Vintage gear - is it worth it?

Is vintage gear worth the price? I.E a 1983 boss ds1. Costing £85? Since selling my old one i can't justify buying it new again (had debts and had to feed family so most of my stuff went) why is a new ds1 £55 now? When i got one around 6 years ago it was £30 so why the mark up?

Is vintage gear worth the price? I.E a 1983 boss ds1. Costing £85? Since selling my old one i can't justify buying it new again (had debts and had to feed family so most of my stuff went) why is a new ds1 £55 now? When i got one around 6 years ago it was £30 so why the mark up?

depends, the instance you've sited is pretty dubious. Were the early japanese pedals different? to a degree. Are they ebtter? up to opinion... for the kind of money you're describing are there GOBS of good current production DS1 based epdals that romp the original MIJ run as well as any subsequent versions? DEFINTIELY.

in the effects world there are much pricier old gadgets that are way mroe 'worth it' due to te inavailability of similar sounding stuff. That's becominging less and elss true, especially in teh world of fuzz and distortion, however in modulation adn delay effects I woulda say that certain thigns are worth it if you really want THAT sound. nothing else does a Mutron Biphase or Flanger. No substitute for the ADA Phaser and Flanger, nothing else like it. Every old tape echo ahs its charm and everything else is just an aproximation. A lot of this stuff you can't even get exact parts for anymore. If you have to have the exact sound and no one can really make a 1 to 1 clone then its worth it. Something like a DS1? Its not liek they can't make the new ones sound as good, they just can't do it and still sell them at ebginners prices that would shame Behringer. the DS1 has always been one of those super affordable, baby's first distortions. But with a handful of aprts costing about what a new DS1 costs you cna build oen to 80s spec, its notcomplicated or anything. Nothing's discontinued in tehre that I know of and its a simple circuit with ane asy to udnerstand dual opamp setup like all its cousins. I don't think the vast majority of classic designs are worth what they go for.. EHX knows this and offers super-affordable, well-made classic circuits invented by their competitors as does MXR. In fact, MXR's custom badass line is smattered with better-than-vintage Boss circuits. The Distortion is an original sec DS1 with some added features and the OD is an SD1 with extra goodies. both can sound just like the 80s units side by side, i checked. They also can overcome the shortcomings of said units. They are so cheap secondhand these days. My OD cost me MAYBE $40US.

I'm sorry to ehar about your financial woes, I'm leaning over a precipice myself. Need a new gig ASAP or I'll have to thin the herd again. its been awhile. Sorry you lost all your stuff. It stings when that happens.

I did have a 40th anniversary ds1 and thought it was crap to be honest. I want to try the mxr distortion + and the custom badass at some point. With the guitar stuff I just got rid of old gear an stuff i didn't use much. Kept epiphone and squier bullet strat and sold the rest. Have a Marshall MG30cfx which is okay but nothing special

While I definitely think that we're living in the golden age of affordable import guitars of very high quality, I just love old instruments and amps. My main guitar is a 1973 Guild S-100C (the one with oak leaf and acorn relief carved from the body), and every time I pick it up, I'm amazed by it.

represent brother, I have an S300, the crazy-shape that's like the abstard child of an explorer and an SG or soemthing. Love 60s and 70s Guild.

I adore the Distortion + and I'm probably buying another one tomorrow. Lots of classic and also incredibly dense tones to be had from those.

DOD 250... way more dynamic and muscular. YMMV though. Depends on the kidna amps you're into. Same epdal except the DOD swaps in some pretty typical silicon clipping diodes for the MXR/Ross germanium ones. I'm not really that big of a fan of germanium diodes as back to back, symmetrical clipping to ground. Awesome Boss/Fulltone style to added to 1 side of a pair for assymetrical waveform clipping to ground or in the feedback loop. But for symmetrical clipping a pair of germaniums just has too much forward voltage drop for my taste even at very low gains ettings and it neuters the output. Germanium ahs a nice built in high and low shelving effect as you slam it, but I prefer the wide open blizzard of nails sound of silicon diodes in the DOD version anyway.

Seriously, whyhave another distortion+ when you could get a 250 instead. having both is great. or ditch the one you have and just make one with a switch between all different clipping arrangements. A one-armed toddler with brain damage could probably make a distortion+.

I thought I sold my OD250 and didn't even know I ahd a dist+ until I went throughsome old junk looking for my ring mod a week or two ago. Iw as like "sheeeit! I done struck gold!"