Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Modded DS-1 distortion pedal
A recent pedal modification project was this BOSS DS-1 Distortion pedal. I went through a complete cap upgrade and also worked on the bass response and cleaning up the high end. One of the toggle switches selects between a standard symmetric clipping and a more aggressive asymmetric clipping. The other toggle switch selects range in the tone - I found that I wanted a brighter sound when playing through a Fender amp. There is also a new bright yellow LED.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Simple Pedal Board
A "plywood and duct-tape" style of pedal board is low tech yet effective. I've been low on cash so I decided to build a simple pedal board instead of purchasing a commercial board. Power comes from a 1-SPOT supply.
The board is a particle board (my favorite!) shelf that I spray painted green.
I installed another piece of wood on the underside in the front - this makes the board sit inclined instead of flat. Not really necessary, just a little extra touch.
For a little padding I put down some closed cell foam - normally used as weather stripping. The boat cleat is the "handle" for moving the board around.
The pedals are fastened with the usual method of Velcro (TM). But that stuff doesn't always hold. I wanted something really bombproof so I installed some loops for cable ties for every pedal. This photo shows the tie-down loops for the footswtich for the digital delay.
The first version of the board: Tuner -> Wah -> Tube Screamer -> Distortion -> Chorus and a footswitches for the delay and for the amp.
A more recent version of the board: A tremolo and analog delay are added after the chorus. The footswitch for the digital delay has been removed. The pedals are a little too close to each other - some "rearranging of the furntiture" might be next.
The board is a particle board (my favorite!) shelf that I spray painted green.
I installed another piece of wood on the underside in the front - this makes the board sit inclined instead of flat. Not really necessary, just a little extra touch.
For a little padding I put down some closed cell foam - normally used as weather stripping. The boat cleat is the "handle" for moving the board around.
The pedals are fastened with the usual method of Velcro (TM). But that stuff doesn't always hold. I wanted something really bombproof so I installed some loops for cable ties for every pedal. This photo shows the tie-down loops for the footswtich for the digital delay.
The first version of the board: Tuner -> Wah -> Tube Screamer -> Distortion -> Chorus and a footswitches for the delay and for the amp.
A more recent version of the board: A tremolo and analog delay are added after the chorus. The footswitch for the digital delay has been removed. The pedals are a little too close to each other - some "rearranging of the furntiture" might be next.
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