Boss DS1

ThePrettyDamned

UnclePsychosis said:

I've been thinking about getting a DS1 or DS2 recently because I've been listening to Bleach too much. 

So I did the sensible thing and bought something else entirely - Hardwire SC-2 now incoming. 

"the Internet" reckons the sc-2 is a lot like a Ds-2. What do you reckon? Will it scratch the itch? 

Maybe, but the ds-2 has two very different sounds. 

One is a crunchy distortion. It's a bit sort of ds1 ish, but imo not as good. It's not bad, though, just a bit bland. 

The turbo mode is where it's at - tons of mids, loads of distortion, loads of compression, cuts through anything. Nothing else does this sound as far as I've found - expensive or cheap. 

That sound is all over a lot of live chilli peppers work. 

siraxeman

^^ DS-2 I had sounded exactly the same as the DS-1 - the Turbo mode was the only discernible difference. (I've had both as well as a modded SE DS-1 and a Satchurator (Vox DS-1 with a tweak).

guitarfishbay

The DS1 I have has a more cutting tonality than the DS2 I have. Definitely feel the DS1 has more character. The DS2 is probably a bit more user friendly and less hair trigger on the tone control

ThePrettyDamned

siraxeman said:

^^ DS-2 I had sounded exactly the same as the DS-1 - the Turbo mode was the only discernible difference. (I've had both as well as a modded SE DS-1 and a Satchurator (Vox DS-1 with a tweak).

Huh, my ds-2 is definitely different to ds-1. I actually like the sd2, df2, ds1 and Ds2 distortion sounds, all for different reasons, but they're broadly similar (bar the sd2). 

Maybe mine is a bit different? I'm comparing a modern ds-1 to a mij ds-2.

Dave_Mc

UnclePsychosis said:

@Dave_Mc thanks. Interesting you say refined. Refined isn't necessarily my thing. Ho hum. Looking forward to trying it! 

Haha yeah. I mean if you have it on the way you might as well see if you like it. For me it's one of those pedals that I miss if I take it off the board, but when it's on the board I don't use it much.

ICBM

The DS-2 is a totally different circuit from the DS-1, in either mode - the whole pedal is built using discrete transistors not an op-amp chip, and although some of them are configured to work like an op-amp it isn't the same.

UnclePsychosis

Finally picked up a DS-1 after deciding the SC-2 wasn't for me.

I owned a DS-1 years ago but it was when I first started messing with pedals and didn't really know what I was doing so it is interesting to have one again. My immediate thought was that you lot weren't exaggerating about how sensitive the tone control is. Blimey.

Dave_Mc

^ Yeah definitely. I know with most pedals most people will have favourite settings, but there's favourite settings and then there's unusable. A good 90% of the DS1 tone control is in the unusable camp, if you ask me (don't get me wrong, as I said above, I do like the other 10% ).

ThePrettyDamned

Dave_Mc said:

^ Yeah definitely. I know with most pedals most people will have favourite settings, but there's favourite settings and then there's unusable. A good 90% of the DS1 tone control is in the unusable camp, if you ask me (don't get me wrong, as I said above, I do like the other 10% ).

You can push it right up to ear splitting and run it into a dirty amp for a hideous, fuzzy meltdown sound but it's not pleasant in the traditional sense... 

Dave_Mc

Haha

Marktigere1

When I first got a DS1, I actually thought it was broken until I found the 'sweet' spot

Sassafras

Into a clean amp, which is what I mostly use, the DS-1 is puny, fizzy and generally unpleasant.
When I want a rich, meaty aggressive distortion I use a WH Fat Sandwich. More expensive than the DS-1 but far more versatile. Well worth the extra cost.
If I want a clear, bright musical distortion I use an old MXR Dist+.

ICBM

It would actually be possible to expand the 9-12 o'clock range to be the whole travel fairly easily - which would then make the useful range from 9-3 o'clock - the tone control is a 20K linear pot, so if you replaced it with a 5K pot with a 4K7 resistor in series at the bottom end and a 10K in series at the top end, that would do exactly that. I've never tried it but I'm certain it would work.

guitarfishbay

ICBM said:

It would actually be possible to expand the 9-12 o'clock range to be the whole travel fairly easily - which would then make the useful range from 9-3 o'clock - the tone control is a 20K linear pot, so if you replaced it with a 5K pot with a 4K7 resistor in series at the bottom end and a 10K in series at the top end, that would do exactly that. I've never tried it but I'm certain it would work.

It'd be worth it just to screw with people who copy pedal settings from rig run down videos on YouTube

Dave_Mc

^ LOL

ICBM said:

It would actually be possible to expand the 9-12 o'clock range to be the whole travel fairly easily - which would then make the useful range from 9-3 o'clock - the tone control is a 20K linear pot, so if you replaced it with a 5K pot with a 4K7 resistor in series at the bottom end and a 10K in series at the top end, that would do exactly that. I've never tried it but I'm certain it would work.

Only problem I can think of with that is that the range of tones between 9-12 o'clock isn't actually all that big, from what I can remember. I don't remember getting a whole range of different tones within that small range, more just tones which sounded good. Some way of expanding the tone knob so that there was a bigger range of tones would be a better idea (though I realise that'd likely require some more serious mods to the circuit, or at least component values).

thermionic

guitarfishbay said:

ICBM said:

It would actually be possible to expand the 9-12 o'clock range to be the whole travel fairly easily - which would then make the useful range from 9-3 o'clock - the tone control is a 20K linear pot, so if you replaced it with a 5K pot with a 4K7 resistor in series at the bottom end and a 10K in series at the top end, that would do exactly that. I've never tried it but I'm certain it would work.

It'd be worth it just to screw with people who copy pedal settings from rig run down videos on YouTube

You should have seen the DS-1 I bought!

ICBM

thermionic said:

You should have seen the DS-1 I bought!

I remember that. Unfortunately they'd rewired the two pots - so giving the wrong circuit values and an even touchier range on the tone, I think - rather than simply undoing them and physically swapping them with the wires still attached.