Boss DS-1: soooo underrated! (w/ video!)

[severinsteel]

Ok, so I heard on the boards that a Boss DS-1 sounds great as a boost in front of a Marshall JCM 800. So, I picked up a used one at my local Music Go Round yesterday. Boy, they were right! All my booteek overdrives couldn't get my 800 to sound like that! Out of curiosity, I tried it in front of my Egnater Mod 50. I used it with my Bassman module that was already slightly overdriven, and that was it! I've been looking for an almost single coil juicy tone out of my humbucker guitars, and it is perfect! I knocked off my modded TS9 off the board, and the DS-1 is in its place. Sounds amazing. Not so great on the clean channel, but on a semi dirty channel, it kills!

Here is my video review!

 

[Badronald]

Glad you dig it. Never worked for me. Not even my Keeley modded.

SD-1? Yeah, that sounds great into an 800.

 

[shgshg]

What's that you say Mr Eric Johnson?

Love the DS-1. I'll never be without one.

 

[racerevlon]

Well... yeah...

 

[thenine]

I still have my orig Jap one, bought in 1984

 

[AmpliFIRE]

Glad you dig it. Never worked for me. Not even my Keeley modded.

SD-1? Yeah, that sounds great into an 800.

+1

MIJ SD-1 all day for me. Never dug the DS-1 (Keeley or MIJ version).

The BD-2 is a great pedal as well...

 

[the aXeman]

Gary Moore used one back in the day to juice more out of his amps when using his old Strats... Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KhRaouhJLw

Sounds pretty good to me!! Especially given "Corridors/Victims" is my favorite era of Moore tone... All good in my book!!

 

[shgshg]

If "Cold Hearted" is a Strat with a DS-1, then a Strat with a DS-1 is what I want to play.

 

[Shawn Lutz]

if you are dyslexic are you talking about the yellow one (SD-1) or the orange one (DS-1) let shop no one is dyslexic and color blind lol

The king in front of an JCM800 for me is the SD-1 (yellow super over drive pedal)

 

[glassjaw7]

Didn't dig that pedal at all but glad you're digging it. I had an SD-1 that was ok but it had a metallic tinny sort of sound compared to my higher end stuff. By no means am I against finding inexpensive gems though; I love my MXR classic overdrive and I really liked the Boss OS-2 as a boost.

 

[the aXeman]

Not to dig this one back up but I found it ironic that the night before you posted this, I was watching the video I linked you to w/ Gary Moore kind of explaining how he uses his old DS-1 (circa 1983-ish...) and then I see this thread the next morning... THEN later the same day, I walk into the music shop I teach at and there's one in the glass case used for $20... I'm thinking about snatching it... They're $50 new, but $20 for a pedal that I might find use for even if it's a 5 second bit seems reasonable... Tempting... Thoughts??

 

[severinsteel]

Here is my video review!

 

[shgshg]

Not to dig this one back up but I found it ironic that the night before you posted this, I was watching the video I linked you to w/ Gary Moore kind of explaining how he uses his old DS-1 (circa 1983-ish...) and then I see this thread the next morning... THEN later the same day, I walk into the music shop I teach at and there's one in the glass case used for $20... I'm thinking about snatching it... They're $50 new, but $20 for a pedal that I might find use for even if it's a 5 second bit seems reasonable... Tempting... Thoughts??

20 bucks? grab it!

 

[Anonymous]

Had an old MIJ one, tried it as a distortion over a clean channel (yuck) and as a boost on a gain channel (less yuck, but still yuck) with different settings. Don't know how some players manage to make that thing sound good, maybe because it's used in combination with other gear

 

[Lublin]

That sounds like...........something...............

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

What I found interesting is that the pedal doesn't seem to color or alter the general EQ of the amp much. SD-1 sounds great but cuts some lows. In your vid and the Gary Moore vid, the general character of the amp stays the same. I could see this as an effective boost. I thought the same thing in this shootout.. the DS-1 doesn't do to bad but overall, the amp just cooks.

 

[rupe]

A timeless classic. I wouldn't consider it underrated either...isn't it the #1 selling gain pedal of all time?

 

[Badronald]

That sounds like...........something...............

Agreed. Something.........

 

[severinsteel]

That sounds like...........something...............

Agreed. Something.........

Something?

 

[se7en]

Kurt Cobain sure liked it...