.

Looking at the soldering, yes I can say I can depend on this pedal. But the thing I can really depend on is Chad! I would definitely gig without a backup.

The company is "Chad", and you can always depend on Chad to answer back imediately, and to make the customer first in order of importance.

I have been playing guitar about 10 years after playing Bass for 25 years. I love Blues, R&R,Funk, and old Motown. I have bought& sold hundreds of pedals over the years looking for the "great" sound. I am finally getting it with Chad's modded pedals. If someone stole them, I would have to get Chad to do it again with the same pedals.

So incredibly easy to use - provided you actually have ur guitar plugged in, you can't go wrong. Only two real knobs to play with, tone and distortion. 3 if you count level. Adjust as you see fit. It couldn;t be simpler!

Currently I'm using this with a Marshall 1960A cabinet thru a Laney GH100L head with a les paul epiphone and it sounds like the bomb. i'm aware i could have a better guitar but i dont have the cash. Anyway, the DS1 still sound brilliant. I have my tone at about 10 o'clock and distortion all the way up - level is variable depening on the situation. The sound is full but with enough bite to suit my purpose. Of course, you could set it up however you like for a different vibe...

Its a brick shithouse. Nothing will fuck with it.

N/A

I play alternative rock - and this pedal is the be all and end all. If it were lost i would buy another in a second. they're not that expensive and DAAAAMN they sound hot.

Pretty basic. Tone, Drive, Level.

I got this pedal as a present. If I heard it before getting it I would have asked for the reciept too. This thing can be used at best as a slightly heavier overdrive than most OD pedals on the market. Dialing the dist. to anything past 10' oclock is like opening the door to a snake pen. Infact dialing the Dist. knob doesn't really change the distortion level. It just makes the hiss louder behind an already thin, whiny distortion tone. Leads are impossible because their isn't enough sustain to play higher notes with clarity. Playing anything heavier than bluesy overdriven leads is impossible because turning it up all the way creates to much hiss, causing you to dial it to about half where the distortion is weasley sounding.

The tone knob is pretty useless too. Dialing it below half gives you a distant and muffled, overly bassy tone like your amp is underneath a pile of clothes. Dialing in past half gives you an annoying 'Erkelesque" exageration of treble that is ear peircing and unbearable.

The only thing I can use this thing for is a heavy form of overdrive, turning the distortion knob to 9' oclock or less. Anything past that is too noisy, thin and just plain annoying sounding.

Hasn't broken on me yet.

Never dealt with them

I've been playing 9 years and own a 1983 American Stratocaster Elite, Telecaster American, and a mid 60's Gibson SG. I run these into a Marshall JCM 2000 through a variety of effects. I play basically anything that I find challenging on guitar. Steve Vai, Satriani, Dream Theater (LTE), Eric Johnson, Yngwie etc. The reason I recieved this as a present was because I noted to my brother that Joe Satriani and Steve Vai both use the DS-1 in their rigs. Being the great guy that he his my bro took this as a hint to get me this pedal as a Christmas present. My first reaction after playing this pedal was 'WTF?? How in gods name can Vai and Satriani get this thing to sound like they do. Its impossible.' Researching furhter I realized that the pedals both of them use are highly modded DS-1's with higher quality parts replaced into the board. A stock DS-1 is pure shit. Its a low quality pedal and it gives you a low quality sound. My suggestion, if you buy the pedal than mod it (you pretty much have to) or just buy a better pedal. I sold mine a few weeks later and got a Korg 104ds instead.

Three knobs, very easy too get a good tone. No surprizes here.

I play a beautiful '78 Ibanez Artist, various Strats, and some other stuff.
I love my MIJ DS-1. At first though, I had some one the same concerns as some other reviewers: bitting treble, angry-bees-in-tin- can tone, BUT !!!!:
I've read most of the reviews here, and this is what I think SOME of the unhappy reviewers may be missing. I replaced my cables w/ better quality ones. Most importantly, the cheap coloured plastic cables between pedals. (I know a large chunk of you use them too.) The cable between the EH Holy Grail reverb and DS-1 is a foot long. Moving the DS-1 away (physically) from a digital source made a difference. All are good shielded cables. (BTW: read the EH reviews here and see how many people complain about the cheap sheet metal construction: How well do you think this shields digital noise?)
I mention all of this because reading the reviews, I notice that alot of the unhappy players have alot of pedals, and quite a few have a digital pedal next to the DS-1 in their chain.
All of this isn't a magic bullet, but the improvement was very noticable. The harsh tone mellowed out, the treble lessened, and the noise floor was lower. I hear the warm, grainy, early Marshall (kinda) tone that everyone raves about.
Yes it's for humbuckers (TS's are for Strats) and it is a little bit of "Ten flavours of chocolate" but if you like that tone- you'll love it!
Sorry to rant, but it's not voodoo- it works and improved greatly the tone. Had to come to the aid of my lil' orange buddy.

Boss equipment is well built, and lasts. I never worry about buying a used a 10 or 20 yrld Boss pedal.

Never needed work done. Replaced jacks myself on several Boss pedals, it's easy to do yourself.

Love it for rock playing, there's a reason it's a classic.

It has 3 knobs, level, tone, gain. It ain't the space shuttle.

In general, this pedal sucks. For leads, it makes a tinny buzzy sound that is almost un-useable. You can't dial in a sweet spot on this thing, the knobs really only change the amount of background noise. Even with an EQ pedal in front of it (also tried behind it), I can't dial in a sound that doesnt resemble an angry bee in my ear.
This pedal has potential though. If you play low range power chords, the distortion is nice a crunchy, a good hard clipping.
I'm sending this thing to Analogman for his DS-1/pro mod. It makes this pedal into a gorgious distortion box. I say the stock pedal has potential because with the pro mod this is my favorite distortion pedal... it sounds amazing. If you can get one cheap, I suggest doing the same. Analog Mike makes these pedals sing.
If you are a beginning guitarist looking for a hi gain stomp, I recommend you look elsewhere.
I give this pedal a 10 for sound after the mod.

boss boss boss yeah yeah yeah

ok, stock I give it a 3. Analogman modded, I give it a 10.

I`m a brazilian guitarrist and i just bought this pedal and i`m thinking this pedal very cool.It`s very simple to use. To get a sound of american rock bands of final 80`s the tone in position 3 and drive in position 9. To get a Nirvana sound put the tone in position 2 and the drive in 12.

My setup is wha cry baby/dyna comp/dist+/BOSS sd-1/BOSS
ds-1/IBANEZ TS-9
MXR STEREO CHORUS/MXR PHASE 90/DIGITECH DIGIDELAY.
I have a Peavey Classic 30 amp and a Gibson Studio.
This distortion pedal has always sound great.I have the new stereo chorus of mxr and i can take the exactly sound of Nirvana with both pedals.This is a very versatil pedal and I can reproduce a lot of bands that used or use distortion sounds.

If you take care this pedal it will have a long life, because this pedal is very resistent.

The BOSS has presence in a lot of countries. The support is not a problem.

This pedal is a good buy, because it is a good, versatility and cheap pedal. Like almost BOSS pedals.
It has a lot of consagraded sounds of many famous guitarrists. If you want play musics of famous bands add a BOSS Sd-1, a good delay and chorus and you?ll take a lot of sounds.

Well this pedal gives me tone from moderate distort to heavy distort, it's easy to get a decent tone as long as you keep the "tone" knob near min or below 11 o'clock setting. I dunno how old mine is but I got ot second hand and it looks like shit. There's paint peeling and chipping off and there's a small dent in the left bottom corner from god knows what.

I've played with the blues driver, the metal zone and the sd-1 before trying this, and quite frankly I was disappointed at the tone. The other pedals somehow have more 'character' (for lack of a better word) compared to this pedal. It does what it's supposed to do, which is distort the guitar to some extent, but it sounds quite soulless. The SD-1 and blues driver have that sparkle and soul which really makes my guitar sing. Anyway not bad for a $10 throwaway. Reading the reports on mods, I think I will start experimenting with it this weekend, I'm sure nothing can make it sound worse.

I play a fender strat with a SD humbucker at the bridge, and lace sensor pickups at the neck and mid, through the ds-1 into a fender blues jr amp, and crank it up quite a bit till the house shakes :)

Not sure how reliable it's going to be now, but when I picked it up, it was dead. A friend of mine was tossing this pedal out because it wouldn't produce any sound. I got it off him for $10 bucks. Worth it I'd say. I'm quite handy with electronics so I opened it up and looked around, and there was a problem with the power supply cable and an electrolytic capacitor had leaked and spilt goo over a small portion of the board. I replaced it, resoldered the cable and the DS-1 was ready to go. No problem after that.

I'm not sure what torture it was subjected to but I'll probably use a backup while gigging. I'm sure it must have been abused like heck looking at the shape it is in. Given this kind of treatment, I'm surprised that it works, so I'll give it an 8.

Never tried them.

Overall, it's so-so. It's a very robust brick and from the looks of my pedal it was probably used as a baseball or to smash windows and it still survived. Sound quality leaves a lot to be desired. I've heard much better sounding pedals from almost every mfgr.

Though the pedal has three simple looking controls, it takes a while to get that right setting which matches your guitar and your amp to give you the best tone. Mine is a pretty new one, made in 2004 I think, in Taiwan.

The stock pedal can do at a pinch, and I'm sure it must satisfy a large number of people given that this pedal has been in production practically unchanged for over a decade. But like some previous users have commented, it really shines when modded it delivers a much fatter fuller tone with a huge depth which I simply don't see inthe stock pedal. Really, if you own the DS-1 you owe it to yourself to at least hear what a modded ds-1 can do, then you will never use the stock pedal again.

I send my guitar through a compressor and the distort which then goes in to the amp which is a laney LC15R (wonderful tube amp btw). Of course it does get a little noisy when you crank up the drive, but it is a distortion and that's what it does. I discovered that much of the noise was from the bloody compressor rather than the distort, and I replaced the electrolytic caps with film caps which substantially reduced the noise.

Ultra rugged, never had a problem either before or after the mod. Well I fscked up with a cap on the mod so the drive sounded mushy and fuzzy, I discovered it was a dry solder, so I redid that and the tone is awesome now.

Never needed Boss support. The pedals will probably outlast me.

This is a very old design and a well researched design. There are so many variants of this basic design, but the DS-1 is a classic and a much copied design. I love this unit after it was modded. There's a heck of a lot hidden in that yellow metal box which is not obvious with the stock design, it's capable of a lot more.

Couldn't be easier to use, it has three controls which are obvious. The pedal is so simple to use the manual is unnecessary, it takes hardly 5 minutes of playing around with it to know what it can do. Mine is about a year old, made in Taiwan.

Quite frankly, the boss MT-2 and SD-1 are probably the only boss pedals I'd use as is. The DS-1 is quite a well studied design, but the stock pedal sounds like *(!@&#$. The depth and presence are lost, and the distortion sounds like hornets in a tin box.

It is possible to achieve a huge improvement in sound using a few simple mods. With the mod in place, there is an incredible increase in the fullness and presence of tone, and the distort sounds much smoother and nicer. Crank it all the way up and it gets pretty heavy. Mine now sounds nothing like the stock pedal.

I'd give the stock pedal 3, but due to the excellent moddability, I'd give it a 5. If this were a modded pedal I'd give it a 9.

It's been reliable so far but I'd carry a backup. The socket on my compressor went bad and it had to be replaced. I wouldn't gig without a backup.

There's no customer support in my country.

This is a good pedal only for mods, I wouldn't think of using a stock DS-1 unless I want to sound like shit. I've sent Les Pauls through it and it still sounds like *#&$ without mods.

Whoever says this pedal sounds great has yet to hear good pedals or properly modded pedals. However it is excellent for mods and there are a huge number of mods available for the DS-1, many of which you can do at home if you're handy with a soldering iron and know a little about resistors and capacitors.

Very easy, manual settings where good, i use modified my tones on them to make them a bit more rock, i got a sound very quick and stuck with it.

Very good, i always use my Marshall Amps channel distortion so i only use the DS1 when im in college using ther shit Torque and Laney. but never the less it gives a brilliant full sound that even pulls off metallica.

very reliable! its a boss

dont know all Boss pedals last

A brilliant all round distortion, ives used the Line 6 Uber metal and the Boss mt2 and the Marshall JH-1 and this piss's all over them,and with the price its a perfect buy i think it should cost alot more.

Way too easy. 3 knobs is nothing. As I say for any thing with knobs. Start at 12 o'clock and work from there. Make your own sound.

I bought this pedal with the intentions of using it as a boost,sustain pedal for leads/solos and that what I still use it for. I set the Tone and Dist low, around 10 o'clock and the level to around 12 o'clock. Works awesome!! The key is a nice tube amp that is already cooking. The DS-1 is just for some color on top.
I run a Gibson SG > Dunlop Crybaby GCB-95 > Boss DS-1 > BF-2 > TU-2 > homemade A/B box > Peavey Classic 50 2X12 (Dirty tones) and Randall RG100SC (clean tones) and this setup just rocks!!! This amp already sonds awesome when you crank up the clean chan and getting it cooking for a great rhythm tone but the DS-1 on top make your leads jump out of the speaker and kick everyone from the front to back in the face!!! I've tried it with my solid state Randall on the clean chan and it sounds better than the amps OD chan but it's made for that tube amp.

Can I depend on it???? I seriously think Curt Schilling could throw this thing 95 MPH at a brick wall and it wouldn't break. Boss pedals are know for their dependability and all of mine have held up quite well to my abuse. I'm almost always play at least 3-4 gigs a month and I'm a big guy (250lbs, shut up!) and I've been jumping on them for years without any cracks or broken part. I would gig without a back up, I just don't think it'd need it. If it was lost or stolen I'd be all over a new one. 10 ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!

Never needed to but I heard it's good

Overall don't expect too much out of it unless you want to use it for coloring. It sounds good for a rhythm tone but for my rock style (classic/hard rock) it's perfect for coloring lead tones over an already driven tube amp. For its price, you can't get a pedal anything close to it. BUY A FEW!!!

Muito f?cil de usar, apenas gire os bot?es, o manual explica a fun??o de cada um dos controles.

Meu Setup: Fender Americam series stratocaster > DS-1 (Japan) > Marshall 8240 valvstate. Apresnta um pouco de ruido quando se coloca muita distor??o mas isto ? normal. Fique surpreso com este pedal, estou muito satisfeito com ele, superou minhas espectativas. A principio comprei-o para usar em solos, mas hoje ? meu pedal favorito para bases, com ele consigo sons de Clapton a Van Halen. Para base coloque o TONE em 4,5 e o DIST em 5,5 e voc? ter? um som de Clapton a Slash, n?o esque?a de colocar o volume da guitarra em 7 para solar leve o volume para 10. Para Van Halem deixe o TONE em 4,5 e o DIST em 7,5 volume da guitarra 7 para base 10 para solo. agora se quizer fazer seu som ficar mais morno e com sustein acrescente um TS-9 tube screamer antes do DS-1 fica muito bom.

O pedal ? muito bem feito, caixa de metal, laranjinha, muito bom.

N?o precisei de suporte BOSS tem qualidade.

Toco v?rios estilos de Rock a blues e progressivo h? 18 anos, j? experimentei v?rios efeitos de distor??o em pedais e pedaleiras e o DS-1 ? muito bom, se tornou meu pedal 1 ? b?sico.

Tone, Level, Distortion. Just the basics.
In 25+ years of playing and buying gear, my rule of thumb for good gear is that it should sound great right out of the box, and good tones should be attainable with a minimum of tweaking.
This pedal definitely filled the bill.

I demo-ed it at Guitar Center by putting it in front of a small Fender Blues Deville and a Roland Jazz Chorus set on the clean channel, and playing whatever budget model Ibanez was sitting by the pedal rack. Right away I was getting great distorted tones, and when I kicked on the Roland's chorus, I immediately started getting a great power fusion tone. I even had guys in the store walking over to me to look and see/hear what gear I was using.

I play a Music Man Luke w/EMG's (81-85) through Boss (chorus, delay, compressor) and MXR (Zakk Wylde Overdrive) into a Carvin Legacy 100w head with 2x12 cab (Vintage Celestion 30's). It's a great sounding rig on it's own. I love the Carvin's lead tone, very thick and warm EQ-wise. I bought the DS-1 because I wanted the option of switching to a crunchier, more metallic distortion live by running it in front of the clean channel, and plus just to have it around as a back up.

I've gotten spoiled by the thick sound of the Carvin's EQ and distorted tone, but this pedal was able to come pretty close and also get some tones of it's own that I didn't have before.
Like any distortion pedal, it's very bright and trebly, but I dialed the Tone down to the 9 o'clock position and got a good, even EQ balance out of it.
I maxxed out the Gain, and the tone I got from the DS-1 was like a cross between a Boogie Rectifier and a Rivera Knucklehead. Bright and crunchy with some of the Rivera-type compression. The higher octaves on the guitar (12th fret and above) were a little thin on solos, but running the compressor before the DS-1 seemed to remedy a lot of that.

Several things stand out to me about this pedal that make it a cut above all of the others I've tried:

1) The EQ is very responsive and is not excessive. The tone is bright, but it's not shrill, and the bass isn't woofy.
This pedal actually seems to have some true midrange EQ quality to it (i.e. it's not stuck in perpetual scooped-mid mode all of the time). The frequencies are well-voiced and balanced, and seem to work well with my amp's EQ.

2) The distortion is not the mosquito-like buzzsaw sound like most distortion pedals. It's tone is chunky, and has a good growl to it.
When I demo-ed it against all of the "super-mega-death-metal" type pedals, it stood out as the best by far. Also, this pedal has plenty of gain. I had previously demo-ed the MXR Doubleshot with the "Dime" section on it, and the DS-1 has much more gain that thing did.
It seems a bit compressed tone-wise, but the distortion still has good punch, cuts through the mix, and gives you much more of a sense that your "pushing air" with your speakers. It sounds more like an amp's lead channel than a pedal to me.
When I was demoing it, I kicked on a Boss Overdrive to see how the DS-1 would sound with a boost, and it put me in the Ozzfest zone pretty quick. If you played with the EQ a bit, added a little compression, and boosted the DS-1 with an overdrive like that, it would definitely give you a great metal tone.


3) You can get this pedal new for $40! That's a mad hook-up right there! (The MXR Doubleshot I demo-ed was $120, and it wasn't half as good).

All of the Boss pedals I've ever owned are built like a tank. I've had several of mine for years, and I've never had an ounce of trouble.

Don't know. I've never had to deal with them.

Musically, I play anything from gospel, blues, jazz, and soul to classic rock and metal. I like having a wide array of tones at my fingertips. The rock tone that I strive for is Steve Lukather/EVH meets Dime/Zakk Wylde, kind of a metallic rock fusion thing.

This pedal helps me get some of the crunchier tones that I'm looking for. This is the kind of pedal that I would always make sure I had with me.

To me, using the lead channel from a good amp is always preferable to using a distortion pedal, but the DS-1 really convinced me.
I played it the first time at rehearsal, playing a song once with just my amp and my regular tone, and then repeating the song with this pedal, and it truly was like playing two different amps that both sounded good.

After all of the $$$ that I've dumped on lame gear over the years it's nice to find a product that exceeded my expectations. Maybe this pedal isn't for everyone, but it should make most players happy.

Simple.

I'm playing a lot of styles.
I use mostly single-coil equipped Fenders (and some Fender copies) along with a humbucker equipped B.C. Warlock. I use my other guitarist's Epiphone SG (with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and a Gibson in the neck) sometimes. With most strats, at the bridge, it's too "cutty". Warmer pickups help (Seymour Duncans). But with my warlock or teles, oh my, it's very nice. It can get quite loud or quiet, which is nice. It is a distortion and not crazy versatile (it's not a clean boost, OD, distortion, and a fuzz; it's a distortion), but it is a good dirty, mildly gritty distortion which contrasts my clean sound quite well. It also sounds good with other pedals (namely my beloved Marshall Jackhammer.
It is noisy. Nature of the beast.
It's really good for solos or riffing it out... smooth on the neck, dirty everywhere else. Chords sound bad on a humbucker neck. Good pedal, but for rock.

Is it reliable? B-O-S-S spells yes.

I'm playing... progressive alternative rock with some dance and folk influences... and this does the job for me. A great selling point too is that it's very, VERY, cheap. Worth a look for any rock guitarist.

Very easy to use, of course. Mine was older, Japan, model.

The main reason of making this review is to help people not to make same mistake as I did. I bought this pedal thinking I can use it for metal. I play METAL, and this is imho the worst pedal I ever had or tried for metal. It is fuzzy, nasal, no low end, boxy, no eq control, no gain, no sustain...I could write flaws for days.
I "can" see use of this pedal for light rock if you have good guitar and good tube amp (which will smooth out the sound). But if you have that why bother with crappy pedal. DON'T use this pedal with ss amp, you'll cry...S
I give it 2 because it distorts sounds therefore it does "something", and it doesn't deserve 1 imho...
I use Jackson guitars and Marshall amps.

Boss, legendary durability, too bad it isn't legendary quality of sound.

Never dealt with them.

I sold mine, I will NEVER play on this s**t again.

SUCKS FOR METAL !

3 knobs and step on it. What could be easier?

Sounds great with my crappy 15 watt Peavey driven by an even crappier Samick strat copy. I run a chorus with it and it's even better.

I bought it in '90. It has been kicked around, stomped on, beat to hell and it still works like the day I bought it.

Never dealt with them. I think the warranty's probably run out though...

I play rock--classic, 80's, alternative, whatever you want to call it aws long as it rocks. I've been playing for nearly 20 years and have had several cheap guitars, cheap amplifiers and other cheap effects pedals but only one distortion. This pedal will probably join me in a coffin and it will still rock. If it were lost or stolen I'd go buy another one from another pawn shop.

really easy

alot of people seem to think that a cheap pedal like this is good simply because its cheap. yeah, it probably doesnt sound that great by itself played through a clean solid state amp, but the trick with these things is to use them to add color to a nice tube amp, and to create new tones. I put this straight into my 5150, lightly distorted and I create my favorite tone, very finnish thrash sounding. light, crisp, crunchy, not overly saturated. It has become a staple of my sound

never had one break on me.

mostly metal/rock. this pedal rules, just experiment with it, and different amps. dont just use it by itself. cheap enough to buy a few of them so you dont have to treat them like babies.

Its really easy to use you just have to mess around with it to get the tone you want

Really good sound for something that doesnt cost that much

Guitar: Eipione G-400
Amp: Marshal MG series 40 watts

I can get the sound of the artists i like its not really for metal but its good with Rock like nirvana kinds of things.

Ive droped it ive kicked it ive thrown it not a single scratch really reliable

No need for it yet

I play all kinds of Rock and it sounds good with all kinds of rock if your a begginer and you dont wanna spend to much money on a pedel that costs alot this is the one to get you wont regret it. If it was stolen id buy it again the same one.

(sorry for my english)very easy to use - at least compared with my other distorsion pedal, a marshall guv'nor plus which has twice as much knobs - it's easy to get confused in eq that way. The tone knob is a little basic but great, the level one is really useful onstage, and dist. is versatile. I don't have a manual, i bought it old (7 years I think) from a guy that got it from ebay :). I have the Japanese made version.(slightly better than the others)

Custom Ibanez with EMG active ssh pickups(rules)->Boss Ds1->Crybaby->Marshall Guv'Nor2->Carlsbro chorus->Ashdown 40w tube amp. It's not noisy at all, i use quality leads and stuff; it's the least noisy distorsion pedal i ever tried, it's usable even in ridiculous trebly tone settings.
Sounds great all the time.
I use it with the Ashdown to boost channel 1, or to overload channel 3 for ridiculous king crimson soundalike sustain :).
Yes, i can get a sound very similar to Satriani and Vai's. Sounds like whispering a prayer with tone knob from 9 to 12 o'clock, and from 12 to 15 it's instant flying in a blue dream

it's very reliable, big manufacturers do great quality products, and viceversa. i would gig it without a backup

never dealt with, but again, it's a big name ..

i play prog-jazz, it sounds great when i'm in altered scale shred mode :), i only use it for heavyer parts - i find that distorsion at minimum sounds too violent for jazz rhythm - the gv2 is much better here. I have been playing electric for about 4 years and acoustic for about 10, i own various other guitars, an epiphone les paul, a russian les paul copy, a romanian double six electric, a romanian epi dreadnought (btw did epiphone manufacture guitars in romania? my guitar is clearly romanian made(bought it during the comunist regime) but it has a grover leaf on the headstock and it's identical to every epi dreadnought i've tried)a classical guitar etc. If it were stolen or lost i'd get another ds1, or a ds2. I like it's overall sound and feel, i hate the color. Great cheap pedal, very inspiring with a wah - instant modern rock.

Very simple. Tone control for the tone, dist for the gain and level for volume. I only really use full distortion with the tone around 3 o'clock. The only thing you might need the manual for is the battery compartment, and even that is pretty simple.

I use and peavey raptor special into a crybaby-russian big muff-ds1-arion schz-zoom 505 11 into a Marshall Mg series. This is a straight foward, no thrills distortion and as a standard distortion is pretty good. Kind of a thin tone, but you can't expect tonal bliss for #40. Good for rock, grunge and blues (using the neck pickup). Can be good for a cruchy tone at lower gain settings although i seldom use this. Sounds good with the reverbs and delays on the zoom box although not as good with the wah (in my opinion).

Its a Boss-on par with a black box in an aeroplane.

Never used them

Still has a useful part to play in my rig, although its not quite 'the tone' i want, its all down to the individuals ears. The perfect starter distortion stomp box, considering the price:sound quality ratio. Overall its good value for money: the basic of distortion pedals. Grunge and blues players would be satisfied with this pedal and overall, i think the Ds1 is a versitile little pedal and does exactly what it says on the tin - its a distortion and won't give that marshall drive or tube emulation and neither is it a fuzz or metalhead pedal.

3 knobs. Tone, Level, Distortion. Just dial in how much of each you want to get your sound. Very easy. Comes with manual, gives some sample settings.

Epiphone Les Paul Standard - Boss DS1 - Ibanez TS9 - Boss BD2 - Boss SD1 - Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (Tube 1x12). Not very noisy for a distortion pedal unless you the Dist. knob. Pedal can sound great or terrible depending on the settings you use. I wouldn't put the Dist. or Tone past 12 o clock. Tends to get very trebly and muddy. The level knob needs to be more responsive. It seemed that when I had the level maxed out, it was the same volume level as my clean channel. I did have the Dist. at 8 o clock, but this sound gets very unclear and you can't hear your original tone when chording when dist. is put much higher. Pedal needs to have more volume at lower dist. settings. Sounds best with Tone at 10 o clock, Level at max, Dist. at min. I wish the Dist. knob was more responsive as well. This is the reason I switched to the Pro Co. Rat II. When I have dist. at minimum, I'd like the sound to be much cleaner. Pedal was not versatile enough for me.

Very reliable. No problems. 5 year warranty.

I play classic rock and christian worship music. Great for classic rock and the harder worship songs as well. Only wish the pedal could get a little cleaner sound when dist. is at minimum. Been playing for 3 years. Since I already sold the pedal, it couldn't get lost or stolen from me, but to replace I bought a Pro Co. Rat II. Get this instead if you want your gain to be much more versatile. I love how lead guitar parts sound with this pedal. A lot of sustain and enough distortion to stand out. Also love how easy it is to get slight feedback with this pedal. Didn't like the minimum distortion (needs less) or the volume (needs more). I just wanted a standard distortion which is why I bought this. Bought this mainly because of the cheap price + good sound. Only wish it had those 2 changes I mentioned above. Very good for heavier music. You'll need a different distortion or overdrive if you want any light distortions. Great value! If Boss would make a few changes, this pedal would be near the top of all distortion pedals.

Very easy...3 knobs: volume tone and gain. But I think this ease of use is a bad thing.

First off, I bought this for strickly a boost pedal. I'm not so happy with the sound of the ds-1 by its self. It gets ear bleeding trebles, but it lacks bass and mids. Its a little to dirty too...I can't get a good blues sound out of it(a sound with just a hint of distrotion). But on the other hand, its not all "mush" when you play, and it has good harmonics. You can get a lot of good sounds, but I couldn't get an ac/dc sound like I wanted. I really dont think this has "true marshall tone".

I play a Fender Lead 2>Dunlop JH Wah> DD-5> DS-1> TU-2> Marshall VS102sr. Even on a humbucker pup its still gets a lot of buzz.

Need I fill this in?

Overall its good. I bought it for a juice pedal, and thats what I got. Its still not the sound that you could die for, but its ok. If lost or stolen, I'd buy a Boss metal zone. Thats a true distortion oedal.

3 knobs blah blah...

I run a Gibson LP>Bad Horsie 2>AW-3>DS-1>BF-3>EQ-20>PS-5>DD-20>'74 Marshall MkII super lead and I honestly have never felt so happy with my sound. I've got the distortion cranked, the tone at 12 and the volume depends on how much the sound guy's shouting at me for being too loud :) Even with all those pedals (it really rocks with the wah btw) there is NO noise...I do find it a little flat without the EQ, but set that right and the amp's EQ and I've got a sound you can actually chew on if you're hungry! I never thought I could find a pedal that'd do both the crunchy rhythm and soaring lead, but I don't even have to change the EQ for lead work, it just sounds right for proper rock tones. I have to agree with other people on here that you need a big valve amp to get it at its best though cos it sounds rubbish through my VS65. Number 1 hint - get an EQ pedal, you'll be shocked at what you can do with your sound. So it gets a 9 cos it's not perfect on its own.

With mine being on a board and carefuly packed away when I'm not playng, I doubt it would get damaged anyways, but I've been using it now for god knows how many years and the switch and the knobs are still perfect - no scratching, on/off noise or anything.

never had to deal with them

For me playing in a bluesey dirty sleezy rock band, it's perfect. I can get pinch harmonics out of it fine too and with EQ I could easily get a good 'tallica sound. Distortion in a pedal - does exactly what it says on the tin - love it.

the Ds-1 is really basic and easy to use just 3 knobs for dist. level. and tone. can find the sound you want in a few seconds (if it has it)

when I first bought this I was disappointed as the distortion was good but it wasn't powerful enough for me how ever when I bought my new marshall dsl401 I bought it for mainly the distortion however again the distortion wasn't good enough it was better just didn't have the boost I needed. However I decided to have a try out with my pedals and I tried the ds-1 as a booster and it seriously made my distortion on my amp so much better...still not the best but it's almost the sound I want I'd highly recomend it as a booster for your amp. I've given it 8 as the sound quality is good but as I say not really for me.

It's held up alrite so far (do you like my originality in not just saying "it's a boss"...?

I called them for phone sex but they refused so their customer support isn't really good enough for me.

I play punk and emo so this pedal doesn't fit my style but with my amp it suits it a whole lot better.I've been playing for almost 3 years and I have my marshall dsl401 and a fender(mex) fat strat and soon I'm hoping to add an Invader to my guitar. If it were stolen or lost I'd either buy this again or buy an mt-2 and forget my amps distortion...or actually I might just get both! I love it for being a booster...I hate it for being a plain distortion pedal and using it on its own. I'd say this is just an ordinary distortion that is good for being a booster but I've heard tube screamers are good..I wish it had a setting to make it sound like a mesa or an orange but that ain't gunna happen so yeh. One other bad thing is that I have to put it next to my channel selector and that can akward cause some times I only press one pedal or the other by accident and it fucks it up. I'd also like to share my love haha BYe!

Tone, Level, Distortion knobs...doesnt get much easier than that.
I have my Tone around 10 oclock. level set depending on what setting im playing in and Distortion anywhere between 2 oclock and max depending on the song.

I have both a Japan nnd Taiwan model and the Japan wins a spot on my pedalboard hands down. THe Japanese Model is an early silver screw long dash model.
The sound quality is pure bliss. I dont really see why anyone would need another distortion, unless you can't get your hands on a Japanese model. I am interested in Mod'ing the Taiwan pedal..probably by Keeley, just to see how that stands up to the Japanese pedal.

Mine was made in the late 70's/early 80's.....still peforms beautifully. Its a Boss!

Never needed.

Like i said, dont really see why you would need another distortion pedal. I have been playing for 15 years and this is the best one i've come across. Definitely get a Japanese pedal over the Taiwan-made ones for this pedal.
And if the DS-1 is good enough for Satriani,Vai,Cobain, and Robert Smith...its good enough for me.

Easier than pie to use--find your level/volume, find your tone/sweet spot, then put some dirt on it (Distortion, duh!). I bought it used--no manual.

I play guitar/slide guitar/harp/vox in a Texas Roadhouse (Blues + Rock + Outlaw Country=Texas Roadhouse) band called the SCREAMIN' ARMADILLOS. Someone described us as ZZ Top and the Fabulous Thunderbirds on tour with Waylon Jennings (I took that as a compliment).
My current setup is a USA-made 62RI Stratocaster (usually tuned to open A for playing slide),
Or an hecho-en-Mexico Telecaster (modded to become an Esquire, used to play normal/fingerstyle in standard or dropped-D tuning),
Or a Danelectro DC3 (usually tuned to open D for playing slide),
Or a G&L F100 (tuned any way I feel like playing that day, either method--slide or straight) plugged into:
a Boss TU2, 70's block logo MXR Phase 90, Ibanez TS9RI Tubescreamer, Jim Dunlop Original Crybaby wah, Jim Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Classic Fuzz, Boss DS-1, Danelectro Daddy-O, DOD FX40 7 band EQ, and a Rocktron Hush pedal (all pedals mounted on a Furman SPB8 stereo power supply/pedal board). I know that this sounds like a lot of pedals, but I can get any sound I want, and I seldom have more than two pedals turned on at once (except the Hush, which stays on all the time). I also run my harmonicas through my pedals.
This amalgamation is plugged into a 1963RI Fender Vibroverb amp, or occasionally a Line 6 POD (version 1).
I added the DS1 for some true crunch and grit. The Classic Fuzz pedal I have is good for low-level fuzziness but not out-and-out distortion. I am impressed with the clarity and quietness of this pedal--even without the Hush engaged--as well as the overall tone of the device. It adds a nice classic rock/blues quality (a la the Reverend Billy F. Gibbons) to the mix without degrading into metal-land. It also mixes very well with the wah--sweet and quacky without sounding like electronica.

I use it without any reservations. It has proved very reliable.

I haven't dealt with Boss/Roland before--so who knows?

I've been playing for about 16 years; I've had pedals come and go, but this one seems like a keeper. I would replace it if it were stolen or destroyed in some way.

this pedal is very easy to use. a dist. knob, a tone knob, and a volume knob..only three knobs to worry about so its easy to get it at the setting you want.

this is a beautiful distortion. its not to thick or chunky but its hard and heavy enough to keep heavier rockers satisfied. it sounds good on both guitar and i even use it for bass and it still sounds great.

this pedal is very reliable and very durable. the pedal doesnt consume batterys like most digitechs do.

ive never had any big problems with my pedal...yet

this pedal is great and i recommend it to any guitarist who likes to play rock or alt...but i wouldnt buy this if your a big heavy metal because the distortion really isnt heavy enough. i love this pedal on both guitar and bass. its one of the best dist. pedals out there and its one of boss' best work. but its a little pricey.

Tone/Distortion/Volume- all act as you would expect

This is THE pedal. I have gone through countless distortions only to find complete satisfaction with this one. It passes the ultimate test- it preserves the tele twang. The unique sounds of your guitar are preserved fully. If it's good enough for John Frusciante, its good enough for anyone.

It's a hunk of metal. You probably couldn't break it if you tried.

Haven't had any issues

I play funk music. Funk is about clarity and rhythm, not a pounding wall of sound, and this pedal is ideal. It gives brightness to rhythm guitar and a warm yet tight touch to lead. If you want a dull, generic, watered-down distortion then spend twice the price on a Metal Zone, which is a joke compared to the DS-1

Very easy to get a good sound out of.
Made in Taiwan.
Second hand, store's price tag says "original", I think that means "unmodded".

Satriani and Vai use this pedal, and this pedal sounds like Satriani and Vai, especially when you feed it through a wah. Basically, this is the sound of modern guitar, somewhere between the MXR Distortion+ (dull) and cascaded tube distortion (high quality). Some reviewers are saying theirs didn't sound good: maybe I just got a good one, or maybe they just wanted something else. As distortions go, its presence and dynamics are understated but it conveys pick attack well. It really has only one sound, more or less, but that means you can't get the wrong one. Depending on how you set the knobs, it ranges from difficult to control overdrive to Satriani/Vai to adequate metal.
Obviously mods are popular: to me it's unrealistic and counter productive to try and make this sound like cascaded tubes or whatever. It's the world's #1 pedal, I wouldn't want to lose that DS-1 sound.

Simple, tough, well thought out, probably the most reliable pedal ever.

Obviously classic pedal, probably the most successful pedal ever, everybody should have one, Boss is performing a public service pricing it like this, does any other pedal have anything like the number of reviews this one does?

I gave this pedal a 8 because it took me a while to dial it in but overall it is a fairly easy pedal to use.

This is where i had problems . everytime i used it it always sounded thin and overly fuzzy.it was pretty noisy so i used a hush c with it and it helped. I know analogman and keely have mods to help but the pedal out of the box didnt really impress. I am running threw a fender strat with a seymour duncan invader,fender tele with hot rails and a gibson 335 into the pedal then to a marshall jtm60 3x10 and a 2x12 avitar cab with celestion v30 and 70th ann.

i have never had a boss die on me yet

never talked to them

Im 17 and have been playin most of my life playin rock,county,and harder rock and im tryin to find a pedal to give me a more modern marshall sound because my jtm is mostly classic. you get what you pay for and for the price i think it is reasonable but its no fulltone ocd.

Very easy to use.

I love the sound it makes. I only use it when i play lead, and provides a very nice musical ditortion-that i absolutely love.

It's built like a stone, but my trouble seem to be coming from the inside. It worked very well for about a year, but after that it began to just, not work, alot of the time. I find myself hitting the little orange bugger, and not seeing an led light come on. even with new batteries and an adaptor. Alot of people that i jam with have this pedal, and their's have held up fine. I'm under the impression that i just have a lemon, and all of the other pedals of this model, work just fine.

I unfortunately never sent in my warranty card. So i don't know what i would say if i did call.

When it works for me, i LOVE it. I play classic rock, and it has a fantastic sound for it. I've been playing for about 7 years, and own about 5 guitars. Gibsons and fenders through a marshall jtm600 amp and 1960a combination. It sounds better than most of the distortion pedals that are available.

Three very responsive knobs, level, tone, and distortion. You shouldn't want this pedal or buy it just because of the very low price, the extremely low price should be the second thing that makes you want to buy the pedal, the first being how great the pedal really is.

The thing I really like about the DS-1 is its awesome hard edged crunch and smooth sustain. Even when you have the distortion at minimum, you still get a soft crunch without turning the distortion totally off. As you turn the distortion knob more and more, more crunch, bite, and longer sustain are the outcome. With the distortion knob anywhere past 11 o'clock, you are in crunch central with tons of sustain. If you put the distortion knob at max you get more than enough crunch and sustain, which sounds amazing for solos. The tone knob is very responsive, at minimum you get a very bassy distortion, at about 8-10 o'clock you get a bluesy distortion, from about 11-12 o'clock you get your hard rock and classic rock sounds, and anything past 12 o'clock the treble really picks up, gets pretty harsh. Put more bass on your amps EQ and you can get a decent fuzz sound. The DS-1 isn't as transparent as say a SD-1, but the SD-1 is an overdrive made to sound like a tube amp, while the DS-1 is a rockers paradise that produces enough sustain and crunch to blow you away. The DS-1 is not for getting that new sound of todays music, it is more for people who play rock and need that nice crunch very similar to old Marshall amps. I like to throw in an overdrive before my DS-1 and kick on the overdrive for solos, even thought the DS-1 can handle solos very well, adding in an overdrive smooths out the rough edges. An SD-1 can do a perfect job, but it has to be setup right, crank its volume knob past 12, set the tone as similar as possible to your DS-1 or your amps tone, and first put the gain knob as minimum and gradually turn it up to the righ spot that won't give you a totally overdriven sound, you'll be able to tell when that is, you'll know when it's too much. The DS-1 is also very quiet, unless you put the distortion past about 3 o'clock, if you do you just get that ready to rock feedback sound, but it is very low, it isn't enough to complain about. I don't see any reason to modify the pedal or get it modded, it gives you enough distortion, no need for even more. I'd like to give it a 10, but nothing's ever perfect, but the DS-1 comes very close, I'll be using the DS-1 forever. I doubt I'm going to ever find a better distortion pedal. Another plus, this pedal picks up every little nuance of you picking style and your little techniques.

Boss pedals are built to last, my DS-1 has been going for a while. You can probably drop a Boss pedal a few times or even throw it and it will still work fine, but I would never do that, you'd have to be an idiot to destroy your own equipment for such a stupid reason such as to see if it can take a beating? Although all Boss distortion pedals don't sound great, you have to find the right pedal, and I have to say that the DS-1 is the best distortion pedal I've ever used.

If you are looking for something that will give you the awesome crunch and bite of the old Marshall amps, the DS-1 is like a vintage Marshall amp in a tiny orange box. I also have to say that the DS-1 sounds awesome with a wah pedal and sounds best with Les Pauls and probably most guitars with humbuckers. I will only use Les Pauls, maybe some day I might buy one of those new age guitars with the Floyd Rose tremolo, but I'll stick with Les Pauls for a while, I doubt I'd buy anything with single coils or anything other than a Gibson or Epiphone, but you never know. The sound I get from using either a Gibson or Epiphone Les Paul and through my pedalboard with the DS-1 to any of my amps, really does sound great, I couldn't ask for anything more or better. I use various Peavey and Marshall amps, I don't give away my setup unless you meet me in person, because I say get your own sound. Too many copy cats out there now copying off of everyone else's setups. You should be getting equipment that suites you and is what you are looking for, you shouldn't be buying equipment because it's cheap, it's the only thing the store by you has (you can order online...duh), or copy your favorite guitarist. Back to the DS-1, I couldn't ask for more from my DS-1 or anything better than a DS-1, perfect tone and perfect amount of distortion. Again, the low price shouldn't be why you buy it, but is great that it is so low. It's so cheap but better than all of Boss's other distortions and the others sell for an extra $40 or more.

Level, tone, and, dist, pretty straightforward. Getting a good sound out of it is a different story.

Left totally stock, this is a pretty mediocore distortion, starts to get shrill when the tone knob is above 10:00, distortion has a really buzzy (not in a good way) quality to it, it tends to make all guitars sound the same. Here's what I did to mine: I took out the two clipping diodes, and I increased the value of the output capactior (not by much). The result was way, way more output, less distortion, more low end, more useable tone knob, greater dynamics and clarity. It was really a world of difference, the amount of output more than doubled, and with the distortion turned low, this pedal makes a great booster (neutral sounding, doesn't have the midranged hump of the tubescreamer), yet there's still enough distortion on tap for hardrock sounds, and the quality is smoother, less compressed, and more amplike. By the way, I have tried the mod where you replace the two clipping diodes with led's, and to me it sounds better with them removed. I'll rate it a 3 unmodded and and a 9 modded (not quite perfect), (6 to split the difference)

Its a Boss, pretty sturdy and solidly built, but not as solid as say an MXR.

Never dealt with boss, I probably invalidated the warranty by modding it.

Simply put, if you're unhappy with the sound of your DS-1, and looking for a more "natural" sound, mod it like I did. You won't be dissapointed. Will it sound as good as a boutique pedal, probably not, but I'm sure its not that far off, especially considering that the boutique pedals will cost 5-6 times as much.

I have to update an old review on here. I recently sold some of my gear to buy new stuff and changed my board around a little bit. But still, the DS-1 isn't going anywhere, it's absolutely perfect for classic rockers!

My old setup was Dunlop GCB-95 wah-Boss SD-1-Boss DS-1-Digitech Whammy-Ibanez delay. I finally bought a HR-2 Harmonist in mint condition. I put it on my board after ther whammy pedal, it's the WH-4, and I thought it was broken, the harmonies were coming in on a very short delay, kind of like a studder, and even thought each voice has a volume control, the volume of the pedal was pretty low. I barely used the WH-4 anymore, took it off my board, and WOW! HUGE difference in tone! The HR-2 worked like it should have, the volume problem and the studder was gone. My DS-1 finally sounded like it should, it lacked quite a lot of character when the WH-4 was on my board, now it sounded just like it should. My 535Q wah pedal sounded better than ever, and the SD-1 was even more transparent than it was, nice and smooth overdrive. The problem was the WH-4 and it not having a true bypass, it killed my tone when off and even worse when on. Now that it's off my board it's never returning, and it was a cool pedal, I had it for about two years, but the HR-2 is 10 times better. But the main thing, when I plugged straigh into my stack and used its clean and lead channels, I got a nice, full clean tone, and a kick ass lead channel, but then when I plugged into my board, I got a drop in volume and my tone was muddied up, and my DS-1 sounded pretty crappy, my clean channel sounded like a clean channel on a little practice amp, and the lead channel sounded like a Boss Metal Zone, which isn't a good thing, Boss metal zone is garbage. Once the Digitech WHammy was off my board, everything was better, volume, nice, full clean channel, DS-1 was full of character and ready to rock, the wah finally sounded like I set it up to, the HR-2 was right on the money, and my delay was also better, it finally had volume. When the WH-4 was on the board, my delay worked at a very low volume, I never really knew it wasn't right. The main change was everything, my tone was how it should have been, I was really screwing myself when I had the WH-4 on my board, it killed all of my pedals, weakened the wah, ruined the DS-1's tone and character (made it sound weak and thin), and it made my HR-2 and delay have a drop in volume, and produced a short studder out of the HR-2, the harmonies would come in late instead of instantly. My DS-1 is better than ever, it has the character it was lacking and its tone is back to normal. Still gets a 9 though, because you need something like a SD-1 to give you a bit more gain for solos.

The DS-1 is the cheapest pedal on my board, but it's 100 times better than all the distortion pedals I've used, tried, have, and had. My HR-2 is over 10 years old, looks and works perfectly. No signs of wearing out.

This isn't a new review, I've had my DS-1 for a few years, and can't believe how much better it sounds with the WH-4 off my board. I complained on this site how the DS-1 lacks a bit of character, but it wasn't the DS-1, it was the WH-4 and it not having a true bypass, you would think if a company makes a pedal that costs over $200 would at least make it useable, they should have put a true bypass on it, it is such a shame. I spent a decent amount of money on it and are not using it. Ebay? Like I said, you aren't going to get as good of a distortion pedal as the DS-1 even if you double its price. It's so cheap but sounds amazing, perfect for classic rock, suitable for hard rock and blues, but I'd use a SD-1 or BD-2 for blues. DS-1 is Boss's best distortion pedal, their other distortion pedals are crap. Boss's overdrive pedals are some of the best overdrive pedals out. THe DS-1 has such a range in sound and tone, you can get some of the best tones out of the pedal, the super cheap price makes the pedal an even better buy. If the did cost double its price, I'd still buy it, it's better than most of Boss's distortion pedals that cost over $85.

Not worth answering... C'mon... Just three knobs, does it get any better...

This pedal is very quiet, once you start to turn the distortion to max, you will start to get some noise, but if you have good cables and don't use a bunch of pedals, you will get little to no unwanted noise. I have had the chance to try out all of Boss's distortion pedals before I considered buying one, I knew the DS-1 was what I was going to buy, but just wanted to do alittle bit of impressing while I was there. Boss's distortion pedals aren't too bad, I think that the DS-1 is handsdown Boss's best distortion pedal. It's perfect for me, very easy to get that classic rock sound. Play using a Les Paul to a wah then the DS-1 then to a nice stack with the right EQ adjustment, you can get a tone better than anyone you know. I've seen the DS-1 being used in many different setups, rock, classic rock, grunge, and metal, but it mainly fits into the classic rock and rock area, you can get a metal-ish sound by cutting all the mids on you amp, but c'mon, you have no idea what tone is if you cut your mids and just boost your highs and lows. Like someone else stated, the DS-1 works so nicely with a wah, I always have a wah for solos, never have I used a pedal that worked so nicely with a wah like the DS-1, I use various Dunlop wahs by the way. I'll be sticking with a DS-1 for a long time, it's perfect for me. You can get so many different sounds out of the DS-1, by using the tone on the DS-1 and you amps EQ. YOu can get anything from a smooth overdrive, nice natural clip, good old british stack, light crunch, hard crunch, screaming lead sounds, to an awesome hard rock sound. You can also get a decent fuzz sound, but you have to do some adjusting of your amps EQ and put the DS-1's tone at about 3-ish to get this sound. Another good thing about this pedal, the silent switching, absolutely no noise at all when turning it on or off. Literally, for only $40, you get more than what you are asking for, I can literally ramble off tons of distortion pedals that cost double and triple the DS-1's price and don't sound anywhere as good as the DS-1.

I don't misuse my stuff, so I don't have to really worry about reliability, also, it is a Boss pedal, they are built better than most other pedals, even though most of Boss's distortion pedals do sound like crap.

No email address for Boss or Roland to contact them, so you gotta pick up your phone to contact them if you have any problems or anything.

Who should get the DS-1 = If you play rock, classic rock, blues, or hard rock.
Who shouldn't buy the DS-1 =*anyone who plays any of these pathetic styles of music DO NOT buy the DS-1, it won't be what you want!* If you play metal, punk, grunge, hardcore, or nu-metal.
Go out and buy an EQ pedal if you think the DS-1 doesn't offer enough EQ possibilities, you really don't need one, the tone knob covers a vast range of sound, and you have your amps EQ, that's mainly what you should adjust.
The best thing about this pedal other than how good it sounds, it's only $40, if mine somehow gets stolen or I drop it and somehow break it, $40 is nothing, I can find that money in like a pant pocket or something. Truly, for the price, you aren't going to get anything better, like I said before, double or triple the price of the DS-1, you still will have a hard time finding something as good as it, unless you buy a E.H. USA big muff pi or a FuzzFace, they are both great distortion pedals. One last thing, this pedal works best with a guitar with humbuckers, if you have single coils, get yourself a fuzzface or USA Big Muff pi, maybe the DS-1 works great with single coils also, but I doubt it.