Increasing midrange on Boss BD-2 Blues Driver pedal?

Started by Burstbucker, September 06, 2005, 05:57:05 PM

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Burstbucker

Increasing midrange on Boss BD-2 Blues Driver pedal?

I have a Boss Blues Driver pedal that I modded using Keeley's info on his website, I really like the way this pedal sounds now but I'd like to add just a touch more mids.  Can anybody offer some advice on how to bump up the mids on this bad boy?

MartyMart

Did you increase/add to the tone cap ( C100 ) which is on the back of the
tone pot's small board ?
That's going to give you more "bass" - hense "less" audible mids.
Try that back at "stock" (33n or 47n from memory) and see how you like
it, it should let more mid freq through with a little less bass.
OD's can easily get "muddy" and not so focused when there's too much
low end going on !
Though I think that point is "post" drive section

Marty.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm"
My Website www.martinlister.com

Burstbucker

I did replace C100, the stock value was .018uF.  I put a .033uF cap in its place and that did increase the bass.  But I remember the BD-2 was lacking mids even before I did this mod.  The pedal sounds great with a Strat, but if I could get just a little bit more mids happening it would be perfect for me.

MartyMart

Quote from: BurstbuckerI did replace C100, the stock value was .018uF.  I put a .033uF cap in its place and that did increase the bass.  But I remember the BD-2 was lacking mids even before I did this mod.  The pedal sounds great with a Strat, but if I could get just a little bit more mids happening it would be perfect for me.

I'll dig out the schem in the morning and have a think, I'll get back to you

M.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm"
My Website www.martinlister.com

Burstbucker

Thanks MartyMart!

Like I said, this modded BD-2 is soooo close to being perfect, the only thing that I'd like to get out of it is a tad bit more mids.

Burstbucker

I read somewhere that removing C19 would increase mids, I'm not sure if that would work though, I might just give that a try.

wampcat1


MartyMart

Quote from: BurstbuckerI read somewhere that removing C19 would increase mids, I'm not sure if that would work though, I might just give that a try.

You're on the right track here, looking at the schem, there's a small section
involving C19-5n6 C17-6n8 R25- 2k2 and R26-5k6, which is a little tone
stack connecting before C19 to the tone control and of course C100.
This is causing a "roll off" in the mid/hi mid area.
If I'm correct ( I hope ) this area can be used with a tone stack calculator
to give you back your missing "mids"
Simply removing C-19 will help, but there's a relationship with C17 and
the two resistors 25/26 also ... !
C19 goes to ground, so would seem to be the main culprit, if you make
it much smaller, like 1n (0.001uf) or 500pf it will pull a bit of higher freq down,
removed completely, it wont pull out anything.
Perhaps someone more "tech" than me could suggest a better set of
values, but thats worth a try for sure :D
Let me know how it goes, I would be tempted to fit a small socket for
C19 AND C17 to try a few "combo's" so you can play with the values.
That would be an interesting little "test" with your gtr/amp and of course
would be different for everybody's personal preference/setup  !

Hope that helps some ?

Cheers
marty.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm"
My Website www.martinlister.com