Boss DS-1 Distortion

The DS-1 is a guitar distortion pedal: a small die-cast box, painted bright orange, that sits on the floor between guitar and amplifier and is switched on and off by foot. Three black knobs with silver caps, marked Tone, Level and Dist, sit at the back with a red check lamp; the front is a broad hinged treadle with a black rubber pad embossed with the Boss name. Pressed once, it turns a clean guitar into a hard, sustained roar.

Boss, the effects arm of Roland, began its compact series in 1977 with three pedals in yellow, green and red. The DS-1 joined them in 1978. Boss's engineers set out to tame distortion, which in the fuzz boxes of the time turned muddy and buzzing as the gain rose; they put a transistor stage ahead of an amplifier stage with clipping diodes, and a tone control that tilts the sound between bass and treble rather than simply cutting highs.

It became the standard sound of a distortion pedal. Joe Satriani took one on tour after Surfing with the Alien because he could not afford to carry vintage amplifiers; the producer Jack Endino recalled that Kurt Cobain was using one on Nirvana's first album in 1989. Its plain circuit also made it a favourite of pedal modifiers, some of whom built businesses on reworking it.

The parts inside have changed. The original Toshiba chip ran out in the early 1990s and was replaced, first in 1994 and again in 2000, which left the later pedals a little quieter, with what many players hear as a fizzier, more waspish edge. Boss has issued gold, black and other limited editions, and in 2022 a premium Waza Craft version, but the ordinary orange DS-1 is still made, unaltered in form, and remains the best-selling pedal Boss has made.