Any GREAT SD-1 mods?

[gulliver]

I bought one to mod, but am yet to be wowed by any clips ... but clips are clips. Any suggestions:icon_question:

[beatstrat]

Lots of circuit modification/tweaks can be made, but this is one pedal that sounds pretty darned good right out of the box.  It's got a nice, singing overdrive sound and plenty of volume on tap; fairly inexpensive too - Bang for the Buck award winner.

[jimbob]

I agree- there are some mods out there but I think that it sounds pretty decent for what it is right out of the box. If theres a certain something you want to hear out of it than Im sure theres a mod.

[MartyMart]

" SEARCH FUNCTION " 

There's lots of mods for these, i personally dont like 'em "out of the box" , bit thin and scratchy for me.
This circuit is VERY tuneable .

MM.

[gulliver]

" SEARCH FUNCTION " 

I guess I should have been more specific, I'm not really looking for the mod itself at this point, but advice on the best sounding mods for this pedal. I did get some info by searching, but more technical and less opinionated ... where I want opinions. Comparisons to other pedals would be helpful as well.

[Toney]

There is no best.

Too many variables. You gear. Your signal chain. Your ear.

Best advice possible....... play it for a month. Sweat on it. Decide exactly what you wish the pedal would do.

All the info you need is searchable. There are no generic mods.

PS.. I like it stock, it's one pedal i'm happy with.
What makes you think you need to mod it?

[Xavier]

After having modded several of these , I came down to the conclusion that the only mod that is worth is some cap change to add some more bass, but that's personal taste. I like it as is.

[gulliver]

  What makes you think you need to mod it?

Thanks for the feedback so far, seems that most really like this pedal as is. To me, it's a little generic. One of my favorite pedals is the Frantone Brooklyn, which is like a 50/50 OD/fuzz with a lot of dynamic transparency and brightness. If I could get some fuzz out of this pedal without sounding like the over-fuzzed mods on indyguitarist, I'd be happy.

I'm really not looking for "my tone" in this pedal, just something interesting and different.

[AC30Dirty]

I recently modded an SD-1 for a friend of mine using some info of a mod that Melanhead developed. and I must say that it is the best mod I have found for this pedal. IT ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!! The bass response was increased tremendously over stock anf the Fulltone-esque type clipping sounds way more appealing. I also incorporated the TS808 output to the pedal and now it boosts my amps beautifully. the highs are ot harsh whatsoever and it has more overall gain aswell. I did have to also incorperate the bleedfix mod but, it was simple and a great fix. Also importantly it is really transparent; no qualities from your amp or guitar are lost. I found the mod here on the forum so do a search function and some extensive searching and im sure you'll find it.

[Toney]

Maybe you'd be better off building a TS from the many layouts available and applying some of the well known mods to that.

Tha SD-1 will stand you in good stead as a contrast to it....they are VERY similar........but different 

[gulliver]

Maybe you'd be better off building a TS from the many layouts available and applying some of the well known mods to that.

Tha SD-1 will stand you in good stead as a contrast to it....they are VERY similar........but different 

Actually, I just ordered the Monte Allums mod for my TS-9 RI, I read that it's pretty good. ...I realize you may mean to turn the SD-1 into a TS-9 to then apply mods.

The Melanhead mods sounds interesting, I did find two of them here. I'll probably pass on that one since I'll probably sell these pedals after I get bored of them, so I like known mods that will allow me to break even.

Thanks for all the help so far.

[Melanhead]

here's some

here's some I posted a while back ..:

SD-1 Mod 1 ... "Freak Box"

Very Tubescreamer-ish

All caps are Panasonic Metal Film, Resistors Metal Film as well.

1. Replace 4558DD with RC4558P
2.  C1,C3 - .047 ( same value just better cap )
3.  C2,C7,C10 - 1uf
4.  C4 - .22uF
5.  Remove C6
6.  C8 - .1uf
7.  R4, R17 - 10K
8.  R7,R9 - 1K
9.  R16 - 100 ohm
10. R2 - 620k
11. D4 - 1n4001 and 1N34 series
12. D5 - 1N4001
13. D6 - 1N4001 and 1N34 series

The diodes arrangement comes from Brian's F&*&^ F^&^%$ mod ... the rest was taking a peak at the circuit and making it more Tubescreamer like. 

I didn't want to duplicate the TS808 circuit with this, which would require quite a few more changes, I wanted to get the sound of my Modded TS808 with a bit of that FullDrive clipping with minimal part swapping. Use 2 914/4148 diodes to get more of a TS808 clipping style.


Here's another:

SD-1 Mod 2 ... "Big Yeller Mod" Nice Fat and gainy!

All caps are Panasonic Metal Film, Resistors Metal Film as well

1. Replace 4558DD with RC4558P

2. C1,C8 - .047uf ( same values just better caps )
3. C2,C7,C10 - 1uf
4. C4 - .018uf ( same value better Cap )
5. Remove C6
6. R9 - 2.4k
7. R2 - 620k
8. C3 - .1uf
9. R6 - 2.4K

Basically sounds like an SD-1 but bigger!

have fun! ......

[gulliver]

I did the Monte Allums TS-9 mod this past weekend and was so impressed I ordered the SD-1 (SD-808) mod. The TS-9 mod is thinner than stock with a very liquid like tone. It's an easy mod and well worth the $20.

[fjdenigris]

What I did with mine was put sockets everywhere and them mix and match different components and values. I wanted one to compliment my AnalogMan modded one, by having one that sounds totally different. I did get it to where I really like it, but when it was time to kick one off the board it was the analogman one that stayed.

The good news, is that it is on my 2nd "gigging" pedal board. If I get bored with it, I'll crack it open again and try new combos!!