Boss Overdrive (SD-1)

my first overdrive pedal was the same as yours.
things to know:
put it first in the chain. have your guitar volume up full. that way the biggest signal goes into the box and it can read it and do it's thing. if the volume is set low on the guitar the pedal will sound muddy and wimpy.
use the EQ after the OD1.
I use my EQ for clean boosts and it sure is handy shaping the tone of the overdrive.
the box has an output so that will help set your performance volume.
the gain or drive is what makes the gritty dirt to the sound. play around with the setting. sometimes less is better.
turn your amp to the volume and settings you usually use.
you are good to go.

I like having a volume pedal in my effects chain. I then have total control of the final performance volume.
since my guitar is turned up max that volume pedal allows me to play soft but still have the ovverdriven tone.

hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice! I look forward to getting it and playing around with it. I'm glad you told me about turning it up on the guitar and putting the od pedal first in the chain. I'm sure you saved me hours or days of trial and error.

Thanks!

hey in regards to MrJonesry...

i have my sd-1 after my wah... sounds awsome... more for a subtle dirt or booster i reckon... i maybe wrong... i tired out the od3 the day after i bought the sd-1 it tends to have a bit more low end, like the blues driver both of which im considering. haha - with that said, im very happy with the sd-1 - nice buy :)

Personally I think the SD1 (and boss pedals in general) sound like crap on cheap amps. Should sound fine on youramp though, really a pretty basic but good pedal. :)

Personally I think the SD1 (and boss pedals in general) sound like crap on cheap amps. Should sound fine on youramp though, really a pretty basic but good pedal. :)

LOL! Reminds me of Caddy Shack when Rodney Dangerfield is making fun of the hat in the pro shop .... "but it looks good on you." :lol:

Wow!!!! This has been an exciting afternoon/evening.

I have been waiting ever so not patiently for about a week for this OD pedal to arrive. It finally showed up today while I was at work. Well, I couldn't wait to get home to try it out. I already have the boss EQ pedal, so I also ordered the Boss power chain so I can hook up like 7 or 8 pedals with one power supply (which I bought with the EQ pedal). Well, when I tried to hook everything up, I found that I couldn't. All of the connectors males. I thought there would be a female receptor to hook it all up. Well, what Boss failed to make clear was that you needed another pedal to link the rest of them together. So, I'll keep a long story short, but I just got back from Guitar Center with my new tuner (and $100 poorer). So now I have three pedals. Man, that just seems like a lot of money just to tune a guitar. :cry:

MrJonesey

Yeah, they are designed to be powered by the TU-2 tuner. I own this tuner, really love it, I also have the daisy chain. I believe it will power up to 7 additional pedals. And they do not have to be Boss pedals, I have used it for many different makes like Danelectro, Arion, DOD, Behringer and others, works great for all of them.

I think this tuner is a good value, it is very durable. I have owned mine about 5 years and it has taken a beating. It has been kicked around and even had beer spilled on it, still works great. It is super easy to see in the dark, and the mute feature is great. Nothing worse than somebody tuning their guitar between songs. :roll:

I have never used the Boss overdrive but have always heard good things about it. The main thing about overdrives and distortions is to keep the gain down some, especially when playing at volume. Everybody has their own idea of great tone, but if you listen to professional recordings you will realize that they really do not use much gain at all. It is usually just a barely broken-up tone just past clean. These are the tones that really cut through in live situations and do not sound mushy or get drowned in the mix.

But heh, you gotta crank the gain sometimes. :twisted:

Have fun with your new pedals.

Wes

Wes,

Thanks for the response. I'm still new at these pedal things. It was just a couple of months ago that I bought my first pedal (EQ). Now I have enough that I was able to make myself a little pedal board. It turned out pretty good, by the way. I even have a small piece of luggage which I use as a case.

Yeah, I noticed that I don't care for the tone knob on the pedal much. My amp has a great, warm, clean tone, and the tone knob on the pedal makes it sound much cheaper. I love the pedal with the gain turned up aobut a third of the way and the volume just a bit louder than normal operating level. I then run to the EQ, which is also just a bit louder than normal operating level with the mids slightly cut and the highs and lows slghtly raised (I konw, typical smile config). This allows me to do a solo with either the clean slightly boosted or with the OD slightly boosted. And if I really want to stand out, I hit them both.

I'm still looking for that perfect "Blues" setting, but I think I'm getting closer. I'm looking for warm and smooth with a bit of a rough edge. Let me know if you have any ideas.

By the way, I do love the tuner pedal.

Regards,

Jim

I have the SD1 as well, love it so far. It's well worth the money. My son has the DS-1, but he leans more toward hard rock/heavy metal.

Settings-wise, I'm still looking for the perfect settings. One thing I never change is the Tone, I keep it at the 9 o'clock position. Any more than that and it sounds horrible. Level, I go between 10 o'clock and 1 o'clock and Drive I used to keep cranked up at 3 o'clock, but I'm finding more and more than I'm liking it at the 12 o'clock. Especially for blues. But I still crank it way up to play Boston.

I don't have the EQ pedal or any other pedal for that matter. I'm playing through a Peavey Nashville 112 80W amp (it's actually a steel guitar amp, it's on semi-permanent loan from my grandfather). Like someone said, turn your guitar up to 10, 11 if it you got it.

I then run to the EQ, which is also just a bit louder than normal operating level with the mids slightly cut and the highs and lows slghtly raised (I konw, typical smile config).

Scooping your mids does sound good for rhythm guitar, you get that classic Marshall type tone. But this setting is lousy for lead guitar, when you play with a bass player you will get drowned in the mix. Even cranked loud you will barely hear your guitar. Go see live bands and you will see this problem over and over again. If you want your lead guitar to be heard you need to boost your mids.

I like to push the far left slider on an EQ up to about 5 decibels boost. But I pull the next one down about -10 decibels. The next is about -5, the next about +5 (mids), the next (mids) boosted about 7.5 decibels, the next boosted about 5, the next flat. Now that is just me, everybody likes their own tone. But these tone settings work great in a mix, you will not get drowned by the bass or even mix with it. By itself it is not bassy, but you already have a bass player in a band. You want your own slot where you can be heard. And when you solo you want to hear it distinctly. The way to do this is boost your mids.

Lots of players want this super low tone. But in a band situation is does not work. Your bass player will bury you, you will barely be able to hear yourself. Let the bass player play the lows, play the mids, that's where guitar sounds best.

Just my 2 cent, your milage will vary. :D

Wes

Wes - Great advice! I set the EQ just like you said and I loved how it cuts with the mids boosted. I then tweaked it a bit ti fit my particular taste, but not much. My EQ is set at:

+5, -10, -5, +7.5, +10, +5, 0

I may tweak it some more, but I love the tone. Especially with the tone on my OD set at about 3 o'clock and the drive at between 10 and 11 o'clock. And if I turn both pedals off, I get that lower warm tone which is nice for certain situations (my amps treb is just past 4 and pulled for a "bright" tone with the bass knob at almost 7. Just a touch of reverb and my presence is at just past 8.

I'm starting to really like my tone. I'm so happy you turned me onto boosting my mids. You're right about me getting drowned out sometimes. I'll try these settings at Fridays practice. It feels like it's going to really cut through.

Thanks!

Jim

MrJonesey

Those are just my favorite settings, glad you tweaked them a little to your liking. I do boost the far left slider, adds a little warmth to the tone. The 2nd slider on the left can cause the most problems, crank it up and your tone will get very muddy and boomy, some even say "farts". Sorry, but that's the term.

Next practice use these new settings and I bet everyone will complain that you cranked your amp up. 8)

Your amp is just as loud as it was, but now your mids are cutting through and everyone can hear you. :wink:

The discussion here got me searching the net again looking for some settings on the SD-1. I ran across this link...

http://www.bossarea.com/loadpage.asp?file=boxes/sd1.xml

This info may be in the manual that comes with the pedal, I bought mine used, so I don't have the manual. I tried the settings they mention for mild overdrive and it sounds pretty good. Level: 6 Tone: 4 Drive: 4. The other setting they mention doesn't sound good at all. But I turned the Tone down to about 4 with the same settings and it's better. Any more than 4 or 5 on the Tone knob and it just sounds too "trebley"

I am beginning to build my pedals back up (after a period of having no money and no time to play and so selling them all) and the first three things I've bought are an EQ, a Boss TU-2 and a Boss SD-1!

Great minds think alike...

I love all three. I have the SD-1 settings at Level:4, Tone:5, Drive:4. I don't have an amp of my own other than a little practise amp (see above reason!) but through my brother-in-laws Marshall Valvestate something-or-other those settings give me a great sound that I might describe as a 'bark' when playing rhythm or a 'growl' when playing lead. I love it anyway.

I believe the TU-2 is a must have for any person playing electric string instruments. There is no better or easier way of keeping yourself in tune IMO, although I'm sure some would have other ideas. My EQ is the Danelectro one that I got years ago on Wes' recommendation. Cheap as 'Chips :wink: and works perfectly.

Interesting what you say about mids cutting through Wes. I have already discovered through trial and error that less is more when it comes to gain but my biggest issue sound wise is still being able to hear what I'm playing properly. Everyone else always complains that the guitarists are too loud and yet the guitarists always say that they can't hear themselves! Now I think about it is makes perfect sense as I also have my EQ set to be a (lop-sided!) smiley face.

Next time I play with the band I'll try out the kind of settings you guys have put here and blow them all away! Cheers!