Ibanez CP-9 Tonepad Project

[obblitt]

Hope everybody is well!

I built an Ibanez CP-9 from a Tonepad PCB about a year ago, and I've always been curious about this section of the board that they say is used for "mods". It's right next to the chip, and there's a bunch of random holes connected to it. What are these used for?

[obblitt]

Here's the thing. I suck at reading schematics. I'm looking at the tonepad schem, and I'm wondering about increasing the output of the compressor. I love the way the thing sounds, but I want a little more headroom and more output. The sustain control has a considerable effect on the output, and I'd like to be able to play with very low sustain. Currently, with the sustain where I have it, and the volume control maxed, I find myself needing more output. So the question is this: if I lower the 12K resistor going from the IC to lug 3 of the sustain pot, will there be more gain going to the sustain control? It seems like if that is so, then I would have more gain, and be able to have the sustain set lower... Am I dead wrong? Are pot values what I need to be looking at?

[StereoKills]

Lowering the value of the 12K resistor will actually increase sustain if I'm reading that correctly. I would raise the value instead to decrease the sustain. I'm not sure how to raise the gain however. Using a larger value pot for the volume may help, although that is probably not the ideal way to go about it.