Boss DS-1 Distortion - Rectifier - Modded by Monte Allums

Monte Allums has been a long time provider of DIY kits for your pedals. He's been one of the leaders when it comes to making easy to understand kits for those do-it-yourself kind of person, and that's one of my favorite things about his stuff. I honestly can't remember if he offers a mod service himself, but for anybody who's looking to get into soldering or building pedals, this is where you should start, in my opinion. The pedal is a slightly modified version of the DS-1, and it offers a bit more distortion than the last one. Outside, however, it looks exactly the same. You still have the same three knobs that you always had, so there are no extra confusing switches that you might get hung up on.

UTILIZATION

The pedal is still housed in the same, strong casing that Boss has always utilized. You're not moving this thing out into another case...unless you want to. I don't really recommend it, but some people like to rehouse these. The worst thing about these is the FET bypass, but that can be cured with either a true bypass looper, a special buffer installed or drilling the pedal for a true bypass switch ala Keeley. I don't recommend the last one as it involves a lot of work, though. The manual is now kinda useless since you're revoicing the pedal, so that's out the window. However, not much on this outside has changed, so getting to know the controls from what they used to be isn't that hard at all.

SOUND QUALITY

This is a pretty over the top mod. It takes the normal DS-1 and adds even more gain and aggression to it. On top of that, it's a little thicker sounding, too. If you have a super clean amp, this can bring it into brutal distortion but without that nasty MT-2 kind of sound. That said, it still sounds like that DS-1 style pedal, and I really never liked the DS-1 to begin with. Some people can get a decent sound by using it, but I've never heard anybody get a great sound with a DS-1 before. It always has that sort of "pedal" sound that is really annoying and gets on my nerves.

OVERALL OPINION

The mods are very easy to perform, and anybody who can solder pickups should be able to do these mods. It sounds decent, and I find that it's an improvement from the standard DS-1, but I can't help but think the era of distortion pedals is pretty much over. Today, amps can do so much by themselves that distortion pedals aren't needed like they once were back in the 80s. Just a little rant...