Boss OD-1 Mod.... Need suggestions.

I am wanting to mod the BOSS OD-1 and wanted to hear from people, what they want out of it and what they would change.

Now I know the original OD-1 is about perfect, but any nitpicky stuff would help.

Just give me your pro's and con's... Wether the original 14 pin circuit or the newer 8 pin circuit.

Thanks in advance!

I'd just leave it alone, if you do in fact have an original according to my ebay search you could sell it for $150, get 5 SD-1's and mod all those.

Perfect? not in my opinion. And yes I've got one of the first versions.

To me, it sucks all the low end out of your sound. Granted, there are ways around that.. you can set up your amp with the bass cranked up. Or put the OD-1 in a bypass loop with an EQ or something like that.

I tried both and it was good, but too much trouble. thats why mine sits in a box and never gets used.

Your mileage may vary but you're never going to get people here to agree on the perfect overdrive dirt box.

Not sure if this helps but I have used one for over 20 years and have no gas for another overdrive....to me it is the one piece of equipment I would buy again if it were lost/stolen.

Perfect? not in my opinion. And yes I've got one of the first versions.

To me, it sucks all the low end out of your sound. Granted, there are ways around that.. you can set up your amp with the bass cranked up. Or put the OD-1 in a bypass loop with an EQ or something like that.

I tried both and it was good, but too much trouble. thats why mine sits in a box and never gets used.

Your mileage may vary but you're never going to get people here to agree on the perfect overdrive dirt box.


Cool man!
That's what I am looking for!

Just trying to get people's opinions of what could be fixed.

So we've got the bass response/low end issue so far.

So we've got the bass response/low end issue so far.

Sure, but how would it sound through your amp???

I'd just leave it alone, if you do in fact have an original according to my ebay search you could sell it for $150, get 5 SD-1's and mod all those.

Sage advice. Not only that, but the SD-1==>OD-1 conversion is pretty easy, and you get a "hole for a control" if you need it. For $150, you could go to a local store that sells used pedals and get over a half a dozen SD-1's for that.

The SD-1 is fun to mod beyond just a OD-1 back-conversion. I tweaked one into a quasi-Rat today. Flexible little yellow box.

^^^^ really?

the SD-1==>OD-1 conversion is pretty easy, and you get a "hole for a control" if you need it.

Can you convert the SD-1 into an OD-1 *with* a tone control?

What I am thiinking about doing is adding the Big Muff Tone Circuit to the OD-1 actually.

What I am thiinking about doing is adding the Big Muff Tone Circuit to the OD-1 actually.

See if you can get your hands on a Barber LTD schematic (any model).

It has a Muff-style tone circuit in between the two op amp stages.

And no, it isn't voiced like a Muff, but it's basically a pair of resistors, and a pair of capacitors.

The 2nd gain stage in the SD-1 (figuring you'd want that if you need a 3rd control) could then be config'ed to be similar to the LTD.

Can you convert the SD-1 into an OD-1 *with* a tone control?

Yes. The SD-1 is flexible enough to convert it into almost anything that is a dual op amp based OD. That is a seriously large number of pedals.

^^^^ really?

You mean SD-1==>Rat? Yep. It's still a work in progress, but my SD-1 now has essentially a Rat circuit, chapter and verse.

...Reverse engineering it for the LM308N is next. For now, I simply bypassed the 2nd op amp stage with the SD-1 circuitboard, since the Rat uses a single op amp design.

The biggest "limitation" with the conversion is that it was causing oscillations into the buffered bypass circuit of the Boss pedal. That was an easy enough fix - just reduce the drive pot. Since I don't use a Rat as a fuzz, I don't need the entire range of a stock one. I put a 50K pot in one of my scratchbuilds, but I found that a 20K works great in the SD-1 (I re-used a tone pot from another SD-1).

Some may actually prefer this quasi-Rat setup, since most dual op amps will give a tighter and cleaner tone than a Rat.

I have "too many" SD-1's in my collection, so it's pointless to have them all sound similar. There's a zillion ways to bend the circuitboard to do other things with it, for cheap!

Perfect? not in my opinion. And yes I've got one of the first versions.

To me, it sucks all the low end out of your sound. Granted, there are ways around that.. .

changing c3 will give you better bass response. i did it in mine

there was a clone I saw in the used section of GC called a Noah Sark that was pretty cool. I think it was intended for the Japanese market and is discontinued it appears. In case you should happen to see one, you can be aware of what it is.

Found 2 vids on youtube.

TuWwNd71TLk

Fhvl1e26pwc

There's a presence peak on the old OD-1 that makes single coil pickups jump completely out of the band mix and SING!!!! I wouldn't touch it !