Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

FuseG4

FuseG4

Our Neighbor Totoro
It's the weak link on my tiny board. It's a Taiwan ver.

Right now I'm playing a strat and a tele into clean fender amps. They have low output single coils.
Chain:
Guitar
Tuner
Ds-1 (I like it first cuz it seems very easy to clip the input with other pedals)
Ehx East River
Bd-2 blues driver (stock)
Amp

The ds-1 I don't typically use by itself unless I can play really loud, in which case it sounds pretty good actually.
But for low to medium volume I stack it with the bd-2 and get a little gain from each

But no matter what I seem to try, I don't like the compressed bass of the ds-1. It seems to rob the definition from my low strings.

I like that the ds-1 is not too mids emphasized. I like the amount of gain I can get. It's good when it's level up volume down, but I want something with that general character but also sounds good with unity-ish level and more gain, and just a little more Dynamics and definition. I have my TS style pedal for when I need mids.

Long ago I had a dano cool cat drive so I feel like OCD is a no brainier. I believe the cool cat was most like HP mode but it could not switch.
I also had an mi audio crunch box which I feel could work.

What else is out there.

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Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

Have you tried modding it? I'll PM you Brian Wamplers mods for it if you want, there are 7 or 8 sets of mods if you want them.
 
Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

Well, there is the Forza, which has a more even EQ than most TS pedals, and a Dirty Deed, which is a true distortion pedal in a Marshall kind of way.
 
Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

Chistopher said:
Have you tried modding it? I'll PM you Brian Wamplers mods for it if you want, there are 7 or 8 sets of mods if you want them.
Click to expand...
Haven't modded a pedal before, may as well try it at some point regardless of whether I get some replacement for it.
I got this thing for like $30 bucks it's not worth the effort of selling! So may as well use it to learn something

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Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

The Forza looks really interesting. Seems versatile!
I like the idea of flatter eq but with some controls.
To be honest the new price is too high for me but used is doable.

Edit: demos of the Forza sound really good. The slight fuzzy quality is what gets me going
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Last edited:
Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

Ok, I'll get them to you. The two I've tried (JCM and Acid Blues) have worked out well for me.
 
Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

So I couldn't find a way to attach the image in the PM, but he did post the four most popular mods here.
 
Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

Nice so do you think the 800 mod would be a good one to try first?

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Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

Yes, the 800 mod is a good place to start. I forget exactly what it does electrically, but it really gives the pedal a less "splatty" bass response. When I first tried the mod I found it did thin the tone out a bit too much, so a friend of mine recommended doing another mod in tandem with it as well. Theres some fancy name for it, but it's essentially just changing R6 to 150k & R9 to 1k. This decreases the available gain, which shouldn't be a problem unless you frequently keep your DS-1 in the top 3/4 of its gain range, but also increases the dynamic range of the pedal and decreases compression. Finally it adds back just enough fatness to really make for a thick and versatile tone.
 
Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

Thought of a couple of things when I read this thread.
1) Agree with Mincer about the Dirty Deed pedal. I currently have that on my main pedalboard with an 805 overdrive. The dirty deed gives a great Rawk distortion tone. You can wind it down for British blues or wind it up for hard rock and metal. Works great into a clean amp.

2) Before you replace the DS1 see if it can be modded by Analogman. I have one of his modded DS1 pedals and it really improves the stock tone and has less noise. Enhances the good aspects of the DS1 and warms and clears things up and to my ears has a Marshall ish thing going on. Currently my go to pedal for quick grab and go jams with friends. This through a simple fender pro junior sounds awesome.
 
Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

I agree with modding the DS-1. I had two of them I went to town on back in the day, one of which I'd love to have back. I replaced almost every component on that thing, and when it was done, it made anything I plugged into it sound better.
 
Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

I like the Mod idea. Something nice about keeping the company (Boss) on your board that preserved, improved or invented almost every type of pedal when the rest of the pedal market mostly completely disappeared for 2 decades
 
Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

Now I want to mod my ds-1 and will almost surely send it to Mike. I love my East River which he designed. I'm no tube screamer expert but through reading about different types, I'm very confident that he knows his stuff and picked good components and layout!

The Forza is still giving me gas though!!

I love Roland/boss, my ds-1 and bd-2 are both 20 years old and stomp like they were new. You sort of get used to the Boss Sound and it becomes a comfort zone.
Duncan has been good to me. I haven't liked every pickup but I've never strongly disliked anything from them either. I have yet to try a Duncan pedal.
I just realize I have no Duncan products right now. I keep looking for an opportunity to get back into Duncan products and get that WOW factor that made me join the forum to begin with.

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Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

Just an FYI, if you own a newer DS-1, most of the components are Surface-Mount (SMT) and cannot be modded by ordinary means. That being said, I have an older DS-1 and the mods were pretty easy to do, really improved the tonal quality of the pedal.
 
Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

Liam1963 said:
Just an FYI, if you own a newer DS-1, most of the components are Surface-Mount (SMT) and cannot be modded by ordinary means. That being said, I have an older DS-1 and the mods were pretty easy to do, really improved the tonal quality of the pedal.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure mine is pretty old but I'll look when I get home good tip thanks

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Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

I'm admittedly not anywhere close to rich so clones and derivatives are not out of the question

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Re: Ds-1 thinking about replacing it

The DS-1 is like hitting your knuckles on a cheese grater.
 
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