IndyGuitarist DS-1 Mod

I don't think many people have trouble dialing in a boss distortion pedal. No changes after the mod.

I got the pedal mod book from the website a couple of weeks ago. I selected the vintage mod, which was relatively straight forward. Sounds terrific. Every bit as good as my Keeley modified BD. BD is a little softer. Slightly different sound but just as good. I really like the tone control now. It'll take you from a classic sound to something a bit more trashy. Not really a tight Metal Distortion sound but great for everything else. Not noisy either. The Indy site has a sound clip. However, I find the pedal sounding better than expected. Particularly good for Vintage style Hard Rock (Angus, etc.)

Well - since I did the mod myself, any problems would have to be attributed to my own work. Don't expect any problems, though.

Book didn't take long to arrive, and Brian is quick to respond to questions and e-mails. If you're a little mad for pedals, give it a try. I had a lot of fun doing my own mod.

I play pretty much everything but real Jazz. I could see the pedal useful for about every Rock/Pop related style. It's definitely versitle enough. As previously stated, I wouldn't rely on it as my only source for Gain in a modern Metal band but everything else will benefit from it.

By ease of use, I'll comment on ease of modification, since this really describes a mod to a stock pedal. I did the vintage mod because I liked the tone samples on Brian's website. It's nothing great, just replace a few components. As long as you're good with soldering and desoldering, it's no big deal. My years with electronics engineering did help, though.

I use a modified american standard strat with high output dimarzios. I've been using this setup with my old metal zone, turbo distortion and a couple of other pedals. I have an old DS-1 which sounded like shite on any guitar I played with, so I thought I may as well mod the heck out of it rather than tossing it out.

After listening to the sound clips on Brian's site I picked the vintage mod. The pedal sounds a little better now, but the basic twangy tone of the guitar still comes through albeit in a slightly unpleasant way. After this I tried the evil mod and the tube emu mods. Nice, they fattened up the tone, but the twangy tone of the strat still sounds a bit ugly and unpleasant through this pedal, compared to the turbo distortion and the metal zone.

I then put the guitar through an SD-1, and boy, did it sound better. The mods do improve the tone, but the DS-1 is a shite pedal, and I wouldn't use it even after modding. I'd go with the SD-1 or any of the number of other distort / od pedals.

I'm pretty confident about my electronics skills, so yeah, I would gig with it, if the pedal sounded good in the first place.

Brian and I have exchanged a couple of mails, and he has been reasonably prompt in his answers.

The mods themselves are ok, but the DS-1 is basically a shite sounding pedal and I wouldn't use it even if it were the last distort pedal on earth. Overall rating for the mods may be 8 but for the pedal+mods would still be 4-6.

It's easy to use.

I had Brian do the mod. First I tried the vintage mod. but didn't like it. So he reworked it and came back smokin! Killer power chords, cutting leads, fairly transparent, chord definition stays intact. He put a tone pot inside the unit, this allows for tweaking the tone. The exterior tone knob operates within the parameters of the interior one. The sound of this mod retains most of the qualities of the original pedal. Bottom end is more dramatic. It has a modern sound not so vintage. But not nu-metal either. I use this on my tube amps. My guitar has humbuckers that split. Works well with both.

As I metioned before I did't like the vintage mod. So I contacted him and told him. He told me send it back and he would rework it and paid return shipping. So I believe that this is not one of his standard mods. But came with an interior tone pot so I could tweek the tone more to my liking. All at no cost.

I`ve been playin rock n roll for 30somethin years, tried alot of stuff, I have found that botique & mods are much better pedals. This pedal help`s me to create and play music. I chose this because I liked the inherent qualities of the stock DS1 but, wanted more quality of sound. I`ll give this a "9" because it is good but still always looking for the elusive "10" .

I got the parts from Small Bear www.smallbearelec.com and I bought the entire book of Brian's at www.indyguitarist.com I did the Keeley Seeing Eye Type Mod on my friends DS-1 because he was complaining about the weak tone. Took a little time, but it was time well spent

I went in changed all the parts, put in a Bright Blue LED and hooked everything back up with a fresh battery. I had my Gibson Les Paul Jr. Special with 2 p-100 pickups and my Peavey Classic 30 with a Celestion Vintage 30 and the one modded DS-1 in front of my amp. Amazing, the volume is about doubled though, but the tone!!! MAN, less glassy highs more bass, can turn the drive down to a small overdriven boost or to a full Marshall Stack. I loved it and didnt really want to send it back to the buddy i modded it for.

Well it is a Boss pedal, i've had a bunch and I've never had a problem with them. I constantly search ebay for broken ones to fix and keep but never find them...hows that for reliability.

Brian is a great guy, I email him all the time asking questions and he always responds within a day. Hes helped me on guitargeek, just a great guy and guitar pedal genius if you ask me. Makes a decent pedal sound amazing and doesnt charge you a arm and a leg to know how to do it. I wish i could give higher than a 10, because he really deserves it.

If you have a Ds-1 and want to kick it up a knotch then go to www.indyguitarist.com I've done the Keeley Mod, the Acid Blues, and his own personal mods...all amazing.

Three knobs, one pedal switch - it's a BOSS pedal! what do you expect. I modded this from the DIY kit downloaded of the web site it was fairly easy to do.. but I am one of those that likes to DIY.. This is the first guitar pedal I have modded.

This pedal is loud.. (I did the "evil" mod because I am evil) has great tone, and is soooo _much_ better than the standard DS-1 (Which was sitting in the cupboard neglected). The old DS-1 had about 1 tone setting which I found acceptable, but the modded one you can pretty much set it at any point and come out with a good sound. The best thing though is that you can hear the tone of the guitar coming through (not like the original) I love the sound of it with the tone at full bass with all my Strat pickups on, it sounds crazy. Very phat. Very responsive. It is now a useable pedal.. Nice for lead stuff too nearly as phat for leads as a Big Muff Pi

BOSS -- Same old...

Didn't need any it was easy enough

I'm a typical bedroom guitarist, I like to play all kinds of guitar, blues, jazz, metal.. I like bands/music such as, Mclusky, The Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Machinehead, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Floyd, Gomez... This mod has made this pedal useful where before it sounded like shit. 'nough said.. Though I wish the web site was a bit more descriptive and made it a bit clearer as to what you are purchasing rather than having loads of advertising jargon such as "killer tone", great sound blah blah.. The stuff on the site sounded too good to be true and used language that is far too emotive I almost didn't buy cos I'm naturally skeptical of marketing hype .. but now I'm glad I did..

I downloaded Brian's DIY book($14.00) and modded this pedal myself. The rest of the cost is derived for the parts used to perform the mod.
There are three knobs on a DS-1:Tone, Distortion, and Level, not unlike an Ibanez TS-9, or Boss SD-1. Not rocket science, by any means.

I am using a Les Paul into a Mesa Subway Blues amp by way of an Audio-Technica UHF wireless system, through a custom pedal board stocked with:Danelectro tuner stompbox, Boss DS-1 Distortion(the reason for this review), Boss MT-2(also modded and reviewed in this forum), vintage Boss BF-2 Flanger(stock), Ibanez EQ, Danelectro Cool Cat chorus, and Ernie Ball volume pedal.
I used the "Evil" mod specs and added a different value for R14 as well. This pedal is great for anything from blues crunch to a fairly scorching high-gain metal sound(but not quite as hot as my MT-2). This mod really brings out the mids and lows and fattens up the tone of this pedal. The stock pedal is a bit bright and thin for my taste, so this is just what the doctor ordered. In fact, I may have to go back and tame the lows a bit, as I almost have too much low end response. The overall sound of this pedal is killer though. I play lead guitar and find the note clarity to be quite good. Chords are clear with no hint of muddiness at all.

Mod or no mod, this is still a Boss. 'Nuff Said.

Brian answers all e-mail in a timely manner, and is most helpful, even if you do your own mods using his specs. Brian is a musician and a tech at the same time, so he not only knows his stuff from a technical standpoint, but looks at signal processing through an artist's eyes, ever vigilant to the quest for TONE.

I use this pedal for a bluesy crunch to classic rock distortion. It is adept at handling both. If it were stolen, I'd buy another and mod it in the same fashion, if I were unable to hunt down and maim the thieving rogue who stole it. I have been playin for over 20 years and have dealt with a lot of distortion pedals over the years, and this ranks up there with the best.