Exar DS-1 Distortion  [schematic]

All about modern commercial stompbox circuits from Electro Harmonix over MXR, Boss and Ibanez into the nineties.
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VitaliiBobrov
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Another Exar from my collection, DS-1 Distortion from the first series. The unit was made and sold in 1993; I have a box! I also looked at the price written on the box 455 000 PLN, which was about 25$ in 1993.
Exar DS-1 with a box
Exar DS-1 with a box
It was "virgin" (had "secure" paint on one screw untouched), so I was the first person who opened it up. Unfortunately, the paint on series 1 and 2 is very fragile, it immediately started to take off.
Exar DS-1 bottom
Exar DS-1 bottom
PCB looks excellent and is very similar to DS-02.
Exar DS-1 PCB
Exar DS-1 PCB
No surprise there; it is similar to Exar series 2 Distortion and even more similar to Boss DS-1. Compared to series 2, it has a different tone stack, BJT input buffer, and clipping/volume going to virtual ground rather than to ground in DS-02. Attached is the schematic without buffered bypass switching.
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exar-ds-1-schematic.pdf
Exar DS-1 schematic
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VitaliiBobrov
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In that video Josh plays Exar DS-1


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VitaliiBobrov
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Post by VitaliiBobrov »

Ichabod_Crane wrote: 05 Dec 2022, 08:54 Here an unverified layout:
https://dirtboxlayouts.blogspot.com/202 ... rtion.html
Note that it's a bit different compared to DS-02, not only values, but some connections as well.

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