The Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive

Dave_Mc

TimmyO said:

At different times I've thought the SD-1 was the most wonderful under-appreciated (well I know it's not exactly unknown but you know what I mean) little box of boost goodies there is, and at other times I've thought it's somehow both nasal and flat at the same time and not much cop.

The difference was the amps I had at those times. 

for my taste, it has to be going in to something already clipping/crunching. The more the better. 

I'd go even further than that- even with a crunchy amp, to me some amps sound better with an SD1 and some sound better with a Tubescreamer. They're very similar pedals, and it's not a night and day difference, but I do have a definite preference all the same, and it seems to be pretty consistent. I think more Marshally-based things sound better with the SD1, and more Fendery with a Tubescreamer. So my Laney GH50L likes the SD1 and my Engl likes the Tubescreamer.

Cirrus

I'd guess it's down to two things:

SD-1 is asymmetrical clipping. So are valve preamp stages. You might find some amps benefit from one side being clipped more on the way in, and others from the symmetry of tube screamer clipping.

And they both have slightly different eq, too. Probably mostly from that asymmetry, the SD-1 has a bit more snarl in the upper mids, the ts9 is a bit smoother.

Littlejonny

I first encountered one back in the 90s as a teenager, a friend brought one round and I loved the low gain tone and bought it off him for £20. A few years later I was using it at music college and it was nicked after a gig but some jazz student. Then I bought one (presumably Chinese version) in the 00s for £25 on eBay and found it didn’t sound the same (at least not to my memory) as my original one. The new one seemed to have slightly honkier mids. We used it nonetheless for a few years and then I inexplicably sold it. 

I do like the SD1 sound, and definitely prefer it to a tube screamer, being slightly more textured in the upper frequencies. The problem for me, is I tend to play through larger Fender amps at reasonable (not loud) volumes, so I need Something that doesn’t let the clean signal through. The Blues Driver is great for this, as it seems to distort the whole signal in a very textured way. Obviously the RAT too but that has a very different character. 

I think I read somewhere that the Fulltone OCD was based on the SD1…I could be wrong.

thermionic

The OCD is more like the DS-1, it has clipping diodes to ground rather than in a feedback loop. But to a virtual ground (opamp input) rather than ground. And they’re not diodes, they’re mosfets wired to look like diodes. Pretty unique circuit really.

ICBM

Littlejonny said:

I think I read somewhere that the Fulltone OCD was based on the SD1…I could be wrong.

It's the Fulldrive which is based on the SD-1.

RandallFlagg

Love the SD-1 tone here 

https://youtu.be/LAORqexCSWk?si=nBTn2z-F39Z3V76-

gordiji

Sam Vilo is unmistakable , i knew it was him in the first few phrases , i wouldn't have recognised the pedal though but it's a formidable tone.

RandallFlagg

gordiji said:

Sam Vilo is unmistakable , i knew it was him in the first few phrases , i wouldn't have recognised the pedal though but it's a formidable tone.

Sam Vilo get a really pushed amp sound that sounds really loud. I think he records through the UA OxBox, always sounds good