Tone ctrl turned into level ctrl in CS-3

[Kræn]

Hey all.

I did the indyguitarist mods to my CS-3 and it sounds great. Much richer and warmer. Only thing is it seems like the tone control has turned into an extra level control. If the tone is all the way counterclockwise I get no sound at all. All the way up it distorts. It sounds good aroungd 3-4ish. Is it supposed to do this? I'd kinda like it to remain tone control.

Regards
Christian

[PenPen]

Check all solder connections. ALL of them, even ones you didn't touch.

I did some work to my DF-1, replacing a bad pot with a pair of resistors (curse those tiny pots, cant find replacements). When I put it back together, my tone control did the same. After a TON of troubleshooting I found two caps that had broken solder joints, likely from my disassembly and the fact they were probably weak joints. I resoldered them and the pedal now works as it should. So check out every joint on the board, run a toothpick or your finger on the underside and try to wiggle the joints to see if any are loose.

[wampcat1]

Hey all.

I did the indyguitarist mods to my CS-3 and it sounds great. Much richer and warmer. Only thing is it seems like the tone control has turned into an extra level control. If the tone is all the way counterclockwise I get no sound at all. All the way up it distorts. It sounds good aroungd 3-4ish. Is it supposed to do this? I'd kinda like it to remain tone control.

Regards
Christian

Pretty much normal - the volume should NOT cut out all the way when you turn it down though. It is the result of making the cap larger on the circuitboard underneath the tone pot. It is actually tweaking out some mids and low end but you can change that cap back to the small value (.022uf I believe?) and you'll have the stock tone control back. I myself prefer comps without tone controls so I just lose it myself.
Alternatively, you could change it around so that the tone control would sit at a different spot -- I like them on the very tail end sometimes as sort of a 'presence' type control.

Hope that helps!

Thanks,
Brian

[Kræn]

Well, it doesn't cut ALL the way, but it's close.

Alternatively, you could change it around so that the tone control would sit at a different spot -- I like them on the very tail end sometimes as sort of a 'presence' type control.

That sounds fun!! So should I make the value even smaller? You mean so it affects higher frequencies, right?

Thanks Brian

Christian

[wampcat1]

Well, it doesn't cut ALL the way, but it's close.

Alternatively, you could change it around so that the tone control would sit at a different spot -- I like them on the very tail end sometimes as sort of a 'presence' type control.

That sounds fun!! So should I make the value even smaller? You mean so it affects higher frequencies, right?

Thanks Brian

Christian

Yes, you could try that -- basically if you put the tone control on the end you are controlling what highs pass through AFTER the effect. Some circuits will have the tone control elsewhere in the circuit and then other things are happening (let's say more filtering, maybe a boosting of the signal level). It is just a different tonality, and an easy but fun thing to experiment with!

Hope that helps!

Thanks,
Brian

[Xavier]

This mod turned my CS3 into a full range comp, and adding some grit in the way. Now it's my little Brent Mason impersonator . The only side effect to the mod is that the tone control lost all its effectivity.

[Kræn]

Pretty much normal - the volume should NOT cut out all the way when you turn it down though. It is the result of making the cap larger on the circuitboard underneath the tone pot. It is actually tweaking out some mids and low end but you can change that cap back to the small value (.022uf I believe?) and you'll have the stock tone control back. I myself prefer comps without tone controls so I just lose it myself.
Alternatively, you could change it around so that the tone control would sit at a different spot -- I like them on the very tail end sometimes as sort of a 'presence' type control.

Hope that helps!

Thanks,
Brian

I put the .022uF cap back in (although I think originally it was a .027uF), and it's much better. Thanks.

[wampcat1]

This mod turned my CS3 into a full range comp, and adding some grit in the way. Now it's my little Brent Mason impersonator . The only side effect to the mod is that the tone control lost all its effectivity.

Yep, in essence the tone control (as we knew it) was removed. Also if you are experiencing clipping you might try to increase the resistor at the front end of the circuit (right before C1 IIRC) and/or throw in a resistor to ground right there.

Brian

[Xavier]

This mod turned my CS3 into a full range comp, and adding some grit in the way. Now it's my little Brent Mason impersonator . The only side effect to the mod is that the tone control lost all its effectivity.

Yep, in essence the tone control (as we knew it) was removed. Also if you are experiencing clipping you might try to increase the resistor at the front end of the circuit (right before C1 IIRC) and/or throw in a resistor to ground right there.

Brian

Nah, it's good grit. Kind of what an orange squeezer would do