The following distortion pedal schematic is for the Boss DS-1 distortion pedal. This pedal is very basic and similar to other distortion pedals such as the ProCo Rat distortion pedal. The control knobs are for tone, level, and gain. If you have electronics skills and the ability to read schematics for electronics, I would definitely try to fix one of these yourself. It can also be a fun exercise to attempt to recreate the circuit on a home made circuit board for a diy homemade distortion pedal. It gets even more fun if you decide to customize it somehow. A suggestion for customizing it is to give it a more mid-range tone instead of the high end brittleness it is known for. Another suggestion might be to give it a higher output to create a more overdriven tone. I have recreated one of these using radio shack parts and a plastic project box. If you use this schematic to create a customized distortion pedal based on the DS-1, we would love to hear it so send us a comment!
This schematic for the BOSS DS-1 was taken from the great people over at the Free Information Society here: Boss DS-1 Schematic
[…] pedal yourself or mod it. For beginning electronic enthusiasts, I’d suggest starting with the DS-1 […]
[…] distortion pedal schematic is for the original ProCo Rat. This circuit is very close to the BOSS DS-1 circuit. This is a very popular design for modding, customizing or building your own distortion pedal. […]