I appreciate the in depth analysis of the circuit that's ongoing here. I need to find a solid book that guides the reader through the theory and math that's being used here. I'm mostly following, but I'd love to have the maths memorized so I can follow more readily and do some analysis of my own.

It seems that the dominant parts of how the DS-1 generates its tone are the transistor boost and its even harmonic contribution, the distortion of the op amp, which may be somewhat smoother or fizzier depending on the type used, and the tilt style tone control and the values of components used within it. The diodes don't appear to matter as much, unless you're planning to replace the 2 anti parallel diodes with a completely different type or with multiples.

Right now I'm waiting on the circuit boards for my latest version of my DS-1 inspired project. Like I mentioned earlier, I've decided to try a 3-band active EQ in place of the simple tilt tone, because I felt like I was having trouble adapting the pedal to work well with different clean amps. Hopefully this one does the trick for me. I look forward to sharing the results of the finished product.

I made a quick cell phone video of the current version of my pedal, just to get a sound clip, and I uploaded it to YouTube. I didn't see anything in the rules about linking to YouTube videos, so my apologies if I missed something.

Here it is:
https://youtu.be/8x-Jn8pFAqs?si=Os8y16yDn_XYOMQ0

Quote from: FleshOnGear on May 18, 2025, 07:13:23 PMI didn't see anything in the rules about linking to YouTube videos, so my apologies if I missed something.

Not only can you link to YT, you can embed the video directly.  Click the movie icon, next to the picture icon.

Quote from: FleshOnGear on May 18, 2025, 07:13:23 PMI made a quick cell phone video of the current version of my pedal, just to get a sound clip, and I uploaded it to YouTube. I didn't see anything in the rules about linking to YouTube videos, so my apologies if I missed something.

It seems now you can back-off the guitar volume without being too spitty.

For me the tone is a little dark - everyone is different.

Quote from: FleshOnGear on May 17, 2025, 10:29:59 PMRight now I'm waiting on the circuit boards for my latest version of my DS-1 inspired project. Like I mentioned earlier, I've decided to try a 3-band active EQ in place of the simple tilt tone, because I felt like I was having trouble adapting the pedal to work well with different clean amps. Hopefully this one does the trick for me. I look forward to sharing the results of the finished product.

A simple low pass filter works well for the high end work on different set-ups.   The DS-1 tilt needs to be backed off too far to get rid of the fizz.  A low pass gets around that.  If you use a Baxandall EQ you will never use the treble  boost part of the control - the way around that is to build in some fixed low-pass filtering so it sounds right with the treble at 12 O'Clock - for example, Exotic pedals use this setup.

Quote from: Rob Strand on Yesterday at 06:53:47 PMIt seems now you can back-off the guitar volume without being too spitty.

For me the tone is a little dark - everyone is different.

A simple low pass filter works well for the high end work on different set-ups.  The DS-1 tilt needs to be backed off too far to get rid of the fizz.  A low pass gets around that.  If you use a Baxandall EQ you will never use the treble  boost part of the control - the way around that is to build in some fixed low-pass filtering so it sounds right with the treble at 12 O'Clock - for example, Exotic pedals use this setup.

Thanks for the feedback!

Yes, it comes across quite dark here - recessed and not very present. I put the phone pretty close to the cabinet, but it was way off axis from the speakers. Not ideal. I was mainly trying to demonstrate the texture of the distortion, as I'm not happy with the sweep of the tone control as is. Once I have it where I like it, I'll do a proper video, properly miked and demonstrating all the controls.

Yes, I agree that a simple LPF control integrates well with different amps. I always find that the upper mids never sound to my liking with such a control, though. I can remove the right amount of fizz, but I'm left with glaring upper midrange if I want any clarity. I certainly don't want to make this build more complicated for no reason.

Quote from: FleshOnGear on Yesterday at 07:44:28 PMYes, I agree that a simple LPF control integrates well with different amps. I always find that the upper mids never sound to my liking with such a control, though. I can remove the right amount of fizz, but I'm left with glaring upper midrange if I want any clarity. I certainly don't want to make this build more complicated for no reason.

It's a very fine balance.  When I play with speaker simulators I'm amazed how some small differences can be heard in the top end.  In other cases I'll take an audio sample which sounds close to correct then low pass filter it and I'm surprised how much high frequency junk you can get rid of without taking too much away from the tone.

About a year ago I was playing with the Boss DS-1 and Ibanez SD-9 tone control together with all the modded versions.  Then I found sound samples and noted the tone control setting which sounded the most balanced in each case.   Then I tried to find the common features between them.   Some had more mids than others.   I guess the easy example of that is how the DS-1w Waza Craft Custom mode has more mids than the stock unit.  Incidentally, some of the mods around are produce very similar responses to the DS-1w just they do it my manipulating difference components.   Excluding the mid differences the EQ was pretty much a bass boost.   I factored out the midrange differences and come-up with a fairly subtle mid EQ circuit which will take the DS-1w and bend it to the stock DS-1 or some of the other mods, or, I can bend the stock DS-1 response towards the DS-1w and beyond.

With the bass boost and mids in place the simple low-pass tone control was able to bend the response fairly closely to what you can get with the DS-1 and DS-1w but also other responses.   I was kind of keen to get a variable low-pass filter circuit in there - it does a good job of covering the good range of the DS-1 but does more.

To cut the story short the EQ came out as:
- Fairly specific Bass boost, either fixed, variable or switched.
- Subtle mid control to cover DS-1, DS-1w response and beyond.   
  This could be a switch but I find the jump in mids from DS-1 to DS-1w still a bit much.
  (An extreme would be the DS-2 mode 2 mids - IIRC.)
- Adjustable low pass filter to help cover bright amps or clean channels better

In the end apart from the covering legacy responses with the mid control the basic elements aren't much different to the EQ you see on things like Timmy, Friedman BE-OD, Fulltone OCD.

Quote from: Rob Strand on Today at 05:07:19 AMIt's a very fine balance.  When I play with speaker simulators I'm amazed how some small differences can be heard in the top end.  In other cases I'll take an audio sample which sounds close to correct then low pass filter it and I'm surprised how much high frequency junk you can get rid of without taking too much away from the tone.

About a year ago I was playing with the Boss DS-1 and Ibanez SD-9 tone control together with all the modded versions.  Then I found sound samples and noted the tone control setting which sounded the most balanced in each case.  Then I tried to find the common features between them.  Some had more mids than others.  I guess the easy example of that is how the DS-1w Waza Craft Custom mode has more mids than the stock unit.  Incidentally, some of the mods around are produce very similar responses to the DS-1w just they do it my manipulating difference components.  Excluding the mid differences the EQ was pretty much a bass boost.  I factored out the midrange differences and come-up with a fairly subtle mid EQ circuit which will take the DS-1w and bend it to the stock DS-1 or some of the other mods, or, I can bend the stock DS-1 response towards the DS-1w and beyond.

With the bass boost and mids in place the simple low-pass tone control was able to bend the response fairly closely to what you can get with the DS-1 and DS-1w but also other responses.  I was kind of keen to get a variable low-pass filter circuit in there - it does a good job of covering the good range of the DS-1 but does more.

To cut the story short the EQ came out as:
- Fairly specific Bass boost, either fixed, variable or switched.
- Subtle mid control to cover DS-1, DS-1w response and beyond. 
  This could be a switch but I find the jump in mids from DS-1 to DS-1w still a bit much.
  (An extreme would be the DS-2 mode 2 mids - IIRC.)
- Adjustable low pass filter to help cover bright amps or clean channels better

In the end apart from the covering legacy responses with the mid control the basic elements aren't much different to the EQ you see on things like Timmy, Friedman BE-OD, Fulltone OCD.

I like those ideas. Seems like you'd cover a lot of playing situations with only two controls. When I had the idea of going to an active EQ, I originally thought maybe I could just have the bass preset, and only have mids and treble controls. Now I'm wondering if an adjustable LPF would be better than a standard treble control. Since I'm already at 3 tone controls, maybe a low mid, high mid, and LPF? I'll first need to see how the original plan works out. Parts are incoming.