Boss DS-1 (Keeley Ultra Mod)

This is one of the new additions to my pedalboard. I wasn't really looking for a distortion pedal but I stumbled upon a demo of the DS-1 Ultra on YouTube and was sold right away. I immediately began browsing for a distributor here in Europe and since the pound is pretty weak against the euro right now, I ended up ordering it from the UK. I received the package just in time for Christmas :). It was fun to see those 'little differences' between Boss' US and European packaging... Those damn Yankees get a 5 year warranty, not fair! ;) A warranty, which I guess is void now that Mr. Keeley and his trusted employees had their way with this brand new Boss DS-1 (Keeley provides a 2 year warranty on workmanship). As far as the sound goes, this modified version is nothing like the original. The distortion is rich, creamy, harmonic, very musical indeed. A red LED is added to the circuit (right where the 'o' used to be in 'tone' under the left side knob), which lights up as you pick a note. The brighter the LED, the more distorted your sound gets. The pedal cleans up beautifully as you roll back the volume on the guitar or lighten your picking attack. A switch is added to the left of the said LED, which allows you to choose between 'Seeing Eye' (up position) and 'Ultra' (down position) modes. The latter has less gain but a higher output and makes the pedal sound more like an overdrive. I've played around with both and haven't really made up my mind yet about which one I like better. The pedal has three knobs: tone, level and distortion ('dist'). Operating it is straight forward. The instructions provided by Keeley along with the pedal are very helpful, too. I found my sweet spot with the tone control at around 11:00. Things can get as harsh or as muddy as you like, the tone range is surprisingly wide. The 'dist' knob goes from a slight crunch to full blown shred heaven. Again, a good array of sounds to play with. I really enjoy cranking it, although I'm pretty sure I won't be doing that too much in practice. Radio Daze is no metal outfit... Optical changes include a super bright blue status LED (which verges on the annoying, IMHO) and cool new knobs (you do get the originals in the package, though, if you prefer those). I'm still yet to try the DS-1 Ultra with the band but have high hopes for it.