A Bad Monkey mod that works!

Some time ago hxchip suggested I try a lower value cap at C5 on the BM's board. Today I yanked the existing cap off, and replaced with a cheapy out of a crappy practice amp I found in a skip. The cheapy was a round ceramic with the value 101 printed on it. I think this means that it's value is .0001uf/100pf. It was not a pretty soldering job but it worked!
Gone is the horrible nasal mid-range honk. The bass and treble controls now have more audible effect, (since they are not just flattening the EQ curve), and in fact sound better at the lower end of their ranges, say bass at 10 o'clock and treble at seven or eight o'clock. I understand many users find the BM lacks top end, but with this mod it will cut yer head off if you set the treble too high.
It's well worth a try if you don't feel the love for your BM. Thanks, hxchip!

Awesome!

Now a Good Monkey???

:wink:

I passed on buying the last time I tried one
because I thought it sounded too muffled...

:neutral:

Today I yanked the existing cap off, and replaced with a cheapy out of a crappy practice amp I found in a skip.

What's a skip?

I think you call it a dumpster.

Yup, it does NOT sound muffled any more. Really good. I'm impressed, not just with the sound but with my own new found expertise as an electronics tech. Next I'll try hxchip's original recommendation, which was to put a 102 ceramic in there instead. Should put back a little bit of the mid range.

Just did this to my BM with a 102 ceramic cap I had layin around. It really does get rid of the nasal mids but I would like to try it with the recomended .1uf cap because you really need to dial back the treble with the 102 which I think is .001uf.

Hello guys. I want to thank Songofthewind and the rest of you guys for posting this thread and arousing my curiosity about this mod. I had 2 Bad Monkeys that I only paid $35 a piece for new, several years ago. So I thought "why not try it, and give one a different sound"? I only had capacitors marked 101 and 102 (according to the values posted, I believe a 103 would have been the proper mod value). I chose to go with the 102. I even soldered it to the back of the board, as I have never soldered on a board before and I couldn't get C5 to come out. I worked C5 loose from the front of the board and insulated the new capacitor in the rear of the board. I put it back together and "Bingo"!! I love it!!!......even though I did something that knocked out my indicator light. My Bad Monkey now reminds me of some type of Blackface emulation pedal. Thanks again!!!

Well I couldn't leave well enough alone and tried another cap and managed to kill my pedal. I think I melted something.

ouch
Sorry to hear that...

Sorry to hear that man. I think u really need the proper tools and proper size soldering iron to solder on a board. I know mines is too big. It wouldn't hurt to have one of those mounted magnifying glass things either, with good lighting. Plus a lil skill. For me, blessings,because I don't have any of those other things.

ouch
Sorry to hear that...

Sorry to hear that man. I think u really need the proper tools and proper size soldering iron to solder on a board. I know mines is too big. It wouldn't hurt to have one of those mounted magnifying glass things either, with good lighting. Plus a lil skill. For me, blessings,because I don't have any of those other things.

Not to be denied I picked up another BM at the local Pawn shop and succesfully got the .1uf cap put in. This time I just snipped the casing off of the old cap leaving the leads intact on the board. I then soldered to them. :grin:


I messed around with my old pedal a bit and I got it working, all be it without any cap at all on C5. How is that possible ?

It sounds half way decent but maybe slightly mid scooped.

[I messed around with my old pedal a bit and I got it working, all be it without any cap at all on C5. How is that possible ?]

Uh, I think that's a question for 11 Gauge.

Emboldened buy my success, I tried "modding" an old Behringer BO100 Blues Overdrive. It was kerrap sounding, so I randomly removed a cap. Didn't work after that. Oops.

Interesting! I may have to try this!

Emboldened buy my success, I tried "modding" an old Behringer BO100 Blues Overdrive. It was kerrap sounding, so I randomly removed a cap. Didn't work after that. Oops.

That sounds like something i would do :razz:

ASC67, u have done brilliantly. Leaving those leads on the board sounds like a scheme that I would have come up with (out of necessity). How does the pedal sound with the proper suggested cap value? Is it a little more mids? What number is marked on a .1uf cap. Is it 103? Just curious. Of course u know I am leaving well enough alone.

ASC67, u have done brilliantly. Leaving those leads on the board sounds like a scheme that I would have come up with (out of necessity). How does the pedal sound with the proper suggested cap value? Is it a little more mids? What number is marked on a .1uf cap. Is it 103? Just curious. Of course u know I am leaving well enough alone.

Thanks, this way it waill be easy to try different caps if I feel like it. I bent the leads on the new cap at a right angle so that the cap lays flat on top of the input jack. Easy access to solder it.

The .1uf cap sounds good still some mids. I'm wondering if the .15 would be better. I do have a .22uf cap laying around that I might try, should be close enough to the .15uf I would think or maybe not. Wada you think ?

Re: the number, It would be 104. I got mine at Radio shack, they didn't have a .15uf though.

Check out this link for all you would want to know about cap codes and values
http://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/CheapTricks/Tachometer/Capacitor.html

I think I stumbled on to something really good with my hosed up BM. The more I play it I'm really liking the sound of it with no cap in C5. IT sounds really good and extremely transparant. It sound really nice and clear on the neck pickup and adds a nice bite to the bridge pickup.

I think I like it better than my other modded BM :shock:

Can u post a sound clip somewhere?

I'll post a video once it's loaded on YouTube.

cool!

O7z5BGDTfko

edited: to add the full video

Yea the one w/ no cap sounds better. Could you post a few pics of this mod.

Yea the one w/ no cap sounds better. Could you post a few pics of this mod.


There are pictures here :


http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/IbanezPsycho/blog/53932/

ASC67 thanks for the demo. I agree with the others the one with no C5 cap sounds better.
Ain't that sumpthin'. How do you think it measures up to the mod you did with the #102 cap. More mids/less mids?

So if you do the no cap mod I suppose you would just straight wire across that c5 or just snip it out. Sorry for a rookie question.

Oh man I am so tempted to pull out C5 after hearing your demo. Heck, I can always put it back if I don't like it right?

Hmmm....

ASC67 thanks for the demo. I agree with the others the one with no C5 cap sounds better.
Ain't that sumpthin'. How do you think it measures up to the mod you did with the #102 cap. More mids/less mids?

You're welcome, Hard to say from memory but I think less mids. The Bass knob still has a lot of effect, the treble seems to really kick in after about 12 to 1 o'clock on the dial


Oh man I am so tempted to pull out C5 after hearing your demo. Heck, I can always put it back if I don't like it right?

Hmmm....

Sure, why not give it a shot.

So if you do the no cap mod I suppose you would just straight wire across that c5 or just snip it out. Sorry for a rookie question.

I think you would just snip it out, try and leave the leads
intact in case you don't like it so it will be easy to solder on a new cap.

Dont forget to turn the volume up on the pedal while testing, else you wont think its working, & you will panic. Dont ask me how I know.

Ok just did this and what a great mod. Lot more transparent, not near as muddy(i guess thats the right word). Thanks for the great info.

Ok just did this and what a great mod. Lot more transparent, not near as muddy(i guess thats the right word). Thanks for the great info.

Did you take out C5 ? or replace it with the .1 uf ?

Just sniped that bad boy right out. Sounds great. THANKS.

Just sniped that bad boy right out. Sounds great. THANKS.

I think I shall call this mod the " Neutered Monkey Mod " :razz:

Well I tried snipping out C5 and...yuck.

Yes it's more transparent, but mostly because the highs are exaggerated. Which is not difficult to resolve by turning the "high" knob down to about 8 or 9 o'clock on the dial.

However, the Gain changed. It's more like a bad transistor fuzz now. Not liking it.

Oh well it was worth a shot...and it didn't cost me anything!

But now I have no idea how I'm going to get it soldered back in that tiny spot. Good thing it's only a backup pedal for me...might take me a while to get around to putting the cap back.

I switched out the .1uf cap for a .022uf cap and I think have found a good balance of Mid cut and transparency without overemphasizing the highs. It also brought back some volume that the .1 cap took away along with more treble rangeon the dial.

Well I tried snipping out C5 and...yuck.

Yes it's more transparent, but mostly because the highs are exaggerated. Which is not difficult to resolve by turning the "high" knob down to about 8 or 9 o'clock on the dial.

However, the Gain changed. It's more like a bad transistor fuzz now. Not liking it.

Oh well it was worth a shot...and it didn't cost me anything!

But now I have no idea how I'm going to get it soldered back in that tiny spot. Good thing it's only a backup pedal for me...might take me a while to get around to putting the cap back.

It does emphasise the highs, it's almost like a treble booster but there is still a good range on the Bass knob. Like you said if you keep the treble below noon on the dial it sounds the best.

Try a .022uf cap in there.

Well I tried snipping out C5 and...yuck.

Yes it's more transparent, but mostly because the highs are exaggerated. Which is not difficult to resolve by turning the "high" knob down to about 8 or 9 o'clock on the dial.

However, the Gain changed. It's more like a bad transistor fuzz now. Not liking it.

Oh well it was worth a shot...and it didn't cost me anything!

But now I have no idea how I'm going to get it soldered back in that tiny spot. Good thing it's only a backup pedal for me...might take me a while to get around to putting the cap back.



Did you try output number 2? Output number 1 did sound strange.

I yet need to open the darn green box.
those are SAE allen wrench screws, not metric, right?

I yet need to open the darn green box.
those are SAE allen wrench screws, not metric, right?

Yes, they are SAE.

OK, I thought I would give this a go too.

I cut my replacement C% cap off. I think the BM sounds very good like this.
Seems to lose that tone-sucky quality as well.

When I originally did the cap change mod, I put the new cap on the BACK of the board (the side that faces the floor).
So, if you cut off a cap and don't like the result, put the replacement on the backside. There's plenty of room. If i can do it, so can you!

Now, what else can I mess up?

For the record, I put the original cap back in the pedal, this time I soldered it to the back of the board because it was a tight squeeze on the front of the board. What a pain...it reminded me of why I don't want to work on my own pedals any more. I am just good enough with a soldering iron to get myself into trouble...

Anyhow, I got it back to original condition. I thought it sucked without anything in C5. Who knows, maybe it sounds better with a different value cap but I'm done messing around with pedals.

JMHO.

According to these instruction for this mod: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1034068

...the stock capacitor is .047 uf. To cut more mids than stock you go to a higher cap value such as .1 uf or .15 uf for even more mid cut. So wouldn't the .022 uf cap that you suggest be going in the opposite direction (increasing mids)?

According to these instruction for this mod: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1034068

...the stock capacitor is .047 uf. To cut more mids than stock you go to a higher cap value such as .1 uf or .15 uf for even more mid cut. So wouldn't the .022 uf cap that you suggest be going in the opposite direction (increasing mids)?

That sounds right but for whatever reason it didn't, maybe the stock cap isn't .047.

It definitely has less of that nasal mid hump than stock.

I must say that the numbering system and the values of caps is a total mystery to me.

All I know is what it actually sounded like. With cap mod and with no cap at all the BM sounds better to me. I really hate that nasal thing in any pedal or amp, and, with mods, the BM definitely sounded less nasal to my tired, tinnitus riddled old ears.

YMMV, etc etc