My DS-1 Mods ... with sound clip.

[Melanhead]

Hmmm well I played around a lot with this pedal and after a few weeks and lots of solder here's what I came up with ...

I started with the Keeley Ultra mod but found it way too muddy for my rig .... here's where I ended up. I tried to build a bit of low end in each stage.

All caps are Panasonic Film unless otherwise noted and resistors are 1% metal film.

Some of the caps I left the same value and just replaced them with metal film ( who knows how much difference but what the hell ...)

C1, C10, C11 ---- .047uf
C2 ----------------- .68uf
C3, C5 ------------ .068uF
C4 ----------------- 470pf Silver Mica
C7 ----------------- 220pf Silver Mica
C8, C14 ----------- 1uf
C9 ----------------- .47uf
C12, C13 --------- .1uf

D5 LED ( mounted on the front like the SEM )


R13 ---------------- 2K4
R39 ---------------- 20K
R16 ---------------- 4k7



Sound clip ... I quickly mic'd up my Boogie +22 ( 1X12 ) with an SM57
I played my strat with a humbucker in the bridge ...
Boogie set just to the point of breakup on the clean channel.

DS-1 settings: Tone at 3:00, Level at 1:00, Dist at 2:00 ...


Please ignore my sloppy one take wanking

http://users.eastlink.ca/~melanhead/MP3/DS1-demo.mp3

a bit more gain than I usually use but fun anyways!

EDIT: There are more sound clips later in the post...

I love this place !

[Khas Evets]

That sounds incredible. I would never have guessed it was a DS-1. I've never cared for the DS-1, but I might pick one up now. I can't believe how open it sounds. Great playing too.

[petemoore]

Yupp !!! Nice Job !!!
  Sounds KillER !!!
  DS-1  :twisted:

[wampcat1]

Oh. My. Goodness -- sounds fantastic!!!!!

Thanks,
Brian

[Phorhas]

I'm not trash talikng the DS-1, but I think the Mesa/Boogie had alot to do with the tone.

Can you record it with a simpler amp (SS maybe)?

BTW - sounds awsome!

[Khas Evets]

The Boogie could explain my amazement.

Melanhead - How did you wire the 47pF cap across the diodes? Is it parallel with them (ground to signal)? What does it do to the sound?

[Melanhead]

Thanks guys ... The boogie is a nice sounding amp but it's very similar to a fender when on the clean channel just a bit darker sounding .. It's an older one and I set it up just to break up a bit as a fender would. It's capable of more gain but wanted the DS-1 to do the work ... I didn't even turn it up to 2 ( it's only a 22 watt amp ... ) The DS-1 originally sounded like #$%@ on this amp ....

The main thing I found with a DS-1 was the lack of mids and low mids ... it was too scooped ... Thanks to Brian and his mod book ( thanks man, it's great!! ) i was able to get the mids where wanted 'em.

@Phorphas ... what's an SS

I'll see what else I can record it through but might take a few days ... All I have at home is the Boogie, a modded marshall and an amp I built called the "Melanhead" I could also record the Boogie without the pedal on ...

[Melanhead]

The Boogie could explain my amazement.

Melanhead - How did you wire the 47pF cap across the diodes? Is it parallel with them (ground to signal)? What does it do to the sound?

it's in parallel .... Takes out some of the harsh high end of the distortion ... it's part of the Keeley mod.

[Khas Evets]

Isn't their already a cap for this? C10 - 0.01uF (or .047uF on yours). Adding a parallel 47pF cap will add to this slightly making it  0.047047uF. Sorry if I'm missing something obvious.

[Melanhead]

Isn't their already a cap for this? C10 - 0.01uF (or .047uF on yours). Adding a parallel 47pF cap will add to this slightly making it  0.047047uF. Sorry if I'm missing something obvious.

Hmmmm .... Interesting ... never noticed this before

Seems like that extra cap wouldn't make that much difference ....

I just left that cap in there from the original Keeley mods I did ... Changing C10 was an afterthought .... You'd think that even adding the 47pf  accross the original value of C10 wouldn't change much but I've seen it mentioned more than once ... hmmmmmm

Anyone ....

[wampcat1]

Isn't their already a cap for this? C10 - 0.01uF (or .047uF on yours). Adding a parallel 47pF cap will add to this slightly making it  0.047047uF. Sorry if I'm missing something obvious.

IIRC, I don't think c10 is in parallel with the diodes. The 47pf cap here is knocking off a bit of fizzy harmonics, whereas changing c10 will change the eq of the pedal a bit.

Take care,
Brian

[Melanhead]

weird ... just looked at 2 schematics ( Fuzzcentral and Boss Service manual ) and it appears that it is in parallel .... Now I'm even more confused ...

Oh well, I'm finally happy with the pedal and will probably leave it as is ...

[Khas Evets]

You and me both. It probably does nothing, but the mod still sounds great.

[Melanhead]

You and me both. It probably does nothing, but the mod still sounds great.

... puzzling though! ... I'll have to check where C10 is connected on the board ...

[wampcat1]

You and me both. It probably does nothing, but the mod still sounds great.

... puzzling though! ... I'll have to check where C10 is connected on the board ...

Wow...well I feel silly now!  :lol:
You are correct, it is connected in parallel...

I learn sumfin' every day!  :lol:

[Melanhead]

hmmm so why do so many put a 47pf cap across the diodes then

I guess when you read a mod sheet a lot of times we just do without wondering why

P.S. ... love your book Brian! ... Too bad you're not able to put all the pedal schematics in there as well ...

[Phorhas]

Hi melanhead - "SS" means Solid State, i.e. no tubes

[Melanhead]

Hi melanhead - "SS" means Solid State, i.e. no tubes

I should have known that! ...

[Melanhead]

Well here's a few more soundclips ... just threw a mic up in front of a yamaha 1x12 and used 2 different heads ...

1. my marshall  JCM800 ... amp by itself then with the pedal on:

http://users.eastlink.ca/~melanhead/MP3/DS1-Marshall2.mp3

2. my homemade "Melanhead" again without the DS-1 and then with: ( this amp sounds better cranked without a pedal as it's only 12w! )

http://users.eastlink.ca/~melanhead/MP3/DS-1-Melanhead.mp3

It's definitely a different pedal on both amps ... Pretty grungy!

I prefer it on the boogie as that's what I use most of the time and was my test amp for the mod ...

I didn't spend any time getting these tones and I'm sure better ones could be had with a 4x12 and a better mic placement and of course a bit of fooling around with eq setting etc ....


Sorry, I didn't have any S.S. amps ...

Hmmmmm .... that was fun ...

[Transmogrifox]

How about something direct line-in?  No amp.
That would be about as unbiased as you could get on the pedal itself.

In spite of it all--it sounds excellent with those amps, so it definitely gives me confidence that it could sound good in my amp.

thanks for the sound clips--they sound nice.  I'm afraid that as much as I suck at guitar, the pedal will sound bad.  A guy in an interview with Eric Johnson once said he (Johnson) picked up a cheap guitar and put it through a crappy practice amp that happened to be in the studio, and he still sounded like....Eric Johnson.  Still had good tone.