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Boss DS-1 Distortion
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Boss DS-1 Distortion
iamqman iamqman

« Beginner OD box »

Published on 03/16/11 at 15:00
Probably the most beginner or entry level distortion box you can buy. You can find this pedal in just about every music store in the world. There is a couple reasons for that, one being that everyone likes this pedal and its marketed very well. The other being it is as cheap as they come and can get you somewhat of a desired result.....not really

This is a pedal for a learning guitar player who got $50 from his parents for Christmas. If your on a budget then I can see this pedal working out for you.

Simple design and layout as follows..

Level, Tone, and Dist

Level will turn your overall volume up or down. The tone will brighten or darken your tone depending on which side you turn it to. The Dist with give you the grind or saturation that your looking for.

UTILIZATION

The sound is very metallic in nature as most OD pedals can be. It isn't going to be suitable for recording or any real band applications. I guess some people can be creative with it but those people are just going to get something that works for them and not spend much time tweaking a pedal that sounds like forks hitting aluminum siding.

Very easy to use as only three knobs are present. The manual....well I didn't even open because any monkey who can figure out how to turn on an amp can turn this thing into the most usable situation.

I gave it a middle of the road rating since it was easier than pie to figure out though it sounded like trash cans banging around.

SOUND QUALITY

Horrible is an understatement! I would say it would be better suitable for hitting someone in the head with if they touched your amp then actually using in your chain or effects. I used my Les Paul which I though would give it the best chance of sounding decent but no goods. I also tried a Strat and it sounded so bad with single coils that I just unplugged it and never plugged it in again.

I couldn't see myself even touching this pedal again. I heard that they make a mod for it that you can pick up on ebay. Maybe this address the volume loss when engaging this pedal or makes it sound like garbage from utter and complete ruin. I guess you can only go up from utter and complete ruin.

OVERALL OPINION

I like the color of the pedal. That is about all I can say that was good about it. It made me want an ice cream pop but not want to pick up my guitar and jam.

One more good thing I can say which is not exclusive to this pedal is that Boss makes very rugged and road worthy products. If you decided to use this pedal I believe it would last you forever. Boss/ Roland does makes some stomp heavy ready boxes.

I wouldn't recommend this pedal to anyone. Save up and buy a used Boss OD-2!