Upcoming DS1 mod-apolooza...

[greysun]

Hi everyone! I'm finally taking the old DS1 that was my very first pedal and that I have always despised and throwing the book at it...

Plan to do the seeing eye mod based on the PDF below (2nd to last page), and will test out some values from evil distortion or tube emulator (first page). (I found the attached PDF online and now can't find where from - please raise your hand if it's yours and I'll give credit!).

I also watched a YouTube vid where c3 was replaced with a higher value cap (somewhere around .5u to 1u) to change it into a fuzz, which I'm VERY interested in.

I'm thinking to incorporate a few switches, if I'm able - a toggle to activate the synth mods (pages 5, 6 and 7), which I'll manage with a separate on/on/on, and another toggle possibly for the fuzz vs. DS1.

I'll rehouse the whole thing into a new 125B (or at least attempt to). What's my goal? Turn it into something interesting I might actually want to use instead of sitting in a drawer... and I mean, this pedal building/modding is supposed to be fun, right? hehe...

My question to y'all - is there anything in this PDF that's off-base? Also - what are your mods that you've done that I should check out? Is there something better than the Keeley Mod? I'm open to suggestions!

Thanks in advance if you've got some ideas!

[jimilee]

Very cool. I built a Keeley DS-1 from perf and pcb layouts. I need to mod my actual boss DS-1.


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[matmosphere]

I went down this journey years ago and eventually gutted my DS1 and put a Rat into it's case.

[greysun]

Very cool. I built a Keeley DS-1 from perf and pcb layouts. I need to mod my actual boss DS-1.


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Nice - It's definitely more to get something out of a thing that I never even consider using. Unlike its blues driver and overdrive siblings, I have just never connected with this thing, so why not, right?

I went down this journey years ago and eventually gutted my DS1 and put a Rat into it's case.

I think I saw that thread! lol... but I already have 2 runts and 2 homebuilt RAT clones with 8 different clipping modes. I'm also weird in that I've never really been into the Boss pedal enclosure - though noting it does have its place and is iconic in and of its own right, hehe - it's just not for me. Also, if I change the parts, add the synths and fuzz options, and still don't like it, I'm out MAYBE $15 in parts (the enclosure being half of that, which I could always reuse for something else after learning the painters tape/JB Weld trick).

I think it *could* sound good through my Marshall, but not my Allen. We'll see. More to follow for sure.

[greysun]

I've got this ALMOST ready to box up - just have to drill the enclosure and wire up the fuzz and synth switches.

Before I do that - I went to test it last night and everything worked, but there was a high pitched hum/hiss when not in play - like the grounding was wonky or something. I checked all the solder points and made sure it wasn't the guitar or something else in the chain. When I touch the sleeve on the guitar side, it helped but didn't solve. I'm HOPING it's because it was just un-enclosed and picking up some room lights or something, but on the off chance someone may know something I don't ...

Is this a "thing" with this pedal? For all I know it's been doing it the whole time and I just haven't played it in so long I didn't notice lol. (I've had this thing for at least 25yrs and haven't played it in at least 20, outside of a quick "does it still work?" moment before modding when I wasn't paying attention).

Any tips on what to look for before I just call it and box it up anyway?



(An aside, the mods actually do sound pretty good - replacing c3 with 3 switchable options lets this get into fuzz territory with some articulation that I wasn't expecting and will be fun to play with. In normal mode, it's definitely a more rounded out distortion - I haven't tried the synth stuff yet, but I'll do a demo when I'm done.)

[jessenator]

Could it be RF interference? some builds have had to be inside a box for the noise to go away.

I'm not sure if it would work, but you could try tenting it with some foil, temporarily putting the jacks through it, being careful not to let it contact anything but ground. 

When I recently built a Cornish I had a generic hole pattern 3d printed box for mounting/wiring, and it was noisy as h*ck. Lined the box with some spray-glued aluminum foil and it went away.

[greysun]

I was debating a generic 3d printed box for testing this stuff. I think you're right about RF tho. I'll play it by ear. If it's noisy, well... I wasn't using it anyway lol.