BOSS DS-1 mods done.

I'm uploading the video clips of the before and after mod sounds right now.

In the meantime, here's what I did:

1. Decreased the drive from Q2 a small bit (not much though, I changed R9 from 22 ohm to 150 ohm). This helped reduce a little fizz, but I thought going up to 220 ohms sounded a bit neutered. I didn't change the midrange coming into Q2 (C3 is the stock 0.047uF).

2. Increased overall gain (lowered R13 from 4.7k to 2.2k and also increased C8 to 1uF to shift the bass back to normal for the new gain).

3. Increased the midrange on the Tone control (increased C11 from 0.022 to 0.068uF).

4. Increased mids all around (increased C5 to 0.1uF, C8 and C9 to 1uF and C14 was already 1uF - I ran out of 1uF caps, so C2 didn't get touched).

5. Finally I added a switch to setup my diode clipping like this:

OFF: One stock 1N4148 diode on either side. Symetrical, stock clipping.

ON: One stock 1N4148 diode on one side, a 3mm LED on the other side (the other stock 1N4148 diode is removed from the circuit). Assymetrical clipping.

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It's hard to hear the clip (crappy camcorder mic, far from the amp), but hopefully the midrange improvements are noticeable.

The assymetrical clipping cuts less output, so the pedal gets louder in that mode.

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I soldered and resoldered so many times I was worried the PCB traces would lift. I tinkered, played, and tinkered for HOURS over the last two days. I think I'm finally happy with it now.

The pedal sounds a lot more "open" now. I did lose a small bit of clarity (can get muddy in extreme settings with a lot of bass), but I prefer the slight boost in mids. The cap changes, as well as gain bump, make for a more open, slightly thicker sound.

On the other hand, reducing fizz seemed to depend a lot on Q2 and it was easy to kill too much crunch in trying to reduce fizz at higher settings. Q2 seems to be the DS-1's source of most of its character. I still have some fizz, but at least now I have more midrange beef and an open sound with only a slight decrease in distortion from a stock DS-1.

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All of the audio was normalized, so it might be hard to hear the volume differences.

Also:
The amp was a JCM800 homebrew modded for more bass. It was set slightly overdriven as you can hear from the first few seconds of the clip.

The guitar was a P-90 Les Paul Junior. With humbuckers the pedal is much more quiet!

Very cool, indeed.

I really like your tones with the Dist at 12:00, with any diode setting (of the modded pedal, of course!).

The DS-1 really seems to be in the sweet spot between noon and maybe 4:00 on the Dist control, with most mods.

You can really hear those extra mids in your modded pedal. Nice work!

Good job. You can certainly hear the difference between the stock unit and your mods. I'd like to hear it with a good mic but I'll have to do some of these myself and hear it live I guess. Thanks for starting the other thread and posting the clip in this one as well.

Good job. You can certainly hear the difference between the stock unit and your mods. I'd like to hear it with a good mic but I'll have to do some of these myself and hear it live I guess. Thanks for starting the other thread and posting the clip in this one as well.



I could mic it later, but I didn't mic the original so it might not help much as far as reference points to a stock unit's sound difference.

Cool
I like the Assym. sounds.

Nice work,very well done back and forth A/B video demo!
I too favored your assymetrical sounds!