Boss DS-1 mods?

[manfesto]

I've never done pedal mods before and am very much looking to get started right.

I'm picking up a used Boss DS-1 for cheap (yay Craigslist!) and wanted to see what y'all had to say about the possible mods. Which are the good mods, and why? I'm most interested in the AnalogMan mid-range mod because I always thought the stock DS-1 sounded too scooped, but I can't for the life of me find the schematic for it (and I don't know if any other mods out there add more midrange anyway). I'm also thinking of maybe just buying the kid from Monte Allums, maybe save the headache of getting all the parts together. The Monte Allums mod kit wouldn't require a drill either, which is nice because my drill is dead :(

Thoughts?

Cheers

[BritishBluesBoy]

I'm no help on the pedal mods - sorry! but every man needs a working power drill... IMO etc...

[al3151]

The place you want to look into is-

http://www.diystompboxes.com

[11 Gauge]

There is a ton of info out there on modding the DS-1, and how all of the big names do it.

I'd go into details, but that would spoil a good bit of the fun. It's all out there to be found with a minimal amount of effort. There are also some pretty common replacement values for certain parts.

The more popular mods are the Melanhead mod, the flat mids mod, the almost MIJ mod, and the Keeley Ultra mod.

Folks who love the MIJ version will tell you to do the least bit necessary to make it sound like the classic. If you don't think the MIJ was a great version, then this is probably pointless.

Analogman's mid control is cool, but you can actually tweak the stock tone stack so that you don't really need that extra knob, IMO. I don't really care for the straight up flat mids mod, but if you use a bit of that along with closing the gap on the stock scooped mids, you can get a pretty good balance.

There's at least one DS-1 mod thread going on right now here:

http://www.bossarea.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=10

They've taken all of the most popular mods, scrutinized them, and altered components or values as necessary. A great bunch of nice and incredibly smart (and helpful) members. Kinda like the TDPRI, only on a bit of a smaller scale.

Good luck, and have fun!

[manfesto]

Thanks for the link and the info, 11 Gauge! I'll be sure to check it out - seems like a lot of good info. From that forum I found http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazin...10+PM#comments which seems to do a great job explaining which parts of the circuit do what, and why.

I dropped $20 on a mint, barely used DS-1 tonight, and I can't wait to drop < $20 on tailoring it :D. While I'm in a tinkering mood, maybe I'll finally convert my 80s Crybaby to true-bypass too.

[11 Gauge]

It dawned on me that most of the schematics out there are older, outdated, or simply don't have component numbers or values.

There's a more recent schematic that's much better -

[hal]

This is the guy you want to use. He is very popular here on the TDPRI.

www.monteallums.com.

[manfesto]

Thanks for the schematic, 11 Gauge - much appreciated. It is thus far the only schematic I've seen listing part values (sure beats busting out my color chart to read the resistor values :)).

hal - I was considering the Monte Allum mod kit (the clip on the website certainly showed a marked improvement over the stock DS-1), but I think I'd prefer to try and diy it as much as possible this time around (plus, as nice as those parts are, I'd imagine I could part out equivalents from mouser or ratshack for cheaper).

I'm still playing around with the stock pedal to see which frequencies I'm looking to up - probably going to try to flatten the mids out. It seems the melanhead mod does a pretty good job of this - I may start there and tinker.

//probably not this weekend tho - I have homework :(

[manfesto]

I found some time today and did my mod. Rather straightforward, too - between 11 Gauge's linked schematic and the drop-dead awesome Duncan's Tone Stack Calculator ( http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/ ), I was able to pick resistor and cap values that really tailored my tone stack.

My choices:
3mm LED for D5 (change clipping behavior. The asymmetrical clipping gives a lot of character!)
0.022uf cap for C12 (my favorite part - almost reverses the eq-curve - big boost to the mids. It actually has a slight mid hump instead of a big mid scoop!).
0.022uf cap for C3 (allow less bass through before any gain stages)
R17 - 4.7k (boost bass - trying to make up for what is lost through C3)
R16 - 4.7k (roll off the high a bit earlier)
R13 - 2.2k

I may change C3 back to stock, though - I think it took off too much bass.

Still, I'm way happier with the tone of the DS-1 - useable fat tone almost all the way around the tone knob (can't say the same for my muff ). It was a lot of fun too!

//except pulling the old parts off - I didn't have a solder wick and had to do some magical three-hand trickery to pull them off

[leonard d rock]

Originally Posted by manfesto

0.022uf cap for C12 (my favorite part - almost reverses the eq-curve - big boost to the mids. It actually has a slight mid hump instead of a big mid scoop!).

thanks manfesto!
i've been looking for a mod to open up the mids of my ds-1. most pedals have that mid scoop that becomes lost when everything gets loud. boosting the volume just makes it worse, and IMO boosting the mids is where its going to help. i think the mids are a neglected/underutilized frequency in guitar. BTW, would increasing the value of C12 increase or decrease the mids? ( i'm not really well versed in electronics) thanks again,

LDR

[11 Gauge]

C12 is your bass cap. C11 is your treble cap.

The mids are sucked out on many stock pedals because of the huge gap in between.

You also have to fiddle with the resistors that are responsible for the high and low pass filter shelving. R17 is your "treble" resistor - the higher the value, the more treble. R16 is your "bass" resistor - the higher the value, the more bass.

R15 is a treble "stopper" resistor - it blocks some of the treble from being mixed in. If you think you've got the frequency right but seem to have a bit too much, increase the value of R15 a smidge.

There is a flat mids mod that involves replacing C12 with a .022uF and C11 with a .068uF. If it's too flat for your tastes, incrementally bring C12 back up and C11 down. You may want to temporarily wire up a pair of rotary switches that give you a bunch of different options for those two caps. That way, you can check them all on the fly, and hardwire the pair that you like best. I prefer this over drilling the case for extra pots and switches.

You could also replace R16 and R17 with 10K trimpots and fiddle with their values until you get it just how you like it.

[manfesto]

LDR -

Because the DS-1's tone circuit is Big Muff-inspired, you can use Duncan's Tone Stack calculator to set values that tailor the tone to your liking. Plus, as you change values, you see which frequencies they affect, and how - a little experimentation goes a long way (and can save a lot of soldering).

stock DS-1:


my mod (basically played with values until I got it perfectly flat):


more or less where I started (the "flat mids" mod 11 Gauge was talking about):


Also bear in mind there's a lot more places (both before and after the tone stack) where your tone can be affected in the circuit.

[leonard d rock]

i had difficulty finding capacitors so i just stuck one with the marking 223k on C12 and liked the result. its almost like the midhump on a tubescreamer. the pedal IMO can approximate an SD1 to the DS1. makes a good all around pedal.

regards, LDR

[11 Gauge]

Originally Posted by leonard d rock

i had difficulty finding capacitors so i just stuck one with the marking 223k on C12 and liked the result.

It can be a little tricky, but you can tie two caps in parallel to make other values:

- .022uF + .01uF = .033uF (IndyGuitarist mod uses one of these)

- .047uF + .1uF = .15uF (used for Lovepedal Eternity tone caps)

- .022uF + .047uF = .068 uF (used for flat mids mod and OCD v4 bias cap)

I find .068uF and .033uF to add just a touch more tweakability to a lot of circuits. They tend to work much better than .022uF and .047uF in many instances.

[gtrplr]

indyguitarist.com

Be sure and sign up for the newsletter, that'll get you a discount on his e-books. Brian Wampler's a great guy and good player. His mod's are good, esp. the DS-1 Vintage mod.

[pchilson]

I've been following this thread with interest. A bit over a month ago I bought a DS-1 with the intention of doing the Keeley mods but have since found many others listing what they have done.
I ended up going to this site and starting with the "Vintage distortion tones" mod. This one is not only easy but only requires 4 changes. I figured start simple and you can work from there into some of the others if need be. This simple change of 4 values made a very noticable and pleseant change for the better to my ear. Like others have said the stock pedal is ok if not a little bit on the harsh side. The changes so far have just smoothed it out nice.
I'll play with it for a time and see if I want to got further.

[11 Gauge]

Originally Posted by pchilson

I figured start simple and you can work from there into some of the others if need be.

I really feel that this is the way to go.

Unfortunately, there's so much info on the internet that completely revamps the entire DS-1 circuit that it's hard to take it in incremental steps. Folks seem to get really excited in that they can create the exact same thing that Keeley offers for his "ultra" mod.

For many folks, just changing the tone stack to something less mid scooped and altering the clipping diodes to give more/less boost, limiting, compression, and that is all that they really would probably need.

[leonard d rock]

Originally Posted by 11 Gauge

I really feel that this is the way to go.

Unfortunately, there's so much info on the internet that completely revamps the entire DS-1 circuit that it's hard to take it in incremental steps. Folks seem to get really excited in that they can create the exact same thing that Keeley offers for his "ultra" mod.

For many folks, just changing the tone stack to something less mid scooped and altering the clipping diodes to give more/less boost, limiting, compression, and that is all that they really would probably need.

i bought my ds-1 last december and i has incurred lots of changes i lost track on it. i have changed the components values so much that i think it would be impossible to return it to stock. yes, what i really needed was a moderate midhump and a little more volume and i think i've got it now (?).

regards,
ldr

[11 Gauge]

Originally Posted by leonard d rock

i bought my ds-1 last december and i has incurred lots of changes i lost track on it. i have changed the components values so much that i think it would be impossible to return it to stock.

This is the situation that I ran into with my last one. The standard "recipe" for the DS-1 mods are so comprehensive that it can be difficult to return it to stock form. Many folks do (especially when they go to the "almost MIJ mod"), and it can be quite a PITA.

Luckily, a brand new DS-1 is still only 40 clams, and the new op amp chip that they're shipping with is great (I wasn't a big fan of the M5223AL).

When I mod a DS-1 now, I concentrate on the tone stack (which is mainly just changing resistors), get rid of any polarized caps in the signal path (just a handful), and change the clipping diodes for a pair with different compression/limiting characteristics. Most of the other stuff is just filler or subjective changes, IMO.

[mwaym]

Any others ????

[Warren Pederson]

Just pay the $20 for the Monte Allums mod. I did the basic DS1 mod, I don't recall the name. I was in a thread on another forum and a guy emailed me asking for the diagrams and parts list so he could try it out (before he shelled out $20). Unfreakinbelievable.

[jvanginkel]

I did the Classic Rock mod from indyguitarist on my DS-1 yesterday and it sounds amazing. My DS-1 sounded so thin and brittle when I bought it. Know it's more round and pleasant. All you replace is one Diode, one resistor and two capacitors. I'm a beginner and it took me 40 minutes. There is a youtube video of a guy who did the Vintage and Classic Rock mods from indyguitarist and as mentioned above the book is only $14 and includes 80 other mods if you sign up for the newsletter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmARgeZPTN4


Joel