December 2, 2008

Dirt Review: Penny Pedals DS-1 Bass Mod

Stashed under: Reviews - Overdrive / Distortion — grygrx @ 9:06 pm



Initial thoughts:

This pedal came into my possession on an absolute whim. I was clearing out some stuff that was redundant or unloved and a trade opportunity for this pedal came up. I’ve been aware Penny Pedals for awhile and have been lightly curious to try some stuff out, but it just hadn’t mad it to the top of a list yet. This particular Boss DS-1 was purchased through regular outlets and then sent to Penny Pedals for modification. It didn’t have the penny over the rear switch (as seen in his gallery) and so I added one myself! I have no experience at all with a stock DS-1 and have no intention of trying one out in the near future.

8 Comments

  1. Wow. I’m pretty impressed. You were right in not trying out a stock DS-1 with bass. I have tried one, and it does not sound pretty, and I don’t mean in the good way. It actually belonged to a guitarist friend of mine (glad I didn’t spend any of my money on it). Having had that experience, I probably would have given it around an 8, but of course that would be biased. Still, it’s great for the money.

    Also, how’s that Schecter working out? I’ve thought about getting one for a while now. I’ve always loved the Fender Bass VI (what the hellcat is based off of), but they’re too expensive. I just wish it had a trem and better pickups with more low end.

    Comment by Kugelspot — December 2, 2008 @ 11:31 pm

  2. awesome pedal, thx for review!

    Comment by P_Hat — December 3, 2008 @ 2:51 am

  3. nice pedal but quite generic sounding imo good for the price though

    Comment by Katri — December 3, 2008 @ 6:10 am

  4. The Schecter is fun, but it is a tad flawed. For sure worth the money when compared with what a Bass VI costs!

    Comment by grygrx — December 3, 2008 @ 7:11 am

  5. Since it’s modded, can they also mod it for true bypass? That would be a great addition to an already impressive pedal.

    Comment by Xcalith — December 3, 2008 @ 7:17 am

  6. no, true bypass would be a downgrade from the exisiting superb boss buffered switch

    Comment by RC — December 4, 2008 @ 4:34 pm

  7. ^ ya. With a TRUE bypass switch, you can’t have an LED on/off indicator. So even if it says the switch true bypass, if it has an LED, it’s not bypassing 100%. Boss did such a good job buffering the switch that true bypass just isn’t worth it.

    Comment by Kugelspot — December 4, 2008 @ 11:03 pm

  8. Hey………

    Buffers are great as line drivers. I would actually recommend having an appropriate buffer near the front of a long pedal chain. The problem comes with 15 buffers in a row. That is one of the reasons that True bypass is a standard issue feature these days. (we simply use more effects & don’t need/want all those buffers). While it is true that a true bypass signal still shares a ground connection with the effect when in bypass mode, the *signal* line has no electronic connection to the circuit in most cases, (acts as a patch cable when no power is applied) with or without a LED. As long as steps are taken to avoid any noise leaking through the ground connection, True bypass is a perfectly viable set-up, and not without good reason…

    Just to be clear…… :^)

    -Mario

    Comment by Mario — December 13, 2008 @ 1:16 pm

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