Boss DS-1X Distortion Pedal Reviews

I have owned this pedal for several months. It has become my favorite pedal for blues and harder rock lead playing. It conveys what I can only call a "sense of power" to both the player and the listener as it is played through. Tone of course is adjustable. Thanks to the technology contained in it, it sounds great whether I am playing in a lower or higher register, low or high notes, and quietly or loudly. I strongly recommend the Boss DS-1X Distortion Pedal.

In the past 3 years I've tried many different "boutique" high gain overdrive pedals with my Strymon Iridium and they were all disappointing. Trying to cut my "loses", I tried stacking them with various other "boutique" lower gain overdrive pedals, screamers, treble boosters, etc. and they still were all very two dimensional sounding. I decided to give the Boss OD-200 a try and found that most of the drives and booster algorithms were harsh sounding, except for the "Distortion X" drive which is based on the Boss DS-1X, and it sounded phenomenal. Since that was the only drive algorithm I would use, I decided to return it and just go with the Boss DS-1X and it's the best distortion pedal around. It's got plenty of gain on tap and it's articulate and has loads of sustain. It can produce tight power chords but full chords sound musical and aren't muddy. This pedal is a gem!

I've had this pedal for a few years and it's far and away my favorite. I've A/B'd with many other pedals I have including some boutique models (Rockbox - Boiling Point, Bearfoot - HT) and it's always the one I prefer. It's got a clarity and a smoothness that I don't hear in other units and works great stacked with a nice boost (I use a Wampler Tumnus). I usually set the drive around 9 o'clock and that's plenty of crunch for me, but at higher levels it still retains a wonderful tone that never gets out of control. The best aspect of this unit is the sustain - it just goes on and on...

Amazing. Extremely articulate, excellent sound goes great with my fender amp.

I've had this thing for 6 month and gigged with it a lot,it took me a while to dial in my sound and to realize that the distortion doesn't need to be grindy heavy to get a great OD/Distortion sound. The most I have my distortion dialed in is between 10-11 O'clock. it is a very clean clear distortion for lack of better term...

It is also very sensitive to pick attack as well as rolling of ones guitar volume, in fact, it cleans up too well at times depending on the wounds on the bridge pick ups. It goes really well in front of my Digitech Cab Dry VR, highly recommend it...

I actually have two of them now. I'm a gear snob I always buy American made high end gear, Amps, Pedals, Guitars etc. but no matter how much I spend on distortion pedals I can not replace these things!!! I'm still trying but every boutique pedal I buy sounds two dimensional to me now compared to the three dimensional sounds of the DS1-X. There's no need to max out the gain and adjust the eq with your ears and not just putting everything on 12:00. I couldn't recommend anything better at any price

Boss just took a classic and turned it into a modern must have!

I received my Boss Special Edition DS1-X Distortion pedal from Sweetwater Music I am very picky about my sound and not a huge fan of pedals, but once I plugged the DS1-X Distortion Pedal in it is amazing right out of the box.It's everything it says it is and then some!!!! . Best investment I have ever made.. It brings my Marshall JVM 410H Full stack and I don't even have to turn it to 10 to get the prefect sound...just as it was described by the Sweetwater service... You can get any sound you want from Legends like The Scorpions and Legendary Randy Rhoads.. From Clean sounds to growling distortion with out any muddy sounds. This pedal is great! Sweetwater music has The BEST customer Service EVER! Extremely helpful and very friendly and FAST shipping.. Defiantly will do business with them again
Can't say enough about the Boss DS1-X pedal and Sweetwater Music. Just Amazing. It will blow you away. Boss out did themselves on this pedal...

I have been able to dial in some great tones with this pedal. Very satisfied with the performance of this product.

After doing a side-by-side comparison, I've concluded that this is basically a hotter and more modern DS-1. It has a great alternative rock sound. It can do metal too I guess, but there are so many distortion pedals specifically for metal that would serve you much better if metal is your genre of choice. The articulation is fantastic, which is good because that's its whole selling point. It adapts to your playstyle on the fly and all the notes come through and never sound muddy. Much like the original DS-1, its sound is basic but also incredibly versatile, and it's definitely worth the price. It sounds great on a Strat (what I play).

So I finally tried this pedal the other day. Its a true modern distortion with solid bass, but when I cranked the gain the high frequencies really show through and not in a good way. Roll back the gain and the top end begins to muffle. I could also hear the old DS1 coming through when the gain was cranked. Side by side with the DA-2 was a no brainer win for the DA-2. The DA tone was solid top to bottom with the same nice bass response. Odd the DA-2 is no longer being made. The DS1X is an ok pedal, but I can still hear the old DS1 fuzz in there.

I saw all the online demos and the hype online, but when I went to try it, it was not what I was looking for. I went in to buy this and came out with an original analog DS-1 instead and it works great on my boogie, pushing it into ultra gain with the classic DS-1 hard edge that it is known for. For a clean amp or solid state amp I am sure this would be suitable, but for me with a high gain tube amp its not what I needed. It is a totally different pedal from a DS-1, not sure why they used the same name, its a bit misleading as the two pedals have nothing in common under the hood.

Don't belive all the hype about this pedal,Boss makes some great pedals but,this one didn't suit my needs.it has been paperweight ever since I bought it!!! Some people love it, I happened Not to.