new full-range frequency mod for Boss CS-3

[Chistopher]

A few weeks ago I bought a used CS-3 under the advice of a friend for my bass guitar. It sounded alright, but it needed a bit more low-end. I saw in my book of Wampler mods that he came up with a set of component swaps designed to make it work better for a bass guitar.

I was liked the mod, but it kind of made the pedal suffer a bit in terms of working as a normal compressor. I decided to make a couple of mods on my own to make the pedal work well for a wider range of effects.

It's a bit tough to get excited about a compressor, so you won't hear me gushing about how great this is, but I am more than satisfied about the EQ curve of this effect across the entire range of the synthesizer, bass, and guitars I've tested it on.

One last thing to note, C1 not only effects the tone of the pedal in a major way, it also adjusts the usability of the tone control works, but I designed the circuit to have a flat eq with the tone control at noon. I don't use the tone control on the CS-3 too much, so this may be a value to mess around with if you want to tailor it for a specific instrument.

 

[Chistopher]

Also, any ideas for knobs? Currently I flipped the front plate and put a pink LED and think it looks fine, but I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Demanic]

I'll bet that it sounds fantastic.
But pink?

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[Chistopher]

Yeah, I decided to switch it up a bit

 

[Artie]

Just curious . . . the knobs look good. What don't you like?

 

[Chistopher]

Nothing, I'm actually impressed with how well it turned out given that I picked every electrical value by ear instead of calculating corner frequencies and whatnot.

It's far better than it was stock, works for all my instruments, and only cost me $65. I'm sure there are better compressors out there, but this was quite the fun project and came out sounding as transparent as I can hear with minimal noise

 

[El Dunco]

Also, any ideas for knobs? Currently I flipped the front plate and put a pink LED and think it looks fine, but I'm open to suggestions.

Looks really nice. I’d keep it as is. A feature I’d love in a compressor (that probably isn’t a thing because it would throw off a lot of guitarists) is a way to adjust the sidechain bandpass that the compressor “sees” so you can control how much of the lows it affects or doesn’t. It would essentially make it close to a studio compressor in a box.

It could even have an additional “sideband in” jack that makes the compressor act on a different source, like ducking under drums and so on.

 

[GuitarStv]

Looks really nice. I’d keep it as is. A feature I’d love in a compressor (that probably isn’t a thing because it would throw off a lot of guitarists) is a way to adjust the sidechain bandpass that the compressor “sees” so you can control how much of the lows it affects or doesn’t. It would essentially make it close to a studio compressor in a box.

It could even have an additional “sideband in” jack that makes the compressor act on a different source, like ducking under drums and so on.

The Marshall ED-1 has a high/lo knob that does pretty much that. You can pick 'em up used for 30ish dollars if you hunt.