Shaping Your Tone with Boss DS-1 Distortion Pedal: A Product Review

The Boss DS-1 is a distortion pedal for guitar. It is manufactured by the Roland Corp. under the brand name Boss since 1978. It is the first distortion pedal made by Boss and ever since, it has become a classic effect which is used by many notable guitar players such as Joe Satriani, Mike Stern, Steve Vai, Dave Grohl, and Kurt Cobain. It can provide a harder distortion effect for guitar instead of a toneless, fuzzy distortion. It can also faithfully reproduce all the subtle nuances of playing dynamics at any volume.

Boss DS-1 is the first analog pedal I bought, at 4.5K in Yamaha Music Store. It is very simple to use and it comes with a manual as well as some sample settings to help the user. You can get a nice smooth distortion, mild and soft sounds, or super grungy tones with this pedal. Basically, it has 3 knobs: tone, level, distortion. Tweak these knobs, and you’ll get your perfect distortion. Whatever amp you are using, this pedal sounds great. One of the best characteristics of DS-1 is it doesn't give you a lot of noise. It is rather quite. However, if you maxed out the level knob, you will get some feedback and noise. The effects of this pedal are endless and it's up to you how much distortion or how much tone you want. It is very versatile that you can get almost any sound you want from this pedal. It is designed for longer use since it is built well, very firm and won't break easy. Its compact design makes it very portable as well. So, overall, it is a great buy especially for those players on a limited budget.