Three things:
On the same note as the five-way diode switch, I had earlier spent some time drawing complete and total nonsense on a napkin involving SPDTs and a *lot* of diodes. Having two sizes of LEDs, some Zeners, a pair of Schottkys, and a few silicons laying around, I thought I might drill about five or six holes in each side of my DS-1 and hook each diode up to a SPDT, so that I basically end up with five diodes hooked up with on-off switches for each. Would I need to put them in any specific order to have them all do their thing (I was thinking that perhaps they should be arranged a certain way so that the LEDs, with their higher clip level, get hit before the diodes with lower thresholds) or do I just shove them all together and have that be the end of that? If my description made no sense, I will either clarify or further befuddle with a horrible attempt at an ASCII rendering:
SW1 SW2 SW3 SW4 ........
Top Lug: diode----------\ diode----------\ diode----------\ diode----------\
Middle Lug: from board -------------+ ---------+ ---------+ -------------+
Bottom Lug: -----------------/ -----------------/ -----------------/ -----------------/
Second, anyone have any suggestions for making it more liquid and fluid, more like John Petrucci's sound on Images & Words? Probably a bit much to ask from a DS-1, but I had figured that adding more bass and smoothing out a *lot* of high-end grit would get me more in that area, where the sound is full and still clear, but not gritty or fuzzy. Already doubled most of the caps that threads like this say affect bass input, and currently have an LED and an LED/4148 pair as the clipping diode section, any thoughts?
Finally, what would rectifier diodes (I'd be using Radio Shack cheapos) do to the clipping section? I've tried just about everything but those and germaniums, and it may be a while before I get back to the store.
Jeff