What makes this pedal great? Boss OD-1

In this video, we dive into a bit of pedal history, legacy and circuit characteristics of the Boss OD-1 overdrive pedal, how it is related to the tubescreamer (both ts-9 and ts808), the boss sd-1, od-2, and od-3.

When I was a kid, I wanted a cranked Marshall amp like my guitar heroes had, but tube amps weren't as common or affordable as they are now. My first amp was a Kingston solid-state, which was sort of the normal type of amp for a kid starting out then.. Later, in my early teens, I upgraded to a Crate G40 and swapped my Ibanez chorus pedal for this exact Boss OD-1 with a friend of mine, Joe Sherfick.

The OD-1 was a game-changer in the world of overdrive pedals though.. There was nothing quite like it around, and most “dirt” pedals were fuzzier rather than having that tight overdrive sound. It did have a major flaw though many thought -It didn't have a tone control. So Ibanez added a tone control, but had to use symmetrical clipping because Boss had a patent on their asymmetrical clipping style and came out with the tubescreamer.

Boss came back with the SD-1 in 1981 though, which was very similar to the Tube Screamer, which…. was quite similar to the OD-1.

Fast-forward to '85, Boss released the OD-2 to replace the OD-1. Oddly, they changed the circuitry completely, making it sound entirely different. They did add a high-gain turbo mode, though. But in 1997 Boss introduced the OD-3 with different circuits yet again, and a great overdriven sound.

Sure, the OD-1 has some limitations, such as a bit of a mid-rangey tone, no tone control, lack of bass, and a slightly funky power supply requirement that doesn't always work with standard 9V DC power supplies. It's also been referred to as a "one-trick pony," but I like it!

Despite these limitations, the OD-1 was revolutionary for its time. It introduced asymmetrical clipping and it’s a platform for those into modding and building pedals.. You can modify it easily to add more or a different style of gain, more or less bass and treble, or even add an entirely different EQ section.

Without the OD-1, we wouldn't have had the Tube Screamer or the many versions of that circuit. More importantly, we wouldn’t have the great tones captured on numerous recordings by some of our favorite guitarists.

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