Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

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bigtone23
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Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

Post by bigtone23 » Fri Oct 22, 2021 5:58 am

Well, there was no way I was going to mess with my Oct '86 DS1, it's perfect as it is and I must honor it's originality. Don't mess with that icon. It just turned 35 this month and that's enough activity for it, anyway. :D

I did get a October '11 DS1 for $5 and my intentions was to give it several procedures for it's 10th birthday. I compared this one to the 86 and they did sound more similar than not, so I did each mod and compared the results of the 'control' '11 against my stock '86 'constant.' A secondary goal was to tune this DS1 to sound like my beloved V-Twin pedal (in blues mode) that I use as the primary drive on my SilverFace Fender amps-particularly my Bassman Ten. I would prefer to have a much smaller, lighter pedal to get my dirt and be able to power it with a typical daisy chain vs a large, wall wart proprietary power supply.
Another pedal that seems to work pretty well with BF/SF Fenders is my Wampler Plexi Drive mini. My Reutz modded Rat2 is not bad, but it's also a little over the top with Fenders. It's tricky getting distortions to sound good on a BF/SF Fenders, as these amps are quite scooped in the low mids and sort of bright as it is. I can easily get a nice, medium-gain with a fat and smooth tone out of the V-Twin--the V-Twin into the Bassman Ten sounds rather similar to plugging directly into my Marshall DSL50 on the crunch mode, or my Mesa MKIIC+ or MKIII on the lead mode.

I have never been able to coax a usable tone from a DS1 into BF/SF Fenders. It's somewhat oil and water, IME. I have seen some DS1 mod videos that sounded pretty good with Fenders, though. I tried other Boss pedals with Fenders, The SD1 is too mid forward/bass thin for my preferred primary tone, and a BD2 is a little too wild/gnarly/raw, for lack of better terms. The fat switch I installed on it gets me closer to what I like, though. The DF2's turbo mode is a little too nasal. The OD2 in turbo mode is quite close to what I like, though, I just want a little more volume, a little less compression and a little more bite that a distortion provides.

So, here goes the experiement...

First: the pre '94 mod. This was just changing 3 caps (C5, C7 & C8) to make a post '94 MIT sound more like the pre' 94 MIJ. It certainly made the two pedals sound even more similar. They weren't that different beforehand, but this added an extra level of detail. The pedal was now a touch more transparent sounding, not as hairy on the high end.

Second: the AMZ Fat mod. This was also a simple 2 resistor change (R6 & R9) that lowered the gain a bit and did a little rebias of Q2. The main takeaway is now the gain control is very usable over it's full range--it cleans up more at full CCW and at full CW, it's roughly like having the stock pedal set around 5 (which works great for me, I never set the gain over 4 on a stock DS1). This also made the highs a little less shrill and sort of reshaped the low end, it sounds like there is more bass, but it's not as deep and flabby as the stock low end.

Third: C10 mod. Stock, this starts the LPF rolloff around 7kHz. I changed this cap to make the rolloff knee around 3.2K. A smoother sound. Since I was going to be using this pedal with brighter Fenders, may as well smooth it up a touch.

I was quite happy with how the pedal was sounding in the Bassman Ten at this point. Every change was for the better and getting me closer to my goal. However, it was still just not quite there.

Enter the home run mod...
Fourth: the Wampler JCM800 mod. This is done by changing C2, C3, C5, C9, R17, D4 and D5.
I didn't change C5 to the JCM800 value, as C5 was already addressed with the MIJ mod. C5's MIJ replacement value (.47uF) was already halfway between the stock MIT value (.068uF) and the JCM800 value (1uF).

Looking through my used parts Tupperware, I saw a green LED that is a direct replacement for the stock red indicator. So that was the Fifth mod.

In comparison to the stock DS1, it's not very DS1 anymore, other than appearance. One cannot dial in this modded tone with a stock DS1. The lower mids are accentuated, the low end is tighter and there is less sizzle up top. There is no hope of getting that super dirty, fuzzy nature with the gain on 10, the distortion is not nearly as dirty and compressed. The tone control is mostly the same, but the extreme settings seem a little less extreme. There also seems to be a touch more volume on tap. It really does have more in common with a JCM800 2203/2204 tonality and gain range.

Compared to my V-Twin in Blues Mode: it's very close. In direct comparison, playing by myself at home, there are some subtle differences. Subtle enough that they would be lost in a mix or playing live. The V-Twin has just a touch more richness and depth to the tone. The modded DS1 reacts to my volume knob as I am accustomed with the V-Twin. It's a win. I'm very happy and can't wait to take this to the next band practice and put it to the real test.

Compared to my Plexi Drive Mini. It's also quite close. I can nearly dial in a very similar tone and feel on both pedals. The Plexi Drive is a little tighter and slightly thinner on the low end, even with the bass switch on. The Plexi Drive has a little more gain as well as more volume boost on tap. The PD's tone control has a much more limited range, but it's full range of sweep is very toneful and useful. The PD's tone control range from 0-10 is like sweeping the modded DS from 2-4 (which is where I always set it). I'm pretty sure I could make the modded DS1 sound like the PD with a couple cap and resistor tweaks-but why? :D This makes me wonder if the Wampler Plexi Drive is somewhat derived from Wampler's JCM800 DS1 mod?

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Old_Iron
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Re: Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

Post by Old_Iron » Fri Oct 22, 2021 11:45 am

That looked like a fun time with a solder iron, made me think about to fire up mine.

Thanks for the report bigtone23, Its seems that those mods can make a new tool out of a DS-1, and I liked that.

One thing that I used to do years ago was to boost the power supply up to 18 volts on Boss "drive" pedals, sometimes it yields a good result, but beware to capacitors and zener diodes power tolerances, they can be well bellow 18v. and will blow up!

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bigtone23
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Re: Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

Post by bigtone23 » Fri Oct 22, 2021 3:22 pm

It was a fun learning experience! Took about 2 hours to do the mods while comparing the tones as I went. Not a bad way to spend an evening, getting to know the DS1 better.
The DS1 is a great platform for this experiment, as it is pretty 'middle of the road' in terms of gain and EQ, so It's fairly easy to manipulate the gain and EQ curves to preference. Looking at how many mods are out there can be rather overwhelming. I sort of want to get another DS1 or two to try these out.

I still am somewhat taken by how similar this is to the Plexi Drive. The DS1 (actually, I'm going to call it the DS800, haha) is still capable of more tonalities than the Plexi Drive. The Plexi Drive is purpose built with a narrow market in a world of hundreds of distortion pedals, let alone dozens of MIAB pedals, and there really isn't a bad tone to be made with the onboard controls. The DS1 was designed in a time where there were maybe a dozen distortions in the wild and designed to hit a wide market. The tone control sweep on the DS800 alone has a much wider range than the PD-it can still get that thicker, muffled tone at 0 and that thinner, shrill thing at 10. I know a common issue many have with the DS1 is how bad it can sound, especially if you turn the gain and tone controls up past noon.

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Old_Iron
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Re: Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

Post by Old_Iron » Fri Oct 22, 2021 6:27 pm

Bigtone23, if you like MIAB pedals, the best I know are: Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret (I have this one) and Ramble FX Marvel Drive.

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bigtone23
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Re: Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

Post by bigtone23 » Sat Oct 23, 2021 5:51 am

Old_Iron wrote:
Fri Oct 22, 2021 6:27 pm
Bigtone23, if you like MIAB pedals, the best I know are: Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret (I have this one) and Ramble FX Marvel Drive.
The Dirty Little Secret is a killer pedal! I don't own one, but played one and was impressed.
However, I just plug into my DSL50 for Marshall tones. :D
I only ended up with the Plexi Drive because a buddy wanted to trade me for some pickups I wasn't using. I didn't have any MIAB drives, so I bit.

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visserman
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Re: Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

Post by visserman » Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:11 am

bigtone, a good and detailed post. Great!!

It is also good to notice that your newer DS1 is not too different from the earlier version.

Another way to tweak your Overdrive/Dist. is using a EQ or a pre-amp pedal of some sort, like several of the Tech 21 pedals.

I understand, it is nice to get a great tone out of just one pedal, but using several may give you better results.

About the settings of the DS-1: It does have a large range, you can get Fuzz and much darker tones. I also have the dist. control hardly open, but sometimes I use it on full max to get closer to more fuzzy sounds. Combine it with a TS 9 to get more darker and midrange sounds. So many options really. Great pedal!

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bigtone23
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Re: Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

Post by bigtone23 » Thu Jan 27, 2022 7:12 pm

visserman wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:11 am
bigtone, a good and detailed post. Great!!

It is also good to notice that your newer DS1 is not too different from the earlier version.

Another way to tweak your Overdrive/Dist. is using a EQ or a pre-amp pedal of some sort, like several of the Tech 21 pedals.

I understand, it is nice to get a great tone out of just one pedal, but using several may give you better results.

About the settings of the DS-1: It does have a large range, you can get Fuzz and much darker tones. I also have the dist. control hardly open, but sometimes I use it on full max to get closer to more fuzzy sounds. Combine it with a TS 9 to get more darker and midrange sounds. So many options really. Great pedal!
I do lots of stacking and gain structure chains to get the desired result all the time. The primary focus of this particular pedal mod was to try to get a solitary DS1 to do what I want it to do with that Bassman Ten. Sort of a bespoke mod for a bespoke situation. However, the end result is in the wheelhouse of the MIAB world of dirt pedals, haha. Oh well, at least I learned a lot and have a (sort-of polarizing pedal in the modern world) BOSS DS1 that delivers the goods!

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visserman
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Re: Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

Post by visserman » Sun Jan 30, 2022 10:30 pm

Yes I can see your point, good to get that DS-1 work the way you like it, and yes, you learn a lot whilst being in the process of this journey.

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Re: Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

Post by fuzzbuzzfuzz » Mon Jan 31, 2022 4:06 am

"First: the pre '94 mod. This was just changing 3 caps (C5, C7 & C8) to make a post '94 MIT sound more like the pre' 94 MIJ. It certainly made the two pedals sound even more similar. They weren't that different beforehand, but this added an extra level of detail. The pedal was now a touch more transparent sounding, not as hairy on the high end."

Excellent post with a super high level of detail, love it! Thanks for sharing the experiments :)

For the "Pre-94" what value did you change your caps to (as detailed above)?

Thanks!

(Sidenote - I did have 4 DS-1s of the MIJ variety, and they were quite cheap, but the used prices here have shot up and now a DS-1 Japan is well over $100 along with the SD-1, DF-2 etc).

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bigtone23
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Re: Did a few cool DS1 mods and they work together nicely!

Post by bigtone23 » Mon Jan 31, 2022 6:01 am

fuzzbuzzfuzz wrote:
Mon Jan 31, 2022 4:06 am
"First: the pre '94 mod. This was just changing 3 caps (C5, C7 & C8) to make a post '94 MIT sound more like the pre' 94 MIJ. It certainly made the two pedals sound even more similar. They weren't that different beforehand, but this added an extra level of detail. The pedal was now a touch more transparent sounding, not as hairy on the high end."

Excellent post with a super high level of detail, love it! Thanks for sharing the experiments :)

For the "Pre-94" what value did you change your caps to (as detailed above)?

Thanks!

(Sidenote - I did have 4 DS-1s of the MIJ variety, and they were quite cheap, but the used prices here have shot up and now a DS-1 Japan is well over $100 along with the SD-1, DF-2 etc).
The Pre '94 mod is as follows:
1. Change C7 from 100pF ceramic disc capacitor to a 250pF ceramic disc capacitor.
2. Change C8 from 0.47μF/50V aluminum electrolytic capacitor to 1uF/50V aluminum electrolytic capacitor; save the 0.47μF/50V cap for the next step.
3. Remove the 0.068μF film capacitor from C5 and replace it with the 0.47μF/50V aluminum electrolytic capacitor previously removed from C8 in Step 2.

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