I just bought.....

GoldenEraGuitars

.... a Boss DS1.

Now, hang on a second! There’s no need to laugh. I’m being serious.

Ive been watching a lot of JHS pedals stuff on YouTube recently and Josh's passion of Boss pedals has rubbed off a little on me. I had always wanted to buy a DS1 and BD2 again after owning them over 10 years ago. I’m convinced that they will sound pretty cool turned down through the Lonestars lead channel and used as a mild boost/drive/distortion.

But being the nosy type that I am I started to look at mods. I’ve always fancied building a kit pedal but this seems more appealing. Brian Wampler wrote a piece for Premier Guitar about 10 years ago, such a vast amount of info on one page! Is there anything that can be added to this or any tips that might help?

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/boss-ds-1-mods-1?page=2

monquixote

Drive and tone right down level right up

pintspiller

@monquixote that's using it as a boost? Certainly sounds good for an amp with a valve preamp.

Barnezy

Cobain, Vai, Prince all did pretty well with one. 

I really like using mine. Think it’s a great pedal.

monquixote

pintspiller said:

@monquixote that's using it as a boost? Certainly sounds good for an amp with a valve preamp.

Yeah it works very well into a dirty amp

Guy from Khruangbin uses one always on and backs off for cleans.

Sassafras

Might've worked for Prince but I could never get a good sound out of it.
Much prefer a Rat or the Fat Sandwich for the high gain stuff.

GoldenEraGuitars

Yeah @monquixote that’s definitely something worth trying. I usually do that with drive and distortion pedals. The amp has tone for days so a little nudge from the boss will be interesting.

@sassafras this is exactly why I got rid of it first time round. Did you try to mod it? Some of Brian Wamplers mods sound pretty awesome

Winny_Pooh

monquixote said:

Drive and tone right down level right up

Any crappy distortion pedal sounds ok set like that no?

TateFX

No need to mod the DS1, run it into a JMP or JCM800 on a decent volume and you've got a killer tone.

GoldenEraGuitars

Stu_tate said:

No need to mod the DS1, run it into a JMP or JCM800 on a decent volume and you've got a killer tone.

I owned a 79 JMP last year man, had to part ways because I couldn’t get the volume above 1 tbh. I’ll be running it into a Lonestar 

monquixote

Winny_Pooh said:

monquixote said:

Drive and tone right down level right up

Any crappy distortion pedal sounds ok set like that no?

There are quite a few that sound pants unless the gain is right up. Shredmaster for example.

GoldenEraGuitars

I’ve managed to find a few videos of the JCM mod. Sounds pretty damn good. The thing I’d be keen to hear though is the pedal turned down a lot and run through a mildly broken up lead channel. More like a little nudge for a pre existing drive rather than a stand alone distortion tone.

After watching Andy Timmons talking about his BB Preamp many years ago I decided to use my drive and distortion pedals like him - he runs them all through the lead to put a “halo” (as he described it) around the note. Works beautifully.