Yngwie J Malmsteen overdrive -YJM308 ? like dod-250

[jimbob]

I've heard a lot of great things about this YJM308  pedal and have been told its very much like the dod-250- i really like my dod-250 modified.!! im wondering if i can mod mine to be like it?

[Paul Marossy]

Modding it would be the easy part. The hard part is getting a schematic.

[bwanasonic]

Modding it would be the easy part. The hard part is getting a schematic.

I thought it was just a DOD 250 with a new paint job. I can't imagine there are too many variables that have changed from a basic 250.

Kerry M

[Arno van der Heijden]

This one?

http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/schems/yjm308.GIF

:wink:

[jimbob]

Arno..nice!!!

[Paul Marossy]

Is that the same Joe Nazari that teaches a concealed weapon permit class in Nevada? That's name of the instructor that taught the class that I took a few years ago...

If so, it's a small world.

[jimmy]

that YJM308 KILLS the dod 250 IMHO. its way brighter (if you like that kind of sound) and has more gain, and it seems to have more definition and clarity. the only difference between it and the 250 is the input caps are 0.001 and the ic is an LM4558.

cheers
Jim

[V!N]

I received an original YJM308 as a gift

Great pedal for solo's, very clear n' brite indeed. But it takes away a little too much bass to play muscular rhythm riffs.

When I got it, I was all like: "hm, could use an on/off indicator led, a different adapter input, some rubber feet underneath it" :lol:

In th manual there is a small illustration how to hook up the pedal between your guitar and amp. It doesn't say "YJM", but "250".

Does anybody know where to get those neat enclosures ?

[Paul Marossy]

They didn't mess with the clipping diodes at all? If I remember, he just wanted it to suit his playing style better, in terms of the tone.
Yngwie uses Strats for one thing, and I wonder if the scalloped fretboard makes things sound a little different, too, in terms of harmonics and overtones.

[Ansil]

They didn't mess with the clipping diodes at all? If I remember, he just wanted it to suit his playing style better, in terms of the tone.
Yngwie uses Strats for one thing, and I wonder if the scalloped fretboard makes things sound a little different, too, in terms of harmonics and overtones.

yes it does make it resonate different.. i dont' know why, or how to explain it. but i would play scalloped over regular anyday. all my guitars taht i play regularly are scalloped at least half the way down.

[Fast Fret]

Scalloped necks change the sound very slightly because of the amount of wood that has been removed. They sound a little more metallic or brittle. The tone of the truss rod and frets becomes more evident. Despite various claims, the only real benefit to playing them is they allow you to get a better grip on the strings for bending, or if you are running around acting spastic while trying to play world-class lead guitar such as malmsteen does. I have been playing scalloped neck guitars since 1985. As far as the YJM 308 overdrive, they were attempting to duplicate the sound of yngwies favorite overdrive 250 preamp, which has a slightly different sound than his other 250 pedals.

[Ansil]

Scalloped necks change the sound very slightly because of the amount of wood that has been removed. They sound a little more metallic or brittle. The tone of the truss rod and frets becomes more evident. Despite various claims, the only real benefit to playing them is they allow you to get a better grip on the strings for bending, or if you are running around acting spastic while trying to play world-class lead guitar such as malmsteen does. I have been playing scalloped neck guitars since 1985. As far as the YJM 308 overdrive, they were attempting to duplicate the sound of yngwies favorite overdrive 250 preamp, which has a slightly different sound than his other 250 pedals.

you would be suprised on the amount of change it makes.   more than just slightly,   some guitars can be metallic or brittle sounding, but usually it is the oppostie sound, i have always gotten a fuller sound but still more focused the only time i have heard it sound brittle to my ears was on a maple fretboard..

[Mark Hammer]

a) Each fret is essentially a nut.  In the same way that angled pegheads produce a different degree of string tension  at the nut relative to flat Fender-style pegheads, scalloped fingerboards provide for a slightly steeper string angle at the fret.  It also provides for a slightly different way to achieve vibrato though obviously not the same latiude inthat regard compared to, say, a sitar with elevated frets.

b) The *posted* schematics of the 250 and YJM 308 have a few differences, although I'm starting to wonder if the 308 schem is accurate.  
- The 250 uses a 741 like the Distortion+, where the 308 uses a Samsung KA4558 dual op-amp (please, no new op-amp cults after this posting).  
- The 250 has a larger value input cap than the 308 (.01uf vs .001uf).  This results in a bit less bottom end for the 308.
- The 250 uses a larger value resistor to ground on the non-inverting input (1meg vs 470k).
- The 308 has a 25pf feedback cap in parallel with the 1meg feedback resistor where the 250 appears to have no such cap.  This provides a rolloff starting around 6.4khz.  The .001 cap to ground at the output on each provides further rolloff, but I'd classify that additional rolloff more as hiss reduction than tone shaping.
- The 308 has a 4.7uf output cap where the 250 has a 10uf cap.  Again, a bit more low-end rolloff.

Joe Nazari's drawing shows a 100R resistor in series with one of the 22k fixed resistors in the divider circuit that produces the Vref.  Personally, I suspect this is an error since I can't see the natural variations in 5% resistors producing any sort of predictable asymmetrical "bias" from this.  Myown guess is that +9v goes directly to the 22k resistor, and the 100R resistor is between +9v and the V+ pin on the chip.  That would make more sense.

Overall, it would seem that the differences in the the two are intended to make the 308 a bit smoother and less ragged-sounding.  Essentially a TS-9-inspired sort of tone shaping.

[Ansil]

mark i was reading your article and i notice you said that the dod250 has  a 10uf cap where the yjm has a 4.7uf.. my old dod had a 4.7uf instead of a 10uf, is this just a difference in years the pedals were produced.   it was never modded so i was just wondering.

[Fast Fret]

My point is that metal sounds brighter and tinnier than wood, which has a sound that is more melodious and full with less jagged edges. The national resonator guitars which are used for slide, and made of metal are a perfect example. By removing  wood, you have increased the metal to wood ratio, and therefore the brightness. If there was a real sound benefit to playing scalloped necks, everybody who takes their sound very seriously would be playing them, but almost no one does. I have never heard a virtuoso player mention a sound benefit to playing scalloped necks. Steve Vai only has the last 4 frets on his signature Ibanez Gem guitars scalloped. Why? To get a better grip on the strings when things get scrunched on those last frets. If there was actually a sound benefit worth anything to the scalloped neck, he would have all the frets on the guitar scalloped and not just the last 4 frets. Record a strat before it is scalloped, and then after, its a change so slight that almost no one has ears good enough to hear it.

As far as the angle of the string being at a higher incidence because of a neck scallop as a person frets a note, this would only hold true if this person had a heavy handed technique that would cause them to push the string down too far into the scallop, farther than if they were playing a non scalloped neck and the fingerboard stopped them from pushing the string down any farther. The necks best suit players with a light, coordinated touch, or notes will go sharp, both on lead and chord playing.

The vertical vibrato aspect is more or less a non valid gimmic, in my opinion.

[bwanasonic]

The vertical vibrato aspect is more or less a non valid gimmic, in my opinion.

I don't know if I'd call it a gimic. John McLaughlin recorded some amazing music on a scalloped neck guitar. Ask Ravis Shankar if he thinks "vertical vibrato is more or less a non valid gimmic". It's been used on the Sitar for quite some time now!  :wink: Anything that yields musical results is valid.

Kerry M

[Mark Hammer]

I would not tout scalloping as revolutionary or preferable, but neither would I dismiss it as irrelevent.  Certainly there are degrees of scalloping, and, as pointed out with respect to the Vai instrument, *where* you do the scalloping is also relevant since fret spacing provides different sorts of opportunities to "play" with what the scallop presents.

My comments about the angled peghead were not meant to suggest that scalloping is better in any way. I merely meant to suggest that it can be seen as another source of string physics applied on a fretwise basis, and if those same principles applied at the nut have any impact, then they ought to have some influence when applied at the fretwise level.

In general, the relationship of neck topography to playing style is a fascinating topic.  Such small differences in curvature/radius, or neck profile, or fret height/width can have such a profound effect on what results.  Not unlike the way tiny millimeter-size differences in pupil diameter can have a huge impact on whether you think a person is attractive or likes you or is upset.

[Ansil]

Steve Vai only has the last 4 frets on his signature Ibanez Gem guitars scalloped. Why? To get a better grip on the strings when things get scrunched on those last frets. If there was actually a sound benefit worth anything to the scalloped neck, he would have all the frets on the guitar scalloped and not just the last 4 frets. Record a strat before it is scalloped, and then after, its a change so slight that almost no one has ears good enough to hear it.

k  you will find this false, if you read the whole design story according to steve  that the main reason the last four are scalloped not to get ahold of them better but since there is no neck under the last four frets  only fretboard  it helped keep it from sounding tinny, at the last four frets..


science mojo hype, you be your own judge, but the first time i scalloped a guitar only partialy, was when i was making a jem out of a 570 and i noticed and instant tone on the higher frets  than was there before.   it nolonger sounded like the 570 did before.    believe me or not it does make a sonic difference.

of course then i went the whole half of the fret board afteerwords  but i digress

[Vintage White]

Regardless of any of this...

Ive been playing for 19 years and have very rounded fingertips and have always found the fingerboard gets in the way :shock:

Most of my guitar playing buddies have very flat fingertips and dont have problems getting a string to fret correctly or get jammed up on bends  :x

Id liken it to driving a car with motorcycle tyres on, you only have 1 inch of contact patch instead of 8 inchs, you cant grip or get the power down cleanly (so to speak).

I got a YJM late last year and after getting used to it over about the first 2 hours I now rock!!!

When I pickup my old guitar it feels very clunky and makes me sound like an amatuer again.....

[Ansil]

keep on rockin those scalops man