Modded my Phase 90 (with clips)

[Guitarfreak]

I did some research on Phase 90 mods and it seems that the newer models have three components that when taken out of the circuit makes the unit sound much closer to the vintage units. I eat this kind of shit up, and I've never really liked using my Phase 90 ever since I got it because I thought it sounded like shit, so I decided I had nothing to lose and did it. I made before and after clips and what a difference. I'll shut up now and I'll let you decide.

Stock:
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=9632540

Modded:
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=9632541


Just thought I'd share 

[petemoore]

  Sounds like you bumped up the power supply ? [or otherwise limited headroom 'infringement' ?]
  The modded clip didn't sound as distorted.

[Guitarfreak]

Actually I think it has mostly to do with the output buffer.  All I did was remove R28, C11, and C12 from the board completely.

[Hupla]

The phase sounds a little less noticeable in the modded clip

[Govmnt_Lacky]

According to the scehatic you have above, it looks like the unit uses a 1M pot for SPEED and also has only a 25K trim pot??

I thought the Phase 90 used a C500K for SPEED and a 250K trim.

Did they change these values with later versions?

[akg414]

I'm a BIG Phase-90 fan and the one thing I ALWAYS hated, was the over-driven sound it always seemed to have. I think the mod makes it sound less distorted and more cleaner.

[slacker]

All I did was remove R28, C11, and C12 from the board completely.

That schematic must not match the board then, if you removed C12 on there you'd get no sound at all.

[jkokura]

I'm not sure if I'm hearing the Phase improve or if the recording just got better. Did anything change during the recording process? Where your settings precisely the same?

Jacob

[Guitarfreak]

All I did was remove R28, C11, and C12 from the board completely.

That schematic must not match the board then, if you removed C12 on there you'd get no sound at all.

This is what I was thinking as well, oh well.  Not sure what to attribute that to.

[Guitarfreak]

I'm not sure if I'm hearing the Phase improve or if the recording just got better. Did anything change during the recording process? Where your settings precisely the same?

Jacob

My settings were exactly the same.  I took DI's of the pedal through my Countryman Type 85 and PreSonus FireBox and reamped them through my Radial Pro RMP box with just seconds between them.  The clip was recorded through a Marshall head and Mesa Recto cab using an SM57.  Nothing changed, only the source material.  The pedal was dialed with the speed pot turned all the way down so that there was no question as to where the knob was.  The stock clip was louder, so I set my levels using that clip.  I also picked very hard in both clips so that I could try to intentionally clip the pedal.  I played it the exact same way both times, I threw away a good bunch of takes so that they were identical from the get go.  I am confident that this is about as close of a clip comparison of the stock pedal vs. this particular mod that you are going to find on the internet because I took measures to keep it as unbiased as possible.

[jkokura]

Then it did sound better if the recording was exactly the same.

One thought if you can do it next time. Use the same prerecorded guitar part that's been through the DI. Then use the effect ONLY when you reamp the guitar. If you can record the pedal through the amps using the recorded guitar signal, then the 'performance' is the same, and it removes the chance that your playing or guitar signal is different. It still requires recording settings on the amps you use and such, but that's easily done.

Jacob