Mods for Boss pedals

[fenderiarhs]

......well i am looking to mod my boss blues driver (bd2)......so i am facing two options......either the keeley fat mod or the monteallums H2O for the BD2.....Could you please describe me both tonewise and which one would you prefer?

I'm also thinking of modding my boss cs3 with one of the monteallums mods........any ideas on that one???


Finally are the monteallums easy to do mods??I have modded other pedals before, i swap pickups on my guitars and i am quite proficient with the soldering iron..........

 

[dressed2kill]

Re: Mods for Boss pedals

The Monteallums mod comes with a detail on what each mod does, so you can tailor it to your own tastes. I have used his BD2 mod and it is a nice improvement over stock. I found it got rid of the shrill sound the bd2 has stock.

The mods are fairly easy to do if your good with an iron, just make sure you have a desoldering braid working on pedals.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Mods for Boss pedals

I'm 3/4 of the way through Monte Allums' GT mod on my SD-1. Even though nit's not done yet, the improvement has been dramatic. It sounds so good, I'm tempted to stop here but I already drilled the switch holes, so I might as well put 'em in.

Monte's kits are really easy to install. He includes solder and de-sodering braid in the kit. His braid is great; I'm going to write him and ask what kind it is - my roll of braid doesn't sop up the solder nearly as well.

My only complaint is with his instructions. They are clear and easy to follow, but the hardcopies he sends are black and white and laid out a bit funny. They obviously start as web pages, and on a computer screen they work beautifully. When I tried to print them on my color printer, they got fragmented over multiple pages and were hard to follow.

Sorry, but I have no experience with Blues Drivers.

I did his CS-3 Opto mod. I was a big improvement over stock, but I concluded at the end that compressors just weren't for me.

 

[Innocent_Bystander]

Re: Mods for Boss pedals

I did the Monte Allums BD-2 and DS-1 mods and they both sound fantastic over the stock pedals. The tone, in general, is very close to what the soundclips offer on his page.

Like dressed2kill said, he explains in detail every component swap and what it's effect on tone will be. I knew what I was looking for in terms of tone over the stock pedal and read through his list, marking each mod that I wanted to do first before doing them all, checking the tone thoroughly in between component swaps.

It only takes 30 seconds to swap one of the parts but I'd play the pedal for 5 or 10 mintues, testing various positions to see what I thought. It really worked out well as I'm very happy with the pedals and for the $25 the kits cost, I can't complain.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Mods for Boss pedals

I did the Monte Allums BD-2 and DS-1 mods and they both sound fantastic over the stock pedals...

I'm doing my DS-1 as soon as the SD-1 is finished.

It only takes 30 seconds to swap one of the parts but I'd play the pedal for 5 or 10 mintues, testing various positions to see what I thought. It really worked out well as I'm very happy with the pedals and for the $25 the kits cost, I can't complain.

Yeah - I did the same thing. See my thread from yesterday, entitled Curse you, Monte Allums!

 

[Innocent_Bystander]

Re: Mods for Boss pedals

I know the feelling Rich, I didn't want to stop once I got started either.

I want to try out a few more of his mods but I need pedals to mod, I think I'm going to hit up some friends. The DS-1 Plexi mod seems like it could be really cool. My neighbor has one that he doesn't really use, so I might talk him into selling it to me or cheap or just letting me mod it for him.