Vintage MXR Distortion Plus vs. Boss DS-1
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 พ.ค. 2017
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A shootout between two of the most widely used & best known vintage distortion pedals - the MXR Distortion Plus (1977, Script Logo) and Boss DS-1 (1982, MIJ). These two have appeared in many guitarists' rigs & on so many recordings over the years.
Which do you prefer? Comment below!
The biggest difference between the two to my ears is the mid range - the D+ has very crisp, defined mids, whilst the DS-1 is incredibly scoopy. The D+ also has a wider gain range and is overall a little less compressed - but, the DS-1 has a huge amount of bottom end to let your guitars really thunder.
As is the case with lots of vintage overdrive/distortion pedals though, bear in mind that many of the 'classic' tones from these two would have been achieved by running them into cranked amps that were compressing, and thus stacking the gain. Also, the DS-1 especially is one of the most modified pedals in history - so many of those tones might have actually been from modded pedals. Both of these are totally stock.
Guitar is a Gibson Les Paul studio with Bare Knuckle Nantucket P90s through a Hughes & Kettner Puretone, recorded with a simple SM57 and an sE Electronics RNR1 Ribbon.
joeperkinsmusic
jp@joeperkins.co.uk - บันเทิง
MXR sounds more like what I’m after. Tight and crunchy tone that just oozes 70s and 80s rock and metal. Thanks for doing the video.
If the Distortion + was good enough for Randy Rhodes, it's good enough for me! That about settles the issue.
@Pikey Haze Might have, so what? truth is truth.
It's magnificent with a cranked Marshall. I also love the Boss SD-1 Waza Craft edition which I also use. But the MXR is more organic sounding. It takes the Marshall tone to another level.
You think Randy Rhoads had good tone?
@@timbuk1126 For 80s metal, one of the best. My favorite guitarist for tone above all others is Robin Trower and SRV.
Rhodes was one of those strange guitarists. Excellent player with HORRIBLE fucking tone. Don't understand how you like SRV's tone and Rhodes as well. Rhodes tone was garbage just like Dimebag's. Excellent players though.
The old tan Ross Distortion which is based on the script Distortion+, has more bottom end and is ballsier than the Distortion+. The vintage DS-1’s are excellent, especially the earliest silver screw iterations.
I lost track halfway through (about the time the Sonne riff was played) and I thought the MXR was way quieter than the DS-1... until I saw the DS-1's light shut off. Love the crunchy, biting midrange of the D+
Distortion + is 1970s classic Rock, NWOBHM and Rhoads (granted you combine with a 6 band EQ) . The DS-1 is vintage Journey/Neal Schon and Gary Moore Corridors of Power era
two excelent effects for push amplifier. Great video man!
Randy used a 10 band eq in conjunction with the Distortion +, if he wanted more bottom end - it would have been super easy to achieve. And tone knob is useless on DS-1, it’s unusable from 12 o’clock on.
The D+ is a cool unit, but you need an eq and a slightly driven amp to get the best out of it. (Bought mine-plus an eq-during the Randy Rhoads days)
👍🇺🇲❤ MXR SCRIPT LOGO 1974 - 75
I run my keeley modified DS1 into a DOD Mystic Blues Overdrive. Mindblowing
Ok nice combo
That's got nothing to do with anything here! Please stay on the topic!
Nice video!
Great demo!
agreed
Cheers :-)
Love my ds1
2:29 I heard some Rammstein there. Lovin' it!
LOVE Rammstein! :-)
@@JoePerkinsMusic was it Sonne?
Yup!
To take that high end Fizz out of the DS1 and boost the output dramatically, just simply clip and remove the D5 diode.
The MXR is my favorite. I've used a number of Boss and other pedals as well, but the Distortion + is king. It works best boosting an amp that already has some gain. I ran it in front of JMPs, JCMs, Peaveys, Fenders, and now run it through a DSL and it sounds insane. You can get a great Randy Rhoads kind of tone with it, very crunchy, cutting, that makes leads scream.
when you use it with marshalls, do you set them at the verge of breakup or are those amps well over into overdrive territory on their own?
@@scottnoricsson2023 When I had a JMP I turned it all the way up because that amp had little overdrive. With a JCM it was more of a balance. With some of the old tube Peaveys I used it with I turned it all the way up because those amps had low gain like the JMP. With the Fenders I used it with I cranked it all the way up. With the DSL I own now I adjust it according to how much amp gain I use because this amp gets a lot of gain. It's the same when I use any other pedal with it like a Boss or Tube Screamer, etc.
@@angusorvid8840 thank you , I am thinking of buying it for my Marshall Origin amp
@@scottnoricsson2023 That would work fine. Boss pedals too. The Origin is a cool. Is it a combo? How many watts?
@@angusorvid8840 yeah its a 50watt combo, I currently use Sd-1 which works quite well if the Origin is set to a breakup point (but I crank the drive and the level on Sd-1 to max) , I intend to use Dist plus that way (both knobs cranked) so that's why I asked if you used it with just a bit of breakup or a bit more overdrive from the amp 'cause Origin doesn't seem to cope well if you set it to a bit more overdriven sound and then boost it the way I do
DS-1 has that grunge almost fuzz like tone at higher settings
I decided to watch this particular video, because I've got a boss multi effects unit which definitely does a good job of turning out the essence of the DS-1. After watching a demonstration of the MXR petal, I felt like watching a side-by-side comparison to find out if I missing anything. Not really missing much.
It can be inferred from the camera view in the upper left hand corner that you are in fact a lefty guitar player, not a righty guitar player playing in selfie mode. How far off am I?
Well I'm a lefty guitarist, so...you're not far off at all! :P
Thank you @@JoePerkinsMusic.
Do you have a Proco Rat? You should compare all three since they're all what I consider the 1st generation true heavy distortion pedals.
Sadly I don't - but I've got a JAM Rattler+ which gets me as close to the Rat sound as I ever need to get for recording!
Does it sag when you hit the low strings on higher gain settings? My Rat does, which gives it a really gated fuzzy character.
It does get very mushy yeah - I think thee JAM Rattler is a like-for-like Rat clone; their Rattler+ is a slightly tweaked version, so in the ballpark but not 100%. The low-gain switch on the Rattler+ is incredible - turns it into a really dynamic & characterful overdrive, which isn't something I ever thought a Rat circuit would be capable of!!
The Rat is the ultimate distortion pedal to me: does overdrive well, does heavy distortion well, and does fuzz well!
You're right Johnny Teisco. A RAT is a must, especially into a Vox amp! ;)
There are probably better "specialized" pedals (OD, Dist or Fuzz ONLY...) but the RAT sounds INCREDIBLY good with almost any setting\any setup, this matters! ;)
Another good RAT clone is the T-Rex Mudhoney: slightly more open\modern sounding, better low gain range but less sustain\compression\feedback at fuzz settings...more controllable, if you want, but less fun maybe! lol :)
I am building a mxr diy, just for fun, I always play with the Ds1, just want to find out
Sounds fun!
I have both in my arsenal
That's the way to do it! :-)
The boss ds1 distortion was out like 40 odd years ago. And still not really have got better. Some of the latest one are a little better. And 5 times the price.
Nice! Why not a MXR Dist + vs Boss OD-1 shootout? Both miss a tone knob and seem close sounding pedals, it would be cool to explore differences\similarities... :)
Interesting idea! I've not played my D+ for a while, but it has far more gain & biting mids than the OD-1. I believe the OD-1 is basically a TS808 without a tone control (Maxon/Ibanez basically copied the circuit - so when people say most ODs are essentially TS circuits, what they actually mean is that they're OD-1 circuits!) So, the OD-1 has a much smoother sound. It's definitely mid-pushed, but more around the 500Hz area, whereas the D+ is much more aggressive and has a kick around 2-3k. I'll be shooting a lot more videos in 2018, so I'll bear this in mind :-)
Interesting...I have zero experience with the OD-1, but from the schematic I can see what you say: TS808\SD-1 style circuit without tone control, but the OD-1, as the SD-1, has more or less twice the gain than a TS808, that's why I thought about that shootout, the mid-gain settings on the Dist + should be similar to an OD-1, but certainly different...I'd like to find out if I "need" both: I have a Dist + Script RI, an OD-1 would be redundant?
Keep it in mind for your next comparisons! :D
Yeah that sounds right - because I believe the SD-1 is the successor to the OD-1, and is basically the same circuit just with a tone control. I'd definitely say the OD-1 is gainier than an 808 but has much the same fundamental tone overall. Personally, I'd say the OD-1 might step on the toes of an 808 (assuming you're not being too radical with your 808s tone knob) but there's definitely scope to have a D+ and OD-1 in your collection without them covering too much of the same ground - the D+ is a much angrier pedal than the OD-1 and has a lot less low end...you get bitey upper mids and not much else. My vintage one certainly doesn't darken your tone like an 808 does.
One thing to bear in mind about the OD-1 though if you're in the market for a vintage one (you may already know this!): for the first year or two they used a 14-pin Op-Amp, and around 1980 switched to an 8-pin 4558 chip (the 808 one) and changed the values of some of the capacitors - which took away a lot of the low end and made the pedal feel slightly less dynamic under the fingers at high gain. The 14 pin OD-1s go for about twice the price of the 8-pin, but Analog Man (and probably others too) mod OD-1s and restore them to the original spec, which is what I did with mine. The result is fairly subtle (as one commenter recently wrote on my comparison video, 'splitting hairs - absolute bullshit!') but it's more of a feel thing. And, you really do notice the lack of low end with the 8-pin...it's quite thin & brittle once you crank it up. This is the video that shows a before & after...Analog Mike says his Vintage Chip mod gives the exact sound of the original 14-pin OD-1...and as we all know, if there's one man in this world we trust on matters of tone, it's Mike! ;-) th-cam.com/video/kWiqALXU5U4/w-d-xo.html
Understood: OD-1 = SD-1 - Tone Knob. Since I already have an SD-1 I guess I'm covered at the moment... :)
The chips can make a difference: as with a LM308 RAT, you can feel the different response, but these are generally subtle changes...anyway I had a vintage JRC4558DD lying around and I decided to replace the modern one on my MIT SD-1: it made a slight difference! More gainy, open and "vintage correct" to my ears, better mids, less nasal with better low\high end response...I didn't want to believe it, but it happened! *_*
Yep, I'd say you're fine! :P Mind you, I sold my SD-1 once I got the OD-1 modded to original specs as I much preferred the additional low end it has - not that I'm trying to contribute to the G.A.S or anything! ;-)
Yeah, they sure do - depends what you're into I guess. To some people, a fuzz is a fuzz, which is fine (it's how I used to be!) but when you're getting into subtle differences between transistors they can be a lot more fun. Same with ODs. Personally, I much prefer vintage modulation effects but modern ODs - the vintage ones have their place, but most of them are much too compressed for me most of the time...new designers like Brian Wampler make them much more dynamic & respond closer (closer!!) to how a cranked amp behaves, which I love. Still on the lookout for that vintage TS808 though....!! ;-)
2:29 R+ 🤘
Thumbnail shows these pedals in white. Where can these be found?
Erm...black & white photo...!!
Lmao
is your mij ds1 stock or modded ?
Completely stock :-)
The mxr has tons more head room
Mxr All the way up !
Lol he never touches the tone knob on the DS-1 so it sounds darker than the MXR. The Boss is a better pedal.
You are absolutely right buddy ...you can get a lot of sounds out of the boss ...even classic rock sounds to 90's rock. Each knob does wonders to the sound and tone...ive got a 2001 ds1 and it's a killer.
Mxr sounds better to me but I do own a Keeley modded ds1 and it sounds killer too.
Someone just had to start a "Ford vs Chevy" argument didn't they?
...Ford. ;-) I joke, I joke!
mxr has mids, the ds1 is scooped
Ok sooooooo the next question is new D+ or search for a older one!?! Lol
Haven't compared them :P
Joe Perkins hahaha 😂
they sound super close
@Jerry Ye
Yea I ended up getting a real good deal on a newer one!! 👍🏻
You're insane joe! Nobody else wastes their time and money comparing like this anymore! Clearly different items. It visually says so!
The video is to show the differences between the two just as much as any vague similarities - they're just two classic distortions! :-) Greetings from the asylum ;-)
Well, do you know MXR has made 7 more distortion+ pedals. People have moved on to the newer versions. Even the great Randy Rhoads wasn't using just the distortion + pedal. That was back in 1980! Your idea of 'classic' actually competes with randy rhoads' use of the pedal. Using it on its own, and not in a row of other pedals really does belong in the late 1970's! The end of black sabbath ozzy osbourne era and tony Wasnt even seriously using a hot sound until the mid 1980's. when he made those VIDEO TAPE lessons.
These 2 pedals are more famous in a pedal chain. The celebrity with the pedal chain, is way more famous today, but even THAT is dieing off. Most players have MOVED ON from these things. Sad but true!
The old vintage DS-1s sound great in my opinion. The pedal sounds great with Marshall JCM 800s, Plexis and Mesa Marks.
And the tone knob on the DS-1 is turned all the way down, which makes a great difference in tone...
I like both pedals and with the correct amp and settings, the tone is very pleasing!
The old DS-1s sound mega into most amps so long as the tone is kept low :-) But yes, they’re both incredible circuits!