BITMO 2BO Mod Kit-Behringer VT911 VintageTube Overdrive

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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wildschwein
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Post by wildschwein »

Just got the mod for the VT911 in the mail the other day. What a great scam these guys are running. You get 2 capacitors and 2 resistors, a Bitmo decal and an instruction sheet - about 50c worth of stuff for $20 US. By the time I'd paid for postage and the rest it cost $40 Australian. Anyway, I guess I paid for someone else's expertise - or my own lack thereof. I think I need to start reselling electronic components to guitar players.

I must admit though that the mod is a huge improvement over the stock pedal which is really just a noisy and raspy sounding fuzz, as opposed to an OD. I had stuck a 12AU7 in it before I did the mod to cut down on the gain a bit and it worked okay.

The mod itself involves sticking a resistor and a capacitor in parallel onto two of the terminals of the drive knob and also running a capacitor across two of the tube's pins - the last resistor is connected to a tube pin and the neg side of another capacitor which is on the tube board. I stuck a Sovtek 12AX7A in the pedal as it seemed to sound best when I was testing it ands comparing tubes. After the mod the 12AU7 no longer put out enough gain or volume to make the pedal usable.

The result of the mod is a much more tame pedal, with far less gain, background noise and rasp. It actually does sound like an OD now. I only use dirt boxes on top of my amp's built in overdrive sound - just for a bit more boost and sustain. In this context the Bitmo-modded VT911 works really well. I can dial in some Billy Gibbons and Dave Gilmour-type lead sounds with ease.

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Torchy
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Post by Torchy »

What a great scam these guys are running.
For your $20 you got a kit for a mod which

a) You admitted makes the pedal much more useable/sound better
b) You couldnt come up with yourself
c) Probably puts more value on the pedal

If you are going to bitch about something then pick something that you can bitch about. In your particular case sounds like you got good value for money. IMHO, like.

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TragicTravisty
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Post by TragicTravisty »

yea, but its still a scam. is there nowhere you could find a schematic for the mod?

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bajaman
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Post by bajaman »

Okay - now you have performed the mod and it is an improvement, how about letting us know the values of the resistors and capacitors and where EXACTLY they are connected - some internal photos would be great - we can always generate a schematic from them :wink: :wink: :wink:
cheers
bajaman
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wildschwein
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Post by wildschwein »

Torchy wrote:
What a great scam these guys are running.
For your $20 you got a kit for a mod which

a) You admitted makes the pedal much more useable/sound better
b) You couldnt come up with yourself
c) Probably puts more value on the pedal
If you are going to bitch about something then pick something that you can bitch about. In your particular case sounds like you got good value for money. IMHO, like.
I think I mentioned in my post exactly what you say in points a) and b) - I don't admit to being able to come up with it and the pedal is better. No need to get nasty - I was just pointing out the profit margin on mod kits like these - if anything I'd love to run the same kind of scam myself. Because there are plenty idiots around like me who will fork out for them.

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wildschwein
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Post by wildschwein »

wildschwein wrote:
Torchy wrote:
What a great scam these guys are running.
For your $20 you got a kit for a mod which

a) You admitted makes the pedal much more useable/sound better
b) You couldnt come up with yourself
c) Probably puts more value on the pedal
If you are going to bitch about something then pick something that you can bitch about. In your particular case sounds like you got good value for money. IMHO, like.
I think I mentioned in my post exactly what you say in points a) and b) - I don't admit to being able to come up with the mod and the pedal is definitely better. The world is full of sweet and sour though - I'm not going to write some smiley, cheery-eyed post that's all positive just for the sake of not sounding like I'm complaining - I gave credit where it was due and I also pointed out the astronomical profit margin on the kit - and to be honest I'd love to run the same kind of scam myself. Because there are plenty idiots around like me who will fork out for them.

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Post by borislavgajic »

Hi wildschwein!

like Baja man asked.........

how about letting us know the values of the resistors and capacitors and where EXACTLY they are connected - some internal photos would be great - we can always generate a schematic from them
cheers
There is no need to argue.......and if you post some pictures of that pedal interior,I am sure there are some more mods (for free) that some people can give to you.......they have more cnowledge then those people (you bought parts from)! :thumbsup

yeah man so dont be mad,and find some camera! :thumbsup

boris

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Torchy
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Post by Torchy »

The cost of the parts is irrelevant. You are paying $20 for the mod details - ie what you admit you couldnt do. The $20 is payment for the guy's time and knowledge. I wasn't being nasty, you are alleging a scam where there isnt one. I shall bow out of this thread.

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TragicTravisty
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Post by TragicTravisty »

Torchy wrote:The cost of the parts is irrelevant. You are paying $20 for the mod details - ie what you admit you couldnt do. The $20 is payment for the guy's time and knowledge. I wasn't being nasty, you are alleging a scam where there isnt one. I shall bow out of this thread.
fair enough. yet i wont pay 280$ for a zvex SHO because of the cost of parts.

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Nilvert
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Post by Nilvert »

TragicTravisty wrote:
Torchy wrote:The cost of the parts is irrelevant. You are paying $20 for the mod details - ie what you admit you couldnt do. The $20 is payment for the guy's time and knowledge. I wasn't being nasty, you are alleging a scam where there isnt one. I shall bow out of this thread.
fair enough. yet i wont pay 280$ for a zvex SHO because of the cost of parts.
this is where we see the true vex genius, how to con suckers into paying megabux for a product that costs less than $10 to produce

oops bit OT there my bad

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valvelover27
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Post by valvelover27 »

I just bought one of these pedals that someone had already modified with the bitmo kit. I can tell where they soldered in the new components and it looks like these are the parts:

-50 picofarad ceramic axial capacitor (small and tan)
-.47 microfarad polypropylene capacitor (big and yellow)
-.0047 microfarad capacitor (red little resistor-looking thingy)-
-.022 microfarad polyester capacitor (red and other colors)
-Four wires (color coordinated)
-3 way switch

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Post by RnFR »

pics???
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valvelover27
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Post by valvelover27 »

I unfortunately don't have instructions since I bought this already-modified pedal, so I'm relying on my reverse analysis here. I will try to get pics later, but after typing in earlier, I analyzed it further and have a pretty clear understanding of what they did. I'm 99.9-percent sure this is how the mod was done.

They drilled a hole in the front of it with what I can assume is a quarter-inch drill bit and mounted in a three position DPDT switch.

The 50 picofarad capacitor is soldered to the two outer pins of the circuit-board mounted gain knob. There are three pins. Do not solder to the middle.

One lead of the .0047 capacitor (resistor-looking cap) is soldered to the bottom LEFT terminal of the DPDT switch. The other is soldered to a red wire that is soldered to the LEFT pin of the MID potentiometer.

One end of the .47 microfare capacitor (yellow) is also soldered to the same red wire that joins the resistor looking .0047 capacitor. The other end of the YELLOW .47 microfare cap is soldered to the FAR RIGHT HAND BOTTOM terminal of the DPDT switch.

There is a green wire with one end soldered to the BOTTOM MIDDLE terminal of the DPDT switch. The other end is soldered to the RIGHT pin of the MID POT.

One end of a black wire is soldered to the MIDDLE PIN of the DPDT switch on the TOP ROW. The other end is soldered to the MIDDLE pin of the TREBLE pot.

Also we have a yellow wire that runs from the RIGHT HAND pin of the TREBLE pot and is soldered at the other end to one terminal of the .022 microfare capacitor.

The other leg of the .022 cap is soldered to the FAR RIGHT pin of the DPDT switch.

All these lengths of wire are about 4 inches long. This pedal has a Tung-Sol tube in it as well. And as I was told from the previous owner, this mod doesn't work quite right with any other brand. As for the sound, this pedal is sweet. It's as close to a tube amp sound as you're going to get out of a $69 piece of metal and switches. Pretty impressive really.

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valvelover27
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Post by valvelover27 »

This pretty well tells the story.
Attachments
bitmo3.jpg
bitmo2.jpg
Bitmo1.jpg

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wildschwein
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Post by wildschwein »

valvelover27 wrote:This pretty well tells the story.
Is that the VT999 Tube Monster - or the VT911 Vintage Tube OD?

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Post by valvelover27 »

Oh God... I totally apologize. It's the Vintage Tube Monster VT999. I guess I didn't realize they made a BitMo kit for the Vintage Tube Overdrive. I feel like a moron. Sorry.

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wildschwein
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Post by wildschwein »

valvelover27 wrote:Oh God... I totally apologize. It's the Vintage Tube Monster VT999. I guess I didn't realize they made a BitMo kit for the Vintage Tube Overdrive. I feel like a moron. Sorry.
No man that's cool - just didn't look like the guts or mod I worked with and was curious.

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valvelover27
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Post by valvelover27 »

I guess the good news now is that you all know how to modify a Vintage Tube Monster, LOL.

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Post by StellarBin »

Thanks for all these info and pix ValveLover! :) been looking around for the VT999 mods and found it here. Cool cool site! I'll try this mod this weekend! Cheers!

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Post by valvelover27 »

If only wildschwein would stop being so stingy and come off the photos and explanations for the 2BO mod, we'd all be in good shape. :D

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