ibanez MS-10 metal charger mod

[ebun]

Hello All,
Here is my the first stomp box mod I attempted.
This is the Taiwan Ibanez MS-10 Metal Charger.
It has the 4 JRC4458D chips. This pedal is known for a somewhat harsh distortion, with noise at low volumes, hard to tame at first.

So to remedy this I followed advice to remove the first two sets of diodes, D1 D2 and D3 D4.
I have seen advice to remvove D3 D4 D5 D6 but have not tried it. There are more than 9 diodes on this pedal.
I read that you can replace the diode's with LED's. I haven't tried it.

I assumed that these diodes were and are, low voltage diodes. By taking them out I would soften the harshness or remove clipping, and be able play at low volumes.
Which it does well now, on top of that it responds well to gain.

So there you have it, sorry if its a repost, feel free to make corrections.

I can take a pic if it is needed.

[Caipira]

Hi. I first removed the 3,4,5,6 diodes but, for me, it became a little harsh, then I put back the 5 and 6 and  removed 1 and 2. It sounded better this way. For start, try all tone controls around 4. Very little tweek makes differences. I usually use edge 3.6, punch 4.0, attack 4, gain 6 - 10, volume 5. I hope you like the mod.

[str3ber]

Hi!

I am a comnplete noob at this so I would love to see a picture. I have opened my MS10 but I do not get anything. Do I need to desolder anything?

Hello All,
Here is my the first stomp box mod I attempted.
This is the Taiwan Ibanez MS-10 Metal Charger.
It has the 4 JRC4458D chips. This pedal is known for a somewhat harsh distortion, with noise at low volumes, hard to tame at first.

So to remedy this I followed advice to remove the first two sets of diodes, D1 D2 and D3 D4.
I have seen advice to remvove D3 D4 D5 D6 but have not tried it. There are more than 9 diodes on this pedal.
I read that you can replace the diode's with LED's. I haven't tried it.

I assumed that these diodes were and are, low voltage diodes. By taking them out I would soften the harshness or remove clipping, and be able play at low volumes.
Which it does well now, on top of that it responds well to gain.

So there you have it, sorry if its a repost, feel free to make corrections.

I can take a pic if it is needed.

[ildar]

Why not try replacing the Si diodes with Ge? The distortion should smooth out a bit and still retain some of the character of the original sound.

[str3ber]

Ok, I took a chance and opened it up again. I located the D1, D2, D3 and D4 and desoldered them. I tried the  pedal and the sound was really low. Someway I figured out that I need to reconnect the circuit. I had fout blue leds lying around so I tried with them. It worked! I really liked the soud, very very compressed and dirty. The problem is that I think I destroyed something because the pedal now "colors" the clean signal. It sounds much more middy than without the pedal. Could that be the blue leds? What should I in that case replace them with?