Robin Trower-esque Clipping Vibe

[coot]

So, I basically only know how to burn myself with a soldering iron...
But I thought I'd try to add some diodes to the output of an old Danelectro Chicken Salad I have.
I soldered one end to the tip of the output jack, and the other to the sleeve (ground?). But nothing happened.
Do diodes need to be pushed harder to hit the rails?
Or am I basically missing the signal by soldering to the output?

[willienillie]

You need a signal voltage that peaks above the forward voltage of your clipping diodes.

[coot]

So, do I try to plant the diodes after the swirly LDR mechanism?
Or do I need to boost the gain beyond the basic design of the pedal?

[Mark Hammer]

So, I basically only know how to burn myself with a soldering iron...

Whoa....don't be in such a hurry to become a "pro".  Those sorts of stunts are reserved for the experienced old-timers!  Gotta walk before you can sear run.

But I thought I'd try to add some diodes to the output of an old Danelectro Chicken Salad I have.
I soldered one end to the tip of the output jack, and the other to the sleeve (ground?). But nothing happened.
Do diodes need to be pushed harder to hit the rails?
Or am I basically missing the signal by soldering to the output?

Willie is correct.  The signal would need to be substantially hotter to result in overdrive.  I made myself what I called my "Box O' Robin", with a Runoffgroove Tri-Vibe and a modded Tube Screamer derivative in one enclosure. The Vibe itself, like your Chicken Salad, will not provide nearly enough gain to yield clipping.  And consider that the broad shallow dips created by the staggered phase-shift stages in the CS will pull portions of the signal away from the clipping threshold, so you'd need even more gain to hit the magic point.  Not gobs of it, mind you, but enough.  A TS-9 workalike will have a maximum gain a bit over 200x.  The output stage of the CS, going by posted schematics is roughly 1.5x, to make up for those dips.

Realistically, you would have to change the gain of the output stage in the CS, and forfeit being able to get vibe-only.  There would likely need to be a lot of trial and error on your part to hit the sweet spot.  My advice is to simply leave the CS as is and make an overdrive pedal you can tune/tailor to feed with the CS.  You CAN sometimes turn a sow's ear into a silk purse, but you can't turn it into a Ferrari.