SD-1 - Can I get more volume?

Does anyone know of a mod that will just increase the output volume of the SD-1?
I don't want to mess with the gain or tone but could use some more volume so that I can use it as a boost on lower gain settings.

Why don't you just raise the volume control?

Are you talking about the Boss SD-1?

Why don't you just raise the volume control?

When the gain is at minimum, the SD-1 doesn't have much volume boost. You need to roll the gain up to almost halfway before the boost kicks in. With the gain at zero, maxing the volume only gives you just a little over unity volume.

I'm not real sure how to help you. Hopefully 11 Guage will chime in. He's our SD-1 expert. His mods sound great, and are reasonably simple.

In my SD-1, I replaced D6 with a yellow LED, and I get a pretty good volume boost, but I run the gainat about 1:00. I replaced both clipping diodes in my DS-1 with LED, which made the pedal VERY loud.

Yeah - the ususal trick is to either up the threshold (more diodes in series or all the way up to something like LED's), or to pull the clipping diodes altogether.

If you want a super duper boost, just pull the diodes. But the range of the drive knob may not prove to be completely usable - it may be bright and a bit "splatty" when full up. One way to counteract this is to replace R6 with a 10K resistor and C3 with a .022uF cap. It will keep the tonal high pass shelf the same, but make the range a little more usable.

Another thing to try is to remove C6 altogether. While it will change the tonality a bit, it's usually for the good, and will give the perception of more drive. It can usually be dialed in at the tone knob. If you're then cutting the tone knob way back, sub in a smaller cap for C6 - start at ~.001uF and move up or down from there.

You can also simply decrease R10 and R11 to get some more signal through the circuit. Just work in small increments.

If you want just a bit more boost, replace D4 with 2 1N4148 diodes in series. Form them in an inverted triangle, and heat shrink if necessary. The next step up would be to replace D4 with an LED. And the next step after that would be to replace D5/D6 with a single LED, meaning one gets the diode and the other gets a jumper.

Probably the best starting point would be to pull D4, D5, and D6 altogether, and try it out, just to get your perceptions. If that's a no go, run 2 wires from D4 to a makeshift assembly (like a breadboard or something more quick and dirty) that will allow you to sub out diodes on the fly. Keep in mind that you need all of the clipping diodes to get this to work - not just what would be replaced in D4.