I was recently given this vintage Boss OD-1 pedal by a friend who no longer plays. According to the Boss serial number decoder, the pedal was released in 1978 making it a lot older than me! Notice that it doesn’t contain a ‘tone’ control like the later Boss pedals did. I’m the kind of person that likes to just plug in and play, so I found this quite intriguing.
Just to give you some background, the OD-1 was probably the first ever overdrive pedal to be manufactured (1977). The Ibanez Tube Screamer was released shortly afterwards, although apparently the early Ibanez pedals sounded quite fuzzy and distorted. Today, the Boss OD-1 sets the standard for tube driven guitar tones, along with the Ibanez Tube Screamer. In 1985, Boss discontinued the OD-1. The pedal was eventually replaced by the SD-1, which featured slightly different circuitry.
According to eBay, the 1978-1979 version of the OD-1 sells for around $380 for a used one, which is about the same price as buying a new boutique distortion pedal. Not a bad price in my opinion if you’re looking for a truly vintage sounding overdrive.
I went ahead and tested this pedal in comparison to some of my other OD’s, and I must admit that it takes a lot to beat a vintage OD-1. According to the experts, the OD-1’s tone still surpasses modern Boss pedals, primarily because of the 14-pin RC3403D or the NEC uPC4741C QUAD OP amp chip that was used. Later versions contained an 8-pin chip, although it did not sound like the original.
The original 14-pin chip
The replacement 8-pin chip
If you’re interested in how the vintage OD-1 sounds, take a look at the sound demo in the video below.
Reminds me of early Aerosmith tones