Picked up a 2004 Boss DS-1 with Mistubishi M5223AL Chip

[Platefire]

I've been reading about the Love/Hate relationship of many with this pedal for a while and was curious, so I picked up a used one. According to to the serial number track down it is a 2004 with the Mistubishi chip that according to this link is the most disliked chip: http://www.soft.com.sg/forum/showthread.php?70396-Boss-DS-1-A-detailed-take!   knowing the old original 1978 MIJ one is most loved.

There are several mod kits to this pedal and that's what I had in mind is to maybe mod it in the future. This would be my first pedal mod.

However I would like to get familiar with this pedal stock first before I go changing it and to be honest from what testing I've done, am rather impressed with the pedal. I particularly like the setting with the distortion at lowest setting, tone about 10:00 oclock and level 12:00 to 100%. Being an old Hindrex fan I get an amazing clean with dirt tone for the strat neck pickup for those Rhythem and blues licks he incorperated in his songs like "little Wing". Sweet! With those same setting with my dyba comp in front of it on cat eye setting it goes into singing mode for some nice rhythem and lead work. Higher distortion levels are also usable to me up to about 10:00. Linked artical says most people keep them for a while and grow tired of the sound and either get rid of it or mod it. I will probably mod it just to accomplish my first mod on a pedal to get broke in. Platefire
 

[Ed_Chambley]

Robert Keeley
http://www.robertkeeley.com/audio6l6/dstech.html


Posted his seeing eye mod for this pedal.  I have done it and it really takes cheap pedal to something you will really like

[smackoj]

I like Boss pedals. I have modded a couple of them. I used a mod kit from Monte Allum. I like his thorough instructions and he gives some valuable tips about stuff unique to Boss pedals. I soon tired with the Boss stuff just because it's more fun to populate a small piece of vero board with gadgets and have it actually pass a signal!  The sites I have found the most helpful and almost always free are as follows:

General Guitar Gadgets
Runoffgroove.com
freestompboxes.org  (this forum actually has people inventing circuits and sharing them)  I use the term 'invent' pretty loosely. LOL

there are quite a few others like AMZ effects, diy fever and Jack Orman but not quite sure of the web addresses off hand.

 

[alerich]

My DS-1 was bundled in a big box of gear I bought cheap on Craigslist. I never would have bought one outright. I thought it sounded ok stock. I read about lots of different mods online. I borrowed ideas from Jack Orman at AMZ and tweaked a little bit on my own. These are the mods I ended up with:

R6      Replace 100K with 160K
R9      Replace 22R with 510R

D4      Replace 1N914 diode with red 3mm LED
D5      Replace 1N914 diode with two 1N914 (use D4 and D5) diodes in series

C1      Replace .047uF capacitor with .022uF capacitor
C3      Replace .047uF capacitor with .033uF capacitor
C12    Replace .1uF capacitor with .047uF capacitor

The resistors reduce gain.
The 1x2 LED/diodes provide asymmetrical clipping
The LED provides a bit smoother distortion
The smaller cap values  tighten the low end

It made an ok pedal sound much better. It will never find a spot on my pedal board (just a matter of preference) but like many Boss pedals there is tone to be had in the circuit and it usually only take a few simple component swaps to unleash it. I have also modded my BD-2 Blues Driver, SD-1 Super Overdrive and OD-2 Turbo Overdrive with DIY mods mostly using parts on hand with good to excellent results. That BD-2 is a real diamond in the rough. Sounds pretty good stock but can easily be tweaked to boutique level.

[Platefire]

Thanks for all the recomendations on the DS-1. My normal operation on a pedal like this is to use moderate(my max) distortion setting and use my guitar volume to back off, clean it up a bit or go to full level of distortion. On this pedal it's looking my max may be at 10:00 oclock, so I have a lot more gain than I will actually need.

I had read that these pedal were overly bright but I find with the tone control at 10:00 to 11:00 oclock I get good fat tone for my strat, cause I can't stand too bright.

I appreciate the directions on possible mods to do but before I hone in on that too close, I need some good instructions from you experianced guys with pedals on best soldering practices on these little boards. What kind of iron, type/size solder and practices for de-soldering and soldering components to these minerature PCB boards without destroying things. I'm use to soldering at a lot larger scale such as turret/Eyelet board, terminal strips and such that are a lot more forgiving. So sharing your experiance for best practices with this would be a great help to start off with. Thanks a Bunch! Platefire

[alerich]

I have modded seven of my Boss pedals. Three of them were using Monte Allums mods kits. I liked the results of his kits. I did two EQ pedal and a CS-3 compressor. I'm not a fan of his inline to DIP adapter. It's a snug fit and any mod that requires electrical tape on the backside of the device to keep it from shorting against other components... I'll pass. Good results, though - as I said. Now that I have gotten my feet wet I could probably have done much of that in DIY fashion. The OD pedals I modded myself in DIY fashion. There is beacoup information online about different mods people have done. Folks like Jack Orman and Brian Wampler have been very generous with ideas.

I have found the circuit boards on the Boss pedals to be very sturdy. I have yet to lift a solder pad. Some of the soldering can be a little tight so a smaller iron tip comes in handy. I use the same Kester 44 solder .050 dia that I use on everything else. Some of the newer pedals have that crummy Rohs compliant solder that doesn't solder wick as nicely as the old stuff. I just heat the joint, apply a little Kester solder and use a wick to desolder nice and clean.

One of the key things about Boss pedals is that to hit their price point they use really cheap quality components. Many of the DIY mods out there are simply shotgunning cheap caps for better caps. There are lots of caps in those designs. The results can be very impressive from a standpoint of fidelity and noise floor without actually changing the circuit at all.

I have built a couple pedal kits from Mammoth electronics including their wah pedal which came out quite well. Their OD pedals are ok but I was very pleasantly surprised with the wah pedal. I just like to solder. I build stuff I don't even need for fun. I just bought two Peavey Windsor heads on CL for $100 a pop just to gut and rebuild for the fun of it.

[Platefire]

Thanks for the tips on the boss boards. Looks like the DS-1 is a good mod platform. Platefire