A couple of questions about the Monte Allums Dynacomp mods.

[Nocaster Cat]

The Monte Allums Dynacomp Mod Kit has me a bit confused. I get swapping out the ceramic caps for metal film ones but why swap out his CA3080 for the one that's already in the pedal and/or the 1N34's for the stock 1N914's? Thanks.

[Paul Marossy]

The Monte Allums Dynacomp Mod Kit has me a bit confused. I get swapping out the ceramic caps for metal film ones but why swap out his CA3080 for the one that's already in the pedal and/or the 1N34's for the stock 1N914's? Thanks.

Don't have an answer for the CA3080 (doesn't make sense to me either), but the forward voltage is lower on the 1N34s than it is with 1N914s. Not sure why that would be better, though. 

[midwayfair]

The good news is that it's one of the few kits on there that isn't vastly overpriced.

The 1N34A *could* produce more overall compression by lowering the threshold or sensitivity. However, it would just shift the total compression um, northward.

The chip swap is pointless and probably just to make you feel like you're accomplishing something ... even if he's using a NOS chip, which would be more expensive, it's still the same chip.

[GGBB]

He mentions that the CA3080 is already in the newer revision DynaComp pedals (along with metal film caps) so his "New Rev. E" kit doesn't include them.  Maybe you got a "Vintage" or "Rev. D" kit but your pedal is Rev. E?  Maybe there were some Rev. Ds that MXR made with the CA3080?

I did his CS-3 Opto-Plus mod a couple of weeks ago and it swaps out three silicon diodes for 1N34As as well.  The instructions claim they are for "fatter tone."  I don't hear the fatter tone so much, but overall the mod is a big improvement over the stock CS-3.