You're using it wrong! 5 Tips on the Boss DS-1 Distortion Pedal! 

Ok so let me explain this since I see this same thing all the time. 1. When I say it "doesn't work" with high output pickups, I mean I don't think it SOUNDS GOOD. It gets extremely compressed and unpleasant sounding to my ears. If I wanted a square wave fuzz sound, I would use a fuzz pedal. 2. Kurt Cobain sold millions of records and is an iconic musician and I respect that. Kurt Cobain's guitar tone on the other hand was awful, much like he was a lack luster guitar player. I get that he was not *trying* to be a virtuoso, it was about the songs and the movement. His tone and playing were still bad, in my opinion.

same buddy i'm using a fat strat and stuck a jb humbucker in the bridge, I totally get that those nirvana, bush, hole, smashing pumpkins tones. This Pedal does need to be pushed through a tube amp though.. I've tried it through a solid state and it's complete fizzy crap than played in the studio through a marshall jcm

Cobain was a dumb fuck. He fucking shot his head and you worship him? Dafuq is wrong with you?

@@verbotenco Have you ever felt what it's like to deal with depression? And it's still debated to wether he shot himself or if he was murdered and I don't worship him. I just made an argument about the Boss DS-1 in response to the video.

@@DusKinggoGames well said brother. don't to that loser or let him get to u. the real cobain fans could relate to his music which is what got us through the darkest times. looks like he's the dumb fuck with his comment

I think it's viewed as 'cheap' by a lot of people - it's a good 'starter' pedal but not something a professional would use. That is nonsense of course, but that is the perception among some people.

@@michaelolvera7490 yeah. I was generalising.

Hahaha! I would never have had Joe Satriani down as an amateur!?

Scott Billingsley I hear it's the only distortion Kurt Cobain ever used.

It’s an excellent pedal and versatile too. Of course for some type of music. Never heard anyone saying something bad about it

Hahahaha

I know, I did.

Jhs pedal vid

I actually did look in my moms closet and saw a ds1 but it was my old ds1

The best boss pedals are their EQ pedals

I turned my fender twin into a Marshall with the DS 1 !

Grunge was partly about not knowing this stuff, buying used gear they could afford, and making it work even if it didn't sound good. Cobain's distorted tones were not always good. Often when Nirvana is played on the radio, I wonder which guitar with which pickups he used on particular tracks. I know he modded a couple of his guitars to have Super Distortions and I can't imagine he had the Dist all the way up if he used those.

Yeah, his tone sucked....

Steve Jones played his Les Paul into a Fender Twin (stolen from Bowie’s band) on Never Mind the Bullocks. Any questions?

Greatest movie of all time

I see a Lebowski reference, I hit like!

Have it your way dude...

You're hired! Be my President😊

BIG LEBOWSKI!!!

He's the reason I own a ds-1

And he did it with the gain cranked, into a clean hi headroom Fender Twin Reverb. Using mine with a bf Dual Showman and 78 JMP. Sounds downright nasty. Love it.

@@grungeisdead8998 Me too. That and a EH Small Clone. I love both of them!

Every reason to ban the sale of the DS-1

Some ou f the bgg est guitarists came from the hair metal era. Cobain was and still is overrated.

x2

Clickbait, the only pedal that gets hate is the Metalzone

You ain't been listening!

Yeh you ain’t been listening.

How the hell would you set this up to not sound like a chainsaw for funk or jazz!?

@@coreyw5981 learn to dial in the tone knob.. Even sometimes you just need the tone to be at 0. Also use your ears, not your eyes.. Don't be fooled with perception

....

I thought kurt used this??

I just thought the same and also he says it can’t handle hot pickups wtf is a sh8 invader then it sounds awesome with the ds1

but it's all one persons opinion. many examples go against what he's saying. each their own, i guess.

Honestly, I'd go with a wah. I have no pedals but while I can pull out most of the sounds I want from my amp alone, the wah is the only sound so distinct that I have to get.

What will you do with it on a deserted island? Bang open coconuts with it? Scratch the sand fly bites? Make a rat trap out of it? Smash ghost crabs for bored-fun? Use it as a single slipper? Pretend to be shaving, to impress the turtles? Most deserted island do not come with a complementary guitar or amp you know ... Hell - the majority don't even come with electricity. In fact ... This is the pedal I would bring to a deserted island with: - A steady oil supply with matching refinery and genny OR a windmill park OR a field of solar panels OR a hydroelectricity facility OR geothermal plant. - A typhoon-proof, rehearsal space, with a cooling system, an inexhaustible supply of mold armor for the rain season, and a GREAT sand-barrier. - An amp, a guitar, cables, 9 volt power supply and a shit-load of salt-proof strings and guitar picks (non-turtle shell so as not to needlessly antagonize local wild-life, suddenly recognizing the husk of lost loved ones) + a robust set of 80's Mark Knopfler style sweat bands ...

@@whynottalklikeapirat im pretty sure its a figure of speech. however, if you did have it there, itd probably bash coconuts and still work.

RAT for me. DS-1 is great though, but i like the RAT. its got more bite and its own character of saturation in my opinion. its somewhat a good middle ground between DS1 and a Big Muff kinda.

Jesse Darty A figure of speech? No way. I am sure he is being 100% literal about going to a deserted island with a guitar pedal o.O

Can't fix bad playing! But I try anyway!

Haha, true. Nothing wrong with your playing, though :)

I have to admit you've got it sounding pretty good, I can see why some people might want it now, but if you have to swap out pickups it's probably best avoided! A pedal should compliment the musician, not the other way around!

I agree with anyone who has such excellent taste in RU-vid avatar photos.

@@LucasFowler you're doing fine buddy. Keep on rocking and btw i found this very informative. Nice to see and hear how to use a pedal to its full potential.

He is correct about using it with a clean amp and this would apply to overdrive, treble boosters. even more so with low gain pre amp tubes. (I've tried those) you need a 12AX7 / ECC83 in the pre amp section. Without these it wont really work at all well..

Agreed.

I doubt it had much to do with you running a DS 1 through a twin Kurt. This is why this argument sucks. He would've done the same with q different rig. Wouldn't have made much a difference at all.

2triggered 2comment I think this argument is sound. It just goes to show that you can do whatever the hell you want with your rig and be successful. I’m sure Kurt didn’t waste anytime wondering if his DS-1 sounded as good other pedals on the market, he just dug it and went from there. That, my friend, is ALL that matters.

Yeah but that Fender Twin was fucking cranked You and I will never be able to play a Twin at that kind of volume. That makes a big difference. And Kurts live tone was super bright! He was trying to rip heads off with that tone. Can it be done? Sure. Of course. I like it all.

@@eleven9286 That is an argument that Kurt is great. It is not an argument for the DS1. Or that your rig doesn't matter so use whatever. Also not an argument for the DS1. But I do somewhat agree.

@@eleven9286 seems to be the only logical comment

check out Ola englunds video on the metal zone. its pretty awesome

Metal zone is pretty deece, best eq controls on a pedal.

I am convinced most guitarists are just starting with the dails either at 12 o'clock or all the way on the right...

Check out Lasse Lammert's two videos (2 of em) that came out a year before Ola's. Everyone keeps quoting Ola, but Lasse is the dude who started this whole RU-vid thing on the Metal Zone. It's really because people are using it wrong.

The metal zone was the sound of swedish death metal. It just doesn't fit the modern heavy guitar player.

Maybe that's why they sound so terrible.

I agree, they were getting some VERY good tones. I have one I bought for $10, I've had at least 3 it 4 over the years and none of them were duds. An awesome distortion pedal and also plays well with an SD-1 the Super Overdrive pedal. I've used that combo for a few years back in the day. It did sound killer and if I was still playing that I wouldn't be unhappy.

Absolutely BURIED it. I saw that video too. It's pathetic that because some of these YT guys can play guitar well, they somehow think they're experts on literally everything. Much like all popular music these days, they gained the technical skill without learning anything about the ART.

Only good for hard rock stuff it's not made to get down

@@gund2281 The ART? This u, chief? ru-vid.comUgkxh3Na1HVw9FWBup67_4Jr1PuskkIPfD6l?si=r0tU-hCzTHeaTQdA

It really does come across like everyone gets a pedal and cranks everything up to max and expects it to sound its best. Even the metal zone can be made to sound good with more conservative gain and eq settings.

one thing I can vouch for.. they are RELIABLE... key when on tour

It’s the highschool kids who don’t anything about tone who complain about them.

First off, this company and its pedals, generally speaking, are widely regarded as good. It's a few specific models, including the DS1 and the Metalzone, that get excoriated by dissatisfied musicians. How many times have you heard/read anyone calling the Blues Driver a piece of crap, or the two stereo analo chorus pedals they make? It is also worth noting that "(ending) up on records that have sold in the millions" isn't necessarily the litmus test. Old particle-board guitars with microphonic lipsticks, combo amps with holes cut in the speakers, old Ampeg solid state bass amps (for guitar), 20 dollar laminated-top acoustic guitars from pawn shops, little 1x8" practice amps from the 90's, have all ended up on big-selling records. And no, it isn't just high school kids "who don't know anything about tone" (passing off a subjective opinion as though it can possibly be factual) that don't like the DS1. There's lots of shit I don't like. JCM900s, muddy fuzz pedals in general, "boost" pedals that aren't ever actually clean, SM57's almost touching the grille and on-axis, Vintage 30's with all but a small handful of specific amps, really big snare drums, songs about the singer's x, NONE of those things make a sound that I want. It is precisely because I DO know what I am doing, having decades of experience, that I know to avoid the DS1 for anything but a fizzy distortion for bass, in front of a somewhat dark sounding clean amp. Price was a factor mentioned in this video, and while no pedal with a plastic chassis is gonna last forever being danced on on stage, the Danelectro pedals sound, to my ears, significantly better than a DS1. They are dirt cheap, so you can buy two and have a backup ready for when the first one falls out of your gig-back and shatters into a million pieces.

Well sir, you too ended up stating subjective opinions. Which is fine, but it’s just that

innerconnecteduniverse it was first made in 1978. 🤔

Quit your bullshit man the pedal didn't exist in 77

Welcome to the ranks.

I feel like about 75% of 'boutique' companies are just repackaging Boss schematics

You’re very much right about that matey!!!!

Lmao exactly. I've got fancy stuff on my board, but this is a $50 distortion that kicks absolute ass, I did a whole video on it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FLinMgRWPrg.html

I prey on those guys... no not really. You know the Dallas Arbiter Rangemaster Treble Booster is just 1 transistor as it's active component, but its personality is heard all over great live and recorded guitar of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Queen, Rory Gallagher, etc.

Put it in a klon centaur shell and boom

Nice pfp

Joe Satriani

@@BTsMusicChannel on Nevermind Kurt doesn't sound good anyway. The guitar tone is too produced, which he didn't like at all. The real Kurt Cobain tone is on Bleach. And there you had the DS-1 on it's full glory.

@@voxsoundpro Well, good and bad tone is a matter of taste. My personal taste runs counter to yours and what you purport as "the real" Cobain tone (as if there is such a thing -- his tone is whatever it is at the moment). I will always prefer tone produced from cranking the gain up on a tube amp to any from a distortion pedal, especially the DS-1. The best thing about that pedal is that it is orange.

@@BTsMusicChannel I respect your opinion but just replied to what you said about Kurt. It is well documented that he preferred the DS-1 over almost any kind of amp until the In Útero era where he used Mesa amps and SansAmp pedals. What seems perfect in other contexts like, a cranked tube amp, just didn't work for him. He actually loathed the sound of Nevermind.

@@voxsoundpro I know. I actually wrote a PhD dissertation and in the second chapter I described NIrvana's music (as a foil to 80s glam metal following Van Halen) and described his gear choices in detail. He believed the DS-1 was what gave him his tone (and just used the mesa boogie or crown to make it louder). Butch Vig would not let that fly though. I remember for one song (maybe "Breed") he insisted on going direct in from a Rat Distortion, probably because he wanted to to sound bad. I read a lot of stuff in my research, but I never saw anything in which he complained about the sound on Nevermind. If he did, I would say he was probably just playing up the hipster act to protect his punk status -- they did that a lot. I wouldn't believe everything he said or take it at face value -- he had a persona to uphold. There is a lot of bullshit in any interview with any musician who plays in a genre where authenticity is important.

I've always wanted to try one of those old ones, maybe I'll run across one eventually!

Yep. That´s the trick. I have a very clean sounding Yamaha solid state amp from the 80´s, so in order to try the DS-1 as it was meant to be used (with single channel amps on the edge of breakup) i placed it before the SD-1 with the drive almost on minimum and suddenly i was hearing a soaring, incredible sweet distortion, harmonic richness, and endless sustain. Later, i found a video from Boss where they suggest that same configuration.

I run mine the other way, sd-1 first.. (but I'll try switching them) and I use less than a 12v input on both just slightly less.. i love that sound! it adds a crunchy extra smooth tone.. and I think some artists exclusively used weakened batteries for the same reason

@@dmvconartists2542 I have a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 power supply, it has two outputs on it with a "SAG" knob, it allows you to lower the normally 9V output to "starve" the pedals of voltage, which can give some cool grungy effects to ditortion/overdrive pedals (analog only from what I've heard).

Dude, I love a happy ending.

Exactly! It needs to be looooow to sound good. On my strat I put it a little higher than on my SG, but I never have it past 9 o'clock. I did a video on mine: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FLinMgRWPrg.html

Thanks!

Metal Zone :)

@Just J wait a minute. Im one of thoughs people that dont hate it but have no use for it and ive given it a lot of consideration,played it though a bunch of amp and fiddled with the knobs.and dud here has about the best way to use it. I took a bunch of distortion peds and ab them in a double blind test and no one in my group liked the ds1 including me. To me amp distortion wins evey time but then again Im a low gain player. So yall out there that love that snarly high gain may like this . When i went though my satch faze this was on my board. Just caz thats what he used though a marshall. Also i have a s Ibanez i could get rid of.haha

The three BOSS pedals are MEME. And they're all GREAT! GIlmour, Vai and others are ther to prove. It's all about: the way you tune your gear in the bedroom doesn't fit the stage.

Infamous because its been around longer then you

No he's right it sounds like a squashed turd. I'm using a G&L ASAT through a Hayden Petite Blonde. Point to point wiring all valve, bullshit yadayadayada 2 watt amp ,. I've fluked it,..the wrong amp wrong guitar G&L ASAT I'll try the Goldtop through my Marshall.

Yep 👍👍

Same, I got the anniversary too, and I have the tone at around 11, distortion around 1-2 and the level quite high on a Vox AC30 set clean. I have PAF level of output on my guitar

I bought the Anniversary edition as well. I really like it. I only use it when I wanna get some noisey tone to what I'm trying to accomplish. Usually for my more basic distortion tone, I use the MXR Distortion Plus.

You are playing metal through a Roland Cube with a distortion pedal? Why?

@@BTsMusicChannel My cube 40gl hates distortion pedals...sounds terrible through the lead channel.... Very messy. Not much fun on clean either, Some guys get it to work for them..I can't unless I compromise the modelling tones I bought the amp for...so my beloved ds1 and os2 only come out when my decrepit 25 year old 20w comes out to play

@@greenslider Ya, I generally keep the Cube in my living room for when I feel like practicing there, and I typically just use the onboard effects. I prefer tube amps with a high gain channel normally. I actually own no distortion pedals, but have a few overdrives and fuzzes.

Peddle?

The great thing about tone is there is no wrong answer!

My comp is always on as well.. ;)

Stéphane Bergeron That’s how I used it in the 90’s, ran it into the clean channel of a Peavey Deuce! ♠️

DS-1 into a Twin is a hell of a sound.

I think Joe Satriani's Surfing With the Alien has plenty of tracks with the DS1 into a Roland Jazz chorus...

I have Made in Taiwan version and it's still very good pedal.

Yes, but both used a mod version of it. Google "Ds1 seeing eye"

Nirvana used the DS-1 for nevermind so that album was great

agreed. I use it in front of a Carvin Legacy I (his signature amp) and love the way it sounds. I did mod mine, and supposedly his is modded as well, but still, it sounds tremendous. Now if only I could play anything like he does haha

Never been able to get anything I like out of it on my bass guitar. I tried the other day. If I had a blend knob though I'm sure I could though

@@boldandbrashcrafts727 Being able to blend it with the clean sound is the key to get a decent tone with bass. My bass amp has blend knob in the FX loop, I tried that way and I liked.

I guess for Steve Vai fanboys it's cool.

@@JYZProductions After trying a Keely Monterey, I will never buy another Keely pedal in my life.

With high ish output ceramic pickups

Maybe that's why I can't stand his sound.

Matej Fele 🤣🤣🤣🤣

i hate the Steve Vai defense

@@matejfele9971 Vai's sound is a lot his guitars and rig. Not so much DS-1 only. I agree as to his tones, but he certainly is one of the absolute best rock guitarists out there.

You got it! I really enjoy trying to get inside the head of guys that built this stuff before we had crazy amounts of preamp distortion available, that's where the classic sounds live.

It's actually easier if you think of the pedal as an extra gain stage. People were trying all kinds of things in the 70s to push amps a bit harder: hotter pickups, pedals, and extra gain stages (Mesa Boogie etc.). I think a pedal was the best low-cost solution for players who didn't want to lose the pickups they liked and couldn't afford a high quality multistage amp. The DS-1 (and its many, many imitations and successors) deserve respect.

I use an SD1 all the time. It sounds incredible through Marshalls and other el34 amps. Hardly any boutique pedals can get me as good a tone as that thing. Same with the blues driver. Boss just makes great pedals and I will never understand the hate other than that they aren't in a standard enclosure and cost a fraction of boutique stuff.

I like Boss enclosures more than most - they are super high-quality, the large foot-switch makes it easy to use, and the colors make them easy to differentiate.

@@SeattleScotty I agree. If there's ever any effect I'm looking for, I will see what boss offers first because I do almost always prefer their enclosure and tonally, they've got very few duds. I wish they had optional true bypass in them, but not a deal breaker.

DS-1 & Vox is amazing!

Agree! I tested one (all stock) with a Vox AC30 and it sounded amazing!

I use an Epiphone Dot ES 335 with mine and it's wonderful!

pedals can be tough with the vox stuff. Nothing agains vox..

Get yourself a real amp👍🏽

I use mine with a tube screamer, its pretty tough forreal

That’s exactly how I use it. You CAN use it for some distortion but it works as a great overdrive if you keep the distortion down. If your amp has a good distortion channel it works fantastic that way.

That’s how Steve Vai and jo satriani used to use it!

That is exactly how I use mine! I actually prefer it over my blues driver

Rele Shred! Hey

Can i use one of these through a Code 25 Marshall amp?

My ds-1 doesnt seem to distort just runs the clean audio through any help?

It was an excellent video and although there were some things I already knew about the pedal, the first tip wasn't one of them. My Les Pauls have Classic 57's and early Burstbuckers so that wasn't an issue. As far as the tone control is concerned, I always felt it was in the wrong place, compared to other pedals. I made that mistake when i first bought mine years ago.

you can do whatever you want Neal. Running any dirt box(distortion/overdrive/boost/preamp pedals) into any amp is allowed and it will not hurt anything. How will it sound ? That is subjective, but I would generally try running the Code25 relatively low gain to start, a fairly 'clean' sound to start. BUT also try running a DS-1 into the '25' set kinda 'dirty', this can create some great tones as well. biggest rule is too just have fun, and dont worry about hurting anything. Do not live by hard and fast rules, when it comes to guitar, like people who say you can ony use certain gear with certain gear, or you can only use certain settings with said gear, these are all just recommendations, not rules. Guidelines can be helpful, especially for a new player, dont get me wrong, but some of the greatest guitar tones ever were created when they threw the rulebook out the window, were created by accident sometimes, just messing around doing things your 'not supposed to do'. Knowing the 'rules' is good, adhering to them as if something terrible might happen if you dont is bad. have fun bud. @@nealhalfpenny415

You can use this to look at the camera and read your script. www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1443042-REG/parrot_teleprompter_pcteleprompterkit_padcaster_teleprompter_kit.html