Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

[JeffB]

Boss OD/Distortion Pedal mods...

Keeley?

Analogman? (this dude is actually about 2 minutes from my home)

John Spina? (is he even modding these days?)

Are these mods turning the peds into basically a replacement for a gain channel ona clean-ish amp? I.e. maybe using these as the gain channel/sole source of gain on a Fender or Vox type amp?

Or do these work equally as well as a lead boost/goose (Level up, gain nearly off) for an already pretty saturated amp?...

FYI..don't mean to sound curt...but I'm *not* looking for suggestions on other pedals that may be better (i.e. OCD, crunchtone, plexitone, etc)..

I'm specifically looking into modding a Boss Pedal..how the mods affect the tone, how they improve the pedals, etc...

Thanks for any info/experiences you can share

 

[FretFire]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

In my experience these mods mainly just smoothen out the tone and make the controls more usable, although I can only speak for the Spina and Keeley mods. They didn't drastically change what the pedal's purpose was, they just made it better so to speak. IMO they could be used as either of the options you listed depending on how they are set, as I said the mods make the controls much more usable throughout their sweep.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

In my experience these mods mainly just smoothen out the tone

This kind of is what I'm worried about. Would you say something like a DS-1 for example would become more OD-ish? would it lose it's "crunch factor"? The Keeley DS1 mod sample sounds ...err..a little too sweet and not very crunchy. the analogman one, it's hard to tell from the crappy little sample he has up. I've never heard John's mod.

....and make the controls more usable, although I can only speak for the Spina and Keeley mods. They didn't drastically change what the pedal's purpose was, they just made it better so to speak. IMO they could be used as either of the options you listed depending on how they are set, as I said the mods make the controls much more usable throughout their sweep.

This all sounds great though! :bigthumb: Thanks AJ

 

[ErikH]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

AJ hit the main thing, the pedal's purpose, which remains the same. Whether they sound smoother or crunchier depends on how the clipping diodes are done. Germanium diodes are smoother, as are 1N4001 diodes. LEDs are crunchier. Some of the mods help allow more low end come through, some allow more distortion (or less depending on which way you go with the component) and a couple parts make the tone control more useful. It all depends on what you're after but it takes just a few components to make a good sounding pedal sound great.

 

[Surgeon]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

This kind of is what I'm worried about. Would you say something like a DS-1 for example would become more OD-ish? would it lose it's "crunch factor"? The Keeley DS1 mod sample sounds ...err..a little too sweet and not very crunchy. the analogman one, it's hard to tell from the crappy little sample he has up. I've never heard John's mod.

My Spina DS-1 didn't lose any of its crunch, far from it. It just sounds better than it was before, beefier... Some of the mods John does allow the pedal not to eat up the low-end of the signal (quite significantly on my SD-1). The DS-1 still has a LOT of crunch going on but lost some of its natural buzziness, which is a really good thing IMHO.

John doesn't turn the pedal into something else (as stated before)... he keeps most of the pedal's character while, well, improving it really. At least that's how it sounds to me.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

AJ hit the main thing, the pedal's purpose, which remains the same. Whether they sound smoother or crunchier depends on how the clipping diodes are done. Germanium diodes are smoother, as are 1N4001 diodes. LEDs are crunchier. Some of the mods help allow more low end come through, some allow more distortion (or less depending on which way you go with the component) and a couple parts make the tone control more useful. It all depends on what you're after but it takes just a few components to make a good sounding pedal sound great.

Thanks Bro. I get the feeling these people like Analogman and keeley just have their "standard" mod...I'm not sure I'd be able to pick and choose in components (and I'm in way qualified to do so anyway :laugh2: ..I just know what I like to hear)

 

[ErikH]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

Keeley and Mike (Analogman) do have their standard mods. Check with Mike, he might be able to help you out with something not on his standard list. Not sure what he'd charge but I'm sure if you told him what you wanted, he'd fix you up.

I don't think John (Spina) is doing mods right now. He's taking break and playing with his new toy (motorcycle) this summer.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

My Spina DS-1 didn't lose any of its crunch, far from it. It just sounds better than it was before, beefier... Some of the mods John does allow the pedal not to eat up the low-end of the signal (quite significantly on my SD-1). The DS-1 still has a LOT of crunch going on but lost some of its natural buzziness, which is a really good thing IMHO.

John doesn't turn the pedal into something else (as stated before)... he keeps most of the pedal's character while, well, improving it really. At least that's how it sounds to me.

Oooo..thank you very much! :bigthumb:...this is very informative, and sounds just like what I'm looking for.

I actually like a DS1 stock as a goose...but I wouldn't mind losing some of the buzz and "solid state" character if the crunch remains intact. I'm looking to use it as a goose...slight gain and volume boost for my Valvetronix. I'm not looking for a modern smooth "boutique type" sound but a very 70's/early 80s thing. Randy. Maiden. Priest. Gary Moore, etc. Something to take an JMP/800 Marshall type tone over the top.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

ErikH pretty much hit it on the head. You can make Drastic changes/or Subtle
depending on what you do to it. I completly revoiced my Daddy-O by changeing caps until I liked what I was hearing. Same goes for the gain stage.

 

[SoCalSteve]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

I had the Keeley DS-1, Keeley MT-2 and while it improved the tone, the low-end was flubby. If you change your mind and want to know the one I found that was tight, clear and sounded killer let me know!

 

[JeffB]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

Thanks everyone for the info! Very helpful/informative :bigthumb:

I've actually got a DS-1 on order that should be here today. I haven't used one in ages (for any length of time anyway) but hopefully it will do what I need stock. It used to, ...but that was an old Japanese one. :laugh2:

If not, I guess I'll wait til John gets back in business as his mod sounds about perfect...or take it to AnalogMan since he's local and explain what I'm wanting to hear out of it.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

Jeff, be warned that Analog Man doesn't make special mods for each player...he has a DS-1 mod, an SD-1 mod, 2 TS mods, a BD-2 mod, etc and thats it...take it or leave it.

Also, I sent you a PM yesterday...REPLY!!!:laugh2:

 

[JeffB]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

Jeff, be warned that Analog Man doesn't make special mods for each player...he has a DS-1 mod, an SD-1 mod, 2 TS mods, a BD-2 mod, etc and thats it...take it or leave it.

Also, I sent you a PM yesterday...REPLY!!!:laugh2:

I did...and thanks for the return reply! I saw your PM last night but I was heading off to bed. If I need to go this route seems like you and evryone else are describing John's mod as pretty much exactly what I'm looking for.

 

[V!N]

BOSS SD-1 mods

BOSS SD-1 mods

What about a little DIY action ?

The SD-1 is pretty sweet out of the box already. I replaced all the parts in mine for beter compnents with the same value to bring the little bit of noise even further down.

One cheap, easy and fun thing to do to an SD-1 is to mod it to OD-1 specs. They're basically the same, except the second opamp stage in the OD-1 is in a fixed frequency stage, that's why it hasn't got a tone control.

Go into town and buy the following:

1k resistor
10k resistor
0.018µF cap
0.0047µF cap
beer

Crack both the pedal and the beer open when you get home and do this

1. replace R1 for the 1k resistor
2. replace C4 for the 10k resistor (no kidding, replace that cap for a resistor !)
3. replace C6 for the 0.018µF cap
4. replace C2 for the 0.0047µF cap
5. lift the end of R7 that is connected to C4
6. desolder the wire from lug 3 of the tone pot
7. solder this wire to the lifted leg of the R7 resistor

8. dime the beer:

 

[V!N]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

As for the DS-1, you can get more lows by replacing the .068µF cap for something with a lower value. .022 is as low as I've gone with Les Pauls and Marshalls, but if you want more meat out of your strat or tele, you might even want to go lower. Buy a couple of them and see for yourself.

I've always felt that gain and the texture of it are of most importance to a distorted sound. You can add any color led or any silicon or germanium diode you can find in series with D4 for more gain. Buy a bunch of different things and hear for yourself.
If you want to get in a bit more, try replacing D4 and D5 with different combinations of diodes and leds. Any number will do, as long as there are at least two in "oposite directions". Personally, I like a germanium 1N34A diode and a red led the best. Tight and grainy, yet open enough, not (too) fuzzy so you'll still hear lots of your natural guitartone. Two 1N4002 rectifier diodes will give you a lot of gain.
For one client with a particulary bright spanking rig (tele + silverface Super Reverb), I put a cap across these clipping diodes so that it wouldn't sound all harsh.

Just a diode job will get you a long way to where you want to go, I suggest trying that first before getting in deeper.

Mr. Keeley has been very forthcoming with his famous mods, but they're a bit more extensive and even though they are great indeed, I do have to say "hype" is an important ingredient here:
http://www.robertkeeley.com/audio6l6/dstech.html
http://www.robertkeeley.com/audio6l6/sd1mods.html

And there's a very nice and easy page to do these for those who aren't familiar yet with poking inside a pedal.
http://www.geocities.com/overdrivesp.../keeleyds1.htm

But Mr. Keeley and his mods aren't holy, I really like ErikH's combination of the Keeley mod combined with a mod by Bob Melanson, excepting the diodes:
http://diy.erikhansen.net/ds1.htm

Have fun !

 

[joelap]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

A Big +1 to V!N, and thanks for posting the SD-1 to OD-1 mod too!

I also gotta add that Keeley's mods arent really "holy". Sometimes I wonder something about all pedal modders out there: ever notice how most mods for pedals say "increased bass response" in the description? Well, maybe its just me, but I hate an excess of bass in my tone. That;s totally stepping on the bass player's shoes. And with a passive tone control that only rolls of highs, you cant eliminate the bass. That';s my only gripe about most mods out there, I feel some add too much bass and get flubby like the Keeley BD-2 phat mods. I honestly feel that he (and other modders) add as much as they do because non-discerning ears will NOT hear the difference between stock and modded UNLESS theres an excess of bass, and "blues lawyers" as I think they're known as will b*tch about their pedals "not sounding different" or "not being modded" because they cant tell the difference in dynamics, compression, sensitivity, noise reduction. Those are all IMPORTANT factors in mods that I'm sure enough people paying for the mods dont have the trained ears to hear or the trained hands to take advantage of. Not that I'm much of a player myself... so FWIW.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

It is all down to what you will use it for....some like that fat lower mids for slow long lines, that sorta floats along with the playing, others prefer tight percussive
responses, some more seet mids, or that funny hollowish Marshall grind.
It is tools for different jobs
Mods are cool, I missed having those when I was a kid.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

I bought the DS-1 and said that I liked it stock, then I sent it to John Spina and thought wow. This is the same pedal!? It went from bee buzz to very smooth distortion. It sounds sweet with my strat. I bet it would produce some really smooth and sweet stuff with a humbuckered guitar...

 

[FretFire]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

Jeff, these guys pretty much picked up on what I was trying to say :laugh2:. When I said the gain gets smoother I didn't mean to imply that crunch was lost, just that the buzziness of the gain was minimized. In other words, the gain just sounds better, more natural or amp-like. I had a Spina mod DS-1 for a while and running through the clean channel of the Rectoverb I had at the time it sounded like a fire-breathing Marshall in a can. Hell I liked it more than the Rectoverb for gain, but then I picked up a couple of Hermida pedals and got rid of all the other dirt boxes I had.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Been plenty O' discussion about this..but never payed much attn:

Thanks everyone again for the commentary. Going by clips kinda sucks ya know?

as I said this is a goose, and highly doubtful I'd use as a sole source of gain. WAY BACK WHEN, I had a Japanese DS1 I liked quite a bit..I used to goose my 800 and my Laney..just for lead work..I liked the extra cut and sustain/volume boost it gave and did not have too much issue with the bass loss as the volume boost kind of helped there. I used the SOD and TS10/9 the same way....level up, gain rolled back. But I'm looking for crunchy and not so much smooth (just how I like my peanut butter! :chairfall ).

Joe...I sent ya a PM back buddy...LMK..and I will LYK

BTW...I have enough problems making the aforementioned Peanut Butter sandwiches...no damn way I'd attempt a pedal mod! :laugh2: But Thanks VIN for the info!