Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal 

Comments about Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal:

I've been through so much gear!! I'm always trading stuff in because I'm picky. But this one is a keeper. Unless you're only into boutique gear or something, do yourself a favor - buy one and just glue it down to your pedalboard.

Comments about Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal:

Well, it may sound funny but when I had to decide whether to choose between this or the Ibanez TS, the SD-1 immediately caught my attention. I wouldn't have had any problem about paying more for the TS9 but this pedal, the SD-1, sounded better to me.
I use it with Fender Stratocaster and Gibson SG, as you may know, both single and humbucking pickups, through a very good quality solid state amp. Its function is basically a booster to add more gain to a Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Mayhem stomp box. Well, it does not alter the overall tone at all, it only gives more gain and a little bit of volume, ideal for your solos, specially if you are a legato-runs boy.
Of course, you can use it alone and it behaves differently with singles and humbuckers. It's very subtle with single coils but gives you that spark we love from tube saturation. On the other hand, with humbuckers it becomes more aggressive so you can get a very smooth distortion but keeping the sound of your guitar and amplifier.

Comments about Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal:

I was needing an overdrive to get some more bite out of my clean channel and more push in my crunch/heavy channel money was a factor as is the case most of the time. I did some reserch and got this pedal as i noticed looking around the studio that i own 3 boss pedals and all of them do what they say. All still work and one is a rv-2 gotta be 20 yrs old works every time so this was my deciding factor i got the sd-1 and could not be happier

Comments about Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal:

Sturdy build, easy to adjust settings, does have have some feedback noise, re-adjusted pedal line-up, no problems. Nice addition to add some juice to your tone.

Comments about Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal:

This pedal is a solid overdrive pedal. It has plenty of distortion on tap, yet can be drawn back to a clean boost. It responds well your picking and cleans up nicely with the volume of your guitar. The main flaw is that it is not very transparent; it colors your tone more than I would like. However, it provides a wonderful increase in sustain and "air" that makes it ideal for leads. I would thus use it only as a boost for leads and pick up another pedal for rhythm or general tone modification.

Comments about Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal:

I've only used this thing a couple of times. I only own one guitar cable, so I can't run it from my amp. I bring it over too a friend's house and plug it in with his extra cable.

That being said, this pedal is great! I don't like clean electric guitars, or ultra-thick distortion levels, so I read that overdrive is nice for that balance. Fifty dollars is not enough! If you want some good distortion, just crank the tone up, and for less effect, turn it down. It's as simple as that! I play alternative, acoustic, worship, rock, and stuff like that, and I think this pedal works and sounds incredible for the price. I would really recommend this to anybody!

Comments about Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal:

I'm a beginning adult guitarist and wanted to play around with the different sounds that I could get from using a pedal. Not wanting to spend a ton of money I found the SD-1 came highly rated and at a good price. The pedal came and I plugged it into my small tube amp and began noodling around. At first the unit was great. Again, I'm a beginner so I'm sure that I wasn't using this thing to it's potential but it was still fun to hear the different sounds I could get. I used the pedal maybe 5 times in my basement, never out of the house, no gigs, nothing like that. Around the fifth time I used the pedal it started acting up. With the pedal hooked up but not activated I had no problems. When I activated the overdrive I would get static coming through the amp. Thinking it was either a cable gone bad or a tube possibly going out I swapped all that out for new items. The problem persisted.

I contacted the customer support by email and got a reply saying that the pedal sounded defective and would need to go in for repair. Remember, this is a brand new pedal that has been used a total of two weeks at this point. I called the customer support number included in the email to talk with a representative. They agreed that the pedal needed to come in for repair and that I would need to pay for return shipping on the item.

As the product was brand new, for me to pay to ship back a clearly defective item was inane. I told the representative this and was told that's the way it was, take it or leave it, then I was hung up on. I called back, different representative but same answer, this time I wasn't hung up on though.

I would understand if the pedal had been used longer but this pedal was two weeks old. I refused to spend any more money on a product of a company that completely fails to cover a defective product. In the future I will take my purchases to other manufacturers that will actually back their products. The low price of this pedal is enticing but indicative of the quality to be expected.

Comments about Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal:

I wanted a pedal that would overdrive my already overdriven Marshall without turning my tone to fuzz. This pedal was the right choice. By using the "level" control and turning the "drive" knob down, it acts as a clean boost; just enough for leads, adding a little extra grit and sustain.

Comments about Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal:

Get one,,,,,if you play valve amps and are looking for that violin like sustain without making your tone muddy or altered.
I bought my SD-1 about 12 years ago, and use it as many do, as a sort of "boost" to make my leads just sing and sustain. I've used it this way in front of many Marshalls over the years , and it works wonders. I've been using it the same way with my dream amp, Soldano SLO100, since 2005. I much prefer to keep the gain on the SLO around six or so, and use this pedal as a slight boost for more "hair" , as Reb Beach says, for some heavier tunes and all solos. I absolutely love it.....just makes the amp sing and sustain when used very sparingly into an already overdriven amp. Doesn't alter the tone in a negative way at all.
Still looks fairly new (although I really pamper my gear) and I never had even one minor issue with it.
Look at the price, then try one out. A steal of a value, and used by countless pros over the years.

Comments about Boss SUPER OverDrive SD-1 Pedal:

I use this pedal as a boost putting it behind my distortion. It really give me a nice boost and smooth sound for solos. But using stand alone can give a really nice light distortion for just about anything you need.
With a basic Volume, Gain and Tone it doesn't get much easier to use.
It's your basic Boss pedal. Metal case, solid and can take about anything you can throw at it.