Has anyone modded their MXR Distortion + ?

A forum devoted to mod, tips and suggestions for upgrading and rehousing your VERY CHEAP commercial stompbox to near boutique excellence.
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masthefool
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Post by masthefool »

If so, was it worth modding or did it still sound thin and like a razor blade stabbing your ears ? Im thinking of modding mine and I have never tried modding a pedal so im curious if its worth doing

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Intripped
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Post by Intripped »

Here you can find a nice article from Brian Wampler (Wampler pedals, active member here also) with some interesting mods. Hopefully you can find the most useful for you.

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/ ... lus-mods-1

Ps: welcome!

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Manfred
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Post by Manfred »

I started this complete mods in the spring, but I stopped the work during the summer.
When it is getting cold outside, I start working again.
I applied two Russian GAY-63 diodes connected in series, as an approximation of the forward PN-junktion curve of an AA119 diode.
MXR_Mod_ComponentSide.jpg
MXR_Mod_Solderside.jpg

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masthefool
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Post by masthefool »

Intripped wrote:Here you can find a nice article from Brian Wampler (Wampler pedals, active member here also) with some interesting mods. Hopefully you can find the most useful for you.

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/ ... lus-mods-1

Ps: welcome!
Thanks!

Looking at the article, I have questions since I am new to this and cant read schematics. "Change C5 to a .0022uf and wired in series with a 1m audio taper pot" How do I wire a pot with a capacitor? Also how would i wire the spst switches ( do they replace the capacitor or resistor ? I am sorry if my questions make sense

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Intripped
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Post by Intripped »

If you are completely new to elctronics and diy, i think that this could be the right moment to start learning something:
How to read schematics for example, it's not difficult at all, you just have to learn the few symbols used for components.

Here is a table with many symbols. You don't need to learn them all.
The most important for pedals schematics are:
resistor, potentiometer, capacitor, diode and LED, operational amplifier (also called opamp), transistor.

Then you could try and read the schematic of the distortion plus.
I think that in a short time, with some little efforts of yours and some help from the people over here, you'll be able to make your first mod to your pedal!

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alexradium
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Post by alexradium »

In my experience when you think your pedal sounds bad,its most probably because its plugged in the wrong amp at low volume,with a lousy sounding guitar.
What is your setup?

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roseblood11
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Post by roseblood11 »

This circuit is a very good startibg point to learn the basics. Interesting things to read about: opamp circuits, high- and low pass filters, diodes as clippers.

There are a lot of circuits with the same topology, but different parts values: DOD 250, Vox 1901 Distortion, Guyatone Zoom Box PS-102.

But maybe it's easier to build a pedal from scratch than to try all those modifications on the original pcb - it might get destroyed in the process...

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idy
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Post by idy »

DIstortion+ is a good choice for first experiments. One of my first. I doubled the diodes. Friends were impressed. I couldn't duplicate the great sound. Finally discovered I'd broken one of the (glass) diodes. So I found I like asymetric clipping...
Yes, the "best" path is to get a breadboard and a few dollars worth of parts and start experimenting.

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