I bought a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal because I love the way your distortion sounds on the G3 live album. I don’t think I’m doing it right though. I plugged my guitar into the ‘input’ of the pedal and then another cable from the ‘output’ of the pedal into the ‘input’ of my Hughes and Kettner Tube/50 head. But it sounds buzzy no matter where I position the knobs on the pedal or the head for that matter. Am I doing something wrong? Is there some piece of equipment that I need but am not aware of? I also have a Bad Horsie wah that I want to use. I’ll appreciate any help you can give me. Sincerely,
– Jake Terry
Steve replies:
“Jake, it sounds like your plugging everything in right. Check the battery in the distortion. With my set-up, when the distortion pedal is turned off the amp is a little dirty sounding. Kind of a chunky rhythm tone that I use as a basic sound for all the songs. If I back off the volume on the guitar the sound clears up enough to use it for cleaner songs. When I crank the volume on the guitar and hit the pedal it’s usually pretty distorted but smooth. The way I set the knobs on the DS-1 are tone control to about 9 o’clock, level at about 11 o’clock and the distortion to about 11 o’clock. If your amp is set very clean then crank the distortion on the pedal all the way up but smooth it out by bringing the tone way down, maybe to 7 or 8 o’clock. The basic sound is in the tone but most important is the way you hit the notes. The real tone is always in your head and fingers.” Other things you might want to check, if this doesn’t clear it up for you, are your cable and positioning. A bad cable could be the culprit for buzz, or try changing where you put your amp in case nearby power lines etc. are causing noise.