My Boss SD 1 Super Overdrive To TS 808 Results

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stratdeluxer

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Hey all :lol:

I've been modding TS9's and TS5's for a few years now and since my great sounding TS5 has been giving me switch fits(Which I fixed yesterday)I decided to mod one of the yellow Boss SD1 Super Overdrive pedals to the TS 808 specs..First I Must tell you that neither my modded TS9 or this SD 1 sound anywhere as nice as my TS5...The TS5's always have a warmer,more natural uncolored tone with no raspy or harshness over notes..The TS9 has more gain,is brighter with the tone control all the way off and is more aggressive overall than the TS5 also,but the TS5 has less gain pegged...

The Boss pedal I just finished sounds alot like the TS9 I own but it doesn't have the amount of output that the TS9 has...Compared to the TS5 this pedal is more scooped in the mids and the low mids aren't as full...My TS5 has caps that were stepped up a notch in value for more lowend and fullness so until I read the SD1 schematic,the SD1 isn't as low mid and full sounding...The SD1 is a great humbucking pedal and my TS5 was tweaked totally for a strat and Tele with alot of trial and error..

My SD1 already had a newer version of the JRC op amp which I replaced with an old original JRC 4558 D with 4 number numerical mounted on a gold chip holder...The mods were easy...replace a 100k resistor to 10k,replace a 10k to 100 ohm,remove one .047 cap,remove 1 diode and run a jumper wire in it's place,remove a 1mfd electrolytic and replace to a 10 mfd...I replaced all of the can caps while I was in mine and put some better caps on the board..This pedal has a brighter and more aggressive crunchy tone but stays articulate enough with one on my strats at higher gain settings,but my TS5 has that very woody,smooth,Santana,or heavy distorted Dickey Betts tone using the neck Fat 50 in my strat..I had fun and it ended up costing me just the price of the pedal...Pretty cool mod...The pedal sounds 100% better after the mods because before the pedal sounded thin,harsh,and anemic...

I'll probably change out a couple of caps until I get it to sound like my TS5 and have this as a backup...Actually this pedal is much stronger and has a good switch in it..The TS series switches suck pretty bad! ;o)

John
 
Sorry Barry.....I've no samples and I don't know of any websites(yet) that have a before and after tone of the Boss SD 1 :(

I am diggin it though and today I beefed the whole tone of the pedal up by raising to cap values up....Sounds awesome to say the least...Fat,full and loads of sustain w/my strat bridge humbucker...I can send you the actual mod and the changes if you like though..Let me know or e mail me...

[email protected]

John
 

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