The usual DOD pedals seem to be
very heavy on the distortion.
Someone was asking me about the circuitry in the Grunge and I couldn't find a schematic, so I just bought one to check it out. Surprisingly, it's a very complex circuit compared to something like the DS-1, with not one - not two - but
three dual OpAmps, in this case 4560s, which is a higher-fi, lower noise unit than the usual stompbox OpAmps, at least according to the engineering sheets for them.
The distortion was just unmanageable with anything in my studio other than a Telecaster, which sounded OK and almost useable. Anything with humbuckers was just too much, even with the distortion on "1" and the volume pot on the guitar at "5."
In fairness, the Grunge is
intended to be the heaviest-distorting stomp in the universe, a wall-of-noise effect.
I may pick up a Death Metal tomorrow to do some more circuitry research.
On the whole, the DS-1 has a better reputation than the Death Metal and I believe the street price is less - though the more comparable Boss effect to the DOD Death Metal is probably
the MT-2 Metal Zone.
DOD effects don't get much respect, but I must say that at least in terms of the electronic designs they are not trivial devices. I was impressed. The sound is of course a matter of personal taste.