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Is anyone familiar with the Boss DS-1?


CraigGT
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I was looking into building an all in one Steve Rothery patch and it seems that his classic soaring lead tones were a Boss DS-1 into his JC120's!, I know that the Stupor OD is based on the Boss SD-1 but are they alike or is there something that sounds more like the DS-1 in Helix?

 

Thanks

Craig

 

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I found this that looked interesting

 

Someone asked me about this. Here's how I use the DS-1.

1) First off, think of the Boss DS-1 as a guitar signal enhancer...not as an overdrive pedal that gets stomped into action when you want some distortion.
Leave the DS-1 "ON" all the time.

2) If you're using a distortion pedal, like a Big Muff, plug the Big Muff into the DS-1...you'll be surprised at how much smoother and less like a ZIPPER the DS-1 will make your Fuzz or Distortion pedal sound.

3) Start by setting the controls on the DS-1 to about 1/2 way and then adjust the volume and tone controls on your amp until you get a great soloing tone...tweak the controls on the DS-1 too, but keep them around the 1/2 way point.

4) Turn your guitar's volume control down to about 5 and then adjust the DS-1 and your amp's volume and tone until you get a great tone for rock n roll rythym.

5) Now just tweak the amp and the DS-1 until you fine tune a tone that allows you to leave the DS-1 ON all of the time and go from cleanish rock tone to an overdriven rock tone by simply raising or lowering the volume control on your guitar itself. Just find some settings that work well together.


That's about it.

I can plug my '54 Tele into my DS-1 and that into my vintage Fender amps, and once I get the amp and DS-1 adjusted properly, I can get a great Jimmy Page Led Zepplin I tone without ever having to turn the pedal off.

 

Joe Satriani and Steve Vai both use DS-1's on alot of their recordings. When I saw Joe and Steve with G3 years ago, they rarely appeared to turn the DS-1 off...it seemed to be left on most/all of the time.

 

I got ir from here

 

https://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?21223-Lew-s-Guide-How-to-use-a-Boss-DS-1

 

This has tons of technical data.

 

https://www.electrosmash.com/boss-ds1-analysis

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Thanks Brue58ski thats good information,

I'm think that Steve Rothery must have the amp pretty clean for all the sparkly chorusey stuff so  does the distortion come from the pedal or does it just push the amp over the edge?

 

Craig

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Thanks Brue58ski thats good information,

I'm think that Steve Rothery must have the amp pretty clean for all the sparkly chorusey stuff so  does the distortion come from the pedal or does it just push the amp over the edge?

 

Craig

 

That I could not tell you. I have a JC 120 amp that I used for clean and then I got my distortion from an MXR Distortion +. It worked very well so I suspect the pedal provides the distortion. The JC120 didn't distort very well.

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I was looking into building an all in one Steve Rothery patch and it seems that his classic soaring lead tones were a Boss DS-1 into his JC120's!, I know that the Stupor OD is based on the Boss SD-1 but are they alike or is there something that sounds more like the DS-1 in Helix?

 

Thanks

Craig

 

Although they are really overdrives and not distortions I think using the higher drive settings on the Stupor, Compulsive, or the Minotaur may be the models closest to the DS-1 if you are going for distortion settings similar to lower settings on the DS-1. For more distortion you might try the Vermin or the Hedgehog D9 (probably closer) which are actually distortion pedal models, or even the Stupor on the higher drive settings. None of them is exactly like the DS-1. It is amusing to me after all these years that the DS-1, the first distortion pedal I ever purchased and one of the best and only ones around at that time, is still being used by players as accomplished as Vai and Satriani. There are so many other great options out there now.

 

I have one of the earliest builds of the Boss SD-1, I mean this pedal is seriously beat up, and it is a magnificent sounding overdrive. The Helix 'Stupor' version doesn't quite capture the magic of that pedal. Might be how I am using it or that I have not found the right signal chain to leverage it yet but nevertheless I was most happy to see it show up on the Helix. I think that model could use a bit of improvement though.

 

Btw, someone on the Helix Gear Page site just posted that they are using the Compulsive drive relatively successfully as a substitute for the DS-1.

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I was looking into building an all in one Steve Rothery patch and it seems that his classic soaring lead tones were a Boss DS-1 into his JC120's!, I know that the Stupor OD is based on the Boss SD-1 but are they alike or is there something that sounds more like the DS-1 in Helix?

 

Thanks

Craig

 

Btw, I totally get trying to faithfully recreate a specific tone for an artist or tune. One note occurs to me though. Many (not all) a great lead tone that was gotten by running a good distortion pedal into a clean amp such as the Roland Jazz Chorus can be improved on in the digital realm by running an overdrive or even a treble booster or boost into an amp model that already has a great distortion/overdrive channel. It seems guitarists have often used a pedal in front of an amp's clean channel simply because the lead channel on their amp sounded like crap. Any of a number of old Fender amps is a great example of that. However a clean amp channel with a pedal definitely has a sound that can be distinctly different, sometimes more articulate, and often more pushed and compressed than just using a good lead channel.

 

Anything goes and I know some will disagree but my favorite use of the Jazz Chorus amps was always for their clean sounds. I realize also that models can sometimes be more flexible than the original amps. IMHO there are similar but "better" distorted  lead tones to be had with other combinations of amps and stomps or even just amps without a stomp. With that said, when you have a certain sound in your head or are trying to get as close as possible to a tone made with a specific combination of equipment, nothing else may do, and you may want to use the models that most closely emulate the originals. Ultimately I guess I am just getting a bit sidetracked and pontificating on the virtues of the various methods for achieving a great distorted or overdriven lead tone and the fact that when I think back about great distorted lead guitar tones the Jazz Chorus amp does not come leaping to mind . Good luck with your effort. 

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The DS-1 has a circuit that is rather different from the other OD models in the Helix.

One important characteristic of the DS-1 is that it cuts (a lot) the mid frequencies; there is a big void between 300Hz and 1000Hz, that is very similar to the typical mid scooped tone of the Big Muff. 

But since the Big Muff has a different distortion voice, maybe with the Helix you could get closer to the DS-1 using the SD9 (Hedgehog) and with an additonal eq to cut the mid frequencies I mentioned (and you could try to place this equalizer before or after the OD effect to hear what you prefer; I'd even suggest to try it before the od stompbox with a more aggressive cut).

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BAnything goes and I know some will disagree but my favorite use of the Jazz Chorus amps was always for their clean sounds. I realize also that models can sometimes be more flexible than the original amps. IMHO there are similar but "better" distorted  lead tones to be had with other combinations of amps and stomps or even just amps without a stomp. With that said, when you have a certain sound in your head or are trying to get as close as possible to a tone made with a specific combination of equipment, nothing else may do, and you may want to use the models that most closely emulate the originals. Ultimately I guess I am just getting a bit sidetracked and pontificating on the virtues of the various methods for achieving a great distorted or overdriven lead tone and the fact that when I think back about great distorted lead guitar tones the Jazz Chorus amp does not come leaping to mind . Good luck with your effort. 

 

 I agree with your assessment of the JC120, which is why I was so shocked at how good an MXR Distortion + sounded in a JC120 (yes, we are talking decades ago). I loved it. And I'm pretty sure I had the JC120 totally clean. I have not tried this with the Helix. The KWB int the Helix is based on a boutique distortion unit that is based on the MXR Distortion +.

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