played through and have many many boutique pedals....lately been using ds-1 as my first od/dist on the pedal board...tone and dist are both in the 8 o'clock zone...tone should always be very very low.....turn it on and back off volume to 5 you have a nice clean sound with a bit of hair....bring it up and it gets bluesy and heavier, but it doesn't have a mid bump like TS style...which is good....when using other drives i reserve the ds-1 to push them to higher gain....pedal is quiet, built like a tank....got this for 30 used....and i'm really appreciating it, a lot...playing through DRRI  btw..