I lost my pedal virginity to a NUX high gain. It makes me feel cheap. I was young and stupid. But then I met my Boss sd-1 super overdrive. That one did it to me right. That's my first real pedal.
Literally just got my DS-1 five days ago. absolute sledgehammer of a pedal, it's amazing what this tiny little orange stomp box can do.... you can get real hard edge grunge tones and you can also get a really slick bluesy hendrix tone out of it too. turn the distortion back to about 10 o'clock, turn the tone up to brighten it a little bit and use your neck pickup for the hendrix tone. want Nirvanas tone, turn the tone right back to about 9 o'clock turn the distortion up to around 4 o'clock and switch to your bridge pickup. beautiful, clean, genuine grungy tone. turn your distortion up to max and turn your ton back to about 9-10 oclock if you want to make your way into smashing pumpkins territory.
@@adamalexanderray I wanted to call you out on how insensitive that comment was, but since it was fucking hilarious I will just go back to play smell like teen spirit wrong as always
It is everybody's first pedal for a reason. Was mine as well, years ago. I've had three of them throughout my life, and have made the decision to hold onto the one I have now. I feel like the Boss DS-1 is one of those pedals where you need to have the right amount of know-how and finesse to get a good sound out of it, but if you do manage it, it's something quite special.
The DS-1, SD-1, and TU-2 have been in my pedal arsenal since I was a teenager. Do have some others on my board that I use for other affects but when you want that mean distortion and overdrive you can’t go wrong with the classics!
My first pedal was an early 80's DOD FX-50 Overdrive/Preamp; I played it for years until it finally died and went to pedal heaven...then I bought the Boss DS-1 in the late 90's, and it proved to be a highly worthy successor, and still does to this day! It's been put thru hell with countless gigs, practices and jams and it still sounds awesome! 🎸🔥👊
Well said. I believe there's 3 main reasons for all the DS1 hate... 1- Tone Snobbery(it's cheap & common so it HAS to sound cheap & common). 2- Misuse(some expect it to sound like a Metal Zone, others play it through a cheap amp or an overly bright amp plus they often set the DS1's tone too high. Bottom line, it shines best through a warm, edge of breakup tube amp) 3. Laziness/ Too quick to judge(it takes time to dial in the right EQ, gain, and volume settings between both pedal and amp). Btw, if anyone thinks Gary Moore and Joe Satriani's tone sounds like a "Can of bees", as many people describe the DS1, you should take up painting, cycling, needle point... Anything but music because your hearing is for crap.
Satch uses a modded DS1 now but he used the stock one for most of his career incl the Surfing album. And Gary was using Boss pedals as soon as they hit the shelves. I seriously doubt he immediately had the DS1 modded. After all, in the late 70's & 80's, although players talked about modded amps, pedal modding wasn't really thought about... even by the pros. Take it from a guy who read almost every guitar mag in the 80s(cover to cover), pedal modding wasn't really a thing back then(save for a few nerds in their basements who we later found out about). Btw, Lynch also used a stock DS1. So did Cobain. Cork sniffing the best pedals mods are mostly a 21st century thing.
Got my first DS-1 in 1995. Lasted me until about 2015. Replaced it with a new one and it’s still going strong. The DS-1 will always be on my pedal board.
I have the black 40th version on my board and it sounds great at low gains with coils.Play with the treble on your guitar or pedal.It loves high quality tube amps.
And do forget Kurt Cobain on the Bleach tour. I started on this pedal myself and bought it back in 1994 and still use it until this day. It's the best damn pedal I've ever owned but one thing to add. If you buy one of these, try to get one from the 90's because they tweaked it and it got a bit thin on the re-issues, common problem with most newer pedals. Turn the distortion all the way up and then tone 3/4 to the left and you got Nirvana!
The DS-1 was my first, and will be my last, distortion pedal. I've had a total of 3 in my 30 years of playing. One got stolen, one got sold, and I just bought another one! It's a tried and true pedal and I love everything about it. It makes everything from a Squier to an actual American Fender sound incredible!
I’ve used different pedals throughout the years, but never did try the BOSS DS-1. I just bought one, and gonna try to run it through my Marshall 100watt head, but use it just enough to boost my guitar sound for solos.
I like having two in the chain. One set for lots of distortion, the other way backed off, and also use anything in between. I swear by them. I play Strats, and the tone knob tapers the high mid/treble down and sounds great. It sounds like a good distortion pedal vs an overdrive, which I also use, of course. Into delay and modulation it is insane. Killer through my tube amps.
My suggestion: use your DS-1 or MT-2 through the Line IN on your amp's effects loop. You are essentially using your pedal as a preamp. You wouldn't believe the tones you can get and how it changes the tinny beehive sounds of these pedals into powerful chugging machines. For a band situation though you need a loud amp, because the only volume control will be from your pedal in many cases. I'm getting thousand dollar tone on a hundred dollar budget. My current set up: a DS-1driving a Crate solid state amp head in the Loop In, (not the front end of the amp!), through a Fender 4x12 cab. Again - massive fucking tone on a budget. I couldn't believe my ears at first.
DS-1 + cabinet simulators of softwares is an amazing combination for tracks, this old pedal sounds clean, you could hear ever single note. Softwares can equalize that pedal better than amplifiers or pedals.
Love the distortion sound on the ds-1 but it's just not that great in stock form. I'd agree it's the most legendary and influential distortion ever but not the best. It's extremely noisy and thin. Still hoping boss releases a ds-1w with these issues fixed but until then the MXR 78 will be holding it's place on my board
I've only just bought myself one and I use it through the rhythm Chanel on my crate gt212 amp it sounds really good, I play punk and just gives a real nice boost and distortion sound that my amp doesn't quite get, my next pedal will be a boss ge 7 to compliment it
I’ve been playing guitar since 2006-7 this is my legit first pedal I’ve EVER HAD, I’m trying to figure out how to set it up with my old line 6 spider lmao, I almost bought a new amp too, but ummm for secret reasons I decided to hold off, sometimes ya gotta hide what ya buy from the wife 😂
In comparison to every other distortion pedal my guitar friends I have put it next to it just sounds hollow and tinny with each of our guitars(which trust me, covers a lot of the spectrum). Literally every other pedal had more oomph and color, and made the DS1 sound like Line 6 spider tone . If you can get something else, do it. The only reason all those people used DS1 was because there wasn't much else and people have a major tendency to bandwagon.
Interesting comment. I've been using a DS1 for years now (as well as many other fuzz/distortion/overdrive pedals) and have never had an issue with it being tinny or hollow sounding, unless I intentionally tried to make it so.
In the 80s, prior to the mega rack setups, nobody looked at anything but Boss pedals. They were the dogs. Everything else was cheaper built and sounded fairly crap by comparison. Racks took over, but most guys didn’t have much of a clue about how to setup them up properly. There were just too many settings and options. Guitarists have come full circle and are buying lots of pedals once again, but Boss seems to have lost ground to lots of the more fashionable brands. Boss is still great gear, sounds absolutely brilliant, is relatively affordable and better built than most of the trendy stuff that’s around. Their delay, chorus and ODs are all really great and defined so many great guitar tones during the 80s.
Ive heard these sound bad with high output pickups, but i dont know what output my pickups are or what makes them high or low,i have a gibson explorer with dirty fingers
Hi! These pedals sound great with all guitars - but you have to change the settings to suit your style. Dial the gain all the way up for metal, or tone it back for a drive style!
I have to say I once would have said this was the worst distortion pedal ever, but I’ve since come to realise how great it actually is. In my experience it doesn’t work well with a solid state amp - too harsh and fizzy, but it comes alive with a tube amp. It can also depend on where it’s placed in the chain - remember it’s a buffered by-pass, if you have too many in a row they suck the life out of your tone. Try offsetting it with some true by-pass pedals and you’ll likely wonder why you got duped into $200+ pedals that do the same thing at the end of the day. 😉
Actually, buffered bypass pedals retain your tone better than true-bypass as that creates one ultra long cable, losing high end & volume. Buffered bypass at worst lose volume, which can catered for through a clean boost/line driver type pedal. There are issues with a handful of MIJ Boss pedals where the buffer is't great. But unless you're spending £200+ for a vintage CE2 and got to convince yourself everything is fantastic, you've got nothing to worry about. A modern MIT Boss pedal isn't going to destroy your tone in any way when bypassed and true bypass does more damage to your tone. A Boss pedal work in an arena in stock form, true bypass has to go into buffered loops to deal with long cable runs in that scenario. In your local bar, the difference is negligible, but again, the true bypass pedal is still losing volume & high end.
This hasn’t been my experience. Intermittent buffered and true bypass pedals have always retained my original tone the closest, not the case with multiples of the same type in a row, but that’s just my personal experience and was a suggestion if others were experiencing the same issue. Not sure I agree though with the MIT Boss not destroying tone, if you’ve tried a GE-7 or TR-2 you’ll know what I mean - possibly the worst tone suckers out there. Unfortunately there are way to many variables in the entire signal chain for each product that could be used to arrive at a definitive conclusion for everyone’s experience.
@@dannyharvey7398 As I said, the issues with buffered bypass is solved with a clean amplifier, the MXR/CAE Line Driver is the perfect pedal for this. There is no alteration of tone like with an entire true bypass board. That said, having to run another pedal might be bit of a pain. I have owned both pedals in the past and don't remember them causing any issues in their bypass state (I'm not talking about when the pedal is engaged here), but this was a long time ago. Just generally come across bad buffers in MIJ Boss pedals, not to say all, its mostly modulations & delays, anything that requires a blend of wet & dry. In my experience, you can run quite a lot of pedals with decent buffers before running into issues, it only takes one bad buffer to ruin everything and I think that misleads people on how many they can actually use. If the TR2 and GE7 are still problematic, then that's a really shame that people are likely to run into the same issue that led people to believe true bypass is better or a mix is required, when its likely just one or two pedals that are the issue.
@@3rdStoreyChemist Just copied this from a long time established pedal manufacturer (and is also my point) The benefit of true-bypass circuitry is that by sending a signal straight to the amp, the signal completely clears the circuitry that creates the effect (thus the name “true bypass”). The signal remains fully “intact”; passing through the effects pedal with no unwanted tonal coloration, or loss of strength/frequencies. What are the Setbacks? Though true-bypass pedals certainly have their advantages, it’s important to note that they’re not for everyone. Their benefits are subjective and dependent on your needs as a player. They’re best for musicians with a limited number of pedals (ideally three or four). The same cardinal rule applies: The farther a signal has to travel, the greater the possibility for signal loss. Using a lot of pedals essentially duplicates the effect of an extremely long cable. More pedals also increases the likelihood of more prominent switching noise as you alternate stomp boxes. Many pedals without true bypass contain buffering or preamp circuitry that helps condition the signal and travel through longer pedal chains without losing strength. With a large collection of true-bypass pedals, a buffer at the beginning of the chain can give the signal the added boost it needs to travel through the entire effects setup, keeping its tonal integrity intact.
This was the first pedal I got when I started playing the guitar back in '97 and I still have it. Just rocked on it earlier today and realized it adds a real nice touch to a clean amp sound if you don't turn all knobs to 5 o' clock cause that's how I always used it: all knobs at max all the time.
I got it a couple months ago, sure it’s good I like it, I must be doing something wrong, the guitar is plugged in correctly, so is the amp, I play guitar and the sound goes through the pedal so it works just fine, on the other hand when I step on the pedal WITH a brand new battery in it, it doesn’t work, the light doesn’t turn on and the pedal doesn’t distort. If you could tell me why it’s not working that would be great thanks
Play around with it my man, see what you like the sound of. I believe there are sites which can tell you settings for particular songs, but these pedals are fairly straight forward anyway. Nice work on picking up and learning guitar. It gets so much better if you keep up the practice - trust me!! Stay safe and stay creative my friend!!!
@@MegsMakeupRoom thank you pal really appreciate it. Im struggling with strumming at the moment and switching chords smoothly. Its so fuking hard. I know E C D A G chords now and a d e minor aswell. Ive learned all this in a month. Each day im practicing. So im really enjoying it. Im struggling with strumming thats doing my head in and switching these chords smoothly.
@@TheBengriffin57 he means the amp is already overdriven to a degree just due to how a tube amp is naturally, you're mileage may vary if you plug the ds-1 into a clean channel of a solid state amp for example it will be different...personally I don't think dramatically so, and even then it's not a bad thing to have limitations with gear, that's what causes everyone to develop their own sound over time with experimentation.
You are so right ..its cheap and crap, and bought it when it first came out. Loved that sound when i was young & naive, but now, that i'm older, have the MXR Custom Badass '78, that does so much more in every sense! Just bought a cheap ass $19 Naomi mini U.S. Dream clone pedal recently, that put a smile on my face. Soooo many options out there you could blow your money on... Happy trails to you!
I wouldn't say the best pedal (that kinda claim is gonna change person to person), but you'd have to be delusional to ever question how iconic and important this pedal is.
him: "I don't think this guy even needs an introduction"
also him: "THIS IS THE BOSS DS-1"
I mean, we all had one at some point. I still have mine.
The most famous
Sounds like noise pollution
@@sandakureva i don't (3 month beginner)
Everyone’s first guitar pedal
Theo Perkins mine was a big muff
Mine was an MXR distortion. Can't remember the exact name.
Mine was a wah
I lost my pedal virginity to a NUX high gain. It makes me feel cheap. I was young and stupid. But then I met my Boss sd-1 super overdrive. That one did it to me right. That's my first real pedal.
Mine was the super overdrive. Then traded it for the ds1. Now that I'm older I regret it.
I've actually played guitar a long time without a pedal. So this is my first one. I'm a pedal virgin. Hoping to get some sweet sounds out of it!
Same
@@doomslayer8431 A doom fan playing guitar... nice
My 1st was Boss Blues Driver
same here. for so long I have only used the distortions from my amps
Me too!!!
I just ordered a mxr 10 band EQ pedal.
Now I'm looking for a good overdrive/distortion pedal to push my dsl20 head.
Literally just got my DS-1 five days ago. absolute sledgehammer of a pedal, it's amazing what this tiny little orange stomp box can do.... you can get real hard edge grunge tones and you can also get a really slick bluesy hendrix tone out of it too. turn the distortion back to about 10 o'clock, turn the tone up to brighten it a little bit and use your neck pickup for the hendrix tone. want Nirvanas tone, turn the tone right back to about 9 o'clock turn the distortion up to around 4 o'clock and switch to your bridge pickup. beautiful, clean, genuine grungy tone. turn your distortion up to max and turn your ton back to about 9-10 oclock if you want to make your way into smashing pumpkins territory.
"I dont think this guy even needs an introduction"
*_gives introduction_*
Kurt Cobain also was a ds1 user
Luke Kern he was also a heroin user and that didn’t go too well for him.
También DoD punkifier
@@adamalexanderray I wanted to call you out on how insensitive that comment was, but since it was fucking hilarious I will just go back to play smell like teen spirit wrong as always
Liam O is your comment satire? Can’t tell if you’re serious or joking 😂
@@mikkywhalan how is it whoosh he clearly got the joke😂😂 just took it the wrong way😂😂
It is everybody's first pedal for a reason. Was mine as well, years ago. I've had three of them throughout my life, and have made the decision to hold onto the one I have now. I feel like the Boss DS-1 is one of those pedals where you need to have the right amount of know-how and finesse to get a good sound out of it, but if you do manage it, it's something quite special.
Totally agree! You have to search and play with it to discover the perfect tones.
The DS-1, SD-1, and TU-2 have been in my pedal arsenal since I was a teenager.
Do have some others on my board that I use for other affects but when you want that mean distortion and overdrive you can’t go wrong with the classics!
Yes it is. I had a lot of dists but I came back to DS-1 and I'm happy. Ds-1 is really dynamic and clear. Very good sounding pedal.
Me too mate. I'm a gigging guitarist who pairs it with a fulltone fulldrive 2. Between them you can get any drive sound. Sounds huge!
My first pedal was an early 80's DOD FX-50 Overdrive/Preamp; I played it for years until it finally died and went to pedal heaven...then I bought the Boss DS-1 in the late 90's, and it proved to be a highly worthy successor, and still does to this day! It's been put thru hell with countless gigs, practices and jams and it still sounds awesome! 🎸🔥👊
It’s a classic, if you can’t get a useable tone out of it, it is you that truly sucks.
Well said. I believe there's 3 main reasons for all the DS1 hate...
1- Tone Snobbery(it's cheap & common so it HAS to sound cheap & common).
2- Misuse(some expect it to sound like a Metal Zone, others play it through a cheap amp or an overly bright amp plus they often set the DS1's tone too high. Bottom line, it shines best through a warm, edge of breakup tube amp)
3. Laziness/ Too quick to judge(it takes time to dial in the right EQ, gain, and volume settings between both pedal and amp).
Btw, if anyone thinks Gary Moore and Joe Satriani's tone sounds like a "Can of bees", as many people describe the DS1, you should take up painting, cycling, needle point... Anything but music because your hearing is for crap.
@@t-boog2173 on a side Note, most famous DS-1 users including the ones you mentioned modded their pedals
Satch uses a modded DS1 now but he used the stock one for most of his career incl the Surfing album. And Gary was using Boss pedals as soon as they hit the shelves. I seriously doubt he immediately had the DS1 modded. After all, in the late 70's & 80's, although players talked about modded amps, pedal modding wasn't really thought about... even by the pros.
Take it from a guy who read almost every guitar mag in the 80s(cover to cover), pedal modding wasn't really a thing back then(save for a few nerds in their basements who we later found out about). Btw, Lynch also used a stock DS1. So did Cobain. Cork sniffing the best pedals mods are mostly a 21st century thing.
@@t-boog2173 you nailed it.
@@t-boog2173 so we can all agree that it work well stock or modded.
1:50 I literally wanted this pedal just to play this song...
Same bro, I’m getting mine soon too and enter sandman is one of the sounds I’m trying to get or sound close to
@@khangngo971 It would be good for Nirvana songs too, since it was used heaps by Kurt Cobain.
@@darkoFNFN oh yeah. bleach all day
Iv been using this pedal since mid 90's . This and a TS-9 all iv ever needed.
his guitar playing was incredible !
Jack Sparrow meets Russel Brand.
Russel Off-Brand
@@andrewhunter9119 Incredibly underrated comment
Sorry for raising the likes past 69.
Has always been a great pedal. Built like a tank with the thunder to go with it. Thanks for the vid 👍
A great little box of rock and roll. It's always worked wonders for me.
Thanks Dagan, I was not sure if I should get one. Your seal of approval good enough for me. SOLD!!! Keep Rocking
Got my first DS-1 in 1995. Lasted me until about 2015. Replaced it with a new one and it’s still going strong. The DS-1 will always be on my pedal board.
I have the black 40th version on my board and it sounds great at low gains with coils.Play with the treble on your guitar or pedal.It loves high quality tube amps.
And do forget Kurt Cobain on the Bleach tour. I started on this pedal myself and bought it back in 1994 and still use it until this day. It's the best damn pedal I've ever owned but one thing to add. If you buy one of these, try to get one from the 90's because they tweaked it and it got a bit thin on the re-issues, common problem with most newer pedals. Turn the distortion all the way up and then tone 3/4 to the left and you got Nirvana!
i found this pedal because Chuck Shouldiner used it too and its great!
The DS-1 was my first, and will be my last, distortion pedal. I've had a total of 3 in my 30 years of playing. One got stolen, one got sold, and I just bought another one! It's a tried and true pedal and I love everything about it. It makes everything from a Squier to an actual American Fender sound incredible!
I’ve used different pedals throughout the years, but never did try the BOSS DS-1. I just bought one, and gonna try to run it through my Marshall 100watt head, but use it just enough to boost my guitar sound for solos.
I have a ds1 and a od1. They easily get every distortion tone I want for all kinds of music.
Ive had one for years and love it!
YES!!! It’s the most versatile and also a go-to cheap pedal for any player.
@@tommybalogh6232 if someone is on a budget or doesn’t have a whole lot of money to spend. Jerk off, that’s what he meant
Ride the lighting was recorded with Boas DS-1 and Grafic Equalizer GE-7!
No it was not. That would be a proco rat. Not sure where you got boss ds1 but that pedal had nothing to do with any of Metallica’s tones
@@assnapkined9295 they said an old interview about the ride the lighting album!
I like having two in the chain. One set for lots of distortion, the other way backed off, and also use anything in between. I swear by them. I play Strats, and the tone knob tapers the high mid/treble down and sounds great. It sounds like a good distortion pedal vs an overdrive, which I also use, of course. Into delay and modulation it is insane. Killer through my tube amps.
dammit M. G. Gallagher. now i have to go out and buy another one.
Are you Russel Brand?
Russel Brand's off-brand sober clone.
@@LUR1FAX come on, bro...Russel Off-Brand. It was right in front of you.
@@andrewhunter9119 Maybe I did it deliberately just to pester you, "bro".
Use mine as a clean boost for solos and it makes the guitar absolutely scream.Not unlike the Gary Moore thing he mentioned.
I bought one back in the early 80's when they were made in Japan, I sold a Big Muff to buy this.
I know what a big muff is but I still laugh at the name
@@KZfr I used to have a big muff but we got divorced.
@@andrewhunter9119 Did you get the Russian model next? ; )
I'm a beginner, just got 1 from craigslist with box and docs for $25 bux. Sounds great! thx
Jack Sparrow is that you?
I think its jacksepticeye
he pretends hard to be
That's Inigo Montoya.
tbh he reminds me Orlando Bloom more xD
I just love how affordable they are!
Solid sound for a good price. I'm sold, that'll be my first pedal.
My suggestion: use your DS-1 or MT-2 through the Line IN on your amp's effects loop. You are essentially using your pedal as a preamp. You wouldn't believe the tones you can get and how it changes the tinny beehive sounds of these pedals into powerful chugging machines. For a band situation though you need a loud amp, because the only volume control will be from your pedal in many cases. I'm getting thousand dollar tone on a hundred dollar budget.
My current set up: a DS-1driving a Crate solid state amp head in the Loop In, (not the front end of the amp!), through a Fender 4x12 cab. Again - massive fucking tone on a budget. I couldn't believe my ears at first.
A DS-1 straight in to the loop is going to sound MEGA! I'll try that out! -Lee
Thanks for sharing! I’ll try it as soon as possible.
The first amp I got with an effects loop, I stuck my DS1 in and couldn't believe the difference. I'll never run it in front of the amp again.
Or just don't buy amps with shit preamps...
DS-1 + cabinet simulators of softwares is an amazing combination for tracks, this old pedal sounds clean, you could hear ever single note. Softwares can equalize that pedal better than amplifiers or pedals.
Does anyone know what riff he's playing at 1:50?
Enter Sandman - Metallica, couldn't tell if this was a joke or not, regardless I digress
Haha
sounds pretty obscure, dont know
Darude - Sandstorm
@@maxmedina5403 had to pull it back out🤣
Steve Vai does too
In 1994 I had a Peavey Vegas 400 and a Boss Distortion petal. I would shake the house. Want one now!!
Been play for almost 25 years. Just bought one for the nirvana cover band.
Love the distortion sound on the ds-1 but it's just not that great in stock form. I'd agree it's the most legendary and influential distortion ever but not the best. It's extremely noisy and thin. Still hoping boss releases a ds-1w with these issues fixed but until then the MXR 78 will be holding it's place on my board
Brad Crumbs the new ones come in Smd and they are less noisy
@@ananasie1211 oh that's good to hear. Do the new chips improve the frequency range for the bass as well so it's so thin sounding?
I've only just bought myself one and I use it through the rhythm Chanel on my crate gt212 amp it sounds really good, I play punk and just gives a real nice boost and distortion sound that my amp doesn't quite get, my next pedal will be a boss ge 7 to compliment it
I’ve been playing guitar since 2006-7 this is my legit first pedal I’ve EVER HAD, I’m trying to figure out how to set it up with my old line 6 spider lmao, I almost bought a new amp too, but ummm for secret reasons I decided to hold off, sometimes ya gotta hide what ya buy from the wife 😂
Bro Sick video love the rifts. I just bought this pedal. Great sounds! Love the vids.
It’s a staple pedal for a reason. It is a classic that delivers
you are exactly right sir.
In comparison to every other distortion pedal my guitar friends I have put it next to it just sounds hollow and tinny with each of our guitars(which trust me, covers a lot of the spectrum). Literally every other pedal had more oomph and color, and made the DS1 sound like Line 6 spider tone . If you can get something else, do it. The only reason all those people used DS1 was because there wasn't much else and people have a major tendency to bandwagon.
Interesting comment. I've been using a DS1 for years now (as well as many other fuzz/distortion/overdrive pedals) and have never had an issue with it being tinny or hollow sounding, unless I intentionally tried to make it so.
The usual reason was, oh Steve vai and satriani is using so it must be great
In the 80s, prior to the mega rack setups, nobody looked at anything but Boss pedals. They were the dogs. Everything else was cheaper built and sounded fairly crap by comparison. Racks took over, but most guys didn’t have much of a clue about how to setup them up properly. There were just too many settings and options. Guitarists have come full circle and are buying lots of pedals once again, but Boss seems to have lost ground to lots of the more fashionable brands. Boss is still great gear, sounds absolutely brilliant, is relatively affordable and better built than most of the trendy stuff that’s around. Their delay, chorus and ODs are all really great and defined so many great guitar tones during the 80s.
Didn't know Russell brand. Played guitar
I have a ds-2 and I’m pretty sure it’s identical to the ds-1 but it has a second mode.
Ive heard these sound bad with high output pickups, but i dont know what output my pickups are or what makes them high or low,i have a gibson explorer with dirty fingers
Hi! These pedals sound great with all guitars - but you have to change the settings to suit your style. Dial the gain all the way up for metal, or tone it back for a drive style!
I have to say I once would have said this was the worst distortion pedal ever, but I’ve since come to realise how great it actually is. In my experience it doesn’t work well with a solid state amp - too harsh and fizzy, but it comes alive with a tube amp. It can also depend on where it’s placed in the chain - remember it’s a buffered by-pass, if you have too many in a row they suck the life out of your tone. Try offsetting it with some true by-pass pedals and you’ll likely wonder why you got duped into $200+ pedals that do the same thing at the end of the day. 😉
Actually, buffered bypass pedals retain your tone better than true-bypass as that creates one ultra long cable, losing high end & volume. Buffered bypass at worst lose volume, which can catered for through a clean boost/line driver type pedal.
There are issues with a handful of MIJ Boss pedals where the buffer is't great. But unless you're spending £200+ for a vintage CE2 and got to convince yourself everything is fantastic, you've got nothing to worry about. A modern MIT Boss pedal isn't going to destroy your tone in any way when bypassed and true bypass does more damage to your tone. A Boss pedal work in an arena in stock form, true bypass has to go into buffered loops to deal with long cable runs in that scenario. In your local bar, the difference is negligible, but again, the true bypass pedal is still losing volume & high end.
This hasn’t been my experience. Intermittent buffered and true bypass pedals have always retained my original tone the closest, not the case with multiples of the same type in a row, but that’s just my personal experience and was a suggestion if others were experiencing the same issue. Not sure I agree though with the MIT Boss not destroying tone, if you’ve tried a GE-7 or TR-2 you’ll know what I mean - possibly the worst tone suckers out there. Unfortunately there are way to many variables in the entire signal chain for each product that could be used to arrive at a definitive conclusion for everyone’s experience.
@@dannyharvey7398 As I said, the issues with buffered bypass is solved with a clean amplifier, the MXR/CAE Line Driver is the perfect pedal for this. There is no alteration of tone like with an entire true bypass board. That said, having to run another pedal might be bit of a pain.
I have owned both pedals in the past and don't remember them causing any issues in their bypass state (I'm not talking about when the pedal is engaged here), but this was a long time ago. Just generally come across bad buffers in MIJ Boss pedals, not to say all, its mostly modulations & delays, anything that requires a blend of wet & dry.
In my experience, you can run quite a lot of pedals with decent buffers before running into issues, it only takes one bad buffer to ruin everything and I think that misleads people on how many they can actually use. If the TR2 and GE7 are still problematic, then that's a really shame that people are likely to run into the same issue that led people to believe true bypass is better or a mix is required, when its likely just one or two pedals that are the issue.
@@3rdStoreyChemist Just copied this from a long time established pedal manufacturer (and is also my point)
The benefit of true-bypass circuitry is that by sending a signal straight to the amp, the signal completely clears the circuitry that creates the effect (thus the name “true bypass”). The signal remains fully “intact”; passing through the effects pedal with no unwanted tonal coloration, or loss of strength/frequencies.
What are the Setbacks?
Though true-bypass pedals certainly have their advantages, it’s important to note that they’re not for everyone. Their benefits are subjective and dependent on your needs as a player.
They’re best for musicians with a limited number of pedals (ideally three or four). The same cardinal rule applies: The farther a signal has to travel, the greater the possibility for signal loss. Using a lot of pedals essentially duplicates the effect of an extremely long cable. More pedals also increases the likelihood of more prominent switching noise as you alternate stomp boxes.
Many pedals without true bypass contain buffering or preamp circuitry that helps condition the signal and travel through longer pedal chains without losing strength. With a large collection of true-bypass pedals, a buffer at the beginning of the chain can give the signal the added boost it needs to travel through the entire effects setup, keeping its tonal integrity intact.
I don't know why but mine isn't adding distortion. It's just making it louder. Does anybody know what to do?
Did you ever figure it out
That’s interesting
My first pedal ive ever played was the DS-1 but the first one ive ever owned was a behringer OD300
It does that classic metal/thrash thing perfectly!
I prefer the Mxr Distortion plus, that Explorer looks great
Very Cool Demo/Review, Thankyou. Have a DS-1 after Boss Blues Driver for that extra Crunch. Works Awesome.
Joe Satriani used only a Boss DS-1 for years, and his tone is incredible
Did he use a Keeley modded DS-1?
@@Michaelgracon Not sure but I don't think so. He played through a clean amp with his dirt coming from the DS-1 -- and his hands, of course
Yes, mine is Made in Japan 1984, All my Boss pedals are great.
John Frusciante used one, I'm sold
Old school like me!!! The perfect catch!!!
I just got one for 30 bux at my pawn shop, thanks for the review man
This explorer Lee Malia is amazing btw
This was the first pedal I got when I started playing the guitar back in '97 and I still have it. Just rocked on it earlier today and realized it adds a real nice touch to a clean amp sound if you don't turn all knobs to 5 o' clock cause that's how I always used it: all knobs at max all the time.
Loved the video & review, pretty simple stuff. Thanks
Mines on the way gettimg really hyped for it
Ok Bro I believe you. It's cool ! But I like better Plexy pedal. Try one in the next show!😁
Steve Vai used one!
I got it a couple months ago, sure it’s good I like it, I must be doing something wrong, the guitar is plugged in correctly, so is the amp, I play guitar and the sound goes through the pedal so it works just fine, on the other hand when I step on the pedal WITH a brand new battery in it, it doesn’t work, the light doesn’t turn on and the pedal doesn’t distort. If you could tell me why it’s not working that would be great thanks
Get a power supply
just got mine 😁 can’t wait
Every time someone starts Symphony of Destruction, I hear the intro for Crank It by John 5.
I love your "Jack Sparrow" like personality, great video!
SOLD!! thats all i will say
I just keep coming back to that orange little creepy impy monster. I just do.
Ive just bought this pedal. And im on my 1st month of learning the guitar. Any idea whats best to set this at plzzzz
Play around with it my man, see what you like the sound of. I believe there are sites which can tell you settings for particular songs, but these pedals are fairly straight forward anyway.
Nice work on picking up and learning guitar. It gets so much better if you keep up the practice - trust me!! Stay safe and stay creative my friend!!!
@@MegsMakeupRoom thank you pal really appreciate it. Im struggling with strumming at the moment and switching chords smoothly. Its so fuking hard. I know E C D A G chords now and a d e minor aswell. Ive learned all this in a month. Each day im practicing. So im really enjoying it. Im struggling with strumming thats doing my head in and switching these chords smoothly.
Tone at 9 o'clock, level 1, and distortion at 11
Short answer: yes
It is!
Cheers Russel Brand mate
I can't get this little thing to work for me like you
He is using a tube amp on the edge of breakup (clean channel almost distorting) and that's a key factor to make this pedal sound like this video
@@franciscoadonis1068 what do you mean by breakup?
@@TheBengriffin57 he means the amp is already overdriven to a degree just due to how a tube amp is naturally, you're mileage may vary if you plug the ds-1 into a clean channel of a solid state amp for example it will be different...personally I don't think dramatically so, and even then it's not a bad thing to have limitations with gear, that's what causes everyone to develop their own sound over time with experimentation.
Have 1 for 22 years, have had tons more but the ds-1 still the go to ...
Kurt Cobain used one as well
Didn't jimmy page use one of these in the 1980s?
That Epiphone is sweet bro
Agreed ...bought one this year ..."the mutts nuts"...gorgeous pedal
Mine has been sitting unused thanks to my big red VOX distortion (used, $75)
Hmmm... Might have to listen closer to big orange.
I’ve got a mega modded clone with the first Death Star on the graphics 🤪
Also Kirk Hammett used one on KEA :)
Yes
I’ve just bought it’s on the way in post but my guitar is a squire is the guitar gonna affect the sound of the pedal ? Noob here xD
Josh Squiers are great, just rock it man and have fun. You’ll be fine🤘
Nope, the real sound comes from your amp. Also try messing around with the tone knob on your guitar to get what sounds right from your amp.
You are so right
..its cheap and crap, and bought it when it first came out.
Loved that sound when i was young & naive, but now, that i'm older, have the MXR Custom Badass '78, that does so much more in every sense!
Just bought a cheap ass $19 Naomi mini U.S. Dream clone pedal recently, that put a smile on my face.
Soooo many options out there you could blow your money on...
Happy trails to you!
The MXR Custom Badass '78 is a DS-1 clone...
short answer yes
Got one today
I loved mine so much I let someone borrow it and never bothered to ask for it back. 😜
Are there any other explorers with that dope trim, or just the Lee Malia?
You are correct, sir.
I wouldn't say the best pedal (that kinda claim is gonna change person to person), but you'd have to be delusional to ever question how iconic and important this pedal is.
I have a Boss GT1000 and can't get that sound out of a $875 E processor?
your guitar looks like the Red Special and James Hetfield's Explorer mixed
Better with single coil than HB...
I kinda agree.
IDK, sounds pretty damned good on my Gibson Les Paul with Burstbuckers.