Funny thing happened around the time I got my Legacy back from being fixed... the day I got it back I drove from my house to the Carvin factory in San Diego, then back to my place for practice. I didn't want to rewire the whole **** rig up with the loop and everything cuz i was being lazy, I stuck a stock DS-1 in the signal chain in my pedalboard, rewired it for a series chain, and let 'er rip.
A few weeks earlier I'd gotten this DS-1 from Closed Eye just on a whim... total impulse buy. That plus I'd compared DS-1s to the MD-2 Mega Distortion I WAS using with a rental amp while my Carvin was out and I liked the DS-1s tonality better overall.
As it turned out, the DS-1 sounded surprisingly good with just a few setting adjustments once wired in... the band immediately noticed the difference and liked the sound a lot better... more treble edge, more Marshally mids and a browner sound overall. Granted I had to floor the pedal's volume and back off the tone quite a bit to do this, but the result was pretty good!! The basic tone was there.
So since November I've been using the DS-1 as my main distortion source, into a clean Legacy with the Fulltone OCD for boosts. Everyone who sees me play live regularly has said they've noticed an improvement in the sound overall. Personally I'd been missing the deep low end and dynamics i got from the amp's actual overdrive channel... not a huge difference to the listener but it was there and I noticed it a lot.
Enter the Rob Keeley DS-1 Ultra. This pedal sounds KILLER... all my low end grind, sweet sustain, and dynamics are back in spades!! Part of the reason I like my OCD so much is that it sounds and responds like the crunch channel of an AMP and not a pedal. The Keeley DS-1 behaves like this as well... it reacts very much like a floored British tube amp does. It sounds awesome and coupled with the OCD it makes an excellent high-gain lead tone.
I love the simplicity of this setup... i think it'll be staying this way for some time. Funny thing is I'd been scouting for a new amp recently to replace the Legacy and ModestCargo suggested i get a killer one-channel amp and do all my drive with my pedals. My response was that I need the 2nd channel of the amp for my main distortion sound and then using my OCD as the solo booster. But now that I've found a way to get great gainy sounds from two very great pedals, I think I'll be going the way ModestCargo suggested anyway!!
The moral of the story: The Keeley DS-1 is awesome if you like the basic sound your DS-1 has but want more tone, volume, range, dynamics, and chunk in the sound. That, and never underestimate what a combination of two boutique pedals can do.
A few weeks earlier I'd gotten this DS-1 from Closed Eye just on a whim... total impulse buy. That plus I'd compared DS-1s to the MD-2 Mega Distortion I WAS using with a rental amp while my Carvin was out and I liked the DS-1s tonality better overall.
As it turned out, the DS-1 sounded surprisingly good with just a few setting adjustments once wired in... the band immediately noticed the difference and liked the sound a lot better... more treble edge, more Marshally mids and a browner sound overall. Granted I had to floor the pedal's volume and back off the tone quite a bit to do this, but the result was pretty good!! The basic tone was there.
So since November I've been using the DS-1 as my main distortion source, into a clean Legacy with the Fulltone OCD for boosts. Everyone who sees me play live regularly has said they've noticed an improvement in the sound overall. Personally I'd been missing the deep low end and dynamics i got from the amp's actual overdrive channel... not a huge difference to the listener but it was there and I noticed it a lot.
Enter the Rob Keeley DS-1 Ultra. This pedal sounds KILLER... all my low end grind, sweet sustain, and dynamics are back in spades!! Part of the reason I like my OCD so much is that it sounds and responds like the crunch channel of an AMP and not a pedal. The Keeley DS-1 behaves like this as well... it reacts very much like a floored British tube amp does. It sounds awesome and coupled with the OCD it makes an excellent high-gain lead tone.
I love the simplicity of this setup... i think it'll be staying this way for some time. Funny thing is I'd been scouting for a new amp recently to replace the Legacy and ModestCargo suggested i get a killer one-channel amp and do all my drive with my pedals. My response was that I need the 2nd channel of the amp for my main distortion sound and then using my OCD as the solo booster. But now that I've found a way to get great gainy sounds from two very great pedals, I think I'll be going the way ModestCargo suggested anyway!!
The moral of the story: The Keeley DS-1 is awesome if you like the basic sound your DS-1 has but want more tone, volume, range, dynamics, and chunk in the sound. That, and never underestimate what a combination of two boutique pedals can do.
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