ds-1 question

[tomwarrior]

hey, im new here. this is an awsome forum. glad i found it. anyways...

i bought a new ds-1 about a month ago. it distorts even with the dist setting all the way down. is this normal? i even removed the clipping diodes and it does the same thing. how can i get a clean boost with it? i did a search and couldnt come up with anything. thanks in advance.---tom

[nelson]

Take everything out of the enclosure and stick in an LPB-1.


I am sorry, I would just build a booster, they have a low parts count and will add versatility to your rig, leave the DS-1 as is, or sell it.

[littlegreiger]

Only a few distortion pedals are capable of acting as clean boosters. The BD-2 is one of them. If you really want a booster but like the distortion of your DS-1 I would build either the beginner project on this forum or an LPB-1. If you don't like your DS-1 I would try a BD-2.

[TheBigMan]

No distortion pedal will give you a clean boost.  They are designed to distort, not just boost the volume.  The BD-2 can get fairly clean but there is still colouration.

You want clean, I'd build an AMZ MOSFET Booster.  I built one last week and it's awesome.  Easy to build, easily available parts and a ton of boost with no tonal colouration whatsoever.

[wampcat1]

You won't get absolutely clean boost, but you can try using led's for the clipping diodes, or removing them all together. Even when you remove them, you will still be able to get quite a bit of distortion since the opamp is doing most of the clipping.

Hope that helps!

Brian
http://www.indyguitarist.com/

[pioneer_56]

Get a Boss FZ-2, it has a specific mode just for boosting.

Andrew

[Mark Hammer]

First, what are you feeding it?  You can make almost anything distort if you feed it a hot enough signal.

Second, I think it will depend on what issue of the DS-1 you have.  I'm looking at 3 different schems for the DS-1 right now.  The older one uses a TA7136P op-amp.  The newer ones (as drawn by Shun Yamazaki, and Philip Bryant) use either a BA728N or an M5223AL dual op-amp.  All three use a Big Muff style transistor gain stage just ahead of the op-amp to really goose it.

HOWEVER...the newer ones have a single diode to ground between the transistor gain stage and op-amp in addition to the diode pair after the op-amp, where the older one has only the diode pair after.  Although it is possible to turn the gain on the op-amp down to less than 3, The added diode just ahead of the op-amp is hit with whatever gain is applied by the transistor stage.  Hence, the distortion/gain control essentially adjusts how much additional clipping is achieved by the further application of gain to the diode pair.  My gut sense is that if you have one of these more recent issue units, lifting one end of the diode on the noninverting input of the op-amp (pin 3 for the 5223) should make it possible to tame the clipping a bit.  Of course, multiplying the transistor output by a factor of around 2 is not going to coax pristine tone out of the diode pair after the op-amp, but at least you won't be double clipping.  Try it and see if it makes a difference.

Funny how a given pedal can acquire a following without any recognition of  key changes in the circuit .

[tomwarrior]

thanks for everyones reply.
i had a bd-1  7 years ago and it did sound better than the ds-1 to me. i did a search for the AMZ MOSFET Booster and thats something ill definetly be building in th imediate future.
i have the ds-1 with the 5223 op amp. i didnt know about that 3rd clipping diode. the schematic i have doesnt show it. thanks mark. ill pull that one and see what happens.
ive been using a sd-1 and ts5(not at the same time) with the gain down to push my amp. in my opinion they sound great although they both kill a little bottom end. i just bought the ds-1 cause it it was only $30 at GC. i figured if it didnt work out for me i could just t as a wheel chock but then i found this forum.
anyway, ill report back after i pull that diode. thanks.---tom

[tomwarrior]

still distorts, but i found if i roll the volume on the guitar back to 3 it cleans up. im using an emg81. it must be too hot to get a clean sound out of this pedal.