BOSS SD 1

thomasw88

Hootsmon said:

The UK ads describe the pedal as transparent and others on forums say it is TS like..........which is true?

It's a tube screamer alike so not transparent.

It's also decidedly average imo.

Dan_Halen

thomasw88 said:

Hootsmon said:

The UK ads describe the pedal as transparent and others on forums say it is TS like..........which is true?

It's a tube screamer alike so not transparent.

It's also decidedly average imo.

Nah, it's a great little pedal for such a bargain price.

As an overdrive pedal into a clean amp it's pretty average but still perfectly serviceable as a tone. Just a bit flat maybe. Into a crunchy amp (or even one really cooking already) it sounds great.

I'd rather have a plain old Ibanez TS if I was using it to get all my drive but prefer the Boss to give an already driven amp a good kick. Built like a tank as well.

AntonHunter

Dan_Halen said:

thomasw88 said:

Hootsmon said:

The UK ads describe the pedal as transparent and others on forums say it is TS like..........which is true?

It's a tube screamer alike so not transparent.

It's also decidedly average imo.

Nah, it's a great little pedal for such a bargain price.

As an overdrive pedal into a clean amp it's pretty average but still perfectly serviceable as a tone. Just a bit flat maybe. Into a crunchy amp (or even one really cooking already) it sounds great.

I'd rather have a plain old Ibanez TS if I was using it to get all my drive but prefer the Boss to give an already driven amp a good kick. Built like a tank as well.

Presumably into a driven amp, the bleed issue with the SD-1 isn't really as noticeable either, right?

ICBM

AntonHunter said:

Presumably into a driven amp, the bleed issue with the SD-1 isn't really as noticeable either, right?

Not at all. It's only a problem into a strictly clean amp.

thomasw88

Dan_Halen said:

thomasw88 said:

Hootsmon said:

The UK ads describe the pedal as transparent and others on forums say it is TS like..........which is true?

It's a tube screamer alike so not transparent.

It's also decidedly average imo.

Nah, it's a great little pedal for such a bargain price.

As an overdrive pedal into a clean amp it's pretty average but still perfectly serviceable as a tone. Just a bit flat maybe. Into a crunchy amp (or even one really cooking already) it sounds great.

I'd rather have a plain old Ibanez TS if I was using it to get all my drive but prefer the Boss to give an already driven amp a good kick. Built like a tank as well.

Pretty much all pedals are built like a tank.. 

I've owned an sd1, a Keeley modded one and the sd1w.

I've not kept any of them
Still horses for courses

Redlester

ICBM said:

thomasw88 said:

Must say I am really not getting the levels of worship going on here tbh,
I've  had oodles of pedals that cover that territory and more.

I don't think it's great either into a clean amp, or as a pseudo-clean boost as a lot of people seem to want to use overdrive pedals - level up full, gain low.

Where it really shines is if you stack it into either a lightly overdriven amp, or a more scooped distortion pedal, eg a DS-1 or Blues Driver, set so it adds more dirt rather than extra volume - in fact I set it up so it does actually work as a stand-alone overdrive into the clean sound, with the gain about halfway or higher and the level to give roughly the same volume. Then when you add it to the following distortion it has the remarkable ability to both make harmonics really pop out, *and* boost the volume... which it shouldn't set like that, but does - more than a Tube Screamer, so I think the asymmetrical clipping may have something to do with it. Pretty much the perfect 'rock solo' pedal.

That said, I don't really use those sorts of sounds any more.

This. 

As a standalone drive I’d say it’s okay in a low gain, gritty, slightly farty small old amp way. 

But no, it’s when used with its own drive  to push an overdriven amp you get the magic. 

It’s also grittier and edgier than the TS, but it’s not a massive difference. 

thermionic

The OD-3 is a better standalone drive imho. It gets more distorted towards the end of the drive knob, and doesn’t filter out the bass like an SD-1 (filtering out the bass is partly why an SD-1 excels when pushing a cooking amp).

guitartango

@Hootsmon ,
Check out this video from Brian
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dMpE7o0_6JA