Zakk Wylde Overdrive pedal finished !!! Any ideas for mods and more gain ?

[Angelo777]

Since i had a few <no-sound> issues with my other built ( Dr. Boogie ).... I thought making another pedal would be great So here it is ... the Zakk Wylde OD pedal.. Very good flat-kinda-eq OD pedal... I'll put some sound clips if you want tomorrow morning since its kinda late now and i'm gonna scare the neighboors

Does anyone has built one before ? Any ideas about modding it ? I have made some mods from the original circuit... improved the tonality a little more... i added a presence control before the volume pot... But i cannot figure a way to give some extra gain ( beside adding more diodes[1N4148] ). Any ideas ?

Thank you in advance!
Angelo777

[Angelo777]

One mod i thought for adding some extra bite and gain is to add the circuit between the left lead of C6 till the left lead of R3 and put one more in series and the add the final stage... i'll try this tomorrow and give you audio sample too before and after this mod

[BAARON]

But i cannot figure a way to give some extra gain ( beside adding more diodes[1N4148] ).

Do you mean increasing output volume, or increasing distortion?

If you used the same ZW schematic that I've seen, it's basically a part for part clone of the Boss Super Overdrive (SD-1) but with MXR style bypass.  If this is indeed the case, then any Super Overdrive or Tube Screamer mod would work with it.  What schematic did you use?

[newfish]

Since i had a few <no-sound> issues with my other built ( Dr. Boogie ).... I thought making another pedal would be great So here it is ... the Zakk Wylde OD pedal.. Very good flat-kinda-eq OD pedal... I'll put some sound clips if you want tomorrow morning since its kinda late now and i'm gonna scare the neighboors

Does anyone has built one before ? Any ideas about modding it ? I have made some mods from the original circuit... improved the tonality a little more... i added a presence control before the volume pot... But i cannot figure a way to give some extra gain ( beside adding more diodes[1N4148] ). Any ideas ?

Thank you in advance!
Angelo777

A ZW pedal.  And you want more gain?  I'd see a Doctor 

Seriously though - you could try feeding the pedal a bigger signal.  A simple boost before the ZW in your pedal chain may well give you more dirt.  Different Diode combos is always fun to try. 

[jacobyjd]

I love the title of this thread. It's finally complete! Now, how do I change it?  Well done!

[Joe Hart]

Can you post a schematic? And what do you mean by "extra gain"? You mentioned adding more diodes, so I'm guessing you're looking for more volume because adding more diodes would raise the clipping threshold -- meaning more volume but less distortion. You could omit the diodes altogether and you would get more volume, but changing any diode configuration (without changing anything else) will drastically change the tone of the pedal. Is there an output resistor? You could lower that to let more signal through.
-Joe Hart

[Angelo777]

WOW!!!! So many repliers... damn i love this forum.... people here are trully interested in electronics hacking

OK, first of all i just found time to check the messages so sorry for the delay to answer.

1)Joe Hart :

Can you post a schematic?

Sure thing bro... here you go


By the way this is the original schematic i found ... then i changed it to the one below ( i don't think that the change i made actually changed the amount of distortion in the pedal since ... if you check the output jack number 5 is not connected to the rest of the circuit when the ZW is engaged for distortion...So here the one i finally used...




2)

I love the title of this thread. It's finally complete! Now, how do I change it?   Well done!

I'm glad you like the title mate!  I always into hacking electronics i buy or built from schematics... I just can't help it NOT TO OPEN IT    LOL

3)

A ZW pedal.  And you want more gain?  I'd see a Doctor

Yeah, you see the funny thing is that i heard the pedal from youtube and the sound is completelly different from what i am getting from this pedal... a lot less distortion ... mostly like a signal booster with half of the distortion of the pedal i heard from youtube-proguitar video... Though proguitar.com uses a big amp cracked up the volume so the bigger signal is added in the output pretty easily

4)

Do you mean increasing output volume, or increasing distortion?

I mean increasing distortion actually and absolutelly increasing the sustain of this pedal somehow... I thought of putting the first stage of Dr.Boogey in front of this ZW pedal to add some distortion and also some more sustain... though that is just a thought.

[Angelo777]

Though i must admit that i have one more schematic for ZW since i've looked everywhere possible... and the schematic below has one extra capacitor ( which is the one responsible for that mid-scoop that this pedal originally had  and its cap C12=120pF ) ... So here you go...

[philbinator1]

I heard that Mr. Wylde used that pedal to send his already-dirty jcm 800 into madness, and that it didn't have gobs of gain?  might have to youtube it...

Oh soundclips pleeease!  can't wait to hear your build!   

[Angelo777]

Well i am just recording it.... though how can i upload it ... any ideas ?   

[anchovie]

Change R4 to 2.2K and C2 to 100n. If that's still not enough, try 1K & 220n. Make C2 even bigger for more lows.

[Angelo777]

Change R4 to 2.2K and C2 to 100n. If that's still not enough, try 1K & 220n. Make C2 even bigger for more lows.

THANKS !!!

Wait so i get those mods.... 

[Angelo777]

By the way what the C12=120pF do to the sound ? it gives that extra ZW color or something else ? I haven't placed that C12 thats way i'm asking

[Fender3D]

those little caps across the reaction resistor usually prevent from opamp auto-oscillation.
they will reduce high frequencies to achieve their job.
BTW
since i'm not playing my super lead modified with master volume anymore (damn trasformer...)
I really miss that dirty marshall + od sound

[Angelo777]

Hello everyone,

Just came back home. I tried earlier to record it back it sounded like sh*t I don't have the correct equipment to record it properly ( Line6 Toneport UX-2 ) so it sounded even more horrible... I'll figure a way though to record it and upload the link to rapidshare tomorrow. I tried the extra distortion mod that anchovie suggested me with no difference in distortion... ( Theoretically though i must say that it should work... )

By the way i also think that the main problem with the overall distortion is not hidden in not only how much voltage the Jfet,transistors, op-amps etc etc etc get but the ampere that you put them ... What i mean is for example .... in a previous topic i have opened saying that i have built the Dr.Boogie but i get no sound... the solution to that problem is that my ac adaptor doesn't give the needed ampere so that the circuit to work... it gives around ( or maybe less ) 300mA ... which sucks by the way cause the Dr.Boogie pedal needs at least 500mA aka 0.5Ampere to work... So i bought some new materials today and i'm about to built my own ac adapter for 9.2 V balanced with the circuit from GGG ( ultra clean ) and built it with a way that gives around ( hopefully ) at least 1 to 2 Ampere ... so that i won't have a problem with future pedals.

P.S. Can someone provide me with a link or with the schematic to built the audio probe ?

Thanks a lot ... and sorry for the long talk.

[kupervaser]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/debug.html

[Joe Hart]

If you change the diodes from Si to Ge you will get more distortion and sustain.
-Joe Hart

[anchovie]

the Dr.Boogie pedal needs at least 500mA aka 0.5Ampere to work

Who told you that? The gain stages in a Dr Boogey/almost any distortion pedal are just voltage amplifiers, they're not pushing out power to drive a speaker or anything like that.

[BAARON]

By the way i also think that the main problem with the overall distortion is not hidden in not only how much voltage the Jfet,transistors, op-amps etc etc etc get but the ampere that you put them ...

No, I'm pretty sure your pedal isn't drawing more current than your power supply has available.  It's very unlikely that's the problem, because the ZW product manual states that its current draw is less than 2.2mA.


If your gain is maxed out and you're still thinking to yourself "This isn't enough distortion/this distortion doesn't sizzle and howl like I want it to," then you probably aren't going to get enough distortion out of this circuit.  It has a lot of distortion available, but it's single-stage distortion; it's not a high-gain sound like a Boogie or a Soldano.  The sound you're looking for may require multiple gain stages cascaded into each other - i.e., distorting already distorted sounds.  What I'm saying is that you're probably just looking for a different KIND of distortion rather than the AMOUNT of distortion the ZW can give you.

If, on the other hand, you're thinking "this isn't chunky enough," then you may benefit from trying clipping diodes with a higher forward voltage (something like replacing D3 with an LED) to make it a little cleaner and more dynamic, because chunk and snap won't happen without dynamics.  Think of palm-muted power chords: are you trying to get them to go "chunk chunk chunk chunk" or "bzzh bzzh bzzh bzzh"?  And also keep in mind that good rhythm-guitar chunk isn't necessarily the same tone as good lead-guitar singing sustain.


After a glimpse at your schematic, yes, the ZW is essentially just a Boss Super Overdrive with mostly-true-bypass and tweaked tone control values.  The main difference between the two is that the MXR product has better bypass than the Boss, SMD components that prevent users from modding it (in its commercial form), and it costs more than twice as much as the SD-1 because it's a signature product with a fancy paint job.

On to the nitty gritty.
C12 cuts out some upper treble frequencies in the gain stage before the signal even sees the tone control, particularly at high gain settings.  It has the effect of smoothing out the clipping a little bit and taking some of the edge off.  It does not "scoop mids" in any way whatsoever.  C4 also cuts out treble frequencies and it has a very audible impact on your tone: IMO it cuts highs so much that it's like playing with a pillow in front of your speaker.  You should try the circuit without C4.  Just remove it and don't replace it or jumper it at all.

C6 restricts bass content before the signal reaches the gain stage.  If you change it to a 0.1µF cap it'll fatten the sound up a lot.

[Angelo777]

Who told you that? The gain stages in a Dr Boogey/almost any distortion pedal are just voltage amplifiers, they're not pushing out power to drive a speaker or anything like that.

Anchovie,

Well.... it was just a thought friend. I mean if you think of it like <<the final stage of tube amps is actually more of an ampere amp than a voltage amp... ( maybe i'm wrong with that ... not sure just a thought ) so i was thinking ... if i give more ampere ... or at least force the Jfet,op-amp etc to get to use more ampere then it will work as a final stage amp so it will give 1) more sustain, 2) more compression>> .... I am not pretty sure on those thoughts... just some thoughts so i can learn more from the more experienced ... since if you don't say sometimes "stupid things" then one day you will not know the real answer AND you will always say to yourself ... <<what if.... ?!>>