Boss DD-6 Hi-Cut mod

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azrael
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Post by azrael »

I did a bit of research, found that the standard mod for the DD-3 wouldn't work here, something to do with the feedback part of the circuit.

However, I got in touch with someone who did some DD-6 mods in the past, and he said that he connected D6 and C14 to ground, using a 1M resistor.

I cannot find a schematic that wasn't hosted on the now dead geocities servers, so I can't really tell what it's doing.


Would someone be able to confirm if this would be an effective mod? I don't feel like blowing up my DD-6 to find out just yet, hahaha.

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Post by ansil »

usually the high cut mod is strapped across the feedback pot. effectively decreasing treble on all future repeats. i have a schematic showing how to do this on the dd3 if i am not mistaken

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Post by azrael »

Yes I have heard of that mod for tr DD3, but it was my understanding that it could not be performed on the DD6 for some reason.

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ansil
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Post by ansil »

my bad mis read what you said.there is a mod for it. i will see what i can do. and i meant the dd6 mod was the cap across pot. not the three

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azrael
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Post by azrael »

Really? I read the value of 1uF for that mod, then, I think for a DD5. Does that sound right? And across the feedback pot?

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Post by ansil »

soon as i can find my schematic i will see..

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Post by sinner »

It seems like the cap mod do not work with all DD3 units... It was working just fine with my old DD-2 (really the same thing as MIJ and early Korean DD3 delays), but didn't with my modern series DD3. No idea why. If it does take the mod, good option is to use larger cap+pot with push-push DPDT to control darkness of repeats! with push-push/push-pull pot you can disarm the mod to back to the stock unit sound... Just a cool (IMO) idea

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ansil
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Post by ansil »

if you can fit a push pull in a boss pedal you are a god

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Post by sinner »

ansil wrote:if you can fit a push pull in a boss pedal you are a god
Then I am a God obviously! left side under the foot switch plate in place of battery container

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ansil
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Post by ansil »

ok thats what i get for thinking you meant where the normal knobs are sorry my bad. still very talented. ok i can't find either schematic for the dd-3 or the 5 i forgot i dont' have the 6 one but all my stuff was on another harddrive. now i am upset i cant' find it. and i need the 5 i am doing the reverse mod on mine with a toggle switch.

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Post by azrael »

Nothing yet? I haven't tried anything yet.

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ansil
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Post by ansil »

can't find my schematic i have been a bit busy. and now i am trying to relocate it due to i need the resistor mod for the reverse trick

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Post by i51423 »

Bump!

Spent the past couple hours scouring Google searches for info on doing this mod. How has a schematic of the DD6 not popped up on the internet? Has anyone tried the mentioned D6/C14 to ground with a 1M resistor yet? Or has someone grabbed the Monte Allums mod and wouldn't mind sharing the instructions with us? I'm sort of surprised that this mod has been such a secret.

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ansil
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Post by ansil »

on my dd 5 just a cap ob the feedback pot worked on mine. I found my dd5 again. not sure on the 6 though

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Post by i51423 »

My understanding is that the 6's pots are just rotary encoders and don't pass any audio. Because of that, the cap mod won't work. The Monte Allums site pictures two caps and a switch in their kit. I'm assuming they just located the audio path for the delay and stick the caps in there.

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hell i can't type this long it will piss off people what can i say i have been doing mods on toyz appliances gear sex toyz computers and such for 27 years. i started when i was 6 taking stuff apart.
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Post by ansil »

well the audio path would not be hard to trace back. if you wanted the feedback knob to control the freq roll off that would be a bit trickier. but applying a simple rc filter to the feedback loop would not. simple audio probe could find that for you.

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Post by neilbunker »

It was not hard to trace at all. Here ya go:

I used an audio probe and found some test points that can be tapped into for the standard capacitor/switch delay mod without having to mess with any surface mount components. I suppose I should mention that I did not reverse-engineer any existing mods, it was simple enough to use an audio probe to find a place before the mixing stage to tap in. Unfortunately, I am under the impression that the feedback loop is in a chip somewhere, so this mod will cut high end on all repeats equally, it won't cut more high end off successive repeats.

Here's a demo:


Here is the board. There are three points we are looking for: if you are looking at the underside of the main circuit board, they are on the right, about a third of the way down:
Image



Close up, here are the points. The A-side connection is just below the "R" on the R36 label, the B-side connection is just above the "R" on the R37 label, and the ground can connect to any solder pad on the board's ground plane. I chose the point just below the "2" in the R26 label for my ground, in order to keep my wires near each other:
Image



The interior is super cramped, so you'll have to find a sub-miniature, center-off DPDT switch. Standard 'miniature' DPDTs won't fit. I found mine for a pretty fair price here: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdet ... er=060-508. You could probably fit a standard SPDT in there more easily if you only want to mod one of the two outputs. If you don't want to keep the stock sound available, you could use an on-on switch instead of a center-off switch.

The holes are much smaller than a standard solder pad, so most wire will not fit through. I used left-over legs from an 1/8 watt resistor to feed through these holes and attach the wires running to the switch. Legs from capacitors or 1/4 watt resistors did not fit easily for me. Using small pliers, I pushed the wire into the center of the test point and touched my soldering iron to the wire near the tip. You may have to fiddle the wire around until it feeds through the hole, so I would recommend not touching the iron directly to the board to avoid damaging it.

That should be enough for many of you guys, but if you want more detailed instructions and advice on drilling the enclosure, capacitor selection, ect., I posted a pretty detailed set of instructions with lots of pics on my blog: http://tonehack.blogspot.com/2012/02/bo ... t-mod.html

So there ya go! Cheers, and happy modding!

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100 jungle kat boosts
too many penguin love's to count.
5 blues pearl purplexed
dozen tube screamer fulldrive whatever you call them variants

hell i can't type this long it will piss off people what can i say i have been doing mods on toyz appliances gear sex toyz computers and such for 27 years. i started when i was 6 taking stuff apart.
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Post by ansil »

wow very nice man much appreciated so are the pots indeed data encoders on this one as suggested earlier. i still have yet to really drive one of these off the lot yet. the five does what i need it to do. and with a little cleaning up the behringer clone of it worked great for the reverse stuff i do it with. for me i use the old dd3 i like the old sde 300 delay. run em up higher voltage and it sounds like my old rack.

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Post by neilbunker »

The pots are standard pots (50k if I remember right), but they affect a control voltage for the delay chip, rather than handling the signal. The cap values have a different effect than the same values in my DD-3, to get similar sounds in my DD-6 I had to use larger values. I settled on .22u and .47u, but they are a much more subtle cut than those values sound in my DD-3. .22u is really subtle, just barely sweetening the delays a bit, and .47u sounds somewhat similar to a .1u cap on a DD-3. I would imagine 1u would sound really nice for some really dark delays, I just don't have much use for that sound personally.

I haven't been able to find an analog feedback loop in the DD-6, which is what I really love about the DD-3. I suspect it is handled inside a chip somewhere. I have one of each on my pedal board, DD-3 for slapback and the DD-6 for timed stuff and swells. I'm working on an idea a friend told me about, a way to add modulation to the DD-3, and I might try to see if it could apply to the DD-6 as well. That would make it just about perfect I think.

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Post by StratWiz »

Are there such points on the DD-3 SMD board that may be used to apply the hi cut mod in an elegant way?
Thanks,
SW

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