Little help for modding this thing: 'Distortion Dog'?

[jussi_k]

I already posted this on the FX-forum but here we go;

 

I got a strange distortion pedal, made in Czech Republic, 'Distortion Dog' and it sounds like total crap. The on/off switch was broken and I got it for free from a friend.

 

I will fix the switch and I want to rehouse it in some funny fruit box or something but if you look at the pics, can you recognize if it is a copy of some other pedal and can you give me any hints about whether and how I should try to mess with it? It sounds so bad that no matter what changes I could do to it would make it sound better.

 

And yes, I am a total beginner in building pedals.

 

[DougH]

The stomp switch, box and pots (volume, drive etc. controls. Short for potentiometer also known as a variable resistor) and jacks are the most expensive parts. So even if you build a whole new pedal you have a chunk of the expense right there. To mod it may be more or less just try to find a drop in replacement for the IC chip, the little flat square looking thing.

 

AMZ has boards and Jack Orman is the moderator of this fine forum. He can help you most likely here if you had troubles. He has a good selection of boosters. There are always the clones and tweaked clones to build. There are a bunch of other folks selling PCB too that may drop right in the box and hook you up with some cool sounds. If you got creative with the PCB tracks you could make a whole new circuit on the same board.

 

As far as moding it, you may have to hit the forums and some guy with all the catalog knowledge and software can check the specs and find out what value of resistors and capacitors you could change that would have to do with gain. Maybe more signal over load the in the IC to give a little more gain an saturation of distortion, or the reverse and make it more mellow for a lead booster? Don't know, you may add/change some diodes and get more distortion, although I imagine you may want to get some kind of FET based or germanium circuit in there if the IC's don't please your ears right know. These will be more vintage sounding and warm. FETs are affected by voltage rather than amperage, as old vacuum tubes where. Germanium is a substance used in old style transistors, new ones are silicon I believe.

[jussi_k]

Thanks for comments. I guess I need to study the circuit a bit and compare it to some schemas of other similar boxes but basically the pedal's distortion tone is 'thin' while the volume boost is actually quite high. The bottom plate is also missing so I need to rehouse it but that will be the fun part of the project.