Part of Digitech's double play pedals, this distortion allows you to program two channels of distortion and switch between the two or bypass them all together. There are seven knobs on this guy with a level and gain for each channel, a frequency selector (100hz-3.7khz) and cut/boost, and an octave control. One of the great pedals from the mid to late 80's--A Digitech PDS 1550 Programmable distortion (and delay). These pedals are set up not only to switch on and off, BUT also has 2 separately controllable distortions! Controls include Frequency, Octaves, Cut/Boost, Level A, Gain A, Level B and Gain B. Also, you can completely customize your sound by removing the bottom panel. Inside is a series of 7 DIP switches that controls 10, 20, or 40 ms of delay going to A channel, B Channel or both, Parametric to A channel or Both, Hi Filter controls, Low boost controls, and Delay on/off. Also has a trimpot inside to control Hi Filter cut/boost. There is a card inside the unit that explains these controls. Unit also has A & B Channel LED's.
Good Points: great all-purpose unit
Bad Points: puting dip switches where the noise communnity can't easily reach them...shame on you dod/didtech...
Good Points: Channel A is nice, nice EQ section, and sturdy.
Bad Points: Channel B.
The size.
Why the dip switches were not available to the public is beyond my grasp.
Good Points: easy control, dual channels in one pedal
Bad Points: mine broke easily, but sounds even better
The Eq section is great and can make almost envelope filter type sounds, the octave seems to do nothing. A bloody Marvellous piece of kit!!!
Good Points: The sound, construction and tweakability
Bad Points: The foot switches feels a bit flimsy but as long as you don't stomp it all wil be fine
as a "metal" distortion, it's pretty high gain. The parametric
eq is a nice touch, if you get into a filter sweeping mood.
They seem to last forever, I've seen several with most of the paint chipped off that are still
in use.
These dont have a very sterotypical sound, so they
tend to be pretty cheap and easy to find on ebay and the like.
They seem to be especially good
at handling low frequency input.
Something that most of the pedals I've had fail at.
It's kind of offtopic, but it sounds tremendous with my Chapman Stick.
Good Points: Two distortion sounds. Fairly strong param eq. With the eq and the internall controls for low/high boost, you can get pretty extreme sounds out of it.
Bad Points: The "b" distortion is pretty weak. The delay doesnt seem to add much to the sound. Some of the useful tweaks (the low/hi boost, etc) are stashed away inside the case. Modding one to
add external switches for these would probabaly be a good idea.


