Just tried a DS1 for the very first time

Fishboy7

....and I don't hate it.  

I'm quite enjoying the unrefined gnarlyness of it actually.  

Redlester

What are you using it with? 

You know the tone knob trick, don't you? (.i.e a lot of people like it at or around the 9 o clock position). 

monquixote

It works really well as a boost with the gain pulled back a bit.

The guy from khruangbin has one as an always on boost which is not what you would expect given their sound.

ICBM

One of the most unfairly maligned and underrated pedals ever made.

Probably my favourite simple distortion pedal ever. Seriously.

If you haven't already, try it with the tone at 9-10 o'clock, the distortion a bit under halfway and the level up full (or nearly).

26.2

I rarely need that much gain but I picked one up for £20 in a junk shop in Brighton. It is a good sound I agree, but I found that the tone control was so fiddly that it was a real nuisance to dial in when changing the level of drive, or guitar or amp setting, or even if the wind changed direction. 

I picked up a US made RAT just before lockdown last year and it’s exactly what I need when I need lots of gain - loads of great tones from mild to super-gnarly and the filter control works as a tone control should. 

ICBM

26.2 said:

I rarely need that much gain but I picked one up for £20 in a junk shop in Brighton. It is a good sound I agree, but I found that the tone control was so fiddly that it was a real nuisance to dial in when changing the level of drive, or guitar or amp setting, or even if the wind changed direction.

I'm actually tempted to modify mine so that the range from about 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock is expanded to the full turn. It should be easy - the stock pot is a 20K linear, so if you used a 4K7 pot with a 12K resistor in series at the treble end and a 3K3 at the bass end it should do exactly that.

26.2

ICBM said:

26.2 said:

I rarely need that much gain but I picked one up for £20 in a junk shop in Brighton. It is a good sound I agree, but I found that the tone control was so fiddly that it was a real nuisance to dial in when changing the level of drive, or guitar or amp setting, or even if the wind changed direction.

I'm actually tempted to modify mine so that the range from about 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock is expanded to the full turn. It should be easy - the stock pot is a 20K linear, so if you used a 4K7 pot with a 12K resistor in series at the treble end and a 3K3 at the bass end it should do exactly that.

That sounds cool. Funny why that isn’t a ‘thing’ like Keeley modded stuff.

I do love Boss pedals though. 

bencowling81

ICBM said:

26.2 said:

I rarely need that much gain but I picked one up for £20 in a junk shop in Brighton. It is a good sound I agree, but I found that the tone control was so fiddly that it was a real nuisance to dial in when changing the level of drive, or guitar or amp setting, or even if the wind changed direction.

I'm actually tempted to modify mine so that the range from about 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock is expanded to the full turn. It should be easy - the stock pot is a 20K linear, so if you used a 4K7 pot with a 12K resistor in series at the treble end and a 3K3 at the bass end it should do exactly that.

If you do that and stamp it ‘AD’ it’s apparently worth £40k

ICBM

26.2 said:

Funny why that isn’t a ‘thing’ like Keeley modded stuff.

If I remember rightly, a company called Freekish Blues did pretty much exactly that with a Joyo copy of an OCD, repainted it and claimed it as their own work... it was all over the Gear Page a while back, after the initial hype about it being the new-paradigm game-changer of overdrive pedals or whatever they usually say .

26.2

ICBM said:

26.2 said:

Funny why that isn’t a ‘thing’ like Keeley modded stuff.

If I remember rightly, a company called Freekish Blues did pretty much exactly that with a Joyo copy of an OCD, repainted it and claimed it as their own work... it was all over the Gear Page a while back, after the initial hype about it being the new-paradigm game-changer of overdrive pedals or whatever they usually say .

I think I vaguely remember that! 

MagicPigDetective

Never tried one, but after going through a few boutique overdrives, I’ve now got an SD-1 and I’m so happy with it, as a clean boost or to add juice to the drive channel of my Orange Rocker 15. It does the job so well with little fuss. 

ICBM

ICBM said:

I'm actually tempted to modify mine so that the range from about 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock is expanded to the full turn. It should be easy - the stock pot is a 20K linear, so if you used a 4K7 pot with a 12K resistor in series at the treble end and a 3K3 at the bass end it should do exactly that.

Actually, an even better idea... you could use three resistors and the original pot - the same two at the bass and treble ands, and a 6K2 across the pot itself (which gives 4K7 in parallel with 20K) - then you could fit a DPDT switch and have the option of stock or expanded tone sweep.

The only thing that's stopping me now is that my DS-1 is a special edition 40th Anniversary one... looks like I need another one .

LastMantra

Sound good into a lightly distorting valve amp. Not great into a clean amp imo. 

mudslide73

I've got a few modded ones and a few I've ruined by modding them. Thd LED clipping versions are quite lovely imo - the Keeley ones use this for the on/off LED. Vai and Satriani were/are big users. I like them!

UnclePsychosis

I love the DS-1 but it's a sound I never use. I must have owned at least five. I buy them, love them, never use them, then sell them, then I miss them...

Fishboy7

I'm using it into a crunchy amp, tone all the way anticlockwise, gain maxed and level about 3/4.  It's the sound of the early 90s 

Fishboy7

I paid £35 for mine.  

Jonathangus

LastMantra said:

Sound good into a lightly distorting valve amp. Not great into a clean amp imo. 

I beg to differ...

ICBM

LastMantra said:

Sound good into a lightly distorting valve amp. Not great into a clean amp in my opinion. 

I like it for both. It's much better into a clean amp than a SD-1 is, for me.

Fishboy7 said:

I'm using it into a crunchy amp, tone all the way anticlockwise, gain maxed and level about 3/4.  It's the sound of the early 90s 

By a strange coincidence, at the exact moment I read that, my iTunes was playing the guitar solo in Shakespear's Sister's 'Hello (Turn Your Radio On)'...

jdgm

I got my DS-1 and Rat modded by Pedalmods UK with the 3-way switch mod.

Can recommend it. Just amazing.

When I saw Mike Stern in the late 90s I got a look at his pedalboard afterwards, and he had a DS-1 and 2 DD-2s on his board.  You can hear the DS-1 tone on many of his recorded solos. 

Ddigger

^ @jdgm I have one of them, but I think Pedalmods UK are no longer in business 

Do you know any details about the mod?