Danelectro Fab Distortion

[newbie builder]

I just picked up one of these at a GC cause it's only 15 dollars and has some good tones in it. I was wondering if anybody could point me to some places with mods for true bypass/rehousing/mods to make it sound even better! Thanks---

[syndromet]

I just picked up one of these at a GC cause it's only 15 dollars and has some good tones in it. I was wondering if anybody could point me to some places with mods for true bypass/rehousing/mods to make it sound even better! Thanks---

It's all smd parts, so it's a hard to do something at all. I know someone here traced it, and I guess it would be easier to build one from scratch.

[dano12]

True bypass +  a LED shouldn't be hard at all. If fact you don't need to de-solder anything, SMD or otherwise. Just hack parts onto it.

This is unverified, but should work:

[Toney]

Simplest way....... use a looper. I have 'em and thats what I do.

As for rehousing -too much work. Me = lazy by nature.
They're $ 15 dollars, right? So was the fancy woodfired boutique pizza I had for dinner last night... (didn't taste any better but slightly prettier waitresses doing a slightly better imitation of sincerity with smiles etc)

If you have other reasons for rehousing... secret weapon/embarrassed by $15 pedal on board etc ...AFAIK all the actual circuit is on the little second board. So I guess it'll all be in that ribbon cable. Don't have one here at the mo...

[Processaurus]

Wow thats a nice diagram Dano12, but if you do it that way, you can skip the momentary switch and have the effect always on, by holding either the set or reset pin high (I don't know which one), because one will hold in bypass perpetually, and the other will have the effect always on.  But yeah, you could skip the big board entirely if you were comfortable making new power supply filtering + reverse polarity protection, etc. thats on the big board.

[dano12]

Thanks much. The "big" board isn't really that big. I wouldn't even remove the existing plastic jacks. Just wire in new jacks into the enclosure and a 3PDT.

Thanks for the tip on the latching--I'll pull out the FAB tonight (I actually have all of them and am going to put them into a single steel strip) and check it out.

[Processaurus]

I left out that the set end reset applies to the 4013 flip flop chip. 
Say, if you're putting a bunch of them in a box, if you left the electronic switching in, you could make a poor man's bradshaw switcher (switch between different combos with a single click), w/ some logic feeding the set and reset pins on each effect's 4013.

Orrrrr, take the little boards out and put them in a big box and true bypass each one for that project, and save the big boards for a remote logic controlled multi switcher, that could switch combos of any effects that were plugged into it .  Then you'd be getting your $15 worth for sure.

[5150]

Same series, different pedal - anyone have any suggestions as to how I could go about getting rid of some of the fizz/sizzle/crackle of a Fab Metal?  To get the right amount of gain I have too much of this high-end harshness... should a small cap across the volume pot's outer lugs work, or some little cap across what looks most like a clipping diode pair?

Jeff

[petemoore]

  Volume pot cap across 1 and 3 will cut highs.
  It could conversely be done at the input too, smaller cap I'd say.
  SMT's have been dubbed non-diy-workable, but there may be places on the pots or something that you could 'attach' mods to, a HF rolloff cap or caps might utilize a pot position.
  TB loop box is probably a good idea. These pedals are not known for 'road strength' I had 3 replacements of them, pedalboarding/tieing the input/output/supply wires down, outside the pedal may extend life for anything except ginger treatment of the jacks.
  A looper is another box, but a utilizable unit, also it looks easier and safer than modding the FaB.

[newbie builder]

So would I just cut the wires to the existing footswitch when I wired up the new 3pdt? So with the "arming" I would always have that on, and with that on it would still be true bypass, and then clicking on the 3pdt would engage the effect in the signal?  I thought about a TB loop, but the main reason for a rehouse is durability and because I wanna get more expierence making/modifying my own effects. That's a great diagram, thanks!

[disto]

hey anyone used the danelectro DJ-21 black coffee?
nice looking pedal but no distortion control!
does anyone know how/if it could be modded to incorperate one? and has any one else used one?

I just picked up one of these at a GC cause it's only 15 dollars ...

wow $15! bargin

[wampcat1]

True bypass +  a LED shouldn't be hard at all. If fact you don't need to de-solder anything, SMD or otherwise. Just hack parts onto it.

This is unverified, but should work:

Hey Dano- where did you get your images of the jacks and LED? I've been using the ones on the verotools in the layout gallery, but I really like yours!

[jjucius]

I am trying the same thing to put 3 effects in one enclouser. one thing how to eliminate the momentary switch so the pedal is always on? i have the rest figured out but i need a drawing so i can see what to do (my brains on vacation lol)
Thanks for all help and tips
Joe

[Gilles C]

I am wondering the same thing about your diagram Dano.

I am trying to find some good images for box layouts, and I kind of realised I would have to make my own. You did a great job with your diagram.

Gilles

[newbie builder]

hey anyone used the danelectro DJ-21 black coffee?
nice looking pedal but no distortion control!
does anyone know how/if it could be modded to incorperate one? and has any one else used one?

I just picked up one of these at a GC cause it's only 15 dollars ...

wow $15! bargin

Go over to Harmony Central DIY or The Gear Page and do a search- Clay Jones has drawn the schematics out for a lot of these pedals and they are clones of famous ones. The black coffee is suposedly one of the better Danos- I haven't personally tried it though.

[dano12]

So would I just cut the wires to the existing footswitch when I wired up the new 3pdt? So with the "arming" I would always have that on, and with that on it would still be true bypass, and then clicking on the 3pdt would engage the effect in the signal?  I thought about a TB loop, but the main reason for a rehouse is durability and because I wanna get more expierence making/modifying my own effects. That's a great diagram, thanks!

Yep, you can cut the existing footswitch out and just solder a jumper wire where the switch wires were. Thusly, the pedal will always be "on". Your new jacks and 3PDT will add true bypass which ends up sort of turning the pedal off.

This should be an awesome good project to get your skills and confidence level up. And if you toast the pedal, well it's only 15 bucks

Feel free to ask if you have any questions along the way.

[dano12]

The diagrams are done in Visio. I created all my own parts from scratch. I've got a pretty good colllection of switches, jacks, etc. at this point. It is also great for doing schematics. I love Visio

There's some more switch and jack examples here:

http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/PedalPower/

and here:

http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/Switches/

[Processaurus]

I peeked at my fab echo and heres what the jumper wires do that connect the little board to the big board:

white center of coax:  Input
coax shield: Ground
Yellow: Out
Red: +9v
Blue: indicator LED cathode (it needs a current limiting resistor from you, anode is hooked directly to the +9)

I also noted that compared to the Rebote delay, it lacked the opamp in and out buffers on the little board, so it must be taking advantage of the stock TL027 buffers on the big board.  So its kind of neccessary in the echo's case.  But from CS Jones' schematics the 3 distortions look like they have everything they need (minus the power conditioning) onboard.

[disto]

Go over to Harmony Central DIY or The Gear Page and do a search

wow i didnt know they had schems on there i only ever used it for reviews of gear!

The black coffee is suposedly one of the better Danos- I haven't personally tried it though.

hmmm these pedals look very very cool and i think with the plastic safety guard over the pedals would be gigable, however i think there is way way to much distortion on this pedal and i think the pedal would be better with an adjustable gain! im begining to believe it would be inpossible to mod

[newbie builder]

TGP and HC DIY don't actually have schematic sections, but in the effects section Clay Jones has posted a lot about Danos, and in the DIY part of Harmony Central he's also posted a lot about Danos