Yamaha DI-01

Yamaha made 3 distortion pedals within the 01-series from the late 70s to the mid 80s. Overdrive, Distortion & Hard-Distortion. The most common (here in Europe) was the Distortion, we are talking about. It has three knobs-level, effect & tone...so extremly easy to handle.

I use tons of pedals but can not compare the sound of the DI-01 with any other. It is very creamy. I usually play a Roland Jazz Chorus -120 in small clubs, so I need all distortion from effect pedals. This is my pedal for lead solos if I play Eagles or even Led Zeppelin. The pedal varies the sound very much if you give it more input volume. So I recommend to use a soft overdrive before it, so you can change the sound much with the volume knob of any (soft!)overdrive. It is true that it sounds better when you use a distortion level of more then 7-8.

All the Yamaha pedals of the 01-series do not have the standard 9V power jacks. You can use them with batterie or use their 6-pin power input. If you are interested, I can tell you which of the 6 pins are for power input.

This is - like all the Yamaha 01-pedals - a very good, low noise Distortion pedal. If mine would get lost I would buy another one quickly. The DISTORTION DI-01 is the cheapest and easiest to find of the three Yamaha 01-series distortion pedals.

Three knobs, level, tone (soft-hard) and distortion. Extremely self-explanatory. It isn't quite as versatile as a Big Muff or DS-1, but you'll still be hard pressed to get a bad sound out of it. I'd choose this over either of the above for a first distortion pedal, and it sits in well with my current setup.

My setup is: Squier Tele Custom II (w/P-90s) or Ibanez RG-170 -> Boss OD-2 -> DS-1 -> This! -> Big Muff -> AW-2 -> PH-2 -> DD-2 -> Randall 75GD.

This pedal sounds fine as long as you leave the distortion about 7 or 8 o'clock - below that it sucks all of the sustain out of your instrument. Same with any distortion pedal though I guess, if you want to get that to sound good you use a different pedal. With tone from 12-4 o'clock and distortion >1 o'clock, it still sounds less harsh than a DS-1 on similar settings - this is a good thing unless you hate your eardrums.

You can't get the creamy Big Muff overdrive out of this, but you can come close. It won't do fuzz. The tone of this unit is hard to fault as long as you don't lower the distortion too far.

Tough as a brick. Built like a Boss pedal, I'd gig it without a backup any day. Mine looks like it's had its fair share of bruises over the years, and still plays like a dream. Good battery life too. Made in Japan on an indeterminate date, late eighties I'd say.

Bought it off eBay, never dealt with yamaha tech support. I'd give them a low rating for cutting production of this pedal though.

I've been playing guitar for 7 years now; I play everything from rock to fingerstyle, punk, metal, to jazz. This pedal suits my needs perfectly - a distortion that isn't too overpowering, but still stronger than an overdrive. If it were stolen or lost, I'd probably try to get a tubescreamer instead - but if I could find another I'd definitely purchase.

Basically, if ever you want a "plug-and-play" distortion unit, this will fit your needs adequately. If you need a "one-size-fits-all" unit, this will fit your needs adequately. If you can find this one on eBay or second hand, by all means take the chance to get it into your hands - it won't let you down.

3 pots: Volume, Distortion and Tone. Very handy and simple.

The sound of this thing is simply great. Dark and smooth, it has some flavour of the Rat, but it's not as versatile. It is much more an overdrive than a distortion while its soft/hard tone truly add treble AND hardness.

I don't know how old is it. Maybe from the late 80's or early 90's. I bought it when I was on Israel, in a store on Afula, about 5 years ago. It was like new, and it is like new now. No hits, no scraches, the only thing that was aged was its paint (and I had been kicking it for years, I mean, REALLY kicking it).

And it's sturdy. Metal box, with a big metal switch that is hard as hell. I think I can drop it from a 7th floor, and it will survive.

Used it for every gig I had, never let me down.

No need...

This was my first distortion pedal. My truly first love. I've been playing grunge, punk, some power pop and ultimately, a lot of noise rock. And this baby really made it for me, in all my music mood changes.
Maybe it's not as versatile as the rat, or as gainy as the Big Muff, but it gets you somewhere near. A great pedal.