Members r2dhart Posted April 25, 2006 Members Share Posted April 25, 2006 I stumbled on a Japanese Boss DS-1 Distortion today for $25. The paint is a little beat up but it sounds great, the switch works perfectly, etc. I'm not a huge DS-1 fan but for that price I couln't leave it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoboPimp Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 cool, I love my $16 taiwanese made DS-1. I think with a decent amp these pedals can sound killer. good score! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoboPimp Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 I think they clean up well too, here's a clip of mine where I just used the guitar volume to control gain.click here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bond Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 dam, that is a score .... i wish i could one for around that price, i'm trying to see if i can get one for around 30-40aus, cause them i'm going to do all the mods to it ... it sounds killer afterwards ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members men's pants Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 Just out of curiousity, do the japanese ones sound different from the current non jap ones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bond Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 yes since about the early 90's they started manufacturing in taiwan with a different chip, which affects the sound, most agree is sounds worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Seth Carmody Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 Some people think they do, others are of the opinion that if there is any differences are nominal. If you own Japanese Boss effetcs its a nice rumour to propagate - keep that in mind. Bond, if you manage to find a Jap DS-1 for $30-40 let me know where you're shopping (I'm in Melb too). My bet you won't find one for under $100, more likely $120-150. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bond Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 i'm happy to just get a taiwanese ds-1i agree that the differences will be minimal, but it would be nice to brag with after the mods it really makes it sound incredible ... everything is more defined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members r2dhart Posted April 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 I got a couple of hours to play with my new toy last night and I am very pleased. Most of the time I was using an Epi LP with Dimarzio Pickups (Breed neck in bridge and PAF in neck) and a Peavey Classic 30 (Celestion speaker/EHX and JJ tubes). I'd say that there is a noticeable difference between the MIJ and MIT models but it's not as drastic as some might indicate. The MIJ is a little rounder sounding with smother highs. It also seems to have a bit more articulation, I guess it's less compression in the middle frequencies. It's not the holy grail of distortion pedals, but I can see this keeping its spot on my pedalboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bond Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 do you have any electronics experience? or any engineering friends, modding pedals isn't rocket science. February 15, 2006: The BOSS Distortion is one of the oldest distortion units, dating back to the late 1970's. This is the second unit I've owned. The first one was traded off before I started modding pedals. Good thing they have a good street price ($40 at the time of this writing). There are a few version differences throughout the years. The main change, around 1994, was that the Toshiba TA7136AP opamp was replaced with the Mitsubishi M5223AL. There are many different mods out there for the DS-1. The two that I have decided to take on are by Robert Keeley and by Bob Melanson (Melanhead in the DIY world). There are some aspects of each that I like so rather than do one over the other, I combined them a little. The dual 3mm LED's as clippers rather than one was my experiment. Most mods call for one but I like the sound of two for even more crunch, much like the old black Marshall Guv'nor. * C1, C10 - change to 0.047uf * C2, C8, C9, C14 - change to 1uf * C3 - change to 0.068uF * C5, C12, C13 - change to 0.1uf * C11 - change to 0.033uf * D4, D5 - change to red 3mm LED's * R13 - change to 2.4k * R14 - change to 1.5k * R16 - change to 4.7k * R39 - change to 20k All capacitors are Panasonic metal film although silver mica or poly film would be fine too. Some of the cap changes are of the same value, just with metal film. It may make a difference, it may not. All resistor changes are 1% metal film but carbon film can be used as well and close-enough values are acceptable (i.e. 2.2k vs. 2.4k; 22k vs. 20k). Since my parts stock is missing some metal film resistors, I opted to use what I had and went with carbon film with little to no noise increase. Play with the value of R13 as this controls the amount of distortion. Lowering this value increases the distortion. For D4 and D5, the combinations of diodes and LED's that can be done are endless. Try series LED's, series LED's and diodes, series diodes. Let your ears decide. Thanks to Robert Keeley and Bob Melanson for their mods.http://diy.erikhansen.net/ds1.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Burningleaves Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 Nice score. Unless boss never made the model in Japan (hyper fuzz for example) I always get the MIJ version over the MIT one. The MIJ's versions always sound nicer to my ears. The mij BF-2 flanger for example is alot fatter that the MIT bf-2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MonkeyKnifeFighter Posted April 26, 2006 Members Share Posted April 26, 2006 Very nice.~MkF! "Hells yeah!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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