@@danielhahn7329 Ding Ding Ding! You are correct sir. Pinning this comment as you’re the only person outta thousands that got it right. Gotta give that Trio performance the credit it deserves. Someone’s gotta tab out Johns part!
It's been that way for years, but it's best not on guitar, but on vocals. I sing into this in my one-man band, on a two-year tour across the US, aiding people in their recovery from interplanetary complications.
me personally i use it as a strait up nasty distortion pedal with the distortion and level all the way up with the tone almost at noon gives a killer tone
I used to use the ds1 a lot to achieve John fruscante tones. But when I got the ds2 it just made the tone and range I had so much more better thru my Marshall’s. Sure do miss my old ds1 though was a absolute killer pedal for the price I paid for it. I remember it was the first pedal I got in highschool with just enough money I saved to go get it at guitar center. Still wish I was a beginner miss being able to learn so much
@@billyjettison I’m there right now and you may be able to help me. There’s this band from Chicago that started in 1986 called “Life Sentence” if you could, could you tell me if a waza craft boss hm-2 can achieve that sound?
I’ve been using this pedal for ever since the early 90s I don’t know why people hate on it either if it’s good enough or Kurt Cobain, that’s good enough for me
So from the little knowledge I have from recording engineers that put this on record (Vai, Satch, etc) they'd use this in several ways - cranked Fender with Jenson speakers - not as fizzy that way. Cranked Plexi/Marshall, similar but less gain, more to drive the speakers and the DS-1 was a colour boost as you say, into Greenbacks etc. The other way was low gain, low volume but something like a Fender Jnr (8 or 10 inch speaker) and dial the tone back to 9-10 oclock. Now we have more options and I would say at low volume your options are Celestion Blue, Ruby, Hempback etc all sound great with this pedal.
I use the DS-1 as just distortion. I think it can make an amazing Ride “The Lightning tone” if you know how to use it: turn distortion all the way up on The pedal. put the tone (ON THE PEDAL) at halfway. Make sure your guitar is on a clean pre-set, then turn up your treble (on amp) and then turn up to your tone (ON YOUR GUITAR) all the way.Then turn the gain all the way up and same with the delay settings. The rest (like bass, medium, ETC) you can tweak to whatever you like and if you understood these directions well (and I have good directions) you should Have a “Ride the Lightning” guitar tone
I run the DS1 into an overdriven amp. Not gained out. Think a Fender combo that’s starting to rumble a bit. Tone at 1/4. Drive at 1/2. Level flat out on 10. It sounds fat round and beautiful. Add another tube screamer or Klonish pedal for 80’s rock. Love it!!!!
Cobain used it a lot so that sold me on it because he has the best alternative rock guitar tone live to me and I used to be a tone snob until I came back to my roots and quit caring.
It was made during an era of loud stage volume and Marshall 1959 superlead amplifiers were still king, master volume Marshall only had been out a couple of years at this point. And stage guitar leads were super long erasing lots of high frequency. It was a great pedal for that era. I still love it, go ahead and get your favorite coily cable, it’s high frequencies attenuation will be your friend!
I use the DS-1 almost as a surrogate tube screamer, and i’ll also use it in conjunction with my hm-2 for tones reminiscent of black/death and groove metal.
One of my all time favorite guitar solos, Marillion's "Easter" was recorded using a DS-1 with the tone all the way off, I believe. And it sounds amazing.
I have every dial on max for my bass and guitar. Just ordered a HM-2 for my guitar though because I felt like my guitar could be heavier. I love the highs I get on bass when I max out the DS1 though
Got my first DS-1 in 1980 used it all the time back then. Have had many since and end up going back to it often. Yes it Still works!! For Christmas got the new(ish) DS-1Waza and have to saywith its extra options, Like it a LOT!! Better part is , on sale right now for 89 bucks
It was designed to be a distortion. That's why it says distortion right there in on the box. The Boss Blues Driver and SD1 Super Overdrive are closer to a "color boost overdrive" as you describe. But there are no rules. I personally love using the DS1 as a slight overdrive. But I also think it sounds good at high gain settings, too. Just a great pedal for the money
DS-1 in front of a Bassman on the verge of breakup is a fucking BEAST. Just a touch, and it makes that amp breathe, it really is a pedal that shines in some areas, and blows in others.
I use mine as a boost for my rat pedal. It works superb and it's also a good crunch pedal / overdrive if you turn the distortion knob to the left side.
As Rhett Shull says, and I agree with, it's better than any tube screamer pedal. I also run this with my vocals on my one-man band set, helping people understand and hopefully resolve their interplanetary complications
If you still have your iridium on hand I would highly suggest playing around with different impulse responses, whether they be from York Audio, Celestion, or many others that are available. My iridium is loaded with York audio.
Tim Pierce once said that you need less gain than you think you do, and that helped me clean up my mix so much. The sweet spot for most genres is between that 10-35% gain area
I'm considering a strat with 2 humbuckers. My main guitar for many years has been an HSS strat. I need another strat anyways to keep as a 1/2 step down guitar for songs that I struggle with singing.
An HH was the route I wanted to go as 2 of my Strats are SSS and 1 HSS. This one has a SH-11 in the bridge and the 78 custom in the neck both by Duncan.
Used to be my favorite drive pedal, but over the years, I've gravitated more toward the Boss SD-1 overdrive pedal, as it sounds better with my classic Fender Champ. Back in the day, I used to play a Sovtec Mig 100 half stack that was slightly driven with a DS-1 in a punk band. The thing about the DS1 is that less is more. You don't want to put the drive past noon and you want to put it in front of a slightly driven tube amp to get a killer tone.
@@thomasjefferson2097 any tube screamer style circuit will definitely work, especially if you want that mid hump. However, for something like the DS1, I would probably use something a bit more transparent, like a blue breaker just to give it that extra buttery flavor without altering the DS1 too much.
Honestly i run this with my fender champion 100 with about 6 gain on the amp and I barely have the pedal activate tbh, with low mid with the pathos pedal. Just adds a nice crunch
This pedal here in Brazil is extremely expensive, always wanted it, you can get a used one for around 200 R$ , a new one can get to 700 R$ , wich is very expensive for the people don't know
My first pedal was the Digitech DF-7. I didn't read the manual when I got it, but ended up choosing the DS-1 mode over all other 6 distortions without knowing it was a DS1
Same thing with mxr prime distortion. I just bought it yesterday at guitar center in the used section for 34 bucks and its got the same amount of punch as the ds 1
Digitech is a brand that never gets the love it deserves! Bad Monkey proved it can outshine or go toe to toe with all the boutique builds. The hardwired series was some of their best work.
I loved my ds-1 when i had it. To be honest i cant remember why i even got rid of it. You could get a nice punk distortion or turn the distortion down and the tone up and get a little od boost. but then tone down distortion all the way and you get a doom metal fuzz as well. Such a versatile pedal and does all the sounds great.
Fun fact: both Steve Vai and Joe Satriani’s lead distortion was from a already driven amp and a DS-1 it is also countless other artists main distortions I love it so much I bought the DF-2 which is a version with a feedback machine build in when you hold the stomp down it also doesn’t sound exactly like the original DS-1 yet some say they are the same I prefer the DF-2 for the smoothness it presents
It’s true the DS-1 is meant to boost an already somewhat dirty signal but you don’t need a second pedal. Just set your amp so it’s slightly dirty then kick the DS-1 on.
When i first got into gear a lot of what i read about this pedal was negative. I bought a DS2 as my first pedal years ago. The first setting is basically a DS1 and i thought sounded great. There seems to more positivity about this pedal recently and im happy.
No, thats a myth. If you analyze it properly you will see (and hear) that the DS-2 has a different character, you cant get the exact same sound out of both. I prefer my DS-2 and even my MD-2 over my DS-1 but none of them can sound exactly the same...
What i usually do is plug my guitar into the input then have a lead from the output to my amp. Then i press the footswitch until the light comes on then i turn the knobs to taste. You're welcome.
So i use a proco lil rat and that thing in gnarly. The sound is golden and it is clear and crunchy simultaneously. I have the gain all the way up and the volune at like mid and it's great. I also play with my amp in rythm mode and beef up the volume to get a warmer sound. Rat also stacks nicely. The ds1 is cool and all, but i'm definately a rat guy.
Get either of those two and try stacking DS-1 with them, with SD-1 or BD-2 going first in the chain. You'll love the tone of DS-1 then and the tonal possibilities available. I combine it with SD-1.
The problem is we as kids bought it and plug it into a clean and cheap amp in order we sound as Vai or Satriani... What we had instead was sadness and noise. 😢
Yo, was the first playing clip inspired by the United Shuffle in E by John Mayer Trio (Live)
Very unlikely but if so, you’re a legend🤙🔥🔥
@@danielhahn7329 Ding Ding Ding!
You are correct sir.
Pinning this comment as you’re the only person outta thousands that got it right. Gotta give that Trio performance the credit it deserves. Someone’s gotta tab out Johns part!
i love how the ds-1 is having a renaissance
It's been that way for years, but it's best not on guitar, but on vocals. I sing into this in my one-man band, on a two-year tour across the US, aiding people in their recovery from interplanetary complications.
I just bought one I love it, even on a clean amp
The DS-1 is the first pedal I ever bought, who’s hating on this lil guy? I love it!
"uhh i just make it sound like my guitar is crunchy" -me a guitar noob
Actually, that's pro level guitar language.
"I like my tone Crunchy bro"
-Logan Paul as a Guitar Player
me personally i use it as a strait up nasty distortion pedal with the distortion and level all the way up with the tone almost at noon gives a killer tone
It can work great like that too. Especially modded versions like the Keeley and JHS models where they treat it as an *amp in a box* distortion.
Yup
Idk I tried one at my local guitar centers and it sounded no different then my gain on my Marshall amp. Not worth the money for the same sound
I used to use the ds1 a lot to achieve John fruscante tones. But when I got the ds2 it just made the tone and range I had so much more better thru my Marshall’s. Sure do miss my old ds1 though was a absolute killer pedal for the price I paid for it. I remember it was the first pedal I got in highschool with just enough money I saved to go get it at guitar center. Still wish I was a beginner miss being able to learn so much
@@billyjettison I’m there right now and you may be able to help me. There’s this band from Chicago that started in 1986 called “Life Sentence” if you could, could you tell me if a waza craft boss hm-2 can achieve that sound?
I’ve been using this pedal for ever since the early 90s I don’t know why people hate on it either if it’s good enough or Kurt Cobain, that’s good enough for me
diatortion at 10 o clock tone at about 9. treble at 5 mids at 6 or 7 and bass at 4 sounds so good for crunchy acdc sound
I'm a sucker for a good crunch tone that doesn't make open chords sound like crap
The Nirvana Bleach sound is a solid reason to own one in of itself
And one day I’ll own one too when I’ve got the money
DS2 is the same with extras which is why Kurt swapped the ds1 for the ds2
The "Boutique" crowd = trust fund kids with no rhythm or soul. A great pedal is a great pedal, period.
it’s shit if you’re not using it as a boost coming from someone who isn’t rich
Lol how tf did nirvana create one of the biggest records of all time using this pedal then
?
@@Uninterested69420 hit album or not Ive used this pedal and it sucks
@@bigweenoryou don’t know how to use it, I used to hate this pedal up until I discovered how to use it.
@@numbers7889 I used it how everyone says to I used it as a boost it sounds like a slightly below average boost
So from the little knowledge I have from recording engineers that put this on record (Vai, Satch, etc) they'd use this in several ways - cranked Fender with Jenson speakers - not as fizzy that way. Cranked Plexi/Marshall, similar but less gain, more to drive the speakers and the DS-1 was a colour boost as you say, into Greenbacks etc. The other way was low gain, low volume but something like a Fender Jnr (8 or 10 inch speaker) and dial the tone back to 9-10 oclock.
Now we have more options and I would say at low volume your options are Celestion Blue, Ruby, Hempback etc all sound great with this pedal.
I love my DS-1. One of my favorites.
I use the DS-1 as just distortion. I think it can make an amazing Ride “The Lightning tone” if you know how to use it:
turn distortion all the way up on The pedal. put the tone (ON THE PEDAL) at halfway. Make sure your guitar is on a clean pre-set, then turn up your treble (on amp) and then turn up to your tone (ON YOUR GUITAR) all the way.Then turn the gain all the way up and same with the delay settings. The rest (like bass, medium, ETC) you can tweak to whatever you like and if you understood these directions well (and I have good directions) you should
Have a “Ride the Lightning” guitar tone
Got one in about 79/80, still got it, still works 👍🤟
I run the DS1 into an overdriven amp. Not gained out. Think a Fender combo that’s starting to rumble a bit. Tone at 1/4. Drive at 1/2. Level flat out on 10. It sounds fat round and beautiful. Add another tube screamer or Klonish pedal for 80’s rock. Love it!!!!
I had a Fender strat, a Fender frontman 15 amp, and a ds1 and it gave a pretty good sound for covering Nirvana.
Cobain used it a lot so that sold me on it because he has the best alternative rock guitar tone live to me and I used to be a tone snob until I came back to my roots and quit caring.
He used the ds2 more
I’ve always used it as a crunch boost, gives it a nice Punk sound
It was made during an era of loud stage volume and Marshall 1959 superlead amplifiers were still king, master volume Marshall only had been out a couple of years at this point. And stage guitar leads were super long erasing lots of high frequency. It was a great pedal for that era. I still love it, go ahead and get your favorite coily cable, it’s high frequencies attenuation will be your friend!
I’ve always loved it
DS-1 stacked with a another OD in front of it is unbeatable. You can get get nearly any kind of tone, from hard rock to death metal.
100000% agreed
Cool
The Boss DS-1 was my first ever pedal and I still love it.
I use the DS-1 almost as a surrogate tube screamer, and i’ll also use it in conjunction with my hm-2 for tones reminiscent of black/death and groove metal.
One of my all time favorite guitar solos, Marillion's "Easter" was recorded using a DS-1 with the tone all the way off, I believe. And it sounds amazing.
I do gain stacking with DS-1 at the end. Start with TS into DS-1 into amp.
I do the same, but with SD-1. I generally prefer the asymmetrical clipping of SD-1 to Tube Screamer.
I have every dial on max for my bass and guitar. Just ordered a HM-2 for my guitar though because I felt like my guitar could be heavier. I love the highs I get on bass when I max out the DS1 though
I ordered the wazacraft one a few days ago and im sooo excited! My amp doesn't get dirty enough on ots own so i think its gonna work great for me!
Got my first DS-1 in 1980 used it all the time back then. Have had many since and end up going back to it often. Yes it Still works!! For Christmas got the new(ish) DS-1Waza and have to saywith its extra options, Like it a LOT!! Better part is , on sale right now for 89 bucks
It was designed to be a distortion. That's why it says distortion right there in on the box. The Boss Blues Driver and SD1 Super Overdrive are closer to a "color boost overdrive" as you describe. But there are no rules. I personally love using the DS1 as a slight overdrive. But I also think it sounds good at high gain settings, too. Just a great pedal for the money
DS-1 in front of a Bassman on the verge of breakup is a fucking BEAST. Just a touch, and it makes that amp breathe, it really is a pedal that shines in some areas, and blows in others.
One of Steve Vais favorite pedals. He said it's his go-to in the recording studio.
This and an mxr phaser were all I ever needed
I got 5-6 great years out of a used DS-1 I bought for like 30 bucks, and I finally went out and bought a new one. Great pedal
This is exactly how i use mine too, i love the DS-1
I use mine as a boost for my rat pedal. It works superb and it's also a good crunch pedal / overdrive if you turn the distortion knob to the left side.
I use it is an ‘amp in a box’ distortion and I think it sounds great, don’t really get the hate, just roll the *tone* off
The same way Kurt Cobain used it
As Rhett Shull says, and I agree with, it's better than any tube screamer pedal. I also run this with my vocals on my one-man band set, helping people understand and hopefully resolve their interplanetary complications
Boss ds-1 always on my team.
Nice video. I was never able to get my Iridium to take pedals well. Sounds good!
If you still have your iridium on hand I would highly suggest playing around with different impulse responses, whether they be from York Audio, Celestion, or many others that are available. My iridium is loaded with York audio.
@@Varone26 thank you!
Tim Pierce once said that you need less gain than you think you do, and that helped me clean up my mix so much. The sweet spot for most genres is between that 10-35% gain area
That was my first guitar pedal like 10 years ago, still use it to this day.
Love the arcade button kill switch I’ve never seen one on a fender
My first pedal back in the 80’s was the boss DS1. I loved that thing. In fact I still have it.
I use a boss blues driver and DS-1. Has all the gain I need.
Extremely versatile and "underrated" pedal
Agree. I use mine just to give a punch to my solos.
It’s used to give it a beefier tone. However, that’s the kind of tone I’m looking for and I personally love the boss.
I run a DS-1 into a TS mini. Very satisfying.
I'm considering a strat with 2 humbuckers. My main guitar for many years has been an HSS strat. I need another strat anyways to keep as a 1/2 step down guitar for songs that I struggle with singing.
An HH was the route I wanted to go as
2 of my Strats are SSS and 1 HSS.
This one has a SH-11 in the bridge and the 78 custom in the neck both by Duncan.
Great clip. I am learning more and more hate towards gear is usually based on ignorance. It is how it is used that matters!
That was my first pedal, still own it, just got a PSK DS-1 clone for a neat side piece in my Boss collection.
Very nice! Just picked up a used Boss Mega Distortion MD-2 yesterday at a local Sam Ash for $50 + tax.
The MD-2 is mighty and very flexible. Its super underrated but i still prefer the DS-2 for its hump at 400hz. You cant get that with the MD-2
I love this pedal stay use it on my bass pedal board
I agree - use it like a color boost to a dirty amp. Same as a tube screamer.
Gain/Dist at zero,
level about 1:00
Used to be my favorite drive pedal, but over the years, I've gravitated more toward the Boss SD-1 overdrive pedal, as it sounds better with my classic Fender Champ. Back in the day, I used to play a Sovtec Mig 100 half stack that was slightly driven with a DS-1 in a punk band. The thing about the DS1 is that less is more. You don't want to put the drive past noon and you want to put it in front of a slightly driven tube amp to get a killer tone.
Yo lo uso hace 20 años pa los concert le agrego un ts9 streaming y suena genial
Put a tube screamer after it. It works good on a clean channel that way.
@@thomasjefferson2097 any tube screamer style circuit will definitely work, especially if you want that mid hump. However, for something like the DS1, I would probably use something a bit more transparent, like a blue breaker just to give it that extra buttery flavor without altering the DS1 too much.
Nice. I do the same thing except i use the turqouis colored overdrive pedal. Cant remember who makes it. But its used by the black dahlia murder.
Beautiful strat
One of the best
I enjoy it. It’s a good catch all, get the job done, classic distortion
I run tone 9 o'clock dirt 7 o'clock level 2 o'clock. This through a boosted tube amp!
My first pedal. There is nothing at all wrong with this pedal. My favorite is to run it with a fuzz and reverb , maybe use a wah
Honestly i run this with my fender champion 100 with about 6 gain on the amp and I barely have the pedal activate tbh, with low mid with the pathos pedal.
Just adds a nice crunch
Amazing pedal
Love that guitar
I use the ds -1 and ds-2 always
Mate it’s brilliant. Uses it since day one it’s heavy af through a tube with an eq pedal
I love my ds-1 its in my chain and im happy
Love my boss blues driver.
This pedal here in Brazil is extremely expensive, always wanted it, you can get a used one for around 200 R$ , a new one can get to 700 R$ , wich is very expensive for the people don't know
My first pedal was the Digitech DF-7. I didn't read the manual when I got it, but ended up choosing the DS-1 mode over all other 6 distortions without knowing it was a DS1
The new waza ones allow you to use it as an amp in a box if you want a clean tone
A lot more gain and mid’s with the custom switch on it. Even modded versions like the Keeley and JHS allowed for that.
Those of us who had it as a teen in the 80's know exactly how to use it and actually have the DS-1 & 2 on their pedal board today.
I've got the Metal zone.sounds just as nice.slighty more heavy but cool.
When dialed in correct, or even used in an amps FX loop, the Metal Zone can be phenomenal.
I have one! It's so cool
Same thing with mxr prime distortion. I just bought it yesterday at guitar center in the used section for 34 bucks and its got the same amount of punch as the ds 1
Better then people 1st thought. Im happy the ds-1 is cool again.
I got a clone of this which had s 2 band eq for really cheap its called the hot head by Digitech. Full recommend
Digitech is a brand that never gets the love it deserves! Bad Monkey proved it can outshine or go toe to toe with all the boutique builds.
The hardwired series was some of their best work.
I loved my ds-1 when i had it. To be honest i cant remember why i even got rid of it. You could get a nice punk distortion or turn the distortion down and the tone up and get a little od boost. but then tone down distortion all the way and you get a doom metal fuzz as well. Such a versatile pedal and does all the sounds great.
Fun fact: both Steve Vai and Joe Satriani’s lead distortion was from a already driven amp and a DS-1 it is also countless other artists main distortions I love it so much I bought the DF-2 which is a version with a feedback machine build in when you hold the stomp down it also doesn’t sound exactly like the original DS-1 yet some say they are the same I prefer the DF-2 for the smoothness it presents
It’s true the DS-1 is meant to boost an already somewhat dirty signal but you don’t need a second pedal. Just set your amp so it’s slightly dirty then kick the DS-1 on.
I prefer ovedrive pedals Like the valeton OD-10 Basically built on OD-1 Boss . But the DS-1 is also good for people who need more distortion gain.
Its a cool peice of kit .You just pushing srtymon. Which i love.😂
When i first got into gear a lot of what i read about this pedal was negative. I bought a DS2 as my first pedal years ago. The first setting is basically a DS1 and i thought sounded great. There seems to more positivity about this pedal recently and im happy.
No, thats a myth. If you analyze it properly you will see (and hear) that the DS-2 has a different character, you cant get the exact same sound out of both. I prefer my DS-2 and even my MD-2 over my DS-1 but none of them can sound exactly the same...
What i usually do is plug my guitar into the input then have a lead from the output to my amp. Then i press the footswitch until the light comes on then i turn the knobs to taste. You're welcome.
Uh oh! Sassy Pants over here with the sarcasm because someone has another opinion🥺🥺
Use it to play Flying turkey trot, by Gary Richrath of REO Speedwagon. 😀😎
LOVE IT
So i use a proco lil rat and that thing in gnarly. The sound is golden and it is clear and crunchy simultaneously. I have the gain all the way up and the volune at like mid and it's great. I also play with my amp in rythm mode and beef up the volume to get a warmer sound. Rat also stacks nicely. The ds1 is cool and all, but i'm definately a rat guy.
Everyone’s gonna have their go to’s.
I never messed around with Rat’s but have heard nothing but praise.
@Varone26 yeah. Same goes to the ds1 for me. Never used it but heard great stuff
The trick is to stack em. DS1 into Rat then into EQ,out to amp.
I got this pedal and if I had to do it again I'd either get a SD-1 or the BD-2.
Get either of those two and try stacking DS-1 with them, with SD-1 or BD-2 going first in the chain. You'll love the tone of DS-1 then and the tonal possibilities available.
I combine it with SD-1.
I use the ds-1 as a beautiful burst of orange near my feet, it really sits nicely next to my DL4.
I bought one. I’m happy.
Boss pedals are awesome!!!
So cool!! I’m definitely going to have to get a distortion pedal soon!! 🤘
Beautiful brother 🔥
I don’t have this pedal as I don’t really need one but I do think this is a great pedal
That was my first pedal.
The problem is we as kids bought it and plug it into a clean and cheap amp in order we sound as Vai or Satriani...
What we had instead was sadness and noise. 😢
Kurt loved it
Its the only distortion pedal I have and likely the only dirty pedal I'll ever need
Never heard a bad sound from one. Except when you turn the tone knob right side of 12 o’clock.