View other reviews for this product:
rockerdad « Super Overdrive? Maybe Semi Overdrive »
Published on 03/21/11 at 16:24The 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.
-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.