LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

UBER BUMB.

I have finished the mod after several months of it living in my room in bits due to work etc.

I have completed the above mod and I am still disappointed with the pedals' sound.

it sounds thin and brittly fizzy to be hones,t only good setting is tone at 11 o clock and dist at 1 o clock. apart from that it sounds crap, anyway to make this thing sound thicker with more bottom end??

I am contemplating a full JCM 900 mod on it.
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

I have owned many different mods of the DS-1... Monte Allums, Analogman, and 1 that was modded by someone to be closer to a JM800 sound... I didn't like any of them... they all sounded fake....I gave up on the DS-1
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

I personally like the DS-1. I don't have one anymore (interesting note), but I never had any problem with it.

I could find a decent usable disrotion setting to make me happy with most amps it went into. Obviously more or less knob tweeking was always necessary.

I agree - it is not the uber-pedal to end all pedal needs. But I always thought it was a decent meat and potatoes distortion.

I agree that the ultra tone-seekers aren't going to be all about it. But seriously, Steve Vai was grooving on one and he seems pretty particular. So...before we get all up in arms about the pedal itself, you might consider some of your own particular preferences.
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

Aceman said:
I personally like the DS-1. I don't have one anymore (interesting note), but I never had any problem with it.

I could find a decent usable disrotion setting to make me happy with most amps it went into. Obviously more or less knob tweeking was always necessary.

I agree - it is not the uber-pedal to end all pedal needs. But I always thought it was a decent meat and potatoes distortion.

I agree that the ultra tone-seekers aren't going to be all about it. But seriously, Steve Vai was grooving on one and he seems pretty particular. So...before we get all up in arms about the pedal itself, you might consider some of your own particular preferences.
Click to expand...

yeah fair point.

I will carry out a few more mods I think. I mean it hasn't cost me much anyways. the other alternative is for me to build my own circuit and gut the internals, since I spray painted the thing metallic purple.
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

Left_Hand_Strat said:
UBER BUMB.

I have finished the mod after several months of it living in my room in bits due to work etc.

I have completed the above mod and I am still disappointed with the pedals' sound.

it sounds thin and brittly fizzy to be hones,t only good setting is tone at 11 o clock and dist at 1 o clock. apart from that it sounds crap, anyway to make this thing sound thicker with more bottom end??

I am contemplating a full JCM 900 mod on it.
Click to expand...

Did you do the Jack Orman fat mod or more?

Best advice I can give is to start reversing the mods. Start with the last part you changed and go backwards.
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

ErikH said:
Did you do the Jack Orman fat mod or more?

Best advice I can give is to start reversing the mods. Start with the last part you changed and go backwards.
Click to expand...

Yes I did the one where you replace R6 and R9, I have kept the originals as well for this exact reason. the fat mod seems to make it sound worse to my ears, for whatever reason, IDK why just sounds like I described it in my UBER BUMB earlier.....
 
Left_Hand_Strat said:
Yes I did the one where you replace R6 and R9, I have kept the originals as well for this exact reason. the fat mod seems to make it sound worse to my ears, for whatever reason, IDK why just sounds like I described it in my UBER BUMB earlier.....
Click to expand...

That's odd. It supposed to do the exact opposite. Double check your resistor values and make sure they are correct and the correct ones were changed. That's about all I can give without having the pedal in front of me.
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

ErikH said:
That's odd. It supposed to do the exact opposite. Double check your resistor values and make sure they are correct and the correct ones were changed. That's about all I can give without having the pedal in front of me.
Click to expand...

I did confirm at the time that they were the correct ones before I did the work. but anyway I will double check when i get the time.

I might remove the mod i put in and just go for a full JCM mod (it will cost me pennies, place i go to for components is s*** cheap)
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

Ok semi guitarded idea;

what about if i alter the circuit components and make it more like an overdrive of a thicker substance.

yes, I could buy an overdrive pedal BUT, the points for this are;

I already own the thing, its been painting metallic purple and probably won't be easily sellable.

the secondhand price isn't too great and i can use it as a base to try my electronics skills.

thirdly, the thing is like a brick. even if i cock up the whole PCB i can still utilise that shell.
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

Not so easy to change it to an overdrive. It has hard clipping where as an overdrive has soft clipping. The basic premise in the circuit is there but the clipping is different. Look up soft vs. hard clipping and you'll understand it.

I did the JCM 800 mod on a DS-1 I had. It wasn't bad.
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

Hey Guys, I'm I little newer to the forum but have spent years tinkering. Jack Orman has a great point with his mod; keeping it simple to address a couple of basic problems. Modding the pedal to extremes simply makes it another pedal all together; that said, some of the best sounding distortion boxes on the market are simply variations of designes like the DS-1, but with similar mods using high quality parts from the get go. They yeild great results too, but are not really much like the classic designes any longer.

The best sounding distortion I ever achieved with the DS-1 (still using it) was the Keeley SEM and Ultra mod combined, but with two slight changes.

1) I used a 3mm green led in the "ultra" part of the mod to slightly increase the forward voltage of the diode clip;
2) I too found the mods to initially sound very compressed, especially with high output pickups. To remedy this, I increased R1 to 100k; this loads down the pickups similarly to the way a tube amp input does.... It reduces the compression greatly, and maintains a solid attack into the first gain stage (where Mr. Orman's mod does its magic)

I did not notice a volume drop at all with the increased resistance, but the crunch factor is lethal now!

If you have done the keeley mods already and also found this.... Try the R1 swap

Cheers
 
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Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

STRATDELUXER97 said:
Please no...Don't...:)
Click to expand...

Sorry about that John, I know you stopped modding (probably due to annoying customers such as myself) but I just thought you wouldn't mind sharing your mods. I see that itisn't the case and I aplogize... Friends?;)
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

Anyone tried the germanium mod on a ds1?

Heard a so so recording of one on the toob, and it seemed pretty nice despite the lower quality clip.
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

Surgeon said:
Sorry about that John, I know you stopped modding (probably due to annoying customers such as myself) but I just thought you wouldn't mind sharing your mods. I see that itisn't the case and I aplogize... Friends?;)
Click to expand...

Its all fine Phil....I Just hate having to type and I'd rather not bother with the mod explanations these days...Thats all.
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

I just saw this. The differences aren't as big as I thought it would be. Is this an accurate demo?



Also, is their a mod where I can increase distortion/gain? I'm tempted to do that 2-resistor mod on my MIJ DS-1, to increase bass and mids. If I can increase gain, apart from those, then it would be my ideal mod. I'd like my DS-1 to get to heavy metal gain.
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

kill the fizz.....
replace one of the clipping diodes with a common or garden variety 3mm red LED.

if you like the vibe....go one step further and replace the other clipping diode with a LED.

LED's of course are diodes...just like the ones you are removing except that they emit light. Make sure the LED(s) are inserted with the correct polarity. You'll know if its round the right way cos they light up when you play.

Leds will give you a smoother, less buzzy sound than the diodes you replace. They will also increase your headroom considerably so you'll get more volume out of the pedal. I like the sound of leds a lot, but youll have to try them and decide for yourself. Some people enjoy the buzzy nastiness that characterizes a stock ds-1.

If you like the smoother, more tube like response of the leds in the clipping circuit....fine tune the capacitor values in tone stack section to taste for more/less mids etc until you are happy with the voicing.

Of course, it wont sound much like a DS-1 anymore, but that can be a good thing!
 
Re: LHS's Boss DS-1 Mod thread

My favorite DS-1 mod is the one where you shove it in a box and send it away to someone else.
 
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