DS-1

Boss DS-1 Distortion. Including the ProCo Rat, and the Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi, this pedal has become renown for having earned the hearts of not only aspiring rock stars, but also for well-seasoned studio musicians and celebrity professionals.

The Boss DS-1 has gone through a couple of incarnations: the older and more highly-esteemed Made-in-Japan model, and the less-valued post-Japan model. Candidly, we don't really hear much of a difference, if any at all. After listening to a shoot-out between new and old models, many actually hear the newer DS-1 as "thicker" or "meatier" and like it better than the vintage model. We have a convenient link below for you to listen yourself.

We have an MIJ-version DS-1. Why do we have an MIJ DS-1? Not because we were on the look-out for one, but because one day we happened to see one at a Goodwill store. It was practically mint condition and the right price so we decided, "why not?"

• Thermionic Studios has one(1) Boss black-label (Made-in-Japan) DS-1 available for rental.

Controls

Image from Perfect Circuit Audio

• Knob 1 - "Tone": Adjusts the Tone with fully clockwise allowing all the high-frequency tone information into the signal.
• Knob 2 - "Level": Adjusts the output level with fully clockwise full loudness.
• Knob 3 - "Dist": Adjusts the distortion level with fully clockwise being maximum distortion.
• Footswitch 1 - "On/Off": This footswitch toggles the pedal between engaged/active ("On"), and bypassed ("Off")

Bypass: Buffered

The DS-1, like all Boss pedals, has a buffered, but high-quality bypass.

General Information

First offered for sale in 1978, the DS-1 Distortion was a follow-up to the Red-Yellow-Green pedal "marketing release" of the Boss SP-1 Spectrum (red), the OD-1 Overdrive (yellow), and the PH-1 Phaser (green).

Originally, it was well received and today continues to be a consistent seller for Boss.

We have posted both the schematics and the Owner's Manuals for the Made-in-Japan version of the DS-1, and the afterwards version.

Post-Japan Mftg.

Once Boss stopped making pedals in Japan and transitioned over to manufacturing in Taiwan, the architecture of the electronics changed. Most notably, a dual-opamp was used in place of the original single TA7136. Of course, other changes were made in resistors and capacitors in the effort to make the pedal sound the same. We think Boss did a pretty good job.

So, we're fairly agnostic with respect to the sound of a modern DS-1 as compared to a vintage DS-1. The reason being that we don't hear much of a difference, if any at all, between the new version versus the vintage version. If anything, in our estimation, the newer version sounds a bit thicker.

Phase Inversion: Yes/No

Distortion Circuit

Schematic ID	Electronic Part	Action	Phase State
Q1	2SC2240	X	X
Q6	2SK30A	X	X
Q2	2SC2240	X	X
IC1	TA7136	X	X
Q3	2SC732	X	X

Switching

Schematic ID	Electronic Part	Action	Phase State
Q4	2SC1685	X	X
Q5	2SC1685	X	X
Q7	2SK30A	X	X
Q8	2SK30A	X	X

Schematic

Assumed Public Domain; unaware of any Copyright claims by P. Schmidt.

Artists

We are currently unaware of any artists actively using the pedal now, or who have in the past.

---

Additional Sources

• https://www.diystompboxes.com/DIYFiles/up/Build_Your_Own_DS-1_Distortion.pdf
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhTxcfcT9fU - Listen for yourself to see if there's a big difference...