Double Dutch Distortion - Two Boss DS-1 Builds!

About a month ago, I published an article covering my build of the legacy version of AionFX's Comet - their original clone of the Boss DS-1 pedal. AionFX's design philosophy changed a few years back. Instead of making very modular boards with myriad options built in, the focus shifted to more approachable designs with only the most popular options explicitly spelled out in the instructions. This makes building effects pedals more approachable for people without extensive electronics experience - or an electronics degree - like me. At the end of the legacy Comet build, I'd indicated that I planned to build a couple of the modern version of this project, so without further ado, here are those builds!

Vintage Boss Distortion - In More Ways Than One!

The Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal has a very mixed reputation. While it wasn't one of the first three small form-factor effects pedals released by Boss like the Spectrum I posted a couple of days ago, it's almost as old - dating to 1978. The major difference is that the DS-1 distortion pedal has been in continuous production since then. So why clone a pedal that's in production and can be had for low price of $59 at Sweetwater? In 1994, the pedal underwent a major revision necessitated by the discontinuation of the TA7136P IC pre-amp chip (that wasn't even actually an op-amp). The re-designed and re-voiced pedal is regarded as, in AionFX's words, "a poor quality beginner's pedal." For that reason, most modern clones are designed to capture the pre-1994 version of the pedal, which does generally go for over $200-300 on reverb, or one of the myriad of modifications that have been made to the pedal over the years, or both!