Boss Super Overdrive SD-1
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The SD-1 produces the warm, smooth distortion of an overdriven tube amplifier.
Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price: $97.50
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User Reviews of the Boss Super Overdrive SD-1
- Submitted by Adam from Washington, DC (22 points) on May 31, 2013
- Sleeper hit. Was originally gifted the SD-1 and a DS-1 along with it; tried to look grateful for the girlfriend. Two or three years later, somehow, without my realizing it happened, I find it's in almost every setup I do. I think after you've been noising a while, you learn to appreciate effects that do a little bit less as a good complement to other tools. I love it in an floop. Use two hands to shift the tone and OD at the same time. Both of those knobs, used together or separately, will vary the texture of your loop in ways that can be subtle or quite dramatic without losing control over the signal.
- Good Points: Has proven indispensible to me in floops. Will help you coax new sounds out of your other pedals. Cheap as bricks and ten times more solid. It also provides a nice boost once the Level is pushed past 12. In your chain, put this right before a pedal you love. Put this in a two-pedal floop with a modular effect that performs well by itself and unlock secret sounds. With fuzz or distortion, use the Tone knob to shift slowly from rumbling sludge to screeches and tweak the OD to blur or sharpen the texture of the signal. I love the dynamics and tension this pedal makes possible in a noise "song".
- Bad Points: Not a standalone pedal for noise. Tone-wise, it does very little "coloring" on its own; doesn't seem to add warmth, although it can give the impression it does on strings. Tone knob works by cutting and boosting an equal amount (meaning, on a graph, it would be a single line whose slope is adjusted to tilt towards low-end or highs instead of a smooth, moving curve). The OD, I believe, is primarily a compressor effect and seems to have a low threshold; push the OD all the way up, and all sounds approach equal volume. On guitar, once the OD gets around 12 o'clock, you'll hear every electron bouncing around your strings, cables and power cords. The upshot of this is an intense amount of sustain from strings and feedback from speakers. When making git-noise, I typically start my chain with the SD for max feedback.
- Price Paid: US$0.00
- Purchased At: they're all over craigslist
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- Submitted by Iain David from United Kingdom (144 points) on Oct 5, 2007
- Like the previous reveiwers have said this pedal is fantastic for adding some additional grit and colour to your signal chains, as wells as providing a useful boost (especially useful at the end of long pedal chains). Using this with a noise shaker as the input i've managed to get some pretty caustic highs with the tone knob turned fully clockwise. The gain isn't super low, but by the same token not really high enough to make this a primary distortion either. In shirt, a pretty good pedal for the price, especially considring you can pick it up for around the same amount as the DS-1.....
- Good Points: - Useful for augmenting your chain with a little grit and variation in texture. - Cheap. - Doesn't allow itself to be overwhelmed in long chains as much as I thought it might.
- Bad Points: - Gain isn't really high enough to be used on it's own.
- Price Paid: US$0.00
- Purchased At:
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- Submitted by tapesss from Brooksville, FL (344 points) on Apr 14, 2007
- fairly useful in a noise situation based on tapes, for a load of extra grit, really helps a muddy signal. for a wall type situation, not really as good. This pedal really does well when you are amplifying acoustic sources, it's a great junk-noise pedal. bang around some sheet metal with a contact mic with this, and it sounds great. adds a good amount of boost as well.
- Good Points: adds some high end and boosts your signal, great for contact mic situations.
- Bad Points: not so good for full on walls.
- Price Paid: US$40.00
- Purchased At: eBay
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- Submitted by Craig from Burbank, CA (6 points) on Nov 11, 2006
- I find this pedal only mildly useful in certain situations. Most of the time it gets left behind in favor of more versatile pedals. Still, if used at the right point in a loop, this pedal can add a nice screech onto another distortion or a soft overdrive to an otherwise clean sound.
- Good Points: Boss construction
- Bad Points: Not the most versatile pedal
- Price Paid: US$0.00
- Purchased At: Gift
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- Submitted by Ed from Durango (2 points) on Mar 4, 2006
- I found this pedal pretty useful as a signal booster. I use to plug it before my DS2 with the level at 100% and tone about 40% for insane gain and smooth sustain. It doesn't sound as good as I thought. Too bad.
- Good Points: *It's a Boss. *Great for Coldplay-ish sounds. *Doesn't eat batteries.
- Bad Points: *The sound turns weak and bodyless when you turn the Drive knob counter clockwise. *NOT recommended for those who want a crunchy sound. Check out an E~H Big Muff or a Rat first.
- Price Paid: US$72.00
- Purchased At: Local music shop
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- Submitted by fran from Nottingham (68 points) on Feb 25, 2005
- The Boss SD-1 is well worth the price, not extreme but still packs a punch at loud volumes. A decent booster as well, the tone has more range than the god-awful DS-1 and even with everything up full its still musical. Open chords sparkle although for ripping solo's you'd need additional boost.
- Good Points: Easy to use, indestructable, long battery life, cheap price in comparison to other overdrives and always sounds musical.
- Bad Points: None. Remember its an OVERDRIVE.
- Price Paid: US$0.00
- Purchased At: second hand
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- Submitted by Rob from London (362 points) on Mar 22, 2002
- Good for adding some grit or sparkle to cleaner bits. Also very good to boost another distortion pedal to feedback. It's not a main distortion. You would use this to slightly distort a clean passage before the heavyness begins. It still love this pedal though, it's got a lovely sound.
- Good Points: Good sound Good for boosting Cheap and easy to find.
- Bad Points: Not a heavy distortion but what did you expect? It's an OVERDRIVE
- Price Paid: US$30.00
- Purchased At: Shop
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- Submitted by gr-eh? from Detroit, MI (402 points) on Mar 17, 2002
- i was so prepared to hate this thing once i got it home. dude at the shop said it was broken so i got it cheap. small grounding issue (no plastic sheet between board and backplate!) fixed and hooked it up.. not too amazing on its own but in a loop it can really color the tone of the sound and add some grit.. also nicely clips when fed overloaded sounds.
- Good Points: works better than i had expected. definitely a keeper even if it has limited use. as previous reviewer said, tone knob is nice.
- Bad Points: nothing really, for the price.
- Price Paid: US$15.00
- Purchased At: pawn shop
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- Submitted by Johnny from Waterloo, IA (14 points) on Aug 5, 2001
- Set with the knobs all the way up it is really good for most playing, but it's not noisy enough, it doesn't make most people's ears ache. The tone knob kind of makes the pedal good. I like it because you can still play chords with it.
- Good Points: You can play chords and still have some drive and it was very cheap
- Bad Points: With the drive all the way up you can hear some fuzz when the box is off. But if you put it in your effects loop the problem is gone.
- Price Paid: US$45.00
- Purchased At: Bob's Guitars
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