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BOSS DS1 for bass, yes or no?
- Thread starter Electricblue
- Start date
If you can find an old one, Japanese made, they are very different from the current ones made in Tawain. They sound like an amp'd up Marshall amp, good clipping, etc. I have one, sound great but the more distortion you add, the more bottom you lose. If you like Robert Deleo's tone-he mixed a bass amp with a Marshall head for dirty tone in studio- you can grab that sound. Much better recorded then live, but you can survive with it live. As everyone else mentioned-depends what you are going for. I used a Big Muff and liked the DS1 better. If you want fuzz for bass, you might actually be looking for a synth fuzz tone and require a synth pedal. My suggestion is if you can stand multi effects-grab a Boss ME-8B, great synth tones and overdrives, fuzzes, etc and can be found for about $100. You'll also get delays, choruses, etc. It's the pedal of choice for early Stuart Zander, LaMarquis Jackson (TLC, other R&B group session player). You won't run out of efx options.
I heard that Al Cisneros of Om used a DS-1 for his main distortion sound
OM - Rays Of The Sun/To The Shrinebuilder - YouTube
Although he almost certainly bi-amped.With 2 4x15s and a couple of qaudboxes for good measure,anything would sound good.
OM - Rays Of The Sun/To The Shrinebuilder - YouTube
Although he almost certainly bi-amped.With 2 4x15s and a couple of qaudboxes for good measure,anything would sound good.
I used a friends unmodded DS-1 for a gig that our rhythm guitarist backed out of... I ran it through my boss geb7 eq, boosted the lows, sounded good 
We managed to place second at the battle of the bands though :/. Here in indea we won like 100$ coming second at a show in front of a thousand odd people :|
We managed to place second at the battle of the bands though :/. Here in indea we won like 100$ coming second at a show in front of a thousand odd people :|By the way guys, I've sorted this now I've built a self-modded Valvecaster, and a completely original and unique fuzz/distortion/overdrive/treble booster pedal that I thought up myself 
Discuss though Oh yeah, I highly recommend the valvecaster for bass.
I've built a self-modded Valvecaster, and a completely original and unique fuzz/distortion/overdrive/treble booster pedal that I thought up myself Discuss though
Oh yeah, I highly recommend the valvecaster for bass.
By the way guys, I've sorted this now
Discuss though
I'm just about to order parts to build another valvecaster. I love them into my amp, really warms things up!
Looking at the first question: Yes, I've been using this one with bass many times. But you will have to hit the strings really hard to get that full distortion
btw try Boss blues drive
btw try Boss blues drive
I played it through bass for about a minutes and immediately hated it... I'm sure there are plenty of lovers though
Coming to the topic 9 years later. Do it, because the discussion is relevant.
Answering the question (the topic author for sure has already solved the dilemma at this date): Yes! F***ing try it!
I'm watching you guys debating prices... Let's go! In Brazil, pedals are expensive as your kidney or a piece of your liver. 50 bucks? Here you can't buy a DS-1 (for example) for less than R$ 350,00. So, 50 dolars? Come on! Try it.
About technical issues, the opinions about losing low end with the DS-1 are for sure correct. But you can optimize it doing simple stuff, like boosting your lows in an EQ or using a pre-amp after the DS-1. I used the DS-1 as my main distortion pedal for more or less one year. It was positioned on my pedalboard before a Boss BB1X (bass > ds1 > bb1x > amp), and with the drive knob of the BB1X on 12 o'clock, or less, by switching on the DS-1 I had a great distorted tone, just giving a little bit of lows on the BB1X. Of course: is you use the DS-1 alone you will lost low end (and it also depends of your bass, your playing style, fingers or picks).
Make your experiences, toy with your pick ups. Turn it on, turn it off. Condemn the DS-1 just saying it will kill your low ends it's a little bit precipitated and kills the expementalism that can give you an unique and exclusive tone, your trade mark.
Actualy, I'm using a TC Electronic Mojo Mojo before Boss BB-1X, just because it gives me more options. And here is the motto: the final result is all that matters, the sound is all that matters. Diagrams and formulas can help you, but only with the experiments you can reach a single tone.
Answering the question (the topic author for sure has already solved the dilemma at this date): Yes! F***ing try it!
I'm watching you guys debating prices... Let's go! In Brazil, pedals are expensive as your kidney or a piece of your liver. 50 bucks? Here you can't buy a DS-1 (for example) for less than R$ 350,00. So, 50 dolars? Come on! Try it.
About technical issues, the opinions about losing low end with the DS-1 are for sure correct. But you can optimize it doing simple stuff, like boosting your lows in an EQ or using a pre-amp after the DS-1. I used the DS-1 as my main distortion pedal for more or less one year. It was positioned on my pedalboard before a Boss BB1X (bass > ds1 > bb1x > amp), and with the drive knob of the BB1X on 12 o'clock, or less, by switching on the DS-1 I had a great distorted tone, just giving a little bit of lows on the BB1X. Of course: is you use the DS-1 alone you will lost low end (and it also depends of your bass, your playing style, fingers or picks).
Make your experiences, toy with your pick ups. Turn it on, turn it off. Condemn the DS-1 just saying it will kill your low ends it's a little bit precipitated and kills the expementalism that can give you an unique and exclusive tone, your trade mark.
Actualy, I'm using a TC Electronic Mojo Mojo before Boss BB-1X, just because it gives me more options. And here is the motto: the final result is all that matters, the sound is all that matters. Diagrams and formulas can help you, but only with the experiments you can reach a single tone.
Picked up a monteallums model ds-1 earlier this year.
Run a clean and dirty line with an ls2 with the ds-1 stacked after a dod250 in the dirty line. Run the mids pretty high on my amp eq as well.
Have a tried a fair few distortion/fuzz pedals but was never happy until I came to this set up. If it's good enough for Al Cisneros it's good enough for me...
Run a clean and dirty line with an ls2 with the ds-1 stacked after a dod250 in the dirty line. Run the mids pretty high on my amp eq as well.
Have a tried a fair few distortion/fuzz pedals but was never happy until I came to this set up. If it's good enough for Al Cisneros it's good enough for me...
