Effects Bay

I just received an email from Orin (ModKitsDIY) letting me know about a demo video they put together of assembling one of their great pedal kits. This is the Thunderdrive Deluxe pedal. This video is a quick time lapse video showing the assembly process. It really gets me jonzing to build something, it’s been far too long since my last project!

The Thunderdrive Deluxe is available for $39.95 at their store. The deluxe model is the same as the standard Thunderdrive overdrive ($29.95) with the exception of having a “turbo” switch. You can view their other pedals here. If you’re looking to get your hands dirty with effects, a kit is a great way to get started!!!

Here is the video by amplifiedparts:

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I received a sweet email from Mark at MI Effects, and he let me know that he’s got a give away going on at MI Effects. This is a special give away in my opinion because this is a MI Effects Crunch Box, but with 5 modifications in them. They’re giving away 3 pedals with these mods, so they’ll be unique for sure.

Here are the details from Mark:

We have just launched another giveaway, which finishes 12pm AEST June 17th

We have jam packed 3 Crunch Box pedals with 5 cool modifications, some of which may be used on production models in the future if a new version is ever released.

The mods include:

1) Start with an internal voltage tripler to run at the pedal at 24V for the punchiest, most amp-like tone.

2) The presence trimmer is now external for on-the-go adjustments.

3) A 3 position clipping switch for >> traditional CB sizzle, a more organic softer clip, or an open sounding ‘volume boost’ mode.

4) A switchable filter mode for a fat, ‘fixed wah’ tone

5) A switchable lower gain mode, with improved guitar volume sensitivity.

There are 3 ways to win a modified Crunch Box. Basically 1 Crunch Box will go to someone who has subscribed to our newsletter. Subscription form can be access on our Facebook page or the MI Effects website. A 2nd Crunch Box is Facebook related and a 3rd Crunch Box is Twitter related. All the details can be found by guitarist at http://www.mieffects.com/giveaway.htm

Good luck everyone!

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I think it’s pretty cool that Musician’s Friend is starting to carry Keeley modded pedals. I hope they will continue to carry smaller builders, because the bottom line, they’re building and creating great pedals.

Today, I wanted to talk about the Keeley Modded Boss DD-3 Analog Switch and Effects Loop pedal. This mod is pretty cool, basically he’s added a capacitor to smooth and darken the repeats giving it a simulated  ‘analog’ feel. You can switch between this and the normal digital mode. He’s also added a effects loop to the delay, so you can get effected repeats, which is pretty awesome.

Here is Keeley’s official description of the pedal:

There are two parts to this mod. First, “SWITCHABLE ANALOG FEEL” and then and EFFECTS LOOP! Players can now take the industry standard compact delay and select between 2 different smoothing caps that give it an analog delay feel or set it for the stock sound! All of this via a small three way toggle switch. We transform the Direct Out of the stock BOSS DD-3 and convert it into an effects loop so that you can add any effect to Just the Repeats!!! Imagine adding slight chorus or phase to the signal so that you can simulate tape effects, warble, wobble, or any other vintage/modern effect you can dream up! You’d be hard pressed to find another delay pedal that gives you this amount of creativity.

I also found a video showing both the effects loop and analog/digital style delays by coolpedals:

You can pick up the Keeley Modded Boss DD-3 Analog Switch and Effects Loop pedal for $209.00 at Musician’s Friend. Looks like they’ll be in stock in April.

Remember, if you like reading about pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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The following is a guest post by Christian Moraga (@cubisteffects). If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

After reading Part 1 of the M.I.Y series: Tools and Techniques, you should have a good grasp of what is required to get into your pedal and start modding. But before we flick on the soldering iron, I thought I’d write a few points about the diode, the key component to Part 2 of the M.I.Y series: Diode Clipping.

A diode is an electronic component that allows electricity to flow in one direction, much like a valve does letting water go one way but not the other. Diodes can be seen in nearly all effect pedal schematics and are noted as this symbol (left). They are integral in creating that overdrive or distortion sounds in your favorite dirt pedals, and come in different packages, materials and sizes. Each diode has a positive side (anode) and negative side (cathode). This polarity is what resembles a valve, and dictates the flow of electricity.

But how does a diode contribute to that overdrive sound? If we look at an audio signal (represented as a sine wave) we can distort the signal by “clipping” the tops and bottoms of the wave. This clipping produces harmonics that we hear as overdrive.

Image source: www.geofex.com

If a signal is clipped evenly on both top and bottom of the wave, this is referred to as symmetrical clipping and is used in pedals such as the Ibanez Tubescreamer. If a signal is clipped more heavily at one peak than the other, this is called asymmetrical clipping as heard in the BOSS SD-1 Overdrive. The more heavily a peak is clipped, the more a sine wave moves closer to a square wave, and closer to distortion and fuzz.

Image source: www.diystompboxes.com

The location of clipping diodes has an effect on the sound as well. Soft clipping involves having two diodes connected on the feedback-path of an opamp or a transistor (Tubescreamer). Hard clipping is when two diodes shunt to ground, creating distortion as in the ProCo RAT. The material of the diode also affects the clipping. Silicon diodes have been described as being “sharper” and “tighter” whereas germanium diodes are described as being more”compressed” or “spongey”. You can also use LEDs (light emitting diodes), Zeners, Schottkys, MOSFETs etc… the experimental possibilities are endless.

So with all of that in mind, let’s crack open a pedal. We will need [1]:

• A pedal (I will be using a BOSS SD-1),
• A selection of diodes,
• Single in-line break away sockets (purchased from any electronics store),
• The schematic of the pedal (that can be found at the resources listed in Part 1 of the series).

Firstly, unscrew the back so we can get to the PCB. You should be able to see a trace side, full of tracks and solder joins [2]. Carefully lift up the PCB so we can see the component side, and look for a set of diodes [3]. The markings (e.g D3, D4, D5) should correspond to your schematic. Desolder these diodes, marking down their original orientation, and clear the holes. Solder in a socket for each hole from where the diode was removed [4] and place the PCB back into the pedal. We can now experiment with different diodes, and combinations of diodes, and immediately hear the difference between them.

Place the diodes (using the same polarity as you marked down earlier) back into the sockets, power up the pedal, plug in and play. No need to close the pedal back up, it will just be a bit noisier. Now remove the power, remove the diodes and try another combination. Power, plug and play – hear the difference. Now try a symmetrical configuration, then asymmetrical.

In the place of one diode, try a MOSFET like an MPF102 (note in [1] how I bent only the ground pin to remove). Or you could try germanium and silicon diode in series, a silicon and LED, two silicons in series, two germaniums in series etc. To solder diodes in series, ensure that the cathode is soldered to the anode [5]. Using diodes in series increases headroom and volume but sacrifices a bit of gain. Use MOSFETs for “tube-like response” and LEDs (reds are great) for crunch and higher gain. When you find a combination you prefer, desolder the sockets and solder in your killer selection. Close the pedal back up and you now have a diode clipping modded pedal. Common mods include placing different diode combinations on switches, or a symmetrical/asymmetrical diode switch. But we may leave that till next time…

Happy modding,

C.

About the author.
Christian Moraga is the owner of CubistEffects.com located in Sydney, Australia. Christian repairs and mods most brands of pedals like BOSS, Ibanez, EHX , Arion, MXR, Danelectro, Marshall, Dunlop, VooDoo Labs, Digitech, DOD etc and specialise in Big Muffs and ProCo Rats. He also makes custom switching and loopers for your pedalboard needs. A/B, True Bypass, Tap Tempo etc.

A note from EffectsBay.com
I found Christian while doing some research on the Line 6 DL4, where Christian has some great mods available!

Remember, if you like reading about pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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I was surprised to see that Musician’s Friend is now offering Keeley modded TS9 (baked mod). I really find these TS9 mods quite interesting.  A few months ago I posted a entry showing gearmanndude’s shoot out between a few mods, but I also found another good one showing the Keely and Analog man.

Here is the official ‘mod’ description:

The Keeley Ibanez TS9 Baked Mod takes a traditional Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer Pedal and modifies it for incredible saturation, sustain, and wonderfully controllable feedback.

Robert Keeley uses the Texas Instruments RC4558P chip in this unit—the same used in early Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamers—along with a high-quality socket with gold inserts, metal film resistors, and metal film capacitors.

The range of the Drive control has been shifted as well; if a traditional TS9 goes from 0-10, the TS9 Baked Mod goes from 4-14. Additionally, one of the resistors that affects input impedance is raised a slight bit, allowing your pickups to breathe and reducing tone-sucking when off, and the input transistor is replaced with an MPSA18. The result is over-the-top overdrive that’s virtually noise-free.

Here is  the great video by Passenger95

You can pick up the Keeley Modded Ibanez TS9 Baked Mod Tube Screamer for $170.00 at Musician’s Friend.

Remember, if you like reading about pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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I noticed that @CubistEffects had an interesting Tweet this morning, letting people know about a YouTube video he has featuring a modded Line 6 Filter Modeler (FM4). I was curious and had to watch. First off, Christian is the owner of Cubist Effects out of  Sydney, Australia and he does some great work on repairing and modding pedals. You can learn more at his site (http://www.cubisteffects.com).

I’m hoping that Christian sees this post and can add some more information.. like what happens if you plug a guitar in to this? I know there are plenty of gear heads that are looking for noise generation, and this pedal with the mods seems pretty great for this.

UPDATE:
Christian just created a post on his site regarding this mod. You can read more about it here:
http://www.cubisteffects.com/2010/01/line-6-fm4-filter-modeler-modifications/

I wasn’t too familiar with the Line 6 MF4 so I wanted to take a look at this and see what it’s all about.

Here is the official product description:

The Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler Pedal gives you 16 new and vintage effects including Mu-Tron III, Moog, Arp, Korg, and Roland synths; Oberheim VCF; formant filter; and more. 4 memories. Bonehead simple to use. Tough as nails. Has true bypass.

I found a good video by gearwire that demos this pedal’s features:

You can pick up the Line 6 Filter Modeler (FM4) at Musician’s Friend for $249.99. And you can have it modded at Cubist Effects!

Remember, if you like reading about pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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So on Twitter and over various emails from the site, I’ve been asked what a good pedal is for boosting leads and cutting through the mix. I’ve personally struggled with this over the years, and I have to say the Ibanez Tubescreamer TS9 is really a fantastic pedal for this. This could be a major reason why you see this little green pedal on SO many pedal boards out there. The TS9 does somethings besides adding gain. There is a clear mid-bump there, which to me, is the primary reason why the leads stand out. The mids are very important to be heard! Along with the mid bump, and how you configure the settings, you can get some unbelievable sustain out of this pedal. It tightens up the low-end a bit for some additional punch with the mid bump.

I know there are plenty of musicians out there that use this as a ‘distortion’ pedal which is fine, but I only use my TS9 for leads. The Tubescream TS9 is also great with other overdrive pedals. I personally like to use other overdrives or fuzz pedals too ‘wool’ up the lead tone prior to the TS9. When I say ‘wool’, I’m saying to give it a fatter/wider/nastier signal before the TS9 and then the TS9 tightens that up a bit. I feel like it creates a thicker ‘bigger’ lead tone. Of course this depends on the lead or the song or the style of music I’m playing.

The Tubescreamer Ts9 has pretty substantial gain, so you get some sick overdrive. Depending on your amp settings (clean channel vs. gain channel), you can get some massive volume boost. Gain channels with the headroom already floored won’t have that drastic of a change, but the ‘perceived’ volume boost due to the frequency change (mid boost) is more than enough to stand out.

You can pickup a Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9 for around $99 at Musician’s Friend, but you can find some sweet deals on eBay.

There are different types of Tubescreamers (TS7, TS9, TS9DS and the TS808 just to name a few) and there are buckets of ‘mods’ that are out there.. as well as clones. Personally, I only use the ‘standard’ TS9, but while poking around I started to read and watch reviews about mods. I think some of these mods.. are pretty amazing.

I found this particular ‘shoot out’ on YouTube, which shows a Keeley Mod’d 808 (808 Mod), Analog Man Mod, Keeley Plus Mod, Factory Maxon OD-9. All of these modified pedals can be picked up at TunnelVision Music.

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