How to make a specific sounding distortion?

[platypy]

Okay, so I think I'm gonna go the route of MXR Distortion+ and a fuzz face, as suggested by Quackzed. This leads me to a question about the Distortion Plus's filters, since I'm going to be messing around with them to perfect my broken-glass-distortion-sound. I'm looking at the schematic on General Guitar Gadgets (http://generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_dist_plus_sc.pdf), and it seems like C5 and R8 form a highpass filter with a cutoff frequency 15KHz. C4, R6 and R7 form another highpass with a cutoff of 6Hz. These two filters don't seem like they actually affect the sound at all, since the C5/R8 filter will only let through frequencies higher than 15k, which is above the range of guitar, and the C4/R6/R7 filter will let any frequency above 6Hz in, which means the whole range of a guitar will come through. Am I correct in thinking this? If so, I'll just leave them alone, or change the values for higher gain, while keeping the frequencies the same.

So if those two filters aren't affecting the frequencies, which parts are?

[Quackzed]

ok, the filters:
c5 : you are right that c5 will only pass frequencies above the guitars range , but because its in the feedback loop of an opamp, any frequencies that go from the output to the input 'feedback loop' of the opamp without resistance will not be amplified. so essentially c5 CUTS very VERY high frequencies from getting amplified and creating squeel or oscillation. leave it in there. it is so small it'll only affect very very high frequencies, higher than 15k more like 100khz and above... you'll never hear it doing anything but itll keep the opamp from dying trying to amplify pointlessly high high frequencies.

c4 r6 r7.. so at max gain (r7 at 0ohms) theres just c4 in series with r6 which will cut frequencies below 720.8 hz and as you said, at lowest gain 500k plus 4k7 (essentially 500k) itll cut freqs below 6hz you get the full guitar range.  so at lowest gain its letting everything get amplified, but at MAX gain that pot is in the mix and it cuts bass below 720hz and keeps the very distorted sound from getting muddy and keeps it tight by cutting bass... 1/2 way between the 2 it cuts below 310 (half way). this is what i meant by it gets treblyer at higher gain... might be better to say at high gain it stays tight and doesnt get flabby... too much bass into any high gainer can make it blatty or muted sounding because the higher frequencies ride on top of the lower frequencies, so when the low frequencies run out of headroom, the high frequencies get lost, they have no room to wiggle and that leads to a blatty or muted sound, loss of definition so you  need to do some bass freq cutting to prevent it with any high gain pedal...

you could play around with c4 without affecting the gain of the pedal, might be a good thing to keep in mind down the line, if you want to use a bigger c4 it might add some unrulyness, or it might make things worse and lowering it(cutting more bass at higher gains) could be the right way to go, but thats a good component to fine tune as its the one responsible for the 'tightness' or 'uglyness' depending...

other than that the dist + is a no frills no tone controll slam an opamp to the max into some clipping diodes circuit...along with the dod250 (not sure which came first- i think its the mxr) its the grand daddy to the ds-1 and the rat and a host of high gain grandkids... 

[J0K3RX]

I believe that I read D-Clone uses the Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz, EQ, wah and a Boss BF-2 Flanger.. Of course the Hyper Fuzz is the key to that Gawd Awful sound.     I listened to a few demos of a couple different versions of the hyper fuzz on youtube and there are a couple settings that nail it if you ask me..

[platypy]

Cool! I'll take a look at the hyper fuzz and maybe factor it into my design.
Also, thanks for help with filters, quackzed!

[Derringer]

buried inside that Hyperfuzz ... is an old Univox Superfuzz ... not an easy build, but easier than the entire Hyperfuzz.
And this illustrates that there's definitely an octave-up component to the sound you're looking for.