Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 9:24 pm Post subject: Some thoughts on the Boss DS-1
it's definitely on Nevermind
and definitely NOT on In Utero.
I built one from the schematic (I'm playing around with some things for some future pedals, and making money off Cobain's legacy is a sound business move) and playing it through my Princeton and my Marshall, and through my Thomann Tech21 Blonde clone, and combinations thereof = that guitar sound.
It's tracked through lots of different amps with varied tone stacks (my Princeton has a Bassman tone stack) and Butch Vig loved loads of tracks, but it's there. The cheapest most overlooked and dissed distortion pedals out there is actually totally responsible for all the guitar sounds that changed the world of all us 90s kids
I borrowed my gf's one and it actually really sounds half-decent, it just gets such a bad rep from the beginners who are using em with shitty amps and shittier technique
I wish you well on your Kurdtz ToneQuest. Mike DS1 + SMALL CLONE double pedal?? 🤔
Joined: 10 Dec 2010 Posts: 4014 Location: San Diego
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 5:56 am Post subject:
I just found an old demo featuring the DS-1 at 1:40. I ran it through a Blues Deluxe Reissue with a Small Stone phaser. Sounds good to my ears. I've been thinking about tracking down another DS-1...
PJ Harvey Rid of Me era had ds-1 sounds. I know she toured with it, don't know how much of it was actually on the record. _________________
paul_ wrote:
When are homeland security gonna get on this "2-piece King Size Snickers" horseshit that showed up a couple years ago? I've started dropping one of them on the floor of my car every time.
I picked one up from a local second-hand shop at the weekend for just under £30. You really do need a decent tube/valve amp to run it into, but it does produce some usable sounds. I dunno. I was expecting to be disappointed, but it's not bad. Maybe there's some snobbery going on in the sense that something that costs less than £50 isn't supposed to sound good?
As Mike and others have mentioned, the tone knob is "blanket over the speaker cab" at one extreme and "tin can full of bees" at the other but the regions in between are all right. Maxing everything just sounds shit. If that's what beginners try when they plug into the ten watt practice amps with eight inch speakers, I can see where the problem could be. I found somewhere between ten and eleven o clock on the tone knob was about right, with the distortion around two thirds of the way up, depending on how bright or dark your amp's voicing is. Maxing the distortion and setting the tone around noon gives a surprisingly nice cutting lead sound.
It doesn't clean up completely, so its use as an OD/boost is limited. Still, the tone knob actually does something, it's more transparent than a muff or a Rat, and it can do more than unity volume at pretty much every setting. It's far from the best on the market, but at that price point it does the job well enough. I guess it is to dirt boxes what the SM57 is to recording mics in that sense. The only real area of improvement I can imagine is tweaking the tone stack somehow. A mids control with the bass and treble both preset at 50% with internal trimmers, maybe?
There's a lot of snobbery towards the old standard pedals these days, usually from players with all the gear and no idea.
The amount of times I've heard people go on about how bands like the Pixies, Stone Roses, Ride etc had 'a great sound' then go on to say Boss pedals are rubbish
I find the DS-1 very limited and prefer the OS-2. To my ears the OS-2 has more useable range. _________________
dezb1 wrote:
Stop fucking about and get an SD-1
NickS wrote:
Earl Grey tea is flavoured with bergamot oil, which is extracted by crushing the anal glands of cliff-nesting seabirds in a press.
brandonwinmill wrote:
Maybe i'll sell my internet. It's lost its fun since i already beat it twice.
My fave Kurt live and studio sounds were his Jag (1meg pots and Super D) going through a DS-2. I always thought his MIJ Stangs and Sansamp on the In Utero tours sounded like flat-ass dogshit by comparison. The In Utero sessions were great too though as they were the dream team through a Twin Reverb (versus his ridiculous live rig).
Joined: 30 Aug 2011 Posts: 4980 Location: Location: Location
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:11 pm Post subject:
Boss released two black DS-1s recently: DS-1 BK (silver knobs, black screw, only available at GC in the US, came out late 2016) and DS-1 4A (gold knobs, silver screw, more widely available, came out in 2017 as part of their 40th anniversary). A number of people over on Stompboxzone have them and say they're identical to the current orange MIT ones inside. The early MIT ones (up to about 1994) were the same as the MIJ ones. _________________
Fran wrote:
I love how this place is basic as fuck.
ekwatts wrote:
I'm just going to smash it in with a hammer and hope it works. Tone is all in the fingers anyway.
My fave Kurt live and studio sounds were his Jag (1meg pots and Super D) going through a DS-2. I always thought his MIJ Stangs and Sansamp on the In Utero tours sounded like flat-ass dogshit by comparison. The In Utero sessions were great too though as they were the dream team through a Twin Reverb (versus his ridiculous live rig).
Mode I or II?
That recording sounds more like mode I to me, which is basically a DS-1 circuit, right?
Mode II sounds more vowel-like, almost like a cocked Wah setting. _________________
dezb1 wrote:
Stop fucking about and get an SD-1
NickS wrote:
Earl Grey tea is flavoured with bergamot oil, which is extracted by crushing the anal glands of cliff-nesting seabirds in a press.
brandonwinmill wrote:
Maybe i'll sell my internet. It's lost its fun since i already beat it twice.
Joined: 30 Aug 2011 Posts: 4980 Location: Location: Location
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:36 pm Post subject:
Fran wrote:
There's a lot of snobbery towards the old standard pedals these days, usually from players with all the gear and no idea.
The amount of times I've heard people go on about how bands like the Pixies, Stone Roses, Ride etc had 'a great sound' then go on to say Boss pedals are rubbish
I know what you mean. When I first started playing guitar (c1990), all the bands I listened to used Boss pedals and no-one ever claimed their "tone" needed improving.
And I guess Prince never used to spend much time hanging out on TGP
Fran wrote:
I find the DS-1 very limited and prefer the OS-2. To my ears the OS-2 has more useable range.
I think a lot of the internetz haet re the DS-1 is overblown nonsense tbh but, you're right, it's not the most versatile dirt pedal about. I've never had too much problem getting some decent sounds out of mine but it's also admittedly fairly easy to make it sound pretty terrible. Have never tried an OS-2 but have seen a few people recommend them. Might try to pick one up at some point. _________________
Fran wrote:
I love how this place is basic as fuck.
ekwatts wrote:
I'm just going to smash it in with a hammer and hope it works. Tone is all in the fingers anyway.
My fave Kurt live and studio sounds were his Jag (1meg pots and Super D) going through a DS-2. I always thought his MIJ Stangs and Sansamp on the In Utero tours sounded like flat-ass dogshit by comparison. The In Utero sessions were great too though as they were the dream team through a Twin Reverb (versus his ridiculous live rig).
Mode I or II?
That recording sounds more like mode I to me, which is basically a DS-1 circuit, right?
Mode II sounds more vowel-like, almost like a cocked Wah setting.
Live recordings during that period, it has the middy honk vibe for sure, but maybe the mid-scooped Twin counteracts that midrange on In Utero?
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