I decided to get a Boss DS-1 recently - a cheap classic that had up until now eluded me. Looking at the various Youtube videos I noticed the knobs are labelled differently to the usual Boss standard (OD-3, SD-1, BD-2) of Level on the left, Distortion/Drive on the right and Tone being the small knob in the middle, lower down. Hmmm, I'll have to remember, if I get one, that the Tone and Level knobs are swapped over compared to what I'm used to.
I picked one up at a bargainous price here in the classifieds. As soon as I started playing with it, I realised the left big knob was Level after all and the small middle one was Tone, like the other Boss pedals. I put the mislabelling down to a historical quirk, or a mistake which Boss didn't change.
However, I've just went back to look at a couple of YouTube videos where it's clear that it's the small middle knob which changes the level and tone is the larger left hand knob. So it looks like all the pedals are labelled the same way but some have the knob functions matching while others are "swapped". In all my research about MIJ/MIT versions, all the different mods I could do etc I never caught any mention of this.
Comments
Has someone gone to the immense bother of re-wiring it?
Both of my DS-1's have the tone on the left hand big knob and they both control the tone. ONe is an early one , the other is a very recent one
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?
Ah, that thought didn't occur to me, but it makes sense.
I did open it up as soon as I got it, inveterate tinkerer that I am, but don't remember seeing anything that looked like it had been changed. Wires crossing over from a pot to the pcb would have been obvious. It'll be opened up again as soon as I get home!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Send it back to Boss and ask for a replacement
to be honest having dealt with their customer services once I'm sure they'd probably do that.