My Ibanez CM-5 Classic Metal mods

[snyder80]

Well i read somewhere this pedal should be some sort of a DOD 250 or MXR distortion+, but i always sounded quite harsh and didnt do a nice "crunch".
Then i heard about the crunch-it /mi crunchbox and i realy liked that sound. So after tweaking for some time i could make the cm-5 some sort of a marshallesque crunch.

I added a red LED in series with the D1 an placed a 10n cap after the Diodes. The main-tweak was to use a TL072 instead of the 4558. It became quite more amp-like. I also tried a MC1458 as its the dual-opamp equivalent to the 741 used in the DOD 250. It gave a more middle lasting sound, so i kept the TL072 in the cm5. To make the pedal more amp-like i changed the 1k resistor after the first opamp-section to a 10k. It is much more less harsh and just a little lower in volume (no prob, since it became much louder with the red LED). Now i can get it from a nearly clean ballsy booster to a crunchy rhythm and even med gain metal/rock stuff, depending on the guitar/pickup u use.
Last but not least: Make the outputbuffer as in a TS-808, by changing the 100k/10k (or whatever it was) to the 808 value (read geofex "how TS worx"). Much better bypass without the loss in tone.
So my must do´s in a CM-5:

1. Mod the outputbuffer to the TS 808 values
2. Change the opamp
3. make the 1k switchable to about 10k by adding a 10k parallel/in series with a spdt or dpdt
4. Add / change to red LED clipping-diodes