Sunday, February 11, 2018

OVERDRIVE- TOP SECRET OD ...thousands of Marshalls were sold because of it!!!!

 BOSS DS-1 DISTORTION 

$50.00 USD
OK ..OK Don't laugh. When in 1978 the first one came out it was
quickly scooped up by high gain players.
Ironically 99% of guys who bought a Marshall did so because they loved some 'Star' player who used the DS-1 with their Marshall. They had no idea from the recordings that so impressed them that the
DS-1 was half the sound.
In those days even the very few magazines that might interview guitar players talked about the music and the players influences etc. NOT the guys gear. I must state the obvious. The internet was nonexistent.

So this pedal was the very first serious OD that was NOT a Fuzz.
The Tube Screamer came later and was designed with the clean sound mixed in with the dirt. It sold more as a boost to push an amps natural Crunch into distortion. On it's own going thru a dead clean amp the ts
in my opinion is bleak at best! The amp must be set to a nice crunch.
The RAT is an OD but it had a weird filter set up for the controls and was sold as a Fuzz.
In short the Boss, the Ibanez and the Rat were 'it' all else were Fuzz boxes.

The DS-1 is STILL popular because it allows the guitars natural sound to come thru and when used with a good tube amp the combination can still give you a totally pro result!

BUT THE FIRST ONE WAS GREAT AND THE NEW ONE IS CRAP!

Don't believe it! First some history.
The 1978 was indeed good.

The second was in 1994 it had less gain and was noisy.
and started the 'Hate Boss' campaign
.
The third was in 2000 and was loud but very noisy, fizzy and just poorly designed.
It started the 'Kill' Boss campaign. LOL

The current one came in 2006. It was the Boss  'SAVE OUR REPUTATION' model .





In 2006 Boss went back to the first one only changing the defunct Toshiba TA7136PA to a Japan Radio NJM2904L. Whats the difference? Not a lot and they have to sit side by side to hear ANY.
As Brian Wampler proved take if you were to take 10 of either one of these parts and put them on the meter and you will get 10 different readings. Pedal parts were never made with high tolerances needed for sound. You might find the same parts used for a garage door opener LOL.
So if in the video you had 10 of new ones to compare with the original. One of the 10 would sound even closer then the video. On the other hand you might pick the newest one because to my ears it is just a tad fatter. lol

Boss even laid it out on the circuit board to make it easy for others to modify.
Actually considering the price ...they have offered up a fair deal. At least a 9 out of 10 ...and as cheap as $50.00 new and it can be modded easier than the first one.

Stevie Ray Vaughn put the Tube Screamer back on the map. The rumor is he had one of the very good ts909's. ...Actually he had a Ts 10.
It is considered the first of the really crap ones. LOL
So you get my point... if the basic design and sound is good it can even put 'your' sound on the map.

At the price most of us can get one just to use for a change from our gourmet OD.
First timers can get a really high standard OD that is still cool CHEAP!

Keep in mind it is how they work overdriving a real 'tube'. Stacking them in front of a Marshall Plexi OD will not work to give the sound you want. I expect in the next 2 weeks to be ordering the new Marshall ORIGIN 50H this amp is virtually a 50 watt PLEXI.

I just negotiated a deal for a used one in mint condition for $35.00 USD. Do the same. If it doesn't work out you can sell it easily get your money back.

1 comment:

  1. Funnily enough, I just received a second hand DS-1 in the mail this week. I paid €39 including shipping, so that's reasonable. I didn't have anything planned for it, I just wanted the reference sound. That's how far my collecting has gone now... =)

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