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Ken
Copper Member
Norway
25 Posts |
 Posted - 09/21/2007 : 15:08:45
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Just thought I would share my experience on modding my MIT flat sounding/noisy/fuzzy DS-1. It turned out that its a tone monster just waiting to be modded. The original sound to me was useless with the knobs turned more than 9 o�clock. (Not the level though)That correspond to what is written about the settings used by artist like Satriani and Vai. Its just used as a kind of booster with some ds-1 signature distortion. What the Seeing Eye mod does is in fact amazing. Because of the usage of high quality parts in the right place and some modifying of the clipping stage, its totally opened up the sound.
It really sounds like a Marshall stack when used on a clear channel.
More clarity. (and oomph)
The strings rings trough.
More output power.
No harsh edges.
Versatility.
The tone knob makes it extremely versatile.
And the dist knob can go to 3 o�clock without any trouble.
I use it in conjunction with a TS-9.
The TS-9 comes after the DS-1 to boost the tone. Killer combo.
Its really worth the upgrade. Just a few dollar in parts, and some solder skills is all there is to it to get a shitty sounding factory pedal to sound like boutique. Feel free to share any of your experience with modded Bosses. I would like to hear from you. |
Edited by - Ken on 09/23/2007 14:05:04 |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 16:52:39
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Hi Ken
It's great to hear about other people, doing mods & Tech stuff. 
Do you have any sound samples, of YOUR modded DS-1?
Regards Dr. Bob |
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Ken
Copper Member
Norway
25 Posts |
Posted - 09/22/2007 : 15:42:28
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I sure do! Samples and pics.
On the picture it shows the setting used to record. The inside pic shows
how I soldered the red led and shorted it with a 47pF cap. Since it was so big, this is how I had to do it. And you can see the other caps as well spread around the board.
As for the soundclips, I have 4 of them.
I used a Shure SM57 straight in front of a 4x12 Marshall cabinet.
Cubase is used for recording, and the files is not manipulated in any way. Just exported down to regular MP3 format.
The amp is a 89� JCM 800 (2203) and I use the clean channel for the sole purpose to show as much as possible how the modded DS-1 sounds like. The
JCM 800 is far from a clean amp, but it does the job. Its actually been used on steelguitar on a record 
Anyways..
Clip 1 is Clean amp for reference.
http://home.online.no/~kehanss4/Clean%20channel%20on%20amp.mp3
Clip 2 is Powerchords
http://home.online.no/~kehanss4/ds1_powerchords.mp3
Clip 3 is to show dynamics. (No volume control used.)
http://home.online.no/~kehanss4/ds1_dynamics.mp3
Clip 4 is just messing around a bit with wah-wah and dist.
http://home.online.no/~kehanss4/wah-02.mp3
(Thanks to Stinkfoot for helping me with the wah mod a couple of years ago)
Pics
/ken |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 09/22/2007 : 16:13:05
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Hi Ken
The dynamics are really great, you can really hear the level building up.
The wah tones are very, is it a crybaby & which one?
Which of stinkfoots mods did you do to it.
Overall it's a nice sounding DS-1 mod.
Which type of guitar did you use in your playing & demo's?
I noticed that you put the SIP opamp into a SIL socket
any particular reason for doing that mod?
If you are using a red LED & A White LED as the clipping section of your mod, that you are getting a kind of Asymmetrical clipping
as the RED LED conducts at about 1.5V
and the White LED's vary between 3V and 4.5V.
Or did you just replace one of the diodes with a RED LED & replace the
red indicator LED with a white on?
Also please check your MP3 files, as the clips are very short, but the file sizes are very big, there is a lot of silence for more than 80% of the MP3 files.
Making them very long to download,
we still have some members on dial up.
Maybe it's a quirk in Cusebase,
I guess they just need all the silence edited out.
Regard & thanks for the pics & audio samples.
Dr. Bob |
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Ken
Copper Member
Norway
25 Posts |
Posted - 09/22/2007 : 18:46:45
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Hello Dr.Bob
Thanks for the feedback!
You are absolutely right about the sound clips. I forgot to "retract" the
range selector in Cubase before I exported them. Causing 20 mins of silence within the clips. I fixed that now and they should be considerably smaller in size 
To answer your questions; I reused the red led and it now operates in the clipping section. Same as Keely does I believe. The bigger blue led is mounted as indicator, replacing the red one. So technically, its identical to the SEM mod. (I chose not to drill extra hole for the "seeing eye" part though.)
This also means that its still a asymmetrical clipping stage, as other Boss pedals
The SIL socket you see is there just because I had one laying and decided to use it so I could easily try other opamps later. Took me a minute to install so what the heck. Its still uses the original opamp now.
The Wah- wah is a standard GCB-95 which i found very hard to utilize.
I thought the sweep was to quick, the vocal to squeaky, and it buzzed on the low end. I started to read up on what to do about it and it kind of led me to art of DIY. I don't remember all of the res and cap values that I�ve changed right now, but its written down on the inside
of the bottom plate. If anyone is interested, I could rip it off my pedal board and find out. The one thing I do remember is that replaced the pot (to Jimi H. specs )changed the factory inductor with a yellow Fasel Inductor. (I believe its made by Dunlop as well.) It made
all the difference in the world to me. I really liked the result.
As for my guitar, I use a 99�Les Paul Standard. I believe its equipped with Burstbuckers but I�m not sure. Could be the Alnico type, I just dont know. If anybody knows how to identify the different types, let me know.
/ken |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 03:20:00
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Hi Ken
Thanks for all the mod info.
I know that many others here & myself would be interested in all your wah mods, if you find the time to rip off the bottom plate & document it for us.
And what did you mean you replaced the pot to Jimmi Specs?
the normal pot is a 100K. or did you use the 470K pot?
Did you also do the true bypass mod?
When I use either of my 2 crybaby's with my Fender all valve, I don't seem to be,
experiencing the horrible tone suck that everyone seems to be
complaining about,
I have a newer GCB-95 with the plastic battery door,
and my much prized Red Fasel Jen, that I bought back in the early 70's
Yes it was a whole $30 or $35au - makes you want to cry, doesn't it.
The newer one goes into that slice your ears off-treble treble range way too quickly, so I backed off the Hotpotz II a few teeth on the gear, to mellow it out a bit.
The Hotpotz II 100K is the current replacement pot, and it has a strange taper.
But they also sell the 470K one as well.
Regards Dr. Bob
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Ken
Copper Member
Norway
25 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 13:28:39
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Hi Dr.Bob
Yes, you got it! I used the 470K pot.
Originally, it was fitted with the Hotpotz II, but as you pointed out, it had a strange taper. Experimented with changing position on the gear back and forth, but it was not enough (for me).
Read somewhere that Jimis original wah used a 470K pot, and I just happened to have one laying around so I replaced it. And it did wonders with the taper. I believe it a standard spare part from Dunlop. And I did the true bypass as well. Guess it doesn't matter much that it suck a little tone when you play loud rock n roll anyways, but as you know a chain is just as strong as the weakest link. I believe that if you are using several pedals on the board and sometimes long cables (on stage) why should I not try to eliminate as much as possible of the things that may cause less good tone.
I�ll have to say, the wah-wah was my first project and theres been a lot of trial and error before I figured out what worked the best (again, for me). It took a long time and a lot of soldering and de soldering of parts:-) .
Finally I changed the original inductor with the Fasel. I think they where out of production for a long time, then re-introduced to the aftermarket by popular demand. (Am I right?) I just decided to try one out, so one was ordered and replaced. Made it a little bit cleaner and more pronounced in my ears. Liked it a lot!
There is two types of Fasels.
The yellow one: Cup Core
Produces a clean, direct wah sound.
The red one: Torrodial Core
Produces a dirty, vintage-oriented wah sound
I just decided to go with the yellow one, since it promised more clean sound. Alright. I did tear off the old wah from the pedal board and opened it up to try to remember what I actually did in there. And let me tell you, that Velcro sucks down those pedals real good too. Did not think I would get it off in one piece
For reference, I�ll post pics of my board and a link to Castledines and Stinkfoots mod page. Those was the ones that I used to help me when I did the mods. Very nice sites.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.castledine/greenfuz/wah.html
http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/mods/dunlop.htm#_modding_the_wah
Because of the true bypass, the input buffer on my board is removed. As you can see theres a lot of empty holes from those resistors there.
What I did:
Vocal Mod, Replaced the 33K resistor to 68K
Midrange, replaced the 1K5 to 2K2
Volume mod, 68K to 47K
Gain and Bass Response was changed, but I can see that I have put it back to its original value.
Probably did not need it since I�ve also changed the 68K to 47K.(Volume mod)
And of course, true bypass and a brand new Fasel inductor.
Thats it. Very happy with the result.
(The Ibanez pic is just for show and tell. It stood right next to the wah when i took photos
Thanks
/ken
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 15:16:04
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Hi ken
Thanks for the extensive writeup on the wah mods.
Some of the writing on the baseplate was obscured by the camera's Flash.
To be really honest.
I probably would have never thought, of replacing the 100K with the 470K pot.
They are $45au to $67au out here in Australia.
Too pricey to experiment with, Unless you know you could reuse the other pot on a repair, if you didn't like it.
There seems to be another Fasel colour as well,
I found a pic of a faulty Mr Crybaby, fitted with a WHITE Fasel inductor.
I don't know too much about the history of the Fasel inductors,
But I believe you are right, that they were reintroduced because of popular demand,
& to boost the bottom line dollars of Jim Dunlop MFG.
All I do know is the Red Fasel in my 70's Jen crybaby sounds great,
it even breaks up a bit with distortion when you do a heel back & use it as a filter.
Her is the link to the White Fasel Mr Crybaby I found.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Wah-Pedal-Mr-Cry-Baby-Super-Needs-repair_W0QQitemZ130154142203QQihZ003QQcategoryZ41422QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Regards Dr. Bob |
Edited by - Dr. Bob on 09/23/2007 15:17:57 |
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hardcore misery
Copper Member
Philippines
32 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2007 : 02:12:39
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quote:
Originally posted by Ken
I sure do! Samples and pics.
On the picture it shows the setting used to record. The inside pic shows
how I soldered the red led and shorted it with a 47pF cap. Since it was so big, this is how I had to do it. And you can see the other caps as well spread around the board.
As for the soundclips, I have 4 of them.
I used a Shure SM57 straight in front of a 4x12 Marshall cabinet.
Cubase is used for recording, and the files is not manipulated in any way. Just exported down to regular MP3 format.
The amp is a 89� JCM 800 (2203) and I use the clean channel for the sole purpose to show as much as possible how the modded DS-1 sounds like. The
JCM 800 is far from a clean amp, but it does the job. Its actually been used on steelguitar on a record
Anyways..
Clip 1 is Clean amp for reference.
http://home.online.no/~kehanss4/Clean%20channel%20on%20amp.mp3
Clip 2 is Powerchords
http://home.online.no/~kehanss4/ds1_powerchords.mp3
Clip 3 is to show dynamics. (No volume control used.)
http://home.online.no/~kehanss4/ds1_dynamics.mp3
Clip 4 is just messing around a bit with wah-wah and dist.
http://home.online.no/~kehanss4/wah-02.mp3
(Thanks to Stinkfoot for helping me with the wah mod a couple of years ago)
Pics
/ken
ken, what kind of capacitors did you use at the ds1's circuit? are those white capacitors there are 1uF? i have them, but i don't know if it has a polarity.:( |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2007 : 04:25:30
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Hi hardcore misery
Don't he :( ... SAD hardcore misery.
In the mods, they generally replace the cheaper 1uf polarized caps with non-polarized 1uf polyester or MTK (MKT) caps.
The manufactures use electrolytic polarized caps, because they are much cheaper than the non-polarized ones.
The put the electro's, into the circuit, with the polarity to match the DC that they are trying to block out.
These caps are called interstage coupling caps & in good quality & good design, they should have been non polarized one's to start with.
And as I stated above, they block DC voltages between all the audio stages, but they let Audio (AC) signals through.
Non polarized caps tend to be much larger in size than electro's
I hope this all makes some kind of sense.
I guess, what I'm trying to tell you, it's Ok to use them, where you would use interstage coupling caps.
Regards Dr. Bob |
Edited by - Dr. Bob on 10/03/2007 04:27:11 |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2007 : 04:37:39
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Hi Ken
Quick question, in the wah recording.
Did you have the wah Before or after the modded DS-1?
Regards Dr. Bob |
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hardcore misery
Copper Member
Philippines
32 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2007 : 13:41:45
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Bob
Hi hardcore misery
Don't he :( ... SAD hardcore misery.
In the mods, they generally replace the cheaper 1uf polarized caps with non-polarized 1uf polyester or MTK (MKT) caps.
The manufactures use electrolytic polarized caps, because they are much cheaper than the non-polarized ones.
The put the electro's, into the circuit, with the polarity to match the DC that they are trying to block out.
These caps are called interstage coupling caps & in good quality & good design, they should have been non polarized one's to start with.
And as I stated above, they block DC voltages between all the audio stages, but they let Audio (AC) signals through.
Non polarized caps tend to be much larger in size than electro's
I hope this all makes some kind of sense.
I guess, what I'm trying to tell you, it's Ok to use them, where you would use interstage coupling caps.
Regards Dr. Bob
yes sir, it's ok to use non-polarized electrolytic caps, but my question is, what kind of capacitor did Ken used in his ds-1, i'm talking about those WHITE capacitors in his ds1's circuit, i have those capacitors, but can't recognize if it has polarity, and i'm not sure if its a non-polar capacitor, i've installed them in my metalzone, and i've noticed that those capacitors dissipates some mild temperature(approx 5 deg celcius) but in terms of sound, there's no awfull effect.. |
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Ken
Copper Member
Norway
25 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2007 : 20:47:48
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Bob
Hi Ken
Quick question, in the wah recording.
Did you have the wah Before or after the modded DS-1?
Regards Dr. Bob
Hello Bob!
Sorry for the wait. Been kinda busy
I almost always use the wah (filter effect)first in the chain.
So yes, I did it on the soundclips too.
BUT,..sometimes its fun to try out other combos, and I find putting a overdrive in front of the wah gives a snarling dist effect that is way cool.
Some general info kids
The basic rules is as follows. filter>compressor>dist>pitch>modulation(chorus,flanger etc.)>gates>and finally echo/delay. I use this as a guideline but often experiments with the order.
/ken |
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DS-1 Success story (and now with wah also)
