Boss SD-1 diode changeout

[ronh]

I would like to change out the stock diodes in a Boss SD-1 to the following ones. 1N4002, 1N4148 and 1N36A, I think. A ge type. What order or placement will give me the best sound? Does it matter? Thanks in advance for the help.

[Mark Hammer]

Not familiar with 1N36a, but I gather it is in the same family as a 1n34a.

In a word, Don't. You will not notice any big improvement by doing this, and from the content of your note, it is entirely possible that you might not possess the soldering chops to come away from this with a pedal that works properly the moment you box it up again (apologies if I underestimate your chops).

The SD-1 provides more gain than the TS-9, and employs a 2+1 diode complement to provide something approximating asymmetrical clipping. Replacing any of the diodes with a germanium type will reduce the amount of headroom provided by the existing diode complement. This will result in more intense clipping at lower drive settings, but also lower output volume. That may not be what you want.

What exactly does the pedal NOT do right now that you want/need it to do?

[ronh]

Thanks for your reply Mark. I read a mod somewhere on the internet that said this would be a good thing to do. Its the why I was interested in and your answer has convinced me not to do the mod. It would not be an improvement. Thanks.

[Mark Hammer]

Glad I could be of help. There is something we have collectively summarized over at the DIY Stompbox Forum as B.U.M. Syndrome - the Blind Urge to Mod. It is one thing to take a homebrew design that has not really reached its zenith and find a few things to tweak that make it work better. It is also one thing to take a commercial pedal and adapt it to accomplish a different task or to accommodate a particular circumstance (e.g., what is required to use a pedal with a line-level send/return loop?). But it is a whole other thing to take a pedal that has been systematically developed and refined by a very large development team so as to be palatable to a huge array of users, and decide it is going to be made "better", and that there MUST be a bunch of things you could throw in there to "improve" it. You aren't the first person to ask about mods to a perfectly decent pedal, and the current climate assures you won't be the last.

Sometimes, though, a commercial pedal is fine as is. It happens.