Whats the story with DS-2s?

[Luke Drifter]

I've never had one
I gather that MIJ ones and early MITs had geranium diodes
and that later ones had silly cones
Some opinions in the Gear Page include that they all sound the same
Is there a golden era?
I assume there is at least one good sound in the box

Jeremy

[chromandre]

I've never had one
I gather that MIJ ones and early MITs had geranium diodes
and that later ones had silly cones
Some opinions in the Gear Page include that they all sound the same
Is there a golden era?
I assume there is at least one good sound in the box

Jeremy

They're good! I've been meaning to revisit DS-2, I forget but now I wonder how close 'mode II' sounds to an HM-2 with a normal/flat EQ setting. I don't much care for HM-2 with all knobs max sound anyway. Since theyve exploded in price maybe I'll just take a DS-2 instead


Also noted that the germanium diodes are D14/D15, not the main clipping diodes. They appear very early in the circuit signal flow, and was never included aspect of the DS-1. I am unsure how much it really impacts the sound but I do like the idea of having them if it was originally designed this way.

[zentropa]

I've never had one
I gather that MIJ ones and early MITs had geranium diodes
and that later ones had silly cones
Some opinions in the Gear Page include that they all sound the same
Is there a golden era?
I assume there is at least one good sound in the box

Jeremy

I have had ~13 DS-2, 7 with germanium, 6 with silicone.

The 6 silicone were fairly uniform. While there was a bit of variance in EQing and compression due to component variances, the base characteristics/texture were extremely similar. Standard mode was very V1 DS-1-like, turbo mode being that with a big mid boost. I actually find these to be one of the most consistent sounding Boss pedals.

The 7 germanium were all different. With each of them, either standard or turbo mode sounded much better than the other, but it varied which one that was. A couple of them sounded pretty close to a silicone DS-2. A couple of them sounded like they were an entirely different pedal. Some sounded close to a silicone DS-2 in 1 of the 2 modes, but which mode varied from pedal to pedal. One I got recently sounded like... a hard-clipping Klon/TS9/Rat hybrid, which was to say it was in a completely different ballpark. A couple of them had an entirely unusable turbo mode... like incredibly harsh that would feedback almost immediately (these ones had a pretty significant volume boost on turbo mode). Others sounded great in turbo mode and lifeless on standard.

I wish I could give more definitive info other than "no, they don't all sound the same."

The difficulty with these is that if you want to know what sounds you are getting, go with a silicone. IMO the best sounding ones I have played were certain germanium ones, but a couple of them were awful.

The prices on MIJ DS-2 are currently way up, like $100 more than they were 5 years ago (probably in large part due to Frusciante copycats).

[chromandre]

I have had ~13 DS-2, 7 with germanium, 6 with silicone.

The 6 silicone were fairly uniform. While there was a bit of variance in EQing and compression due to component variances, the base characteristics/texture were extremely similar. Standard mode was very V1 DS-1-like, turbo mode being that with a big mid boost. I actually find these to be one of the most consistent sounding Boss pedals.

The 7 germanium were all different. With each of them, either standard or turbo mode sounded much better than the other, but it varied which one that was. A couple of them sounded pretty close to a silicone DS-2. A couple of them sounded like they were an entirely different pedal. Some sounded close to a silicone DS-2 in 1 of the 2 modes, but which mode varied from pedal to pedal. One I got recently sounded like... a hard-clipping Klon/TS9/Rat hybrid, which was to say it was in a completely different ballpark. A couple of them had an entirely unusable turbo mode... like incredibly harsh that would feedback almost immediately (these ones had a pretty significant volume boost on turbo mode). Others sounded great in turbo mode and lifeless on standard.

I wish I could give more definitive info other than "no, they don't all sound the same."

The difficulty with these is that if you want to know what sounds you are getting, go with a silicone. IMO the best sounding ones I have played were certain germanium ones, but a couple of them were awful.

The prices on MIJ DS-2 are currently way up, like $100 more than they were 5 years ago (probably in large part due to Frusciante copycats).

thats crazy! Thanks for the info! I think I'll just scoop up any through hole/ taiwan version and just play with swapping out matched germanium diodes of various values, I'm going to make a guess that they were only supposed to be close to the same voltage drop as silicon anyways

[zentropa]

thats crazy! Thanks for the info! I think I'll just scoop up any through hole/ taiwan version and just play with swapping out matched germanium diodes of various values, I'm going to make a guess that they were only supposed to be close to the same voltage drop as silicon anyways

Anytime. Please let us know how the swap goes in regards to a before/after tone comparison.

[zentropa]

If anyone knows what year they switched to silicone diodes, I am trying to find out since I have seen a few MIT with germanium diodes.

[Luke Drifter]

there are a number of MIT DS-2s advertised on reverb at the minute, which are diverted as Gemanium

[bigtone23]

My DS2 is a MIT from 11/08. The meter voltage and my eyes tell me that it’s all SI.
Compared to my benchmark ‘86 DS1, it’s in the orange/DS family, but in comparison, the DS2 does have a mid forward or focused tonality in Mode I, and Mode II is certainly more middy/focused vs Mode I. The volume jump isn’t radically different. The tonality between the modes are acceptably congruent. I find I prefer mode I, mode II is too focused for me.