DS-1 v. Rat…

DS-1 or Rat?

  • Boss DS-1 Distortion

    Votes: 5 22.7%

  • ProCo Rat Distortion

    Votes: 17 77.3%
  • Total voters
    22
Coda

Coda

Well-known member
When I first started playing guitar I had the impression, for some reason, that you had too choose once, and live with that decision for the rest of your life: DS-1 or Rat. Once you chose, you could NEVER switch. Obviously, that’s bullshit. They are nowhere near the same pedal. Now, I love the Rat (even without the LM308). The DS-1, meanwhile has been on my board forever…and plus, it’s a buffer. I only really use the DS-1 to kick everything up a notch, though I could see it fitting well with certain types of music.
So what day you? Which side do you fall on, Team DS-1 or Team Rat?…



…what about the Distortion+?…
 
I've never played through a DS-1, need to build one I guess.
I've never played through a ProCo Rat, but I finally built one at the end of Year of the Rat (2020 up to mid Feb 2021).


I guess that puts me in the Rat camp by default.



An aside: For this Year of the Ox (Feb 12 2021 to Feb 1 2022) , I'm going to build a "John Entwistle" pedal, Hiwatt at Leeds kind of thing... Perhaps a hybrid of the RAH and WIIO circuits — can probably squeeze in a DS-1 build somewhere along the way.


There are so many mods to try for the DS-1, I guess that's what's delayed me from building it ... optionitis.
 
Feral Feline said:
I've never played through a DS-1, need to build one I guess.
I've never played through a ProCo Rat, but I finally built one at the end of Year of the Rat (2020 up to mid Feb 2021).


I guess that puts me in the Rat camp by default.



An aside: For this Year of the Ox (Feb 12 2021 to Feb 1 2022) , I'm going to build a "John Entwistle" pedal, Hiwatt at Leeds kind of thing... Perhaps a hybrid of the RAH and WIIO circuits — can probably squeeze in a DS-1 build somewhere along the way.


There are so many mods to try for the DS-1, I guess that's what's delayed me from building it ... optionitis.
Click to expand...
A lot of the DS-1 mods are aimed at making the pedal sound like anything other than a DS-1…
 
Thanks @Coda, I do realise that, like the TS clipping mod.

When I build a pedal with mods I typically try to have the mods on switches or pots that take the mod out of the equation, thus giving a stock circuit. I do that because I've got so little experience with most circuits, and I do want to see/hear what the stock pedal sounds like even though the lure of modding always tweaks my interest.

With so many mods available to the DS-1, that would be difficult. As there aren't any 8PDT toggles out there that I know of (I did find a 6PDT!), and rotaries are so cumbersome — some extensive mods mean having to choose a distinctly non-stock build.

I'll be trying to make the DS-1 "bass friendly", too, which may be simply a signal split into clean blend so I can have the stock DS-1 circuit.
 
I think the best mod for a DS-1 is to retune the TONE control. If you don't like the sound of a DS-1, it's most likely the tone network is to blame. The clipping mods don't make all that much of a difference in tone, but seeing that red LED flash when you hit a chord, that's magic! The other good mod IMO is to alter the first stage. That's where the asymmetric distortion originates and it controls the muddiness.
 
For the DS-1 the other guy in this Wampler video sums it up pretty good at around 7:40 (don't know how to embed the time stamp).
"It sounds pretty good. It's not my favorite pedal, but it sounds a lot better than some others."

I remember playing a stock one at a Guitar Center years ago with all the other Boss pedals on there to try em all out. Good, not great. I should probably whip one up on a breadboard sans buffered bypass and tweak it a bit per Chuck's guidance above.

The Rat's good too, but @thewintersoldier summed it best: it does everything the ds-1 doesn't. I've got one I built with an OP07 chip and need to tweak it a bit to get some more treble out of it. It's a bit muddy IMO.

Which camp am I in? Ummmm....I'll probably say the Rat. Let's see what my breadboard has to offer.

 
Well I don't really care for either pedal, but seeing as the Rat was the starting point for some pedals I do like (Bjorn Juhl seems to have used it as a starting point for many pedals) I guess I would say Rat. Plus it seems to me that the Exandora is a souped up Rat also, so yeah, Rat. Just modify the crap out of it and I like it. 🤗
 
I never voted in this poll. I’ve had a DS-1 for 20 years. My only experience with a Rat was the one I built a month ago. Side-by-side, they can’t really be compared. The DS-1 is often criticized. I believe this is due to user-error. The DS-1 is essentially a distortion boost…it was designed to run into an overdriven (or ‘on-the-edge’) amp. Played clean, it’s rough…though you can get plenty of usable sounds through it.
So I didn’t vote in my own poll, because apples are apples, and DS-1’s are orange…
 
I rarely played with pedals until I started making my own - I maybe have owned a dozen and a half “real” ones, I’ve mostly been a bedroom guitarist straight into modeling amps from moving for a college and then bouncing around apartments after. Because of that I always kind of felt that distortion pedals like the ds-1, d+ were redundant with a high enough gain amp while a rat did things you couldn’t get out of a cranked amp. That’s not my opinion anymore now but I don’t think I could properly explain being team rat (they all have their place obviously) without that foundational opinion.

I still always have more fun with a rat. hitting a 7th fret e minor and letting it ring feels hits like nothing else - good thing or bad thing is up to you
 
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