ProduktrezensionenBoss DS-1 Electric Guitar Distortion Effect Pedal

Boss DS-1 Distortion SEM Ultra MegaMother with True Bypass (Best Mod Ever!!)

This just has to be One of The number 1 modifications upgrades to have been ever done to any pedal!!
This one is just Totally Awsome!! And I could even capitalise these words or shout it out.
(WITH EXCITEMENT!!!) YYYYYEEEEEEAAAAHHHHHY YIPEEE HOORAYY And HOORAAHHH!!! To this best Distortion of not just any but the best in the world Boss DS-1 orange coloured and not the limited edition black version which Boss realised, I think last year or the beginning of January this year. YYYYYAAAAHOOO also if I might have to add!!
I could go on and on all day about what excellence this one has!!
Not just the guitar pedal as we know it unmodified as this one has the main usual foot pedal Boss standard type, only with an added bonus of a push button foot switch. The usual easy to get to battery compartment 9v battery opporation and 9v DC Boss PSA Adaptor type. Or nowadays Cioks or Voodoo Labs etc Power Brick 9v types.
Please make sure to use only the correct power supply. Also included is a lovely purple LED replacing the red one and 2 mini toggle switches to select what tone you want. Of the DS-1 does everything from Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and more.
I used to and still do think Keeley Mods were great too but then again this one is even better. From clean to LLLLOOOOOOOUUUUUUDDDD!! Oh Yeah!! This really does RRRROOOCCCKKKK!!! If there was anything I've learnt it's great to play loud for experimental tone of the effect. As there is a version which makes the light stay on the louder you play, and then these other brilliant versions like this one!! 10/10 in all things about this one every single tonal area!! Thank you so much I highly Highly recommend!!Vollständige Rezension lesen...

Bestätigter Kauf:  Ja | Artikelzustand: neu | Verkauft von: joediecast

Boss DS-1 is OK in stock form but can easily be made better

I bought this thing with te sole purpose of modifying it, which is super easy to do even if you aren't that good with a soldering iron. The stock pedel is OK, a good value for what it is but with less than $10 in components and an hour or two it can be made into something much better and more versatile. In stock form the tone nob might as well be a switch that goes from mud to hissy treble screech, but when you swap out a few capacitors with higher quality ones you can get a real range of tones out of it. There are also easy ways to boost the volume, change up the gain and eliminate some of the hiss. I added a switch that gives it three distinct gain settings ranging from a smooth overdrive to a full on wave of rich distortion. I'm very happy with it, I retained the character of the sound it produces while also opening up its range.Vollständige Rezension lesen...

Bestätigter Kauf:  Ja | Artikelzustand: gebraucht | Verkauft von: rain-maker26

Low cost guitar effect pedal that performs well for intended application.

Boss pedals are constructed well and look professional (I don't like cartoon figures or silly phrases on pedals like you find on other makes). Input & output cables connections fit tight. Gain adjustments seem to have significant range of adjustment. Unwanted internal circuit noise seems low or unnoticeable. You'll find several "well used" Boss pedals on ebay, so that has something to say about how durable they are. My current favorite is the Super Chorus CH-1 pedal. Some are hungry for 9 volt batteries, but that could be resolved with a wall power supply.Vollständige Rezension lesen...

Highly Underrated Affordable Pedal - Awesome When Used Correctly.

Highly Underrated!

Many people think this is a low-grade Boss effect pedal, but with proper settings and usage, it stands up to the quality and fidelity you have come to expect from Boss "Built like a Tank" pedals.

The reason many people give this pedal low marks is because the Tone Knob is crazy!
Similar to the Fender Reverb Tanks, this knob goes from just about right to way out of control in a hurry! - lol.
Set fully left/counter-clockwise (7 o'clock), it is dark and muddy, around 8 o'clock it will sound good for a Strat lead tone, around 9 o'clock and a little beyond is good for fat Gibson humbuckers to cut through any mix, and anything beyond that is way too thin, harsh and God knows what you would use it for outside of a specialized high freq-type notch filter effect or laying heavy on a low string. This is what people don't like about this pedal...the Tone control is too wide - lol.

Find the right spot and you are there tone-wise.
This is Distortion, not Overdrive and it is made to provide searing lead tones and carefully voiced rock chords.
It holds a strong distortion without going into feedback as easily as other pedals. There is even a video on YouTube that shows one coupled up with a Boss OD-3 Overdrive...I do it too. It's nice to have one set for crunchy rock and the other set for searing leads and sustain...but I am also guilty of engaging both of them at the same time!

As with just about any distortion pedal out there, the higher the gain, the more the noise, but all in all, this pedal holds the noise level down while keeping a strong tone that if need be, any noise gate could easily manage...I don't use one.

The Level control can act as a lead boost if you cut back on the Drive. You really can't get rid of the distortion effect, but you can minimize it to a point that it will behave like a boost with a little grit behind it and most times this works just fine, especially live.

As of July 2012 the average price for the Boss DS-1, used, in good condition is nineteen to thirty dollars. The higher being free shipping and original factory box.
The other factor are the older models made in Japan go for a significantly higher price (sixty to one hundred dollars) to people who collect vintage gear or have discriminating tastes.

With the abundance and affordability of these pedals I say, "Why not have it in your arsenal?" If you set your unity gain and tone to be "seamless", it is worth twenty bucks to have it there & ready to kick in when you need to hold a high note (or any note) extra long without worry...and if nasty is your thing, this pedal can get really nasty set to anything past 11 o'clock. (Which is only 1/3rd of the way "up".)

This pedal also doubles as a great little gift for a budding rock star. It is cheap and it provides good distortion, which is what they are most likely looking for, until they get good enough to deserve a two hundred & fifty dollar pedal.

I, myself have many expensive pedals, play professionally (26 years) through a large rig and have this pedal at home in my "Boss Chain."

Be conservative and use micro adjustments and you will find a great usable pedal at a terrific price.Vollständige Rezension lesen...

This familiar orange box from Boss is a good place to start with FX pedals

This is an inexpensive, basic distortion box for use with electric guitar. It's good, durable, does the job, and is an excellent starting point if you're just beginning to use effects pedals with your guitar and amp. This familiar orange box may be the only pedal you ever need.

To connect it, plug the cable from your guitar into the INPUT jack and then run a second cable from the OUTPUT jack to the input of your amplifier. Step on the switch to turn it on and have some fun!

Power for this pedal comes from a 9 Volt battery or an external power supply. If the red CHECK light does not come on when you step on the switch, check your battery or power supply to make sure that you are securely connected and that the battery has enough "juice" to operate your pedal. Indeed, you might want to make sure there's a battery in there in the first place! And if you are using an external power supply, you won't need a battery at all.

Once your pedal is working properly, you will want to adjust the TONE, DIST, and LEVEL controls to get a sound that you like.

LEVEL sets the overall volume level.
DIST sets the amount of distortion or grit in the sound.
TONE is a simple high-frequency attenuator. Don't get it too bright. The middle of the control's sweep is a usually a good place to start. Adjust it from there and play a bit. Don't be afraid to revisit the controls after playing for a while to see if you can dial in a sound that suits you perfectly.

There are certainly other pedals out there that do what this one does. Many are more expensive, some have more features, "better" sound, and perhaps higher-quality components. But the Boss DS-1 has been a favorite of many guitar players for many years. You can definitely spend more money on a distortion pedal, but whether you'll be happy with what you get is something only you can determine. If you are just starting out, this is a good place to start. If you already have too many pedals, this is good one to use as a standard for comparison.Vollständige Rezension lesen...

More Veristile Than Expected.

Great for the obvious ie; filthy fuzz and hulking crunch.

Can get some pretty interesting mild rock sounds as well, while most will buy this for thrashing out dirty power chords and scale runs it is capable of some diverse flavours.

I bought the original 80s black label Japanese version myself (circa 1984). I cant really comment on what a modern DS-1 is like, this is the only DS-1 I've used, but its knobs are extremely precise and buttery smooth and feel solid. The click is satisfyingly firm and the whole pedal just feels like a Boss product, built like a tank.

While now days there's no shortage of distortion pedals to choose from the DS-1 is a classic, which is going to be its best selling point for some and its worse for others.Vollständige Rezension lesen...

Bestätigter Kauf:  Ja | Artikelzustand: gebraucht | Verkauft von: iplagitr2

This pedal has a lot of potential. Get one of our modified pedals, or send

Probably every guitar player has bought or listened to the Boss DS-1. Most folks are a little disappointed. It's a good pedal, it just needs a little help!

We buy these to modify and resell. Also guitarists send us theirs for modification. So get that DS-1 out of your closet, or get that one back that you loaned to your friend a while back. You will like the difference!

Mike’s Custom Mod!
After years of doing everyone else's mods for folks, this is the one on my board. I have developed my own favorite custom mod. Replacement resistors, capacitors, diodes, and led’s are hand-picked in my personal DS-1 to tame the harshness of the clipping and the low end, increase the mids a little to cut through the band, and get rid of that "nasal sound." After this mod, my DS-1 sounds more like an overdrive/distortion pedal. Sounds sort of like the SD-1, but with more guts and low end.

*We also have a Mike's Custom Marshall DS-1. If you love that classic JCM Marshall sound, be sure and ask for this one!Vollständige Rezension lesen...

ORANGE DISTORTION BOX with lots of BANG FOR THE BUCK!

the boss DS-1 is designed to emulate the famous "orange box " distortion pedal that became famous in the 70's, which itself tried to sound like a marshall fifty watt small box or even with a bit of ac-30 top boost, only warmer. Not a modern insane overdriven tone, but even with single coils it delivered a thick warmer sounding crunch. I would use this to give me a good crunchy rhythm, when you cant push your own amp to breakup because of volume issues, or to add a boost when taking a solo, to help cut through the mix. The DS-1 also is a blast practicing at low volume, Nice singing sustain at living room levels. Oh, did I mention you can find one on e-bay for at least half the price of the other orange distortion box! My good friend plays an older silverface deluxe, and I bought a DS-1 to give to him so he can get some gritty tone when the amps on two or so as we are often told to TURN DOWN!Vollständige Rezension lesen...

Not all it's cracked up to be

It's got a nice blues sound when the gain is down and output is cranked up. But as soon as you crank the gain up to get into some hard rock then forget it. The thing sounds like fuzzy muffled garbage no matter how you adjust your treble and bass pots. The original ds1 sounds much better, and that's not saying much. If you're going to spend the money on one of these then you may as well get something good like the sinvertek no.5 or sehr riot reloaded...Vollständige Rezension lesen...

Bestätigter Kauf:  Ja | Artikelzustand: gebraucht | Verkauft von: bluesmarriner

Boss DS-1 Distortion with the Keeley Seeing Eye and Ultra mods

I purchased a Boss DS-1 Distortion with the Keeley Seeing Eye and Ultra mods along with an added gain knob on the side of the pedal that allows me to fine tune the distortion. I played/tested the pedal through my tube amps, which are a Fender Super Sonic, Gibson GA-5, Gibson Goldtone GA-30RVS, Fender Tone Master, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Fender champion 600, Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 401 and a Peavey Classic 20. I have one solid state amp and it is a Line 6 Flex Tone III. When my tube amps were set to play clean and I set the pedal to the DS-Ultra mode while the distortion is set to low or mid setting, the pedal set to DS-Ultra mode provided a nice warm usable sound that could be used for modern rock and classic rock tones. When I set the pedal to full distortion while set in the DS-Ultra mode, I personal felt it sound a little cold an harsh and it was not to my taste in distortion. When driving the amps with the pedal set to full distortion, the sound reminded me when I played in garage bands in the late 70’s/early 80’s as a teenager and it was hard to distinguish the different tones of the notes when playing leads. Man did I wish I used ear plugs back then. While it was fun to experiment while driving the amp with the pedal and a little nostalgic, I could never recommend using that setup for playing live or recording. When playing in the classic Seeing Eye mode with the distortion all the way up and the tube amp set to clean, the sound achieved was a nice saturated distortion for classic rock (not metal) sound. Guitars used were a Fender Deluxe USA, Fender Standard Tele USA, G&L Comanche USA, G&L ASAT Blues Boy USA, Gibson Les Paul Standard W/ Burstbuckers, Gibson ES-335 W/Duncan Antiquities and an ES-335 copy W/P-90’s.Vollständige Rezension lesen...