Here it is. The #1 stompbox for legions of crunch-craving guitarists all over the planet. This DS-1 distortion pedal is a time-proven mainstay of rock and metal tone, no doubt about it. Three knobs make way for practically every rock sound you’ve ever heard. If you dig it loud and distorted, you’ve simply got to have a DS-1 in your rig. And that’s that.
$ 44.01
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146 of 154 people found the following review helpful
 Wish I knew then what I know now…, By
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This review is from: Boss DS1 Distortion Guitar Pedal (Electronics)
From Greg Abrams review, entitled “For all but the tone snobs,” a review further down on this product’s page: “Alright, so you want to get a good (if somewhat “basic”) distortion sound for less than 0? This is your deal.” I strongly disagree. You can find MUCH BETTER distortions for 0 or less, even a few near or under the mark the DS-1 is currently priced at. I’ve played guitar for over 10 years. Like many people one of my first pedal purchases was the DS-1. Afterall, everyone talks about them, they’re available at any given music store in the nation, you hear about all these famous musicians using them, plus a DS-1 is actually pretty cheap! So I snapped one up just like everyone else. Come to find out that just because something is POPULAR, that doesn’t always mean its GOOD (see: Nickelback, the Transformers movie franchise, the Kardashian family, etc…). So I plugged it in and didn’t really care for it. The distortion was harsh, thin, artificial sounding and always noisy. I tried it on both my amps (My practic amp: a solid state Fender Frontman 25R, and my big amp, the B-52 AT100, which is a 100w tube halfstack) It was was not very diverse, and the basic sound was not very likeable to me. I’ve read the Japanese made DS-1’s are better in sound than the newer, made in Taiwan models but, either way, the DS-1 is just not a great pedal in my mind. But, like many newer players, I didn’t know any better at the time. Fast forward a few years and I’ve bought and sold literally dozens of pedals. There is a whole world of great tones to be found out there if you keep your eyes open. So here are some pedals I currently own that I like much better than the DS-1. All of them are great general purpose distortions, easy enough to find new and used in most guitar shops, and can, at the time of this writing, be bought brand new for or less here on good ol’ Amazon.com, and are rugged enough to last for years: Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion: Lest I catch any flames from people thinking I’m a Boss hater (I’m certainly not, I loved the TU-3, the ODB-3, the MD-2, and the XT-2, among others) I’ll start with the DS-1’s big brother. This pedal has a much nicer tone to it, not to mention 2 distinct distortion modes. The I setting is pretty much a higher quality DS-1, the II setting is a brighter, richer tone. As the DS-1 completely overshadows the DS-2 in popularity, you can find DS-2’s all over ebay for very cheap prices. A very worthy pedal, unfortunately overlooked by many. Pro Co RAT2: Great dirty distortion pedal. Probably my personal favorite. You’ve heard this box used on literally hundreds if not thousands of songs in the last 30 years, its used by just a ridiculous amount of guitarists. Its a rich, full distortion that at higher gains gets slightly fuzzy. I’ve never heard a bad tone out of mine. Its great for getting a “big amp” kind of sound out of a small practice amp. Its also great for pushing a big amp with too much headroom into the overdriven sweet spot without having to crank the amp volume. A truly excellent pedal. EHX Little Big Muff: The Big Muff is another pedal you’ve heard on hundreds of songs. Its kind of a fuzz, kind of a distortion, but definitely owns its own sonic territory. Very big, saturated and warm. Used heavily in the 70’s for classic rock tones, also in the 90’s and beyond for tons of grunge and garage. Used by everyone from Carlos Santana and David Gilmour to the Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr. and Jack White. I personally reccomend the Little Big Muff, not only is it a touch creamier in tone than the recent NYC reissue, its smaller, uses a regular 9v adapter and its CHEAPER! A great pedal. MXR Distortion +: The Distortion + is a great first distortion, and can usually be found pretty cheap. Whats nice about the Distortion + is that it sounds great on anything, and the lack of a tone knob helps keep it somewhat transparent, i.e. you can more easily hear the natural tone of your guitar and amp, it doesn’t cover over your equipments sound. Used by quite a few famous folks, including the Greatful Deads Jerry Garcia, Randy Rhoads (Ozzy’s famous guitarist) and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols…
63 of 72 people found the following review helpful
 For all but the tone snobs, By
This review is from: Boss DS1 Distortion Guitar Pedal (Electronics)
Alright, so you want to get a good (if somewhat “basic”) distortion sound for less than 0? This is your deal. If, on the other hand, you’re a tone snob who believes that anything other than overhyped and overpriced boutique pedals is garbage, you’re probably not looking at this page to begin with. Don’t get me wrong, I have some nice boutique pedals and mods (like the Cusack Screamer and the Keeley MT-2) that I would never part with. But here’s the thing…the stock DS-1 stands proud even in such company. Why? A few simple observations:
1) Boss has been selling this pedal with great success since 1978, regardless of the fact that… 2) Due to the toughness, you’ll likely never need to replace one of these tanks. 3) Many outstanding guitar players have used this pedal in the studio and on the road, including Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, etc… Sure, some are using “modified” versions now, like Vai’s Keeley edition. But you don’t tamper with what you don’t like. If the foundation isn’t solid, you replace it. I also own the Ibanez Vai Jemini pedal and what they basically did (in my opinion) was take his tube screamer and DS-1 pedals and put them into one box for convenience. Same thing with Satriani’s Vox Satchurator pedal. You know someone really loves a pedal when they use it as a template in designing their own signature line. I don’t have any proof that they did this, but it does sound like it in a side-by-side comparison. 4) Now consider that the Jemini and Satchurator are 9 and 9, respectively. Nice pedals? Yes. Worth up to four times the DS-1? After using both for a few months, I’m not entirely convinced of that. Since I’m a pedal collector, they’re staying put in my house. But I don’t see a whole lot in them that really blows away the core DS-1 sound. Seriously, if you’re looking for a simple, set and forget distortion that has a good basic tone for rock and metal, the Boss DS-1 is a great value. If you simply must have crystalline tone purity in a box, why are you still reading this? Get outta here already 😉 0
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Good as a Stepping Stone, By
Eric H “Not a big fan…” (Chicagoland) – See all my reviews
This review is from: Boss DS1 Distortion Guitar Pedal (Electronics)
Alright, allow me to forego any kind of thesis statement or introduction and simply get down to the point. What you get with this pedal is simple, classic, basic distortion. It’s not exteme, and it’s not too weak. It’s probably what you would sort of call a baseline to compare other pedals to.
If you need just simply distortion; a little overdrive to your sound, then you found it. However, if you want something more indepth, look for something more specific to what you want (Metal Zone, Blues Drive, Tube Screamer, etc), because this pedal is very generic sounding due to it being a pedal that a large fraction of musicians own. It’s like the McDonald’s of pedals: cheap, easy, and well known. Bottom Line: Good to use for simple distortion effects, otherwise look elsewhere. 0 |
