Dano Fab ODs - What's under the plastic hood

FYI

Hunt down the schematics for ...

TS styled pedals (check out the "SD-1 mods" thread at HCDIY);

Heavy Metal/Death Metal pedals - to find the origins of these cheapies. You can pretty much sub the parts values from the originals since they're about the same.

As usual, you are the man. I listened to some of the Fab clips last night and am convinced I need to do a Fab-strip rehouse like yours from the Gear Page.

I was thinking that I'd dispense with trying to hack through bypassing the FET switching and just leave it in place with a simple push button on the box. Then wrap each circuit with a 3PDT true bypass. So when you power up the strip, you have to manually turn each effect on with the push button, but only once, then you can jam away. Sound feasible?

Regarding the schematics, thanks much for drawing these up--now I've got some more reading to do....

Given the prices of the Fab units, it seems like reverse-engineering them would be counter-productive. On the other hand, lineage spellunking is always fun. So the overdrive is a TS/OD1 based circuit?

The Fab units are inexpensive so it would behoove one to build 3 or 4 effects in one box.

#2 son starts WSU this fall. He is undecided engineering. Maybe I can talk him into EE

Originally posted by PolyFmorf The Fab units are inexpensive so it would behoove one to build 3 or 4 effects in one box. #2 son starts WSU this fall. He is undecided engineering. Maybe I can talk him into EE

What kind of stuff is he interested in? There's enough EEs around here that could fill him in.

FWIW, you don't learn much soldering as an EE. Just what you need to get through (sometimes none). It's alot more math and some circuit building in a lab class.

Yeah, Another EE here.

Thanks guys. Yeah, we have some high powered talent around here

#2 son is vasillating back and forth between computer science and physics engineering. I am leary of CS, due to India and even China. I think he will need a few quarters to decide. In the meantime, he will take the standard Calc and analytical geometry series and those dreaded(?) commom core courses.

His mom is a mechanical engineer. He doesn't seem interested in that. Probably because of all the bitching she does about her work; managers, bean counters, and especially marketing people. The usual suspects engineers have to put up with

What exactly is physics engineering? I've never heard of that one.

It should be Engineering Physics. I always do that

Not sure. Looks like a EE degree with LOTS of physics.

Ditto on this question.

Pretty darned ingenius the way they dispensed with the mid control altogether and just have a single tone control to pan between the bass gyrator and the high-pass filter for the Fab-Metal.

I'm glad you didn't send me the values Clay, it was more educational for me to figure them out on my own.

I may label a copy of your drawing and send it to you though to see if we came up with the same values.

If I was any good at drawing up and making PCBs I'd do one for this cause the Fab-Metal is way to flimsy to use live but I love that tone.

You know I'd pay them(Danelectro) $100 for a decent version of that pedal.

Regards

RDV

Yeah, I think they should've used a better wrapper cause they sound good. Check yer email I sent you a version with what I think the values are.

RDV

Cool Clay - your the man!

The Fab Distortion looks similar to the Nobels odr-1...

Thanks,

Brian

Originally posted by CS Jones Hey Brian (tele picker extraordinairre). Nice to see you here! Look forward to you input. Hope all is well with you. Clay

Is this a sign of the apocalypse?

Don't forget the "secret sauce" in the FAB Distortion. The clipping diodes are transistor BE junctions. On the whole very similar to dozens of DOD pedals.

Originally posted by CS Jones Hey Brian (tele picker extraordinairre). Nice to see you here! Look forward to you input. Hope all is well with you. Clay

Thanks Clay, same to you as well.

I didn't even know this forum existed...last time I was here it was just the effects forum.

Talk to you later,

Brian

Same hear! I knew in the effects forum they had talked of a DIY board, but didn't know they went through with it until i followed a link off of DIYstompboxes.com

Originally posted by CS Jones FYI Hunt down the schematics for ... TS styled pedals (check out the "SD-1 mods" thread at HCDIY); Heavy Metal/Death Metal pedals - to find the origins of these cheapies. You can pretty much sub the parts values from the originals since they're about the same.

I don't understand that stuff.

That is the schematic... the 'blueprint' version of the electronics inside the pedals.

bw

are there pics of this? what's the gear page?

Another forum. Its address is www.thegearpage.net

I've been playing around with the fab overdrive -- I've had to run it through a 7-band EQ because it doesn't have nearly enough high end... would there be a simple-ish way to fix that internally?

These things roll off the highs sharply to make them "smooth", typ. 2 KHz and up. The first capacitor to ground following the distortion stage output (OP amp pin 7 maybe) --reduce it. Good luck finding it.

I see -- it would probably be a better pedal if they'd just skipped any kind of tone alteration altogether. Boosting 3.2k and 6.4 has yielded pleasing results, at least with my Strat -- I can get a pretty transparent, bluesy mild overdrive tone with good articulation. Without the treble boost, it sounds too muddy for leads.

It does have a good deal of volume -- easily enough to overdrive a tube amp. Actually it sounds kind of cool with everything cranked to 11 (it seems to get more highs that way), but it's so loud that you have to turn down the volume quite low on your amp -- so low that if you switch off the Fab OD you can barely hear anything.

Well, I guess for $15 I can't complain too loudly. It actually does sound quite nice with the 7-band EQ boosting the trebles, at least with my Strat. I'm still trying to find a pleasing configuration with my Tele.

I'm thinking about getting a Boss SD-1 ... I heard a demo of one of those using a Tele, and it had a GREAT blues tone...

By "these things" I meant the SD-1 and TS every bit as much as the Dano. They're that kind of overdrive. But SD-1 is easier to mod for sure. Maybe try Timmy or other non-TS overdrive or get out of the overdrive spectrum entirely.

Hmm... well, I've heard the SD-1 (not from the Boss website, but from a test that a guy at my work did), and to me it sounds much brighter than the Dano ... it sounded overly bright, in fact, with the tone all the way up, but just great with the tone backed off a bit. Even with the tone all the way up, the Dano sounds muffled (without the benefit of a 7-band EQ, that is).

I think what you are hearing is two similar pedals through two different setups.

The dano, sd-1, ts9, fulltone fulldrive, and literally hundreds of other pedals are based off of the same circuit. The dano is using small components (surface mount) and is harder for the average DIY'er to modify versus the ts9 or the sd-1 which is much easier to work with. Sounds like you want a different tonality though. Have you tried the dod od250 pedal? Mxr distortion plus? Boss blues driver? Boss od-3? Those pedals may be more up your alley.

Take care,

Brian