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The Boss OD-1 Overdrive was introduced in 1977 and was (essentially) the first compact Overdrive pedal ever made. It became the basis for the Ibanez Tubescreamer - aside from the TS808 having symmetrical clipping rather than asymmetrical and an added tone control, the OD-1 and TS808 are incredibly similar. (So when every company nowadays offers a 'Tubescreamer-style OD', what they really mean is they offer an 'OD-1-style OD'!)

Originally, Boss used a 14-Pin RC3403D Quad Op Amp chip - but for whatever reason (Boss said reliability; though more likely to reduce costs) they changed to using a Dual Op Amp JRC4558D - the same chip that became used in the TS808. However this - along with various other changes to the circuit - affected the sound. Original 14-Pin OD-1's now go for huge amounts of money online.

I sent my 1980 8-Pin Long-Dash OD-1 to Analog Man, as they offer two mods for this pedal: the 'Vintage' mod, changing the capacitors back to how they would have originally been, and the 'Vintage Chip' mod - same as before, but with the addition of the 8-Pin chip being changed back to a 14-Pin JRC3403D. (I went for the full works)

This mod is said by Mike Piera to give the exact sound of the original OD-1 (and if there's one name in the pedal industry we trust on matters such as this, it's Analog Mike!!) So - we can reliably say that this is an accurate comparison of the original 14-pin Boss OD-1 sound and the revised 8-pin OD-1 sound.

Do you like it? Which sound do you prefer? Comment below with your thoughts!

Guitars are a Fender Strat, Fender Tele (with Bare Knuckle '55 Stagger Pickups) and a 1992 Gibson Les Paul Standard through a Hughes & Kettner Puretone, recorded with a simple SM57 and an sE Electronics RNR1 Ribbon.

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jp@joeperkins.co.uk

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