Boss SD-1 SUPER OverDrive - Tubescreamer on steroids mod

Simple Overdrive to boost an amp or add distortion

UTILIZATION

Super easy to use, very simple lay out of volume tone and drive, input and output jacks and a 9v plug for powering by an adapter.

SOUND QUALITY

For the price of less than 50 dollars its hard to beat if you want an overdrive, for tightening up your sound or just to add a little more dirt to your sound.

Les Paul Laney GH50L: I use this setup with it almost exclusivley. I don't use it for much other than boosting solos. I have it set with the volume very high (5 o clock) and the gain low ( 9 o clock). It sounds pretty good this way for just boosting it for a solo, I personally would never use this to tighten my amp though, it is MUCH to "brittle" sounding and can't really handle the low frequencies as well as TS9 can. the Tone control while very responsive does not impress me. it goes from dark and muddy to brittle and bright, and everywhere in between, it really needs mods to make it shine ( which I did do to mine). I really enjoy it on top of a dirty amp now after I modded it to tighten some stuff up in the low end and really makes tight heavy rhythms POP.

MIA strat Laney GH50L: I don't use this as often, but when I do I set the amp with a little bit of break up and use the SD1 for solos and for parts I really want stuff to come out. It sounds great this way, think SRV or Hendrix, very bluesy and soulful, I highly recommend this to people looking for this type of sound, even un-modded it does a pretty good job, modded its pretty amazing, albeit still a bit muddy.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, it really is just OK. I like it, but not enough to buy new, or not mod. it's ok at a few things and thats it, if you want something for CRUSHING rhyhtms look elsewhere if you want it for boosts for solos and thats it, take a look, maybe you'll like it, maybe you won't.

The Boss SD-1 is a stompbox style pedal that is used to tighten up and "hot rod" a mid gain amp.

-Yellow chasis
- level, tone, drive knobs
- check led (more of an on/off light)
- in and out jacks
- powered by a boss power supply or 9 volt battery

UTILIZATION

I use the SD-1 to drive my marshall 100 watter a little more. Just plug into the amp's input from the output of the pedal. I power mine with a Godlyke powerall and it works great...no more changing batteries. The pedal itself is as simple as it gets. Set your level for how much of the effect you want to affect your tone, adust the tone knob for a higher ended sound or lower ended and use the drive knob to dial in the amount of...well...drive! It's NOT a distortion pedal. It won't give you more gain but think of it as kinda squeezing the gain you have really tight to push it to it's limits!

SOUND QUALITY

I'd compare this to a tubescreamer but I think the tubescreamer might have just a little bit more oomph too it.
The SD-1 does a good job with my DSL 100 to give me the amount of saturation I need though. It can be a noisy pedal and you will most likely need some kind of noise gate or suppressor if you keep the drive above half on an amp that's already got a good amount of gain going.
I would not recommend using it on a high gain amp as there is bound to be a ton of feedback. It has a fairly transparent sound when engaged and also when not turned on.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, the Boss SD-1 is perfect for players of rock, pop, country rock, and even some metal music. I think it's best utilized with a marshall style amp, whether it be a plexi or JCM800. Slapping this pedal in front of amps like that will push your sound over the edge in a very good way. I do wish it tightened up the sound just a tad more though with my setup. I may explore some other options in the future but it's been a workhorse for me for the last 6-8 months.

The Boss SD-1 is one of the two most popular overdrive pedals out there. The SD-1 is really an evolution of the original OD-1 but with a tone knob added. This pedal was featured by many guitar players in the 80s in conjunction with Marshall amplifiers. Zakk Wylde was probably the most well known user of this pedal.

UTILIZATION

Boss pedals will take any abuse you throw at them. Their rugged housings could withstand a nuclear bomb. Everything is clearly labeled and easy to use on this pedal. On top of that, it's very easy to get a good sound with very little time. A lot of people use this as mostly a level booster, but I recommend at least running a touch of gain to help get some of that asymmetrical clipping flavor going on.

SOUND QUALITY

The sound of this pedal is pretty good, even to this day. Some argue about the tonal differences between the MIJ and MIT versions, and there is some truth to that, but it's nothing to really get worked up over. One real cool thing about this pedal is that it's crazy easy to modify. Anybody looking to customize his or her own boost pedal could easily do it with the SD-1. The most common mods are taking out the mid hump and adding some bass. If you're going to mod it, I recommend fixing the bypass. The biggest issue with these pedals is that they leak signal, even when turned off. If you search Google, you can find various ways to fix this.

OVERALL OPINION

If you're looking for a boost pedal to try out, I recommend trying this, especially if you have a Marshall amplifier. These pedals work awesome with Marshall based amps for whatever reason. They're also very easy to mod if you aren't 100% satisfied with the tone. Don't forget that a lot of the TS808 mods also translate to this pedal, so don't be afraid to experiment.

The Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive is an analog guitar pedal. It has a 1/4 inch input for your instrument and a 1/4 inch output for your amplifier. It is powered by either a nine volt battery or a nine volt power supply. It is not a rackable effect as it is a foot pedal.

UTILIZATION

The configuration of the SD-1 couldn't be easier. It simply has three knobs that control three basic parameters - level, tone, and drive. It is easy to get a pretty good sound from this within a matter of minutes and is capable of getting a few different nice overdrive tones. While I don't have a manual for the SD-1, one shouldn't need it as the pedal is really easy to use.

SOUND QUALITY

The sound quality of the overdrive on the SD-1 is pretty good overall. While it isn't the most versatile pedal in the world, it is good at what it does. I use this pedal with electric guitar - a Fender Stratocaster and a '76 Fender Twin Reverb most of the time, and get some pretty good results. The SD-1 would probably also sound good on electric keyboards as well. The overall tone is full sounding, and is probably best suited for rhythm guitar when playing modern and classic rock.

OVERALL OPINION

I've been using the Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive pedal for about two years and have found it to be useful overall. This being said, I wouldn't recommend it for the guitar player looking to get a single overdrive pedal for all of their distortion or overdrive sounds, as it simply isn't versatile enough. However, for the price one would be able to collect a few different pedals at this rate to get a few different tones. Boss makes sturdy pedals that are hard to break and overall they have a great reputation. I would encourage those interested in overdrive pedals to check out a variety of different options to see what will work best for them.