Boss DS1, DS2 or MD2? How To Choose Which Boss Distortion Pedal Is Right For You 

Many people hate the DS2 because of the mids on mode 2. But in a context of a band playing or even with a backing track it makes the whole sense. The guitar sound easily find a place. When we play alone we have a completely different understanding of the sound that we are making. The same settings in most pedals are wonderful in case A and awful in case B. It's just a matter of patience and open ears.

I really feel the opposite of the person who said this video was too long, this is really in-depth and informative. I had no idea how nicely the OD-3 can shape the distortion pedals' sound. Also you play a lot nicer than a lot of people making these kinds of demos. Really cool! Thanks for making this!

That "trick" of putting the OD-3 after the Distortion is really eye-opening! Thank you!

This is a great comparative. Simple, clear and concise and very well explained. Great work! Greetings from Argentina.

Excellent video, you’ve inspired me to pull out my old DS-1. Never could get it to do what I wanted, now I’ve got some ideas though. The side by side comparison here is fantastic. You really did a good job describing the different tones and representing what each pedal could do.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I'm just getting into pedals so this was very helpful to me. I liked how you went through the tones and showed how they sounded best.

Really like your comparison videos, Michael. Very informative and you make everything crystal clear. Thank you.

I recently found your videos and love your playing and insights! I've been playing far more guitar than bass in the last few years, learning tricks here and there. I can't believe how much of a difference the overdrive makes following the distortions!

Fantastic video. Gotta be the best, most informative video on RU-vid when it comes to these pedals.

Nice move simultaneously switching one pedal off and two on :-)

This is a sick demo! Great pacing, editing, and really got a feel for all the pedals! They all sound good (DS-1 was my first pedal) but tbh that Mega Distortion sounded sooo nice with that strat!

Thank You for the video! It's very helpful, because i'm going to buy one of this pedals.I hope that number of subscribers of your channel will grow up soon, you really deserved it!

absolutely fantastic demo and video, this helped me choose the MD2, thank you man 🙏

This is an excellent demo, some of these pedals were meant for styles that are different than the styles shown. This is in no way meant as dismissal of your playing, knowledge and expression. All of which are far beyond my own level and experience. Again a very well thought out video with a lot of useful information and mind changing facts and sounds. Thank you.

Just What i needed to see/hear. Thanks!

So late to your channel. These are really useful well thought out vids. Thank you.

I have an OD-3 and a DS-2. I found i could get some Brian May like tones from the turbo setting on the DS-2 , really cool. I often would use it like a clean boost after OCD into my AC30. Great Vid cool comparison.

This is great! I've just borrowed a DS-2 to compare with my DS-1; this has really helped to dial in the sweet spot of each as a starting point

Thanks! It helped me decide which one to get... the DS-1 is just what I was looking for!

This video made me realize that my MD 2 is perfectly fine i just need an overdrive pedal LOL Thanks man

Hello, I am very late to this party but wanted to say thank you for this video it helped me a lot, lot, lot. Made my decision based on this. Od3 will be my very first choice of paddle. I want to put it in front of a high gain Wild Fro from Tonecity, which I got as a present. I recently decided to take up playing the guitar again. 36 now, used to play since i was 15. when I turned 30 i suddenly stopped cause of my occupation and the loss of passion and start of some depressed phases, to a point even, when the guitar could not cheer me up anymore and i just forgot about music. Turns have tabled and... Now I got myself a Marshall origin 20h with a 2x12 cab with v30s. Guitar a Jet Js 300 which has been amazingly modified and i cannot wait until i can start my holiday at the weekend with my first practice day again. Thank you!

I love it! Perfect comparison. Thank you for sharing

Great video. Your analysis of each pedal was very helpful.

This videos great man, helped out a bunch, im a big fan of the overdrive with the DS2

Great video comparing those three Bosses. Thinking about backing track riffs with Les Paul Black Beauty and having my eyes on MD-2 and thinking to buy it since a few days ago, this helps a lot. Thank you.

The summary at 16:22 is good, and thankfully lines up with my choice (DS-1 is fine for classic rock). Good to see you also playing with single coil guitars 👍.

I like all of the pedals, I have the MD-2 and set it to your settings is sounds great, thanks.

Very nice video. I now combine a TS and a Boss DS-1. Thanks!

You've changed my mind! Thanks a lot

My OD-3 into DS-1 at the front end of the amp is my absolute favourite distortion. Endless violin sustain. It sings beautifully for lead and rhythm when all is dialled correctly.

Really good video, clear and informative.

Nice job bud. Great vid, love the time you took to get into each!

Just stumbled across your channel for the first time today. Your format for these comparisons is really good. I appreciate being able to actually A/B/C the sounds, and your playing, audio/video quality, and thoughtful commentary are top-notch. I know it's a lot of work to put videos like these together, but it's much appreciated. Cheers!

Great review, thank you so much!

Fantastic video. You do everything with demoing pedals that I wish every RU-vid channel will do. We can hear everything these pedals do and how they can be used, instead of noodling with settings they don't even show you like a lot of RU-vid "reviews" of pedals are like. You're really good at this. And you're a fellow Brit. So you've got a new subscriber mate. Now I'm gonna spend some hours going down the rabbit hole watching your other videos Oh yeah, I've just had a thought. Cos I rarely see people on RU-vid talking about this pedal, would you ever want to test the Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz? I could send it to you in the post and you make a video and then send it back or something. It's the first pedal that Seymour Duncan ever made and I bought it on a whim one day in a guitar shop in Luton. Little did I know it'd become my iconic sound with the band I was in. We played in Luton a lot, in the hat factory. Nice little club. The tweak fuzz is a weird pedal but it sounds amazing. It doesn't have a tone knob. It has volume and gain knobs, and then a "tweak" knob where it has 6 settings, and the knob doesn't turn smoothly in a gradient. It just clicks solid into one of six different types of fuzz. It's so simple that it's hard to get a bad tone out of it. When I was playing with that band I'd stick the tweak knob onto position 1 which is the least fuzzy of the 6 positions. And I played a bridge single coil pickup or a strat into it and it sounded AMAZING. Like usually the bridge pickup of a strat is unusable. But this pedal made it sound amazing It's just an idea, anyway. Because these Seymour Duncan tweak fuzz pedals weren't made for very long, and so now they're very rare apparently. Although not ludicrously expensive, yet. Maybe one day I'll sell it for hundreds of quid. So if you wanted to test out that pedal I could post it to you or something. Just an idea, anyway. It's probably not interesting enough for a video I suppose. I just like it cos it's the only pedal I have that's actually rare. So I go on about it a lot to people who don't really care 😂🤣 I'm just a guitar nerd

a very instructive video! thank you for sharing your thoughts!

Excellent review. Thank you!

Cool tips. Very useful!

Thanks..very well laid out...I just purchased the MD-2 before hearing this...will probably purchase the DS-2 since it cus through a bit more......

I had an original DS-1 back in the 80's. I recently bought another one and man you can tell the difference right off the bat. But I always used my boss overdrive as a power booster with the DS-1. I have a couple of other overdrive pedals that I use the boss with as a power booster. I learned that trick years ago and it works great. Plus the sound is more clearer.

Damn, I've never been a fan of the DS1, but run into that overdrive it sounds awesome! In my mind the DS-2 is a classic, just because its been used on so many albums that I like. Most significantly the new Refused album "War Music" was largely recorded just running a Ds2 through a Twin Reverb. Everything from crisp, modern hardcore tones to smooth bluesy overdrive, amazing the milage they got out of such a simple rig.

The adding if the OD-3 fattens everything up and shaves off any of the harshness. Really dig that.

Great demo!!

Really great review!! Subscribed 👍

Great video, gave me a clear idea of what I might want one for. I'm thinking DS1 for me, sounds Pagey with that overdrive on! Combined with a boost it might be able to go even further.

new subscribers here sir i love the way you demo the pedals im a fan of boss pedals too

Much better with OD on before Distortion - brings out the low mids. Makes the distortion sound more full.

GREAT channel, sonic brother! Excellent, authentic attitude - its important to me, coz I dont sub otherwise! And I have subscribed. All the best for '22 man

Great video! I like the idea of pushing the sound of the Distortions with the OD-3. They sounded more focused and thicker with the overdrive stacked.

Great Demo!!!

Good stuff, mate. You kindda convince me to get one of those mega distortion pedals. Cheers

Thanks a lot for your informative videos, Ive got 2 Boss OD-3s and 2 Boss Blues Drivers to go after or solo: great buttersmooth lead tone... tempted to buy another Boss, but moneys running out and I already have a coupla distortions to try after the Jazzy OD-3! Thanks again, Kimmo 🤣

This was done very through. Good job . I have a DS1, ONE OF 1O MILLION!

Absolutely useful mate

Well I just liked and subscribed. This is a great guitar channel. The thing with the DS-1 is there was a slight circuit change in 94 that gave it a bit of a scooped eq compared to earlier units which had a little flatter EQ. It wasn’t a super massive change, and current ones still can sound great, but that slight mids scoop in the new ones can make them harder to match with certain amps. Thankfully, if you have a DS-1 made between 94 and 2016 (of which there are hundreds of thousands floating around, I’m sure), you can easily swap out a few components on the circuit board and give it a better eq curve while still keeping all the good stuff a DS-1 brings to the table. After 2016, Boss switched to surface mount components, which makes them substantially harder to mod.

Very informative, thank you.

Thanks for the info about Overdrive.

Hi Mike I know this video is old but I'm new to guitar and just got into effect pedals I am using HD300 Behringer distortion for my 1st, thanks for the review on the boss's distortion I'm definitely going to get the MD2 you keep rocking man 😎🎸👍

Great video. Good job!👍

The OD and DS together really gave me that sound i was looking for when playing territorial pissings and breed by nirvana which i believe were done with plugging directly to the console

That opening riff with the DS-1 sounds spot on to the Jet song, I think you recreated the studio signal chain.

Tnx for the OD3 idea. I have my OD3 before my metal core. Will switch em to see the effect.

OD-3 affer a DS-1(W) is beautiful. Thanks for the tip!

Having the OD-3 in there made a difference. I own the OS-2 with Distortion and Overdrive combined which is a very nice pedal. The downside it you don't have the ability to simply switch off the overdrive and quickly put it back later mid song. A separate pedal is very useful. I like the detail in this video. It's not too long.

I don't know why the ds2 turbo mode is só underrated. Thats my fav. I love that.

very nice demo. i like the md-2

I am a big fan of the DS-1. Easy to mod and sounds great too.

Very cool Ty !! I owned all 3 pedals. Ended up dumping the ds2

Boss overdrive and distortion pedals are good. It's all about the different tweak options. Each pedal has a distinctive sound suited for different genres of rock guitar sound. 🎸 Buy them all. You can never go wrong with Boss pedals.

i find your video extremely useful ,,thank you very much

Great video, you get a sub! DS-1 is still one of my all time favorite pedals.. (just never ever move the tone knob past 12 or it sucks lol)

thanks for helping me decide wich pedal is better for me

Very useful content.

Very good video! Thanks

Awesome content bro

Awesome, thanks!

You are the best my friend, thanks mate

Well done, thank you!

Great stuff, especially with the OD stacking! I think I like the SD-1 best, with the OD on before it.

Ecuador(SouthAmerica) is watching you

The overdrive and distorsion Ds1 are absolute classics, the best you can get from boss. For the other two (big modern saturations) other brands offers really better pedals.

Totally agree you have to have a speaker you like. I was so brainwashed into the G12 GB that I hated using my Phase 90 & a lot of other pedals that I avoided using them. Once I changed speakers I started using the pedals & it sounded right.

what an excellent video thank you very much! Question: you have the overdrive at the end of the chain and the distortion going into the front of the overdrive. I always assumed the OD would come first. could you tell us why the OD is at the end of the chain and would it make a noticeable difference if it were at the start of the chain? if it's correct to put it at the end like that I will switch mine over thanks :)

👍🇺🇲❤DS-2 TURBO MODE II ....is the magic 🤓I LOVE THE DISTORTION CRANKED, SLIGHTLY ROLLED BACK TO FIND THE SWEET SPOT ON THE POT ....AROUND 99.7 ish %

I love my shredder stuff, I can just imagine the od going into the mega... I bet it's amazing

I went with the DS1 after watching this video. Thank you

The MD-2 comes across as a BD-2 on steroids. I like it a lot, but the idea of a fourth nob is just more than my slightly underpowered brain can tolerate. As such, if I couldn't have the BD-2, the DS-1 would get the nod. You do splendid work. Keep it up.

I love my MD-2.. especially with bass guitar!

Cool video! Now I gotta get an OD-3. 😎

What type of pickups are you using here? Its just the ds1 is very sensitive too high output pickups and i wanna know the output so i can gauge how well the od3 might work for me, unless the od3 fixes all the eq issues? Also thanks for this comparison, you have earned a sub today.

I have the MD-2 and love it but it is kinda bottom heavy. I run it right after a Morley Bad Horsie wah and the ultra bright Horsie is, uh, "tamed" nicely but still adds a bit of extra high end to the MD-2 for a really sizzling tone. (Using a Gibson Les Paul Special with P-90's into an Orange Micro Dark into a Celestion-loaded 1x12 cab.)

Good review.

I love the MD-2 as a bass distortion. It really doesn't seem to filter out any low end. Also for a guitar pedal, the two band eq is amazing

DS-2 mode II is great when you want to pretend you are Randy Rhoads. It was the first pedal I got in !989 or something. Fond memories. Very informative video. I was quite surprised how much stacking the distortion pedals with an OD-3 at zero gain changed the sounds.

Amazingly detailed video! I’m going to try the ds1 with my sd1 when it arrives tomorrow :) your guitar is beautiful 😻 what’s it called?

great video! i liked the ds1 on its own the best

Automatic like for you always, dude. I'm learning so much from these videos. Good job!

Very grateful for the comparison as u saved me 50 quid Was looking how MD2 sounds and just isn’t my cup of tea - very ordinary IMHO

people who are hating on this, let alone saying you SHOULDN’T have done an on/off OD comparison, have no idea what a good, thought out, well recorded demo is supposed to be. keep up the good work, bro

I like the DS-2 because I have a Boss DS-2 and I've been trying different sounds with it and with the Level at noon and the Tone and Distortion maxed out you get the sound of a Fuzz pedal and if you hook the input and remote jacks of the Boss DS-2 up to a Reverb pedal and A wah pedal it sounds even more like a fuzz pedal