Boss DS-1 mods

antichef

antichef

pornk rock
yay! DIY-Mods-Homebrew forum!!!

A few weeks ago, I read this website:

http://www.erikhansen.net/?page_id=28

and a few others, and went out and picked up a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal -- first time I ever had one (been playing for over 20 years). I followed the instructions partially, since I was unable to immediately get all the parts in Erik's list.

Erik talks about about changing the diodes D4 and D5, particularly D4, with red LEDs -- I was at Fry's and I found some red ones, but only available in a quantity that was too costly when I only needed a couple - I picked up some green ones, and one infrared one. Currently, the infrared is in D4, and I haven't changed D5.

I also put a 2k ohm trimpot on R13 - this is the resistor that Erik notes determines the amount of distortion. Due to my ignorance problem, I don't know whether the trimpot goes from 2k upward or downward.

I recorded a reamp-able guitar line track and ran it through the pedal at various stages of modification. If anyone's interested, I can post .wav files.

I like the sound of the pedal much more after the mods - it's a little more understated, but has a smoother sound that works well with most of the amps I've tried it on.

Anyone else mod one of these, or another distortion pedal?
 
antichef said:
yay! DIY-Mods-Homebrew forum!!!

A few weeks ago, I read this website:

http://www.erikhansen.net/?page_id=28

and a few others, and went out and picked up a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal -- first time I ever had one (been playing for over 20 years). I followed the instructions partially, since I was unable to immediately get all the parts in Erik's list.

Erik talks about about changing the diodes D4 and D5, particularly D4, with red LEDs -- I was at Fry's and I found some red ones, but only available in a quantity that was too costly when I only needed a couple - I picked up some green ones, and one infrared one. Currently, the infrared is in D4, and I haven't changed D5.

I also put a 2k ohm trimpot on R13 - this is the resistor that Erik notes determines the amount of distortion. Due to my ignorance problem, I don't know whether the trimpot goes from 2k upward or downward.
Click to expand...

Very cool. LEDs make for excellent replacements for distortion diodes. I would try different colors since they will sound different. Definitely post some samples. FYI, a pot will increase or decrease depending on which side of the center pin you wire it
 
yeah, ive done this as well. have tried in in several dirt boxes including ds-1, daddy-o, "cheap" tubescreamer.....

try not only different color LEDs, but different sizes as well. the T-1 3/4 react differently than the T-1 LEDs. rat shack aslo have "other" diodes that you might like to try. germanium is a classic sound, but they are a little harder to find IIRC. as you have already experimented with asymmetrical clip circuit, i wont expand on that. there are also tone circuit mods that really really really help the ds-1, particularly with an LED mod. mine is recognizable as a ds-1 only by its orange paint.

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Another interesting mod for distortion pedals is using a chain of series connected diodes to drop the battery voltage to the circuit. Starving these circuits can give a whole range of new tones. Each diode will subtract 0.6V from the battery power. Be sure to use diodes that can handle the current demand.

On my homebrew Thor pedal I have a power switch with two positions - full power and starved. Being that this pedal is an all FET circuit things get really mushy in starve-mode due to changing the biasing of the FETs. Sounds a bit like that old rectifier amp sound on guitar. For synths it gives a seriously lofi dirtyness.
 
another popular mod for these is to put in the chips from the two early versions of the ibanez tube screamers and/or to do the so-called "brown mod". i got one pre-modded last year on ebay and liked it a lot, but sold it as i picked up an mjm blues devil at the same time. i see the kits on ebay (socket, plus the two chips) often.
 
OK, here's the sound files -- I made mp3s because there are so many of them. These are "raw" and not through an amp, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit (or re-amp them into *your* amp :) ). I took the same guitar line and played it (at line level) through each of the mods, recording what came out the other side -- and there are a couple of reference mp3s, too:

first, the "source"


for reference, a Fulltone FullDrive2 with all knobs at 12 o'clock - I think this is the "classic" setting, but I don't remember:


and for more reference, an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS10 with all knobs at noon:


and now the DS-1, stock:


changes from here on out are mostly cumulative

change C11 to .047 uf:


change C5 to .1 uf:


change C13 to .1


change R13 to 4.7k (which should reduce the amount of distortion?):


change D4 to a green LED:


change D4 to an infrared LED (not cumulative - replaced green LED):


change R13 to 2.2k (which should increase the amount of distortion? also not cumulative, since it had previously been replaced with 4.7k above):


just the capacitor changes listed in the "indyguitarist" mods in that article -
C2 - change to 1uf
C3 - change to 0.033uf
C5 - change to 1uf
C9 - change to 1uf



And later, I changed R13 to be the trimpot, but I haven't hooked back up to do another mp3...
 
I did the LED mod in my extreme Peavey RAGE! amp. Definitely, it helps, both for the quality of clipping and the level needed to attain it (LEDs have a forward voltage ~1.5V vs. 0.6V for the silicons)

Of course, I added a tube stage too . . . :o
 
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