My first pedal Boss DS-1

[Glacies]

My wife surprised me with the Boss DS-1 last night. I'm really impressed. This is my first pedal and I think it's a great way to start out. Being able to switch from clean to crunch is adding an extra layer to my playing now, but what I learned last night after just wailing on my guitar was it really juiced up my sustain.

Again, I'm a super amateur, I've never had a lick of musical education before I decided I wanted to learn how to play guitar a few years ago and I never wanted to throw too much money into it. My setup is a Epi LP standard played throug a Peavey Vyprr 15 (gonna post a thread about my next amp in a min). The Vyprr is a modelling amp and while I've been happy with it, it's versatile and it's let me learn where I like to be tonally, but it hasn't let me learn anything about shaping the sound. Yes there are tone and gain knobs, but I don't use them because it messes up my defaults and I can just switch the amp style and get a sound close enough to what I'm looking for anyway. With this pedal I can really change things around on my distortion channel anyway.

But wow, the crunch this thing gives, it's fully toned. I don't know how to speak the language but it's like a fuller, cleaner distortion than anything I could get out of my amp. I love how the tone really shines through and like I said, the sustain is super long when I play through this pedal too. It doesn't seem to change the clean channel at all either, which is something I saw a really cheap distortion pedal do.

I'm really happy with this. Looks like a hell of a quality pedal too. It's a little tank box.

As for the music, I'm working on Dani California lately and this pedal came at a perfect time.

[Spudman]

Congrats on your new exploration. The DS-1 is a pretty good pedal. Many people will comment on it's shortcomings, but I've found it to be very useful at gig volumes more so than bedroom levels. It stacks really well with most overdrives. I prefer to run the overdrive after the DS-1. If the luster should wear from your new pedal, don't be discouraged, there are numerous simple modifications that move the pedal into new territory.

[markb]

I was pleasantly surprised by the new DS-1 I bought a couple of years ago. It was warm and full in a Marshally way, sensitive to player input and guitar controls and was dirt cheap. A lot to like and a great pedal to keep in a gig bag as a general dirt channel or SS amp warmer-upper when needed.

[deeaa]

I have been meaning / trying to get a DS-1 forever, never seem to get round to it though. Had loads of dirt pedals from SD-1 to HM-2 and whatever, but never a DS-1. And besides...don't really need any pedals with the JVM anyway. But I will get one some day, certainly! They just seem pretty rare used, and I certainly will never plunk down what they're asking for new pedals :-)

[Glacies]

If the pedal is off, but the lines are still plugged in, does the battery drain?

[Eric]

If the pedal is of, but the lines are still plugged in, does the battery drain?
Yessir. Welcome to pedal-ville.

My first pedal was a Boss DS-1. I got tired of it and traded it away, but now that I listen to clips of it now and then, it seems like it could be plenty useful if you spend some time with it. I think a lot of people just crank up the gain and then complain that it's too fizzy and/or saturated, but you'd figure that's what a distortion pedal is going to do.

Anyway, congrats on the pedal. It's a long and dark road that you've chosen down the path of stompboxes, but one that's rife with colorful distractions.

[deeaa]

It's a long and dark road that you've chosen down the path of stompboxes, but one that's rife with colorful distractions.

I sense some sig material here...

[sunvalleylaw]

The DS-1 was one of my early pedals too. I think the Bad Monkey overdrive was first. I loved (and still do love) to stack those pedals, with the Bad Monkey later in the chain than the DS-1. I got that from Spud. I also really like the sound of my DS-1 followed by a chorus when I want to sound all grungey and stuff.

[tunghaichuan]

The DS-1 was one of my early pedals too. I think the Bad Monkey overdrive was first. I loved (and still do love) to stack those pedals, with the Bad Monkey later in the chain than the DS-1. I got that from Spud. I also really like the sound of my DS-1 followed by a chorus when I want to sound all grungey and stuff.

I've got three DS-1 pedals, one is my main one, the other two are eventually going to be modded. All three are current Taiwanese manufacture. My main one sounds very good, I don't get all the hatred of this pedal. My guess is that 1. It isn't expensive, 2. it doesn't have a cool name, weird control names and isn't painted a pretty color, and 3. there isn't a 6 month waiting list for them.

I also like to stack my DS-1 with a Bad Monkey (thanks for the tip, Spudman :)), or a TS-9 Tubescreamer set to a clean boost. Really thickens out the sound. Another pedal to try before the DS-1 is a compressor, the Boss CS-3 is a good one. It smooths out the drive sound giving another tonal option.

The Japanese models from the late 70s and 80s are supposed to sound better, they used a different op amp, so they sound different. Because of this they command premium prices.

Personally, I love Boss pedals. Always have. I own more Boss than any other brand.

[Glacies]

The CS-3 is actually on my MF wishlist (which my wife used to buy me this DS-1)

That along with a looper pedal and a wah and that's everything that I can imagine having and using for the near foreseeable future.

Hijacking my own thread, but why don't wah's come with with an "auto" option? Or do they? I have a crybaby on the list, but I'd really like one that is a wah pedal with an auto-wah option so I can just wetten the entire sound just a little bit.

[markb]

I understand that Boss have changed the op amp in the DS-1 several times. The current ones are said to sound better than those from a few years ago. I've had two from recent production with no complaints. I've never owned an MIJ DS-1 so can't comment on those.

The only "auto" on a Crybaby is switch on and leave it in one position. Mick Ronson used to do this feeding the clean signal to one Marshall and the fixed wah to another. Very cool tone if you happen to have two Marshall stacks and very understanding neighbours :D

[sunvalleylaw]

The Boss CE-5 is the chorus I use, and it seems to work well, alone, and with the DS-1.

[omegadot]

I loved my DS-1. It wasn't really mine, though. I borrowed it for a while. I have no clue who manufactured it but I got a lot of dead on tones for various punk rockers that used it.

[sixstringdrug]

I also loved my DS-1, I wasnt using it much so I gave it to my nephew as his first stompbox! rarely a time I feel like playing grunge when I don't miss that pedal. Luckily they are cheap and pop up on CL all the time. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, time to troll CL, I'm rebuying myself one! +1 Tung, I too have/do own many boss boxes and they do their job. Solid as a rock and always a reliable tone.

[sunvalleylaw]

Yeah, I like my DS-1 for what it is, stock. I like my other Boss pedals too. They work just fine.