Anyone else use their DS-1 this way?

[Guitar_paul]

New Guy - first post (unless I joined a long time ago and forgot).
I just posted my ds-1 mod (which I have been using for about 10 years). I use the DS-1 at the very bottom of the distortion pot, so I came up with a very easy way to spread out the first bit all across the pot. I posted details on the TDPRI forum earlier. Basically, just change R9 out from 22 ohms up to 1K ohms, reducing the gain of that stage by about 40.
It still distorts, but sounds more just over-drivey.

Has anyone else used this?
(I also swapped out the diodes for the Orman/Nelson Shaka Bradda set for smoothness.)

[tschrama]

Yeh , with 1k, the gain is about 18dB (edit) and this https://www.electrosmash.com/boss-ds1-analysis has errors and omissions.

[Helmholtz]

...this https://www.electrosmash.com/boss-ds1-analysis has errors and omissions.

Which are?
Inquiring minds want to know.

[tschrama]

It's great that somebody makes the effort to write such a webpage, but some things are just no supported and given as fact, which are not so simple. So examples:
" high input impedance that preserves signal quality eliminating tone sucking (high-frequency loss)" . Exactly how this HF happens is not explained and is actually not intuitive given that the L of the pickup and the C of the guitar lead form a resonance tank.
" although the rule of thumb is to interface the guitar to an input impedance that is 1 MΩ minimum" Whos rule-of-thump? His own probably.
"C3 and R5 with a cut frequency of 33Hz" C3 isnt only loaded by R5, but also by Q2, and the feedback signal via R7 and C4. This gives a much higher corner frequency. Here the analysis is just wrong.
"much bass harmonics could make the distortion slow, dumped or muddy" Actually the mechanism is different: without the removal of bass frequencies, information about the harmonics in the unclipped signal is lost or attenuated, leading to a tone not much different from a squarewave synthesiver.
"the Big Muff Pi Input Booster Stage, the topology is the same with some small values changes" Actually is it different, since there is no series resistor. Without series resistor, to stabalize the gain in combination with R7, the series resistance of teh switching JFET become significant, as does the output resistance of the buffer stage.

I better stop here.

Again, it is a great website, but with some omissions and errors.

(spelling edits, to many to admit)

[Helmholtz]

:
" high input impedance that preserves signal quality eliminating tone sucking (high-frequency loss)" . Exactly how this HF happens is not explained and is actually not intuitive given that the L of the pickup and the C of the guitar lead form a resonance tank.
" although the rule of thumb is to interface the guitar to an input impedance that is 1 MΩ minimum" .

What's your problem with those statements?

Do you doubt the requirement of high input impedance?

[tschrama]

1 Meg isn't nessecery in my opinion. The capacitance of the guitar cable is much more significant.

Just checked it in my spicesim: Difference between 1M and 500K is about 2dB at 2.5kHz. The difference between a 2.5mtr and a 5mtr cable is about 5dB at 2.5kHz. However the shape is quite different, with a far less prominent resonance peak.

[Helmholtz]

1 Meg isn't nessecery in my opinion. The capacitance of the guitar cable is much more significant.

Well, 1M is the traditional input resistance of tube amplifiers.
I agree, that 500k is typically sufficient and the audible difference to 1M is rather insignificant.

The effect of cable capacitance on PU frequency response is different from that of load resistance.
A low load resistance can't be compensated by low cable capacitance.
But load capacitance is not a subject of the electrosmash article.

I also agree that the bass cutoff frequency after C3 will be higher than 33Hz (which shouldn't have any effect at all).
And the sentence "much bass harmonics could make the distortion slow, dumped or muddy" makes no sense.