The thing that made me decide to buy this was the Billy F. Gibbons (the ZZ Top dude) guitar lesson video online. He’s got a hard tone in the video that makes his blues riffs sound authoritative. So I thought I’d get the Boss DS-1 pedal because I have a ’66 Super Reverb that can tend to be almost too warm sometimes. Old Super Reverbs have loads of sustain on their own, and I wanted just a little more hardness, if I could get it.

Billy Gibbons is using a delay on his setup in the video, so my sound is a lot different because of this (Haha, and another reason is, I’m using a completely different guitar and amp). Yeah, I get an okay sound with the DS-1. I didn’t exactly get the mid-rangey edge I wanted, for two reasons I think. One is the Super is almost too warm and smooth for what I wanted, and the other is that Billy Gibbons sounds like he’s using a modern amp that has way more midrange than an old Super. The DS-1 has a fair amount of fuzz to it, and I find if the distortion control is turned all the way down, I get just that tiny bit of drive I’m looking for. I’m using a Fender compressor in front of the DS-1, and found that a good trick is to just shut it off. This gives me less sustain and fuzz, which is what I wanted. Rolling off the volume knob on the guitar just a tad gets you a nice rough rhythm sound, too. Turn it back up, and you get your solo tone.

Okay so I don’t really get the Billy Gibbons sound I want. I get more of the tone Susan Tedeschi has in “Hurts So Bad.” Not what I was hoping for, but still pretty darn good.

You will notice that the Boss pedals are built like tanks. The guy who owns the music store told me that he had a 3-inch flood in his cellar, and all his Boss pedals went under water. He dried them out with a hair dryer, and every one of them still works. He also told me that he has pedals from 30 years ago that he still uses. Hell, I've got an amp from 40 years ago that I still use. I’d expect my DS-1 to last for a very long time. I’m pretty happy with my purchase.

Should you get one? Sure, why not? They are inexpensive enough new. I think it’s the lowest-priced unit in the entire Boss line, and you really can’t do without a distortion box anyway. You can always unload it on eBay if you decide you don’t like it.