I'm such a dork

[Rich_S]

I was chatting with the other guitarsit in our band at church on Sunday - he showed up with a brand new shiny Phase 90 this week.

Anyway, we were talkin' pedals, and I looked down and realized...

Five out of seven pedals on my board have been modded.

I'm such a dork.

 

[Gamera]

Re: I'm such a dork

Technically I think that makes you a geek, not a dork.

 

[J Moose]

Re: I'm such a dork

I think that maybe only two or three of almost three dozen pedals have been modded... and the ones that are modded were purchased used & already modded.

What does that say about me?

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: I'm such a dork

Don't feel bad. Look at my board. Even worse I hardly ever use my board. About 80% of the time I just show up to Gigs and rehearsal with just my trusty TS-9... And you guessed it! I Modded that too.:eyecrazy:

 

[ModestCargo]

Re: I'm such a dork

Don't feel bad. Look at my board. Even worse I hardly ever use my board. About 80% of the time I just show up to Gigs and rehearsal with just my trusty TS-9... And you guessed it! I Modded that too.:eyecrazy:

Me too, I have a delay, wah and fuzz but all I take to practice is my TS.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: I'm such a dork

i've often thought about getting some modded pedals or trying to mod my own pedals..... but there are so many smaller quality pedal makers out there offering lower noise, true no load switching, and higher quality sounds... but they do cost alot...

a long time ago a pro guitarist i talk to online sometimes said to me that if you are on tour in a one horse town you should still be able to replace most common Boss type pedals if you need to... he said using stock amps and stock pedals is the way to go on the road.... that kind of stuck with me...

but i'll never be a real touring guitarist so maybe that way of thinking will not work for me... i'm all for making something sound better i guess

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: I'm such a dork

It doesn't mean you're a dork.... it means your pedals should sound closer to the way you'd like

 

[Rich_S]

Re: I'm such a dork

The other real eye-opener was finding myself in the garge at 11:30 at night, filing the leads on a 1N4002 diode skinnier, so they'd fit in the holes in my DS-1 PC board. Did you know that pedal modders file down the leads on diodes? That's just a little teeny bit OCD, don't you think?

I really think I need to reevaluate my "working on gear" vs. "playing" priorities.

Epilogue: One night last week, I was out in the garage working on my SD-1 HAM (the M is for mod, you figure out the rest). I got it finished, and began to A/B it against my Monty Allums GT Mod SD-1. I spent hour playing the same licks and riffs over and over, switching back and forth between the two pedals, tweaking the settings, trying different switch settings, etc. This was through my 18 Watter with the Mini MASS turned down to a reasonable, though not oppressively low level. Under the impression that no one in the house could hear me, I kept at it until 2 AM.

When I finally gave up, I went in to find my spot in the bed had been taken by Myra, our 7-year-old. Rather than disturb anyone, I just went upstairs and slept in the spare bed in Myra's room. The next morning, I heard the rest of the story. Myra had apparently awoken in the night and heard me playing. She concluded there was a mosquito in her room, and abandoned ship in favor of "the big bed" with her mom, where presumably mosquitos can't get you.

A mosquito. So much for my highly evolved "tone".

 

[tone4days]

Re: I'm such a dork

Did you know that pedal modders file down the leads on diodes? [/I]

do any of them try to make the holes a little bigger?


t4d

 

[Rich_S]

Re: I'm such a dork

What, and risk lifting a trace?! Are you insane, man!?!

 

[Tor]

Re: I'm such a dork

Dork? You cultivate your hobby. Does that make you a dork?......


Cool story by the way! The King of Mosquito Tone.

 

[Gunny47]

Re: I'm such a dork

Hey at least ure not 16 and get referred to by my friends' parents as "the kid with the guitar store in his room"

 

[Lu_B]

Re: I'm such a dork

It doesn't make you a dork it makes you an individual

 

[ErikH]

Re: I'm such a dork

So, Rich. Did you ever try just removing C6 alone from a stock SD-1 without changing anything else?

I have a few pedals that I haven't modified. Two are pretty old and I like them as-is. A couple others have SMT components and luckily, I like them as-is. Everything else has been modded in some way shape or form or built myself.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: I'm such a dork

I tried the C6 mod briefly, but then went whole hog (actually whole HAM) and did all of Allums mods except the clipping section. It's a great sounding pedal - it barks more than the smoother GT Mod pedal. I like it.

 

[ErikH]

Re: I'm such a dork

And what were your thoughts before you went further? I'm just curious.

 

[daemon barbeque]

Re: I'm such a dork

The other real eye-opener was finding myself in the garge at 11:30 at night, filing the leads on a 1N4002 diode skinnier, so they'd fit in the holes in my DS-1 PC board. Did you know that pedal modders file down the leads on diodes? That's just a little teeny bit OCD, don't you think?

I really think I need to reevaluate my "working on gear" vs. "playing" priorities.

Epilogue: One night last week, I was out in the garage working on my SD-1 HAM (the M is for mod, you figure out the rest). I got it finished, and began to A/B it against my Monty Allums GT Mod SD-1. I spent hour playing the same licks and riffs over and over, switching back and forth between the two pedals, tweaking the settings, trying different switch settings, etc. This was through my 18 Watter with the Mini MASS turned down to a reasonable, though not oppressively low level. Under the impression that no one in the house could hear me, I kept at it until 2 AM.

When I finally gave up, I went in to find my spot in the bed had been taken by Myra, our 7-year-old. Rather than disturb anyone, I just went upstairs and slept in the spare bed in Myra's room. The next morning, I heard the rest of the story. Myra had apparently awoken in the night and heard me playing. She concluded there was a mosquito in her room, and abandoned ship in favor of "the big bed" with her mom, where presumably mosquitos can't get you.

A mosquito. So much for my highly evolved "tone".

Ahahahaahah.Such a greatb read heheheheh :friday:
It have to be a strong mosquito sound....Since you make her afraid of a "big one" i think ehehehe!

 

[Rich_S]

Re: I'm such a dork

And what were your thoughts before you went further? I'm just curious.

Monte list the op-amp as #1, followed by C6, but I did C6 first just to see. It was a big improvement. The individual mods that make up the GT are sort of done in the order of diminishing returns. Removing C6 gives maximum results for minimal effort, I would recommend it to almost anybody. Beyond that, I think a lot of the mods are fine-tuning; more work for smaller improvements. That is, up until the clipping-section mods; once those are done, the GT is a significantly different pedal.

I'm still :banghead: trying to figure out which one I like better. I only have room for one of them on my board. Last night, I decided to keep my HAM version SD-1 (stock clipping diodes) and sell off the GT Mod. This morning, I was listening to a CD, heard this fuzzy, feedback-y kinda guitar part, and thought, "Hmm... the GT Mod would be better for stuff like that."

Ahahahaahah.Such a greatb read heheheheh :friday:

What does this mean, when I get an "Ahahahaahah" from a Zuahahahologist? Which is better, Ahahahaahah or Zuahahah?

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: I'm such a dork

I've modded three of my pedals. I have roughly seven pedals IIRC.

 

[ErikH]

Re: I'm such a dork

Monte list the op-amp as #1, followed by C6, but I did C6 first just to see. It was a big improvement. The individual mods that make up the GT are sort of done in the order of diminishing returns. Removing C6 gives maximum results for minimal effort, I would recommend it to almost anybody. Beyond that, I think a lot of the mods are fine-tuning; more work for smaller improvements. That is, up until the clipping-section mods; once those are done, the GT is a significantly different pedal.

Just removing C6 and changing the clipping diodes makes a drastic difference. The opamp can be left alone. It makes very little difference soundwise. The only reason to really change it would be for lower noise but the ones that comes stock in them now have pretty low noise to begin with. But as you know, we can't leave well enough alone and just have to keep going. That's how my SD-1 became a TS-808.

I'm still :banghead: trying to figure out which one I like better. I only have room for one of them on my board. Last night, I decided to keep my HAM version SD-1 (stock clipping diodes) and sell off the GT Mod. This morning, I was listening to a CD, heard this fuzzy, feedback-y kinda guitar part, and thought, "Hmm... the GT Mod would be better for stuff like that."

I go back and forth between my SD-1 808 and my ZW-44 (Wylde OD) quite a bit. Most of the time I almost always end up back to the SD-1. The ZW-44 is a great overdrive though. I keeping going back and forth about whether to keep it or not but then I use it and decide to keep it again...lol.