So, I picked up a Boss DS-1 yesterday. I found in stock form it sounded OK going into my Orange AD30 dirty channel with my dirty channel gain at 9 o'clock and the pedal's tone at 9 o'clock and gain at the lowest setting. When I had my Dunlop Echoplex Preamp set at number 8 going into the pedal it sounded pretty sweet. So, I was wondering what I could do to get more useable tones out of the DS-1. I stumbled on a forum that mentioned just clipping the D5 and/or D4 diodes as a mod. I went with just clipping the D5 diode. Wow! More useable gain control and overall sound. A bit more like a heavier overdrive pedal. It also boosted the volume a little more so I don't have to run the volume as high in the stock format. I know there are more mods to make it sound more amp like but I figured since I have an amp that excels at it's own gain that I wanted a pedal that would be more of a way to color my sound or boost my signal. I think this fits the bill. I think if I had the patience I would have put a three way switch and wired it to where I could toggle between stock, one diode and no diode. Or D5 on, D5 off and D4 on, and no diodes. I've heard good results of doing something similar with the Little Big Muff.
I will admit the DS-1 is probably not the finest sounding distortion pedal to most but I think it matters as far as the context and how you use it. I think people adjust the knobs by sight thinking that putting the tone at high noon will and putting the gain at high noon or all the way to max will give them their sound they're looking for. I think amp settings and the particular amp you use matters a lot as far as what guitars and pedals you should use with them to get a wide range of useable sounds. Just my two cents. I hope this easy mod may be of use to some people that have a DS-1 laying around just collecting dust.
I will admit the DS-1 is probably not the finest sounding distortion pedal to most but I think it matters as far as the context and how you use it. I think people adjust the knobs by sight thinking that putting the tone at high noon will and putting the gain at high noon or all the way to max will give them their sound they're looking for. I think amp settings and the particular amp you use matters a lot as far as what guitars and pedals you should use with them to get a wide range of useable sounds. Just my two cents. I hope this easy mod may be of use to some people that have a DS-1 laying around just collecting dust.
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