One of the rarest Boss pedals of all time just went up for sale
Only six gold DS-1 Distortions were ever made... and now you can buy one
You might think you know Boss’s rarest pedals - the SP-1 Spectrum and SG-1 Slow Gear among them - but the scarcest of all are its limited-editions - and they don’t get much harder to find than the gold DS-1 Distortion that’s just gone up for sale on Reverb.
Just six of these dazzling distortion pedals were produced to commemorate 6,000,000 Boss compact effect units shipped worldwide by 28 February 1998, all of which is etched into the pedal’s footswitch.
Other neat touches include ‘Oct 1977’ and ‘Feb 1998’ in place of the usual input and output labels, harking back to the first-ever Boss compact pedals and the date of 6,000,000 shipped respectively.
The listing, from Portuguese retailer Rui’s Gear Bazaar, notes that the pedal “was only presented to overseas joint venture firms, in honor of their great contribution to Boss sales”.
It goes on to say that, “In general, replicas of this model often lack the function of the original, but the insides of this DS-1 are exactly the same as the original.
“In other words, if you plug in a guitar, it'll give you distortion.” Well, that’s good to know.
Given the rarity of these pedals, the price is certainly at a premium: you’ll need to fork out $7,025/£5,416 for the honour of owning this one - a far cry from the $/£49 the pedal usually demands.
Get the MusicRadar Newsletter
Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here.
Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.
“Over 400 effects based on those of the award-winning Axe-Fx III”: Fractal launches the VP4 ‘Virtual Pedalboard’ – a compact, hugely configurable digital multi-effects unit that could give your 'board the night off
“Muscular, articulate rock tones were the tones I always sought, but I made a name for myself in the ‘80s when you needed a little more aggression”: Friedman unveils the Jake E. Lee signature IR-J dual-channel tube preamp pedal