All user reviews for the Boss DS-1 Distortion

£30 from my local guitar shop, a bargain. To be honest the only reason i Bought this was that i was looking for a less subtle pedal than my Ibanez TS-9 and I couldnt afford the Digitech MetalMaster

Like I said it is far more rugged and aggressive than the TS-9, the only thing i really use it for is as a gain boost for live solo's. Basically I use the TS-9 for the rest of the song and then when it gets to the solo I kick in the Boss to get the dirty roaring sound that I want, it does this perfectly.

I only use this thing for solos, for me its just far to harsh for rhythm parts or even standard riffs or lead lines throughout songs. It just doesnt have the same tonal quality and warmness of the TS-9

Its a brick, you could jump on this all night then throw it out a 2nd floor window halfway through your set, go out and get it and it would still be in perfect working condition, this thing could beat me in a fight.

Brilliant value for money, if you need a really hard rock soloing sound you'll get it here, easy to use, but if you want subtelty to your distortion i advise you to look elsewhere. If you're a blues player don't even look at this, just buy the Ibanez TS-9, it may be more expensive but it is the best distortion unit on the market.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

A few months ago, I was playing with my Zoom 505 II en I was wondering how crappy this distortion was.
Well, I bought this second hand Boss Dist for 25 € and it sounds great.

I like the warm and fat distortion sound of this pedal. It's great to turn the dist-control wide open and play some rock songs.
The sound of it is very variable, comparing to the used pickups, amp, guitar, other effects, ...

... (no dislikes)

The quality of this pedal is superiour. Great quality components in a solid metal box. When you're playing a gig you can jump on it, it won't die. Only your audience will die of the fat solid rock sound you get.

Only one thing to say about this pedal : It's the best, most warm, fattest, thickest, most solid, most variable distortion pedal you can get.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got this unit as a present from a family member two years ago, I believe she paid around 50 bucks for it.

This is the best pound for pound, cent for cent distortion pedal ever made in the history of pedals. The tone is great and distortion goes from as little as you could possibly want to as crazy as you could possibly want.

Theres only one thing that has bothered me about this pedal for the past 2 years and that is if you turn the tone up to loud it gets overly twangy.

Basically Undamagable, could probly survive being run over.

Get this pedal.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I aquired the unit through a band mate. The price paid is unknown, but it currently retails for approximately $135-139 (AUSD).

It has the solid (some might say indestructible) construction typical of Boss compact effects pedals, which I certainly appreciate, and the circuit board is seperate from the battery compartment and sealed from same with a rubber grommet. This prevents damage to the circuit when changing the battery. Controls include volume (akin to a line level control) distortion and tone. It has a reasonably smooth sound with good sustain, but it is easily discernable as a transistor type distortion. It's not terribly versatile unit but it does a handful of sounds quite well.

I dislike a few things about the DS-1. After about 9 o'clock on the tone knob, the tone becomes unpleasantly nasally with all of my setups. It's quite limited in the tones it can produce, but as I said, it will please you with the ones it can if your into Nirvana, etc. It's lower gain settings can get quite bluesy. It doesn't have allot of gain, and at full gain it develops an unpleasant sort of 'gonk' to the midrange that sounds like clipping. it sounds best at low to mid gain settings to my ear.

Excellent, from an engineering point of view, the unit is both practical to use and maintain (with regards to changing batteries) and solid as a rock. I have never had a problem with a Boss compact pedal and do not expect to in future.

It's a competent pedal with excellent and solid construction with very gig-worthy battery access and sealing, and as an aside it's very light on batteries. However, it doesn't have enough gain for some tastes. A kind of gravelly distortion.. has a bit of mongrel in it. Try it.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I just got this thing today from a place called ronny's music for about $50.00, When i got home i hooked it up. I could put the guitar down. If you like playin songs that are already famous, this pedal makes the riffs sound like those in the actual song. It's great for just makin up stuff too. It even works on bass guitars too. It rawks.

EVERYTHING

NOTHING

It's pretty well put together by looks. and i stomped on it pretty hard when i was playin so i think the quality's pretty good.

Like the 1st guy said, BUY IT!!!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Bought it at Parramatta Music for 'bout $140 Australian dollars, or 50 US dollars for you Yankees. The voices from my Amp,- a Squier 15 watter with a crappy distortion told me to buy it.

the controls are easy to use being Tone, Level and Distortion. The distortion can go from whisper quiet to screaming loud and still keep your style of playing. it's tone and level knobs made it versatile and you have a ton of different sounds in one box.

the only downfall was the knobs being too close together, causing my chubby bar-chord loving fingers to get stuck. sometimes.

its heaps rugged and can take a beating. it's orange and looks SWEET. it runs on a 9V battery or AC adaptor.

i recommend this pedal to anyone who plays any type of rock except metal. the distortion is great but not high-gain enough for metal.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Bought from: Guitar Center in Texas
Why: I had no distortion pedal
Paid: about $30 or so

This is a great effect! I love how versital it is. It is, in my opinion, the epitomy of what a distortion effect should be: small (easy to pack in gig bag), versital, and cheap enough for the average Joe to afford. This is not just a great first distortion, it could be your last, too. This pedal is used by such big names a Steve Vai. Another great feature is the battery life. I've had it for about a year and I've only had to charge the (included) 9 volt battery once. So you can pack it and play for hours and not worry about running out mid-gig!

I have found absolutly nothing wrong with this pedal. If you are the type of person who needs a disgusting amount of distortion (perhaps to hide the fact that you can't play good?) you might need something alittle more drastic, but even when I'm playing heavy drop D stuff like Pantera, this little workhorse keeps up just fine.

This little pedal is the most solid piece of musical equipment I've ever come across! It has the longest warrenty availible on a guitar pedal (5 years), so that tells you BOSS's confidance in their pedals. All single effects by BOSS are strong enough to survive a nuclear blast (should that become an issue...)

Bottom line: if you don't have a distortion pedal, definatly give this a try. Head down to your local music store and try it out. I would highly recomend this pedal to a friend (I recomend Danelectro to my enemies!)

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this pedal used for about 60$. it was in very good shape but i still think i could of gotten a better bargain if i was better in haggling.

It's a nice, sturdy well built Boss quality unit. I really like the distortion. Kind of crunchy overdrive , not too tough. I have an Ibanez RG270 and the DS-1 serves it well.
If you like your distortion not too heavey but still rough then this is a great choice.
It reminds me of the faboulous guitar style of Jeff Beck.

I would be more pleased with a fatter, warmer bluesy sound but that just means i should of gotten the boss blues driver instead of this one.
Still, this is a very good pedal.

Boss construction. Need i say more?
well constructed, can handle abuse (trust me). The previous owner had the pedal for three years, preforming and home use and when i got it , it was in great shape.

Great sounding distortion. worth every penny.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This unit was acquired through a friend who bought it at a local music store, Guitar Center, here in the midwest. The list price was $97.50 but the Christmas sale price is $39.99.

The distortion effect sounds like an overdriven tube amp (think vintage Marshall) but with total control over the amount of distortion & sustain plus the tone control circuitry helps to find the perfect balance between high & low tones.

The only thing we didn't like was the original list price of $97.50 but since it is on sale for the Holiday Season at $39.99, you can't beat the bang for the buck.

The rugged, road worthy construction can take a beating on the road & keep on working perfectly. Typical (but excellent) BOSS pedal- it's tough!

Works well with the BOSS pedal board case along with other effects manufactured by BOSS or other comparable effects companies. If you're looking for the elusive crunch tone- BUY THIS PEDAL!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

One day I was in my bedroom playing my guitar and having a great time. Then I noticed something that completely shocked me: My amp came with the crappiest distortion ever!!! After crying for a few hours, I decided that something needed to be done. I went down to Mars Music and bought myself a BOSS DS-1 distortion pedal for about $40 (money well spent).

This distortion pedal provides the cleanest and tonest (is that even a word?) distortion ever (even on the worst of amps). I tried every distortion pedal there and needless to say the BOSS pedal had the nicest sound. It also was one of the cheapest in price(compared to the $60 - $150 ones. There are many different tones you can make with it and it comes in a pretty orange color that makes you tingle of joy every itme you look at it.

I hate the way it makes my guitar sound so perfect and clean.

It has a very convinient size and feels nice when you press it with your shoe. It is easy to operate (with only three knobs to turn) and has a very strong look and feel.

Go buy it. (duh)

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

a beautiful orange box

UTILIZATION

straightforward, typical for a disto

SOUND QUALITY

1. generates an incredible breath to limit the noise stress: unusable for my config
2. a constant: the tone knob is impossible after half of the race (ultra shrill)
3. the distortion is sharp and responsive to the game can achieve high levels of saturation and the pedal is really made for it (even by setting the gain to a minimum, it does not reaches the quality of an overdrive)
4. pedal "eats" the bass seriously, for me completely rédibitoire
(Not to mention the mediums that are almost absent)

OVERALL OPINION

I wanted to taste the legend but I'm quickly back down in my little cloud
I think the Chinese specification leaves little expoir ultimately even if users of the amended by keeley (ultra-seeing eye) told me that they were not convinced so far
Briefly, I had to play with 5 or 6 times to bring myself to sell it
in sum, no interest
in the same brand, I recommend the BD-2 blues driver that is classified under the overdrive / distortion that sends severely without the problems mentioned above (although the lack of bass ...)
of course, I recommend investing in one economize for Fulltone OCD for example ... it's just day and night (or otherwise!)

This is a distortion pedals.
Three rglage: Volume, tone, gain
Food in 9v
If we know we are not dpays Boss

UTILIZATION

Three knob turned so super easy argler. and I think manual is dispensable

SOUND QUALITY

I was looking for a draw sheet for pedals that is punk rock, APRS have to try a bunch, I stayed on the pedals.
For mtal or blues is not worth it, but for punk rock or even a blink of sum41 it does carrment

OVERALL OPINION

I try and have lots of pedals like mtal-muff, a ML2, OS2, a fabtone ... I sold them all except the DS1.
Since I bought a Blackstar DistX is not the same budget, but I keep my ds1