BOSS DS-1 mod
I experimented with a BOSS DS-1 pedal yesterday and found some really fantastic mods.
My friend brought the pedal over and showed me some mods he had found that were cool sounding feedback loops. Basically this is where the audio signal from somewhere along the signal path is fed back into an amplifier stage somewhere EARLIER in the path. This creates a feedback tone and can result in some really nice sounding, rich tones when an incoming signal fights with the feedback tone. The problem is that when there is NO incoming audio signal, there is just steady, squealing feedback.
I wanted to find a way to make the effect happen only when there was sound feeding into the pedal, so that when you aren’t playing into it, there’s no sound output.
I had a suspicion that a transistor used as a gate was the answer. I experimented with some transistors configured different ways and found the 2N3904 NPN to be the most useful. I encourage people to experiment with different types though.The best effect we found is drawn below. If you have this pedal, you really have to try this! 
It’s a really great sounding effect. Sort of ringmod meets harmonic exciter of some sort. The “distortion” knob controls the effect.
I soldered the transistor to the component side of the board so that I could still close the back cover. The back cover presses right against the solder side of the board so there’s no room to add components.
luke said:
November 19th, 2007 at 9:12pm #
are those 2 switches on top and the purple wires part of this mod?
fex said:
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:58am #
hello,
This mod seems to be very cool but I’ve tried this modification yesterday and the sound seems no cool.
there was a noise like an analog synth, in spite of transistor this noise continues even if I don’t play.
Have you sound clip or vidéo of the mod to see if I realy did the mod ?
this blog is very cool and funny!!
casper said:
November 23rd, 2007 at 4:58pm #
LUKE: One of the switches and the wires are for a different mod. I added two mods, but only one of them sounds cool.
FEX: Make sure you are using the correct transistor and that it is in the right way.
Andy said:
November 27th, 2007 at 5:05pm #
This seems like it would be a really cool mod! Any chance you could upload a sample or clip so that we could hear what it sounds like? I’d appreciate it!
Andy
Daniel said:
November 28th, 2007 at 5:22pm #
Hi Pete,
I built your DS-1 mod for a friend of mine. I think it sounds really great. Your website is great, too.
Daniel
pete said:
November 29th, 2007 at 11:49pm #
Hey Andy,
I’ve added a sound sample to the DS1 page in “finished pieces”.
enjoy.
Juan said:
February 19th, 2008 at 6:33pm #
Now, I’m new to the whole mod thing, but i really want to do this to my DS-1. The problem is I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to do specifically. Can anyone help me out?
Jon said:
April 5th, 2008 at 11:26pm #
Alright so the pedal seems to be a lot more random. Appregiating and tracking weird. What did I do wrong, your’s seems very solid.
casper said:
April 6th, 2008 at 4:26pm #
Hey Jaun- feel free to email me and I can give you some pointers.
Jon- I have no way of knowing why your pedal is unstable. Maybe you used the wrong transistor? Mine is very stable.
Jon said:
April 6th, 2008 at 4:36pm #
Same one. I noticed the whole thing was a bit choked when I shoved the board back in and the wire was in the middle, once I gave it some release the volume was normal. Maybe that’s what’s going on. This mod is awesome. I have a Boss Super Overdrive I plan on modding in the same way now.
johnny said:
June 20th, 2008 at 10:34am #
hiya!
I saw casper folk at potluckcon a few weeks ago!
I’m doing this mod for a friend of mine but he has a different board rev.
Would it be possible to post a picture of the component side of the board, to show exactly where the transistor is being placed.
Thanks!