Results of modding overdrive : successful.

[sepultura]

This is a followup to my earlier thread about modding pedals yourself. Again, the idea was not to undercut the excellent modders here in Singapore (Randolf, Edwin, etc) on the contrary, my experience with Randolf is great, and the stuff these people do comes from years of experience, not something you can learn overnight.

The idea was to have some fun doing my own mods, and to revise some of the electronics /engineering I had learnt over a decade ago during student days.

If you have some prior experience with electronics and soldering, it is quite easy since these are basic analog circuits with pretty tough components (standard 1/4 watt resistors, film and electrolytic caps, etc) which can take quite a bit of abuse unlike MOSFET's and CMOS circuits.

I took apart my danelectro daddy-o overdrive. My problem with the pedal was that the OD/distort sound was quite harsh. I followed IndyGuitarist's instructions.

Here's what I did:

1. Maintain a log of each replacement, and the value of the original component.

2. Replace one component at a time, test and tick off the list.

3. Replaced 5 caps and 2 resistors, testing after each replacement.

4. Some of the replacements suggested by Brian were not so pleasing to me (specially resistors), so I replaced them with different values to suit my tastes.

5. Blindly following IndyGuitarist's instructions will give you a decent working mod, but you need to listen to it carefully after each component replacement, and possibly change the values to suit your tastes, then you can get mind blowing sound.

6. I wanted to play with the LED's, I ripped out the two Led's in the circuitry and replaced them with germanium's. Brian had suggested 1n34a's but I tried 1n60's since the local shops didn't have the 1n34a's. Now it sounded like a real overdriven tube amp, but somehow the regular LED's produce a sound I prefer, so I replaced the germanium's with a couple of new LED's I'd bought today.

7. Most important: follow standard soldering rules and precautions, check each solder joint, and test the pedal after each change.

The whole procedure including testing took less than 30 minutes, and now I have a daddy-o which is so much better than the stock pedal, I am amazed at how nice it can sound.

Those of you who have prior experience with electronics, soldering, etc, should find it a fun and rewarding experience.

 

[sepultura]

Mod #2: compression sustainer CS-3 finished.

After the successful daddy-o mod, I tried my hand at the boss CS-3 compression sustainer. The advantage with the dano pedals is that you can completely remove the PCB and use a 'helping hand' or other PCB clamp device to hold it. With the boss pedals, you need to unscrew all the control knobs, the input and output sockets, power socket, on/off switch, etc, which is quite a pain, but I managed without doing all that.

I replaced 3 caps and 3 resistors in all, and the sound is so much better than the stock CS-3, it sounds much more full and fat now. I also replaced 3 electrolytic caps with film caps. Finally replaced the LED indicator with a blue LED for coolness

Finally the modded CS-3 is much less noisy (much less hiss) than the original, and the sound is soooooo good!

I think I will test these out for a week and then go for my DS-1 and other pedals if there is time.

 

[17wil]

any pics

 

[hay88]

one day u should mod my hm-2 man gd job!

 

[Ady]

Sepultura Congrats to ur effort to mod CS-3. Cool ideas with cool result.

Can u pls tell me which component u change, wat r the values dat u change to n the new values?

Maybe u can help me with the detail. I too would love to do the mod myself. Its fun n interesting.

Feel the sense of achievement and personnal saticfaction wne modding urself

Thx......

 

[sepultura]

17wil, well I didn't think of shooting any pics, and the finished pedal is exactly the same as the stock pedal, except for the blue LED I'm planning to do my DS-1 this week, so I will remember to shoot pics of its intestines for you to see

Ady, I got the mod specifications from Brian Wampler at http://www.indyguitarist.com/
As I'd mentioned earlier, I got his $25 mod kit which has mods for all the commonly found pedals and some uncommon ones too. I can tell you that if you're starting out with mods, Brian's spec info kit is worth it. Alternatively you can purchase mod instructions for individual pedals.

Be warned that it may not be enough if you blindly follow Brian's instructions, it really makes a difference if you experiment with the capacitance and resistance values to fine tune the tone to suit your taste. For example, I pulled out the clipping LED's in the daddy-o and put germanium 1N60's in there, but Brian recommends 1N34A's.. you can find lots of info like this in other sites like Aron's DIY stompbox page here: http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/index2.html

In a week or so, I hope to play around with building my own effects as a hobby. There are plenty of schematics on the web, and they don't cost much to build, but it does take time, and effort to go in depth into the schematics and make your own improvements. A good starting point is here: http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/schematics.html

Anyone building their own effects here? I know that http://www.wakemeupmusic.com/ offers their own botique pedals.. Edwin is associated with them. Must be real fun to design and build.

 

[thor666]

sepultura - i went to the purchase page and it says USD49.97 instead of 25. any idea why? :?:

 

[ictaros]

You have to sign up with their newsletter in order to get the $25 deal.

Just a simple signup and Brian might email you with any offers that are available.

Extract from my email :

How are you? I hope you are having a great day so far!
Have you been wanting to get a diy kit but haven't been
able to afford it? YOUR IN LUCK!!

For the next 3 Days (or if you open this email up later,
I will still honor it, within reason), I am offering
the 'all in one' diy kits for $25!! That's nearly 50%
off!

 

[thor666]

all right. thanks!

 

[Weiht]

Yo sepultura

im gg to do a SD-1 mod... But am deciding between the fulltone or the TS mod for it.

Just to check with u, how does the germanium sound like? How different do they sound from led?

BTW, did u get ur parts from SL towers?

Thanks

 

[sepultura]

Hi Weiht, germanium diodes just sound different, not better or worse than LED's or Si diodes. It's a good idea to just pull out a couple of wires from the PCB, hook them up to a breadboard and play with all the diodes you want to your heart's content without soldering, then when you hit upon something you like, solder it in.

When I used Germanium's in the daddy-o the tone was a little 'cool' compared to the fat warm tones of a dual LED clipping circuit. It may sound a little thinner than the LED's but the character of the tone is different, more suited to blues etc.

Yes I got parts from SL towers, unless it is something exotic they have it in stock.

 

[stillwater]

yes, sim lim tower rocks! the last time my powered floorboard capacitor burnt out i was so depressed till i found one with the same value in SLT, for what...like THIRTY CENTS???... its THIRTY CENTS man... if u send it to those bloody con-men for repair they would tell u this is damaged which led to that, to this and to that... n i have helped u replaced this, that... changed this, that... n these components aren't cheap, n the job is really tough.... n a THIRTY DOLLARS isn't even bloody enough man.

 

[Weiht]

When I used Germanium's in the daddy-o the tone was a little 'cool' compared to the fat warm tones of a dual LED clipping circuit.

U used 2 leds for the clipping? Is it in series or parallel?

 

[sepultura]

Weiht, the LEDs clip in both directions, so you need two LED's back to back.

 

[sepultura]

Modded DS-1 distortion today : success.

I bought a DS-1 a few weeks back, and it sucked big time. Just to make sure, I went down to swee lee last week and tried out a new DS-1, and it sounded the same. I can't understand how this shitty pedal has such a cult following. The stock pedal truly sounds like farting, there is very little control over the distortion (it goes from medium heavy distortion to high) and the tone control simply cannot be used past the 12:00 o'clock setting.

I looked at a large number of mod specs including the IG mods I'd purchased. Got some interesting ideas from the DIY stomp boxes website and a few other forums. The result was a massively hacked version of the keeley seeing eye mod + ultra mod combo with the component values fine tuned to my liking.

The two back to back clipping diodes play a huge part in the tone, and I experimented with LED's, germaniums, 1N4001/4003's etc. Asymmetric clipping produces some interesting tonality, for instance you can have 1 Ge and 1 Led, or 1 Ge and 2 Si diodes etc. It is easy to experiment if you hook up two wires from the PCB to a breadboard.

One interesting thing is to put a 47pf or 75pf cap across the diodes, it really does smooth out some of the harsh high frequency (buzzing/raspy) sounds.

In the end, the mod was fine tuned and the DS-1 is now a truly awesome monster. I played with the op-amp gain settings and the clipping circuitry and it delivers a truly massive fat tone and huge volume gain if you want to use it as a booster. Unlike the stock pedal, the distortion goes from a very mild overdrive (almost no distort) to heavy metal with huge sustain. I tuned the pedal so that when the distort is very mild, the true tone of the guitar comes through without much colouration, which is something the stock DS-1 simply can't do for nuts.

Guys, if you have a stock DS-1, you owe it to yourself to get it modded.... Randolf and Edwin do them at reasonable prices. Listen to a modded DS-1 side by side with a stock (piece of sh*t sounding) pedal.. you will either get yours modded right away or you will throw your DS-1 down the chute!

The next session the following weekend is back with the old Daddy-o. The op-amp distorts quite a bit and I'm going to play with alternatives such as the TLC272 etc, and also the clipping circuitry. Picked up the op-amps at SLT yesterday, and an 8 pin DIP socket to avoid soldering and desoldering IC's. Yum yum...

 

[sofyan]

hey dude why dont u post a recording of ur modded ds1?

 

[wangdexian]

Re: Modded DS-1 distortion today : success.

I bought a DS-1 a few weeks back, and it sucked big time. Just to make sure, I went down to swee lee last week and tried out a new DS-1, and it sounded the same. I can't understand how this shitty pedal has such a cult following. The stock pedal truly sounds like farting, there is very little control over the distortion (it goes from medium heavy distortion to high) and the tone control simply cannot be used past the 12:00 o'clock setting.

Well, if you're a good player, a stock DS-1 can sound good too... just look at dhalif.
But that doesn't stop me from wanting to mod my DS-1!! :twisted:

 

[blahblah]

that guy shoudl have been present at the meeting last night. :lol:

 

[wangdexian]

Exactly. :lol:

 

[sepultura]

hey dude why dont u post a recording of ur modded ds1?

Hi, sorry I don't have any recording gear, but if you are around the east side, you can drop by and check it out. Bring a stock DS-1 to compare