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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
 Posted - 03/16/2006 : 17:29:51
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Anyone have any experience with CS-3 Mods and what the simplest way to cut that awful hiss might be, particularly one that won't effect the tone?
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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 18:10:38
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Nobody?????
I've seen mods that suggest replacing the capacitors with better quality ones to quiet the noise, but I've heard that doesn't really do the trick. I noticed that the Monte Allums CS-3 Kits seem to have lots of components to them, and I was wondering if any of you guys had one of these modified pedals and could speak of it.
I just want to get rid of noise, I don't want to change anything else about the pedal as far as how it operates.
Also I am considering just running the CS-3, through an NS-2 by itself in the middle of my chain so I don't have to Noise Suppress the OD/Distortion section of my chain. |
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phostenix
Gold Member
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 18:38:30
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I'll give you my .02
I bought an OD-3 off ebay that was butchered by someone who didn't know how to solder. As I looked at the components that were replaced (or unsuccessfully attempted in some cases), I began to wonder just what they were trying to do. Replacing things like the polarity reversal protection diode with a different type & changing a cap that controls the switching time of the switching FET with a fancy poly cap.
I also was seeing these Monte Allums kits on ebay, so I went ahead & bought one just for fun.
Imagine my surprise when I received it and these very mods were in it. I e-mailed back & forth with Monte asking him how he came to suggest that some of his changes would affect the sound of the pedal & he basically told me that, at least in the case of the OD-3, he just replaces parts without knowing what they do in the circuit & listens for changes. He stands by the idea that these parts made a difference in the sound somehow. He calls his methods unorthodox or some such. I call them nonsense, but that's just me.
He says that he does work off schematics for most of what he does, but his whole approach is suspect to me. So much of this mod stuff becomes hearing what you want to hear, that I'm not sure how you can sort out the facts from the fiction.
My assertion is still that to properly compare these mods you need to have a switch box that can switch back & forth between 2 pedals on the fly as you play so that you can really hear the differences. Making changes & then listening again later is meaningless. This, of course, requires you to have a modded pedal & a stock pedal.
BTW, the Behringer AB200 switch can be setup to do this, as well as many other things. More on that later.
Grace and peace,
Steve
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 20:02:35
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It doesn't surpise me to hear that some of these mod jobs are dodgy. Over the last couple of months the number of mod kits on Ebay has exploded. Looks like some of these are just replacing components at random while some just ads a capacitor to cut some treble and says their pedal sounds warmer. Turning the tone control to the left could give the same result.
There are some good mods out there too but be careful. Just from reading the schematics I've noticed that the original designers are very smart guys and for anyone to improve on the designs they need to be equally smart.
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stahlhart
Platinum Member
1318 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 21:56:20
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There does seem to be a lot of consensus about asymmetric diode clipping and metal film or tantalum bypass capacitor changes.
C.K.
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phostenix
Gold Member
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 22:08:00
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I've seen people claiming both good & bad about tantalums. There's no consensus there. 
And I always like to remember that the guitar heros of old whose tone everyone wants to re-create were all playing through pedals & amps full of those awful electrolytic caps & lots of carbon film resistors, too. 
Grace and peace,
Steve
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stahlhart
Platinum Member
1318 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 22:21:07
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That's the supreme irony of it all.
You meant carbon comp resistors, correct...?
C.K.
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phostenix
Gold Member
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 22:57:21
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Nope. I meant carbon film. I have yet to see a Boss pedal with carbon comps. Maybe that FA-1 might. There's a lot of talk on the internet that you have to have carbon comp resistors to get "the tone". R.G. Keen wrote a great article on this a while back on geofex.
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/carbon_comp/carboncomp.htm
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 23:40:30
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If I remember this correctly they are noisier when it comes to thermal noise while metal film resistors have a larger amount of excess noise.
I've seen other sources swear by carbon comp resistors for tone too but personally I can't hear any difference. A while ago I replaced all resistors in the input stage of a valve amp with metal film resistors and was expecting it to be quieter. I then went through the noise calculations and found that the valve noise out-weighted the resitor noise by 150:1.
It will have a bigger impact when used with low noise opamps or transistors but I still think the effects are miniscule. |
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Briggs
Copper Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 03/31/2006 : 01:29:59
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Well, I did the monte allums opto mod, and it sounds good to me.
the only noise it makes is when you turn up the sustain knob really high. Its super quiet and natural sounding. Completely different than stock.
Briggs |
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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 03/31/2006 : 15:58:19
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Thank you Briggs, I was looking for a review. However I'd still like to be able to turn the sustain up to max and get no hiss. Perhaps in the meantime I'll get this mod and check it out, but in the end I think that a product should do what it advertises it will do, without any loss in quality.
Anyone know of a really good Compressor/Sustainer that is not Boss?
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Edited by - Dingus on 04/11/2006 15:17:06 |
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lightburst
Silver Member
Germany
158 Posts |
Posted - 04/11/2006 : 16:32:11
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| Yes! The EBS Multicomp. One of the best compressors I�ve heard. Don�t get fooled by the advertising that it�s an bass effect. It works very well with guitars too. |
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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 04/11/2006 : 19:26:51
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| thank you for the suggestion Lightburst I will look into that. |
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lightburst
Silver Member
Germany
158 Posts |
Posted - 05/12/2006 : 10:30:18
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| Does anyone have a CS-3 schematic. I need one for documentation of my experiments with that unit! Thank you everybody |
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stahlhart
Platinum Member
1318 Posts |
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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2006 : 16:04:50
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Just for reference my ultimate decision based on lots or research and e-mails back and forth with various pedal modders is to send a Stock CS-3 (I just bought from Guitar Center for $35 since it was used, picked up a DS-1 for $12 btw) to Mark Humphrey of Humphrey Audio. Mark does not have a website because he said "he gets more than enough work from word of mouth alone." As I said my main goal here is to drastically reduce or eliminate entirely the hiss that this pedal creates in stock form. For $45 including return shipping he will personally do the pedal mod job. I've read good reviews at Harmony Central, and hope this lives up to my expectations.
As soon as I get the pedal back I will post a thorough review, as I know I am not the only one around here who isn't very pleased with the CS-3 in stock form.
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Topic |
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Best CS-3 Mod to Eliminate Hiss?
