Boss DS1 Distortion Guitar Pedal


Customer Rating :
Rating: 4.2

List Price : $78.50 Price : $34.99
Boss DS1 Distortion Guitar Pedal

Product Description

The DS-1 provides a harder distortion effect for guitar and keyboard sounds. Instead of toneless, fuzzy distortion, the DS-1 faithfully reproduces all the subtle nuances of your playing dynamics, from whisper- quiet to screaming loud. The onboard TONE control allows you to tailor the overall sound to your liking.


  • Tone, level, and distortion knobs on face
  • Super-tough construction
  • Lets your true guitar tone shine through
  • 3-control layout for a range of essential distortion tones
  • A proven pedalboard staple - for 30 years


Boss DS1 Distortion Guitar Pedal Reviews


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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
40 Reviews
5 star:
 (23)
4 star:
 (10)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars For all but the tone snobs, December 2, 2009
By 
Greg Abrams (Largo, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   
This review is from: Boss DS1 Distortion Guitar Pedal
Alright, so you want to get a good (if somewhat "basic") distortion sound for less than $100? This is your deal. If, on the other hand, you're a tone snob who believes that anything other than overhyped and overpriced boutique pedals is garbage, you're probably not looking at this page to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I have some nice boutique pedals and mods (like the Cusack Screamer and the Keeley MT-2) that I would never part with. But here's the thing...the stock DS-1 stands proud even in such company. Why? A few simple observations:

1) Boss has been selling this pedal with great success since 1978, regardless of the fact that...

2) Due to the toughness, you'll likely never need to replace one of these tanks.
2a) There is a profusion of overdrive and distortion pedals on the market, both corporate and boutique varieties.

3) Many outstanding guitar players have used this pedal in the studio and on the road, including Steve Vai,... Read more
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good as a Stepping Stone, July 4, 2009
This review is from: Boss DS1 Distortion Guitar Pedal
Alright, allow me to forego any kind of thesis statement or introduction and simply get down to the point. What you get with this pedal is simple, classic, basic distortion. It's not exteme, and it's not too weak. It's probably what you would sort of call a baseline to compare other pedals to.

If you need just simply distortion; a little overdrive to your sound, then you found it. However, if you want something more indepth, look for something more specific to what you want (Metal Zone, Blues Drive, Tube Screamer, etc), because this pedal is very generic sounding due to it being a pedal that a large fraction of musicians own. It's like the McDonald's of pedals: cheap, easy, and well known.

Bottom Line: Good to use for simple distortion effects, otherwise look elsewhere.
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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Wish I knew then what I know now..., June 30, 2011
By 
Alex Nennig "al27" (Oshkosh, WI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   
Amazon Verified Purchase( What's this?)
This review is from: Boss DS1 Distortion Guitar Pedal
From Greg Abrams review, entitled "For all but the tone snobs," the first review you read on this product's page:

"Alright, so you want to get a good (if somewhat "basic") distortion sound for less than $100? This is your deal."

I strongly disagree. You can find MUCH BETTER distortions for $100 or less, even a few near or under the $40 mark the DS-1 is currently priced at.

I've played guitar for over 8 years. Like many people one of my first pedal purchases was the DS-1. Afterall, everyone talks about them, they're available at any given music store in the nation, you hear about all these famous musicians using them, plus a DS-1 is actually pretty cheap! So I snapped one up just like everyone else. Come to find out that just because something is POPULAR, that doesn't always mean its GOOD (see: Nickelback, the Transformers movie franchise, the Kardashian family, etc...).

So I plugged it in and didn't really care for it. The... Read more
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