DS-1 Distortion Evolved - 5 pedals which elevate the DS-1 circuit to a higher plane

Controls - Level, Low, High, Gain.

I've often said that the original DS-1 is pretty unusable into a clean pedal platform amp, Robert Keeley solved is by Phat Boosting his Ultra Mod edition, and the Low control here - is a sort of variable Phat Boost, but even more heavy duty. That extra bass weight makes all the difference - and this pedal sounds blistering good in my rig. There's even a degree of guitar volume gain cleanup - so don't be afraid to ride those dials!

I like it best with everything at 3 o'c, bar the Hight @ 2 o'c. - That sounds amazing right out of the gate - and you can temper it with your guitar volume if you can't take the heat! It's relatively simple compared to the rest of company here, but we judge on results! And this pedal performs really admirably. You might thing it's the least of these 5 - but no that honour goes to another1

Controls - BIG } Level, Gain, Comp, small } Clipping : Sustaining Germanium, LEDs, Asymmetrical Silicon, Treble, Bass.

Originally I was trying to get hold of one of those V2 Silhouette artwork series types (indeed like you can see in the above demo!) - and like I have for the Alpha Dog, Blues King, Fiery Red Horse Fuzz, and Merman. But I came across this killer custom / prototype artwork edition - I think mine is only one of two - which I spotted and acquired from Reverb.com. I've long been a fan of VFE pedals - and this is another killer variant which considerably beefs up the DS-1 source circuit - with additional compression, smart clipping, and potent EQ - for an altogether more potent proposition - this is one of the S-Tier ones as far as I'm concerned! My variant is from 2014 - but I didn't pick it up until 2020 - where it was listed as Used / Very Good - pristine really!

Controls - Level, Tone, List, Clipping : Silicon 1N914 Sym / MOSFET / Silicon 1N4001 / Germanium D9B / '94 IN914 Asym / Red LEDs / '78 1S1588 Silicon / Boost, Mids : Stock Scooped / Less Scooped / Flat EQ, Op-amp : Vintage / Modern, Muff : Off / On.

I picked up the original V1 Drunk Beaver Distortion around the same time as the VFE Dark Horse - November 2020 or so, while the pictured one is the later, superior fully-loaded V3 2023 edition. This is another S-Tier special  - absolutely blistering good - with some really smart extra mods here. This one always sounds amazing in my rig - as does the VFE Dark Horse - they both entered the Reference Collection at around the same time - and they're both top-tier. They each vastly expand the range of the original circuit for an improved and much wider ranging soundstage!

Controls : Tone, Tone Stack Switch : MF (Passive Scooped Tilt EQ) / DS (Passive Flat Profile Tilt EQ), Drive, Drive Clipping : MF (Soft) / DS (Hard), Level.

I have all of Keeley's 4-in-1 Series pedals - and the Green and Blue varieties are superb, the yellow one is OK, but this orange variety was my least favourite in the head-to-head - not  because it didn't have decent sounds within it, but because it was so underpowered, and combining the DS-1 gain stack with the Civil War Muff Tone Stack certainly improves things , but not enough. It's a weirdly low output pedal compared to the others from the series - albeit all of them are relatively low output and not really developed for clean pedal platforms - the A-Tier Hot Head outmuscles this one entirely - and massively so - meaning this one is C/D Tier at best as far as I'm concerned. The Green and Blue 4-in-1 Series types are killer though!

Note that you will probably get different results for the Angry Orange when going into an already cooking amp - as that will cover most of the load and provide the volume!

Controls - Tone, Gain Range : Hi / Lo, Distortion, Level, Bass : More / Most / Least, Clip : White 1S1588 Symmetrical / Blue Asymmetrical / Red LED / Pink Hybrid Germanium+, Bite / Sharpness (LPF Bypass), Mids (Add Mids Punch!).

And the last one here is far from the least, last one in the door, but my favourite here overall. The Drunk Beaver Distoriton, VFE Dark Horse and this OG-2 are all S-Tier / top-tier pedals - but this one very slightly edges it, in part because of this superb original NOS components, and in part because it's the smartest, warmest and best sounding one here - but really just be a hair's breadth - as the Drunk Beaver Distortion and VFE Dark Horse also sound totally killer in my rig.

The Dark Horse is currently unobtanium, and the Drunk Beaver Distortion the best priced, but currently out of stock - meaning that your current target should probably the the PastFX OG-2.

It really seized the DS-1 by the horns and take it to new wonderful heights! All 3 of my favourites here are worthy of consideration, as is the excellent DigiTech Hot Head - which is not quite in that top tier - very solid performer though. Some will say I'm generous with its A-Tier ranking - if you feel so - drop it down a grade - it's still much improved over the original DS-1!

As far as I'm concerned there have been 8 significant DS-1 releases throughout the years, with the ones on universal general release pictured above. That leaves the Limited Black and Orange Inverted 2016 Guitar Centre DS-1-BK Edition, and the 1998 DS-1-Gold Dealer Edition for celebrating 6 million Boss units sold! Those latter two are pictured below. The Gold Edition is totally unobtanium - as when those come up for sale - the price tag is typically over $7,000, while there are a few Guitar Centre ones that pop up every now and again on Reverb and Ebay - if you fancy nabbing one of those!

I own the 6 Universal General Release ones here, from this chronological listing :

1. 1978 : Original DS-1 - still current
2. 1998 : DS-1-Gold : 6 million Boss units Dealer commemorative Gold LTD Edition [Key Dealers Only!]
3. 2014 : DS-1X  MDP Multi-Dimensional Processing Edition - still current
4. 2016 : DS-1-BK : Guitar Centre Black and Orange LTD Edition [USA Only]
5. 2017 : DS-1-4A : 40th Anniversary Black and Gold LTD Edition
6. 2022 : DS-1W : WazaCraft Edition - still current
7. 2023 : DS-1-B50A : 50th Anniversary Metallic Orange LTD Edition
8. 2024 : DS-1-WH : White Sparkle Metallic LTD Edition

There's really only 3 actual proper circuit variations here - the core DS-1, the DS-1X MDP type, and the recent DS-1W Waza Craft Edition - all of which versions have featured on this site!

For me the Guitar Centre one isn't particularly cannon to Boss - I'm not sure I really miss that edition, where the gold one is just to rarefied and pricey for most wallets - even if I won the lottery the practical Scandinavian side of me would not permit me to spend $7,000+ on a single pedal! Besides - that shiny Gold finish would be a major fingerprint and dust / dirt-magnet - just every way impractical - apart from as a  screened-off museum piece! The Gold version needs to pretty much live as a museum exhibit - only a total lunatic would put one of hose on their board.

And as I keep saying - I'm not into shelf-ware - pedals are musical instruments and devices that need to be plaid out regularly!

I've mostly seen a handful of these go on Reverb.com, possibly 4 - typically at the $7,000 mark - just above or below, while one sold for over $10K - which seems like total lunacy to me. While indications are that less than 10 of these were made, some say only 4-6! But it's all cosmetic really - you're paying for the rarity and that unique shiny gold finish not the content or the output quality of the pedal. It is pretty though! But surely not $10,000 pretty!

I used to come across these every now and again on Reverb and Ebay - but right of this moment there don't seem to be any in circulation!

There's obviously a vast array of modified DS-1's too - pictured above are 4 of my best! Where I also have a Black 40th Anniversary Enclosure Twin Drive edition on the way from Japan - that should land mid August. Alas none of those DS-1 Twin Drive pictures are good enough or in the right orientation / perspective for me to use on this site. I had to massively edit and fine-tune the gold one from the somewhat sketchy picture references available - that one's a bit of a Frankenstein in how I pieced that visual together!

In any case my 4 featured Modded DS-1's are :

• Keeley Ultra + Seeing Eye Mod
• JHS Synth Drive Mod
• Analog Music Company Evil Pumpkin Circuit-bending DS-1
• Analog Music Company Ghazala Edition Evil Pumpkin

Fun Fact! The very first pedal I acquired was the stock DS-1, which was exactly the wrong pedal to go into a Clean Pedal Platform rig - as it was designed to go into an already cooking amp, and otherwise sounded somewhat weak, reedy and properly anaemic!

The Keeley Ultra / Seeing Eye Modded DS-1 was the breakthrough DS-1 pedal for me - where I really rate all those Keeley Boss Mods - they just make those pedals sound superb in any rig - and particularly Clean Pedal Platform ones!.

The Ultra Mod takes its name from the Steve Vai 'Alive in an Ultra World' Album - where Steve Vai's rhythm guitarist Dave Weiner asked Robert to modify a DS-1 for touring purposes - shortly after the release of that album in 2001!

I know Brian Wampler did some few and far between Boss Mods - which just don't come up for sale very often at all. And then there is Analog.Man's Mike Piera who also does very fine Boss Mods - but I've always loved the Keeley way with those - and haven't really much felt the need to explore Mike's Modified Output thus far!

The two Analog Music Company DS-1's are a whole other subject - proper Expansive Circuit Bending - which can swallow up entire days of experimentation - while there are a fair amount of dud combinations to be had too - but generally they can sound totally amazing and otherworldly. They do need a little patience on flipping through all the difference toggle-switch options (12 toggles x 3 positions each!) - probably a little much for some. 

I will end with the simple Keeley Modded route - with 3 of my favourites of his! As below!

Note that there are serious amounts of DS-1 features on this site - which I've related to this article! So that you can explore further if you wish!