Grab yourself one of the earliest pieces of overdrive history with this lovely Boss OD-1 Overdrive pedal from 1980

At first sight, the BOSS OD‑1 Over Drive seems like a normal Japanese effect pedal. However, looks can be deceiving. The demure little yellow stomp box is one of the original now‑vintage incarnations of the ubiquitous and massively popular overdrive pedals from the late 1970s and early 1980s. If ever there was a classic BOSS overdrive pedal, this may well be it. The Boss OD‑1 Over Drive was the first Boss compact pedal as well as one of the very first overdrive pedals ever made. The OD‑1 was in production from 1977 to 1985 and set the industry standard for valve‑like overdriven guitar sounds emanating from a compact pedal. The OD‑1 even beat its major competitor, the classic Ibanez TS‑808 Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro by almost a year. The original BOSS OD‑1 shares much DNA with the much‑lauded Tube Screamer, including the use of the same JRC 4558D integrated circuit (although early OD‑1s featured an RC3403 op amp chip). For the tech‑heads out there, the BOSS OD‑1 pedal uses asymmetric clipping whereas the TS‑808 affects the positive and negative halves of the waveform equally, reportedly giving the OD‑1 a more natural sounding distortion. The modest OD‑1 provides access to the wonderful mid‑range crunchy sound, that when pushed hard verges on distortion rather than overdrive. Simplicity is key to its operation, with not even a tone control to contend with. While relatively pricey on the vintage effect market, the BOSS OD‑1 remains significantly more cost‑effective than equivalent Ibanez TS‑808s, probably due to the latter’s association with the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Features:

Made in Japan by Roland Corporation

The ‘Level’ knob controls the output volume

The ‘Over Drive’ knob controls the amount of distortion

BOSS treadle footswitch turns the effect on and off

LED ‘Check’ light to indicate when the effect is in use

Standard ¼” input and output mono jack sockets

12V DC (BOSS ACA) power supply or 9V battery

Japan Radio Corporation JRC4558D op amp chip

Black ‘Made in Japan’ label on the base of the pedal

‘Long dash’ model name

No box or instruction manual