#ds-1

[fuzzkaizer]

D. & M. - model DS-1 DISTORTO

cred: intagram.com/goodfuzzysounds

[bandchat]

I'm always annoyed when I come across videos like this one, where it, and the comments, indicate that the Boss DS-1 is a terrible pedal. Then why is it used effectively by so many musicians, and is a best seller year after year? Maybe because it works well if you don't set its knobs either all the way clockwise, counterclockwise, or at noon? Here's my rendition of Nirvana's "School" using the DS-1. While the tone has a base that's screams Bleach, my style (metal!) and equipment setup gives it a sound that's uniquely me. So while "sound like your favorite player" videos like this are interesting, please take my advice and find your own sound! End note: no, I did not run my amp "at the edge of breakup," like so many others claim is critical to getting good sound out of the DS-1...

[contac]

Pedals and wires.

[gasstationdietconsultant]

Shining a light on projects yet to be completed.

[fuzzkaizer]

Boss - DS-1 Distortion

pedal extension

“ lights on the foot switch (are) optical sensors “

cred: facebook.com/Konstantin Koslovsky

[adamharkus]

BOSS DS-1w Distortion Review. Worth the Upgrade?

The BOSS DS-1w is a premium, made in Japan Waza Craft version of the Legendary BOSS DS-1. But is it worth the upgrade? Before we start with the BOSS DS-1w, please check out my BOSS DS-1 review for some background info. Why did I upgrade from a BOSS DS-1 to a BOSS DS1-w? I had a soft spot for the DS-1. It was a present from my wife, and, as detailed in the original review, I loved its…

BOSS DS-1w Distortion Review. Worth the Upgrade?

[bandchat]

These days the humble distortion pedal tends to get overshadowed by overdrives and fuzz(es). But nothing gets the guitar community riled more than the Boss DS-1. It's good! It's terrible! You're using it wrong! It has to be used into an amp on the edge of breakup!

I was ignorant to all this when I bought my DS-1 back in 1993. At the time I was using a DOD American Metal and Peavy Special 130 amp, looking to branch out into different sonic territory. Since two guitarists I dug, Dave Navarro and Kurt Cobain, used it, I said what the hell, and bought one.

My first surprise was how different it was than the DOD pedal. While perhaps obvious to most, at the young age of 23, and having only played guitar for four years, I still wasn't quite aware of what all this different equipment did. It took some mental adjustment to get used to the overall less gain and different tone profile, but after a while I grew to enjoy those changes.

This brings me to my main point: explore what a piece of gear can do, and focus less on what you want it to do. The DS-1 has a very specific sound, and is always going to sound like a DS-1, so set expectations accordingly. But it is easy to forget that since every musician has unique gear, the DS-1's tone will vary depending on that choice of gear and how each of its options are set. This is one reason why some people say it's great and others say otherwise.

This doesn't mean that the DS-1 can't be tweaked, so don't be afraid to shape its sound! The obvious thing to do is to use the tone knob on the pedal for this. But don't forget about the EQ knobs on your amp. On my Fender Twin Reverb the "treble" and "middle" dials immensely change the sound of the DS-1. One can change the DS-1 tone further with additional EQ, usually provided by a pedal like the Boss GE-7. One complaint people have about the DS-1 is it's too mid scooped, and using EQ can add those frequencies back in.

Another trick I've recently used is to boost it with another pedal. I use an Ibanez Tube Screamer for this, and find it gives the DS-1 a little extra punch, even with the Screamer's overdrive set all the way counter-clockwise.

So what's going on with all the people who say it has to be used with an amp on "the edge of breakup?" It's worth noting that Boss themselves say otherwise ("It's great as a prime distortion for clean and mildly driven amps and works equally well with higher-gain amps."). My take is that this statement comes from people who don't like the general tone of the DS-1, and thus find it works better as a boost into their preferred tone. This will add some frequencies that their main tone is lacking. It also adds compression, which will favorably accentuate certain aspects of their playing. Single note riffs, which previously felt a bit lifeless, will now be punchy.

I knew back in 1993 that Dave and Kurt didn't like junk. If you take all that I've written here into account you'll likely conclude the same thing. Happy riffing!

[super-freq]

Boss Muff

I love Boss pedals, they are bomb proof, have a great form factor, work well, and look great. They don’t make a couple effects that I like. For example you can’t get a Big Muff in Boss. I had the idea to rehouse some effects in Boss enclosures. Here is the Boss Muff.

The Boss Muff is a Green Russian Big Muff in DS-1 enclosure

Sourcing enclosures

I couldn’t find empty Boss enclosures for sale anywhere so I had to recycle. Boss pedals keep a good resale. It’s hard to find these for less than $40. Often used Boss pedals go for $100 or more. I didn’t want to pay $40 for an enclosure but I wasn’t going to pay $100, especially for something I might want to keep.

After some research on Reverb I found the Boss DS-1 was cheapest. Typically they go for ~$40. The historical prices show sales a range of $25 to $45. Reverb says the estimated price is $25 to $35.

Check out historical sales on Reverb here: Boss DS-1 Distortion (Silver Label) 1994 – 2021

Note! New Boss DS-1 and Boss SD-1 go for about $50. If you have a discount or see a sale it might be good to buy a new pedal since places like Sweetwater offer free shipping.

Watch the shipping! People will ask $15 on average which is really high for something where the asking price is $40. Typically I can mail a pedal for $6 to $10 USPS.

This is the donor DS-1 for ~$40 from Reverb.

The enclosure and parts

The enclosure is great, it’s pretty spacious, pre-drilled, and it comes with some usable parts. It’s even partially pre-wired!

It comes with jacks, LED, battery clip, a momentary SPST switch, knobs, and some pots. It also comes with a DC power jack but, this was mounted to the original PCB, there will be nothing to anchor it to when I replace the board so I couldn’t use it.

The contents of the DS-1 and the replacement boards.

The Jacks are useable and the wiring can be repurposed. There’s nothing special about these jacks. It is interesting the way they fit the enclosure. You don’t need hold them from the inside when you tighten the nut.

The LED is mounted to a small board. I used the LED and board. I just replaced the wires because I needed a little more length. The LED is a typical red 3mm type. Nothing special here.

I usually don’t use a battery but, since the clip was there and partially wired it was easier to just keep it! I wired up the battery snap for this build.

I went with a relay switching system, more on this below, the existing switch worked well for this! I left the existing switch in place along with the wires.

The pots from the DS-1 were B100k, B100k, and B20k. Since I was building a Big Muff I needed 3 x 100k pots. I kept two of the original pots and replaced the 20k pot with a A100k pot. The two B100k pots were 16mm and B20k was a 9mm pot with pins at 90 degrees. It looks like you could fit 3 x 16mm pots but I didn’t test this theory and just brought another 9mm pot.

Pots from the original DS-1 mounted to the new PCB with the original ribbon cable.

All of the pots had a small PCB with a ribbon cable running to the main PCB. I used these small boards and the existing ribbon cables.

Note! The ribbon cables use thin solid core wires. These seem like they would break easily but Boss glues both ends to their respective boards with some kind of industrial glue, maybe epoxy. I took their lead and glued the end of the ribbon cable to the PCB with some gorilla glue. The glue anchors the end of the wire where it’s prone to breaking.

Small PCBs mounted to pots

Ribbon cables glued to PCB

They did the same with the DC jack, this type of jack is prone separating from the board on other pedals, I’ve fixed a few of these in the past. Not on Boss pedal! The jack is soldered then glued to the board! I’m surprised other manufacturers haven’t caught on to this.

I reamed the enclosure to fit a standard DC jack. I used a couple of those plastic washer to keep the jack from extending too far out of the enclosure.

Add some washers

Ream the enclosure

Mounting the DC jack

Adding the DC Power jack to the Boss enclosure

The knobs are nothing special. They use splined knobs rather than knobs with a set screw. I kept the pots so I kept the knobs. I had to get a new knob for the replaced 9mm pot since I couldn’t get a 9mm pot with a splined shaft or at least a 9mm pot with 90 degree pins with a splined shaft.

Switching

Boss uses an electronic switching system paired with a buffered bypass. Seems like you could use this some how. This might be a future project…

For this project I decided on something I could more easily understand. I went with a relay switching system. This is an electronic DPDT that includes a circuit that also handles the LED. The system uses a Microcontroller that tracks the SPST, powers the LED and switches the relay.

Madbean Softie (left) and Rabbithole (right) PCBs

I went with the Madbean pedals Softie system. It has some good features. It is also true bypass. The effect path through the relay is essentially a wire connection all the way through. A nice feature of the Softie is if the power goes off it switches to bypass. The relay has an estimated failure of 100k clicks so it should outlast a stomp switch.

I chose the Softie 2 board. Madbean offers three PCB versions 1, 2, and 3. The Softie 2 is made for 1590B sized boxes. I thought this would good but I wasn’t thinking in 3D. This board mounts parts on both sides which makes it taller even though the footprint is smaller than the other boards. I still made it work but, a wider flatter board, with all the parts on one side, would work better in this enclosure.

Softie PCB and relay

Softie PCB

The Softie works well. Assembly is easy. Some of the parts you’ll need to order from Mouser so it won’t be as cheap as a 3PDT switch. Wiring is easy. Overall I’d recommend this for other projects.

Cost estimate

ItemCost Used Boss DS-1$40 Madbean Rabbit Hole PCB$6 Madbean Softie PCB$4 Relay 80-EC2-4.5NU$2 Other parts$5 total estimate$57

Cost estimate to build a Big Muff in a Boss enclosure

But What about the finish?

I didn’t paint the enclosure. This would have added a lot of time, cost, and effort to the project. Admittedly it would have looked far more amazing when it was finally finished. I was not super excited to try and peel off that rubber pad on the foot switch and glue it back on. You might be able to mask this. Also sanding the enclosure did not inspire me.

I think I might just slap a label on this to remind me what’s in the box. As it is the existing labels: Tone, Level, and Dist work for the Big Muff. Though the arrangement is not what I would have done. The small center knob is Level. Intuitively I reach for the upper left when I want to adjust the Volume. Sounds!

Here is a short video clip of a stock Boss DS-1 next to the Boss Muff. I built the Boss Muff to the spec of a Green Russian Big Muff. Not sure if I made a mistake or if it’s the nature of the green Russian but it has lots of bass. This would be great for bass.

Conclusion

So was it worth it? The whole process was easier than I thought it would be. The cost was higher than building other projects but not as high as I thought it might be. Reusing parts from the DS-1 saved on costs for pots, jacks and knobs which are some of the more expensive parts.

I could have shaved the costs down if I could have traded for a Boss pedal or watched Reverb for a couple weeks looking for a deal. I just bought the cheapest DS-1 I saw and paid the asking price. Besides waiting for a $25 DS-1 to show up on Reverb and then see $15 shipping is a little anticlimactic.

Overall the experience was informative. I think I enjoy having the rehoused Big Muff. I’ll probably use this pedal. The process revealed some of the tech used by Boss in their pedals. I’m definitely going to do a follow up…

Check out this Make Guitar Podcast where we talk about building the Boss Muff:

Boss Muff was originally published on Super-Freq