Help needed with Red Llama mods

[Dr.Pain]

Hello everybody. Last year I bulit a Way Huge Red Llama clone based off of the Tonepad schematic and I absolutely adore the pedal. I just remembered that I have a pre drilled enclosure left over from another build and I would like to build another one, but make some mods to it to make it more versatile and more usable on bass. What I had in mind was:
- Increase the input cap for better bass response. The stock circuit cuts too much bass for my taste, so I would like to put a good amount of it back in. I'm not too sure what value to go for, any recs?
- From what I can tell there are two gain stages on the feedback inverters, correct me if I'm wrong. I was thinking of keeping the first stage the same way as it is and making the feedback resistor on the second stage a pot and maybe raise the value a tad to squeeze out some more gain. Any suggestions or corrections are welcome.
- Another thing I thought about was adding a tone control, but I'm not too sure about this one. I see the 1k/330u RC combination which I think is a simple lowpass, correct? I was thinking of using a pot instead to vary the cutoff and maybe raise the value a tad for a bigger range. Not sure about this one, correct me if I'm wrong.
- Another idea that I'm totally not sure about is varying, what I assume to be the clipping diode, with a switch. I was thinking of varying it with an LED and maybe nothing. Am I right about this?
Here's the schematic I am basing it  off of which is from Tonepad (look at the blue coloured values where applicable).

Thanks!

[WGTP]

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/WGTP/Red+Rooster.GIF.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

Here are some different things I have done with the cmos chips...   

1/2 or 2X the input cap for a start, to see what works for you

cmos distortions can get loose and woolly with too much bass input, but that makes it more Fuzzy IMHO

2 gain stages correct

You could use pots and increase the value to 2M in either or both stages

The 1k 330uf cap are for power filtering.  It oscillates with too little...

There are a variety of tone control options that you can use.  Subing 100pf caps for the 10pf will get you some treble roll off, if not go bigger.

There are no clipping diodes in this design.  The diode there is for for protection should the wrong AC adaptor be used. 

The inverters supply the MOSFET distortion.  As you can see from my schematics, you can add clipping diodes.  Try 2 LED's or SI's across the 1M resistor in the second inverter.  Good Luck   

[Brymus]

I built a 3legged dog awhile back ,and I found it kinda noisy so I started modding,came here and searched and,basically what I had done was turn it into a 3LD/HotHarmonics  hybrid.
Search for both of those as well as they are similiar too.
I breadboarded all the different versions.
In the end...
I tweaked the input's 2n5457 bias to get less hiss.
I added a 47p in the last stage, again reduced the noise.
And I added 2 x red LEDs at the output shunted to ground via a 20k pot,I toyed with a 10n shunted there as well.
I totaly dug it this way.
Using the pot I could dial in the LEDs for more texture and they would light up (quite brightly) with the signal.(no need for an indicator LED)
This made for a really cool visual as well as audio effect (I am gonna turn the LEDs into demon eyes via a graphic)
And label the "warp" pot "Summon" for more mojo.
Its a really nice fuzzy distortion pedal.
I hope that gives you some more ideas to play with.

[Dr.Pain]

Thanks for the help! I will definetly try those suggestions out. Cheers.

[slotbot]

not much of amod but i put a bicolored led in mine witha switch for higher gain like in the anderton fuzz. so high gain is red an low gain is green iirc.

http://mtlasm.blogspot.com/2009/10/red-llama-clone.html

also i painted mine blue. blue llama. crzy mod.

[nbabmf]

Clever mods, Brymus!

I've considered adding clipping diodes to the Llama, but I rather like the way the hex inverter sounds as it is.  If anything, I'd want to incorporate more of the stages on the chip.  The Llama only uses a couple of them!

[Brymus]

Thanx it was mainly just lots of A/B type testing and listening,trying different parts of different circuits together.
Since the 3LD and HH are so similiar they interchange pretty well.
I thought he could use it for his WHRL since its really similiar as well.
There is ALOT of output from the 3LD and the LEDs take some ,but it is still way loud.
I didnt expect them to light up as much as they did,it looks really cool the way they flash with your playing.