Boss DS-1

The Boss DS-1 Distortion is a distortion pedal manufactured by Boss since 1978. Alongside the ProCo Rat released the same year, the DS-1 helped popularize tight, aggressive tones through the use of "hard-clipping" circuitry, a class of effects pedals that became known as distortion pedals after the DS-1. Like Boss's first soft-clipping overdrive, the OD-1, the DS-1 would serve as a template for pedals of the same type that followed.

In its history, the DS-1 has undergone several revisions and alterations in tone. After the original preamp model that Boss used became scarce, the DS-1's circuit was redesigned in 1994, introducing several issues like reduced volume and a "fizzy" or "waspy" edge. Fixing these problems spawned a community of pedal modifiers, with some major boutique effects pedal manufacturers starting out modding DS-1s. It has remained the bestselling Boss "drive" pedal since its creation.

In 1987, Boss released a follow-up, the DS-2 Turbo Distortion, which featured a "turbo" mode that added an additional gain stage and a low-midrange boost. Kurt Cobain notably used 1980s editions of the DS-1, as well as the DS-2.