Boss DS-1 Distortion

There's very little point in building a 1:1 clone, as you can score the original unit for peanuts as used. Possibly even cheaper than what the parts alone would cost you to build one. But instead of going through a painful bypass operation on a Boss box and having your way with the circuit, you can build your own and mod it to the perfection for yourself. There are a number of mod ideas on the web for this circuit.

The original units use Mitsubishi M5223AL SIP chip and 2SC2240 transistors. Since M5223 is still just a pretty standard dual opamp, any of our usual choices (JRC4558, TL072, NE55532, etc.) will work fine. Or in some cases, even sound way better than the original. The second transistor (the one on the top on the layout) is your first gain stage, so i do recommend socketing that one and the opamp to try out what suits you the best. The size of the board is slightly bigger than what i usually go for, but since it's 17 rows in height, this'll fit nicely in 1590B if you mount the board sideways. I built one already to see if the layout works and made a few value changes on it. 2N5088 + JRC4558 gives a mean, nearly sadistic texture for the distortion, upping certain cap values will add a ot of bass content and 5mm yellow LEDs for clippers make this one sick fuzz..