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DOD 250 mods with Clips!

BassJunkie730

BassJunkie730

Feb 3, 2005
1,723
16
44
Brooklyn
www.marysmonster.com
#1
So i got a DOD 250 in the mail today and spent the better part of my night modifying it.

I really need to socket my S***.

After some trial and error I made a few mods

I changed the input cap to .1uf (from .01uf)

I also changed the last cap in the chain from .001 to .01uf

AND I changed the .056uf cap to a .047uf (I had a film cap lying around)

I also removed the diodes and replaced them with two LEDs for more output and better OD

I also socketed the IC and replaced it with a JRC4558

I think I got something good going here

P-bass with chromes

The first part of the clip is clean

Next part is vol and gain at noon

next is vol at 1 oclock and gain at 3 oclock

next is volume and gain maxed - i play with the phrase a bit to show the dynamics.

and it's late - so forgive my sloppy playing.

And it retains the bass well most of the way up.
 
#4
I don't think I have heard the original, but I don't really like the sound of your clips :hmm:

Sorry, just my opinion.

I think why I don't like it is it distorts the low notes more than the high ones. I like a sharp bright OD myself, I turn the tone knob on my TS5 almost all the way up. This is more muffled and dark. Might be the P-Bass too, they have a darker tone than my bass (ibanez w/ humbuckers), the whole active vs passive probably comes into play too.

what kind of sound are you going for with this anyways? and what problems with the original were you trying to fix
 
#5
I bought it to toy with it.

I don't know if I am wild about IC based effects - I'd really like to try out some of the cool stuff that RunOffGroove has been doing with the "fetzer valve" aka a transistor wired like a valve.

I digress.

I wanted to see if I could solve two problems inherent to the dod 250.

1. Lacks adequate bass in higher gain settings
2. sounds really harsh when it overdrives.

Now i really don't think there is any way with pedal, NOT to distort the lowend as it is a preamp - it's designed to be as clean as possible - unfortunately it was designed in the 70s - so it ain't that clean. So if that is your bag - a clean blend on your favorite grind box always the way to go.

I replaced the stock diodes with LEDs to stave off the grind a bit and make the unit really touch sensitive and pleasing.

Also by changing out the caps (no I didn't make the switcheroo on the caps as I was using all film caps, and the stock are not) I increase the bass response - BUT I also increase the likely hood of distortion down low - it's a trade off.


And I changed out some resistors in the muff to tonight to see if I could make the thing cut - I'm still working on it.
 
#16
BassJunkie730 said:
Now i really don't think there is any way with pedal, NOT to distort the lowend as it is a preamp - it's designed to be as clean as possible - unfortunately it was designed in the 70s - so it ain't that clean. So if that is your bag - a clean blend on your favorite grind box always the way to go.
Click to expand...

This cant be right. If its designed to be as clean as possible why is there a clipping section in it? :hmm:
The DOD 250 is almost the same Circuit as the MXR distiortion+ and the both are distortion/overdrive pedals. The knowledge how to design clean preamps was known even in the seventies. :) ex: MXR Microamp and EHX LPB
 
#18
My mistake on the clean preamp thing - I'm pretty sure it was designed to drive an amp - so maybe clean boost is a better term here - of course you can always add more diodes to get increased output before clipping - I really didn't like the sound of the silicon dioides clipping - so that's why I replaced them with two LEDs.

And Analogman apparently does a "true" mod of the Dod 250 using an LM741 chip.

Of course you could simply build one too - there are many kits and boards available, and after kicking about in the pedal for a considerable amount of time last night - it really is an easy pedal to build.
 

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