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Modded Distortion Pedals


ibanez_crazy

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I was considering having my Boss metal zone sent out for some mods.

Why?

No offense, but I see a lot of people spending a lot of money on a lot of expensive stuff that will never see much past the bedroom door. I don't know if that's your situation, but what do you think a pedal mod will give you that you can't get from stock?

Again, no offense. :D

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No problem, and none taken. The metal zone pedal was the crown jewel back in the high school days jammin with my friends. I was playing with friends that had the overdrive and distortion pedals, and this one smoked them all. Now I have been recording with a friend of mine for his solo project, and I cant help notice the pedal is a bit noisy, and even trying different cabs, guitars, and mike placement, It always has a pinched nasal sound, and a bit harsh high end to it. I was reading a review about the humphrey audio mod and basically it gets rid of that high end bite, and the noise. It also thickens up the bottom end. I also cant complain about the price...its 45 bucks Plus shipping one way, and my bud will split the cost so long as he can use it for sessions. Thats a lot cheaper than spending a grand or better on a new head, at least thats how I see it. I have already spent money on more processers, effects, pickups, whatever that didnt yield the results I had hoped for. Rather than just potshotting, now Im trying to do research on how I spend my money. Harmony-central.com has been the other site I spend my time on.

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Nevermind....My quest for tone continues.....and yes I have a gate, but it defeats the purpose of what I want to do. I dont want to have to carry 12 pedals to a show if I can get what I want out of one pedal. Not all high gain amps, pedals, effects, are noisy. You should hear my lee jackson marshall cranked up. As long as I keep my hand on the strings, I dont even need to turn ithe volume down between songs

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Sorry, I was just suggesting things to try before you start taking a pedal apart!

Now, the keeley mods are pretty simple for the most part. As long as you have some simple soldering skills etc. Now there is a very nice site that describes some of the keeley mods in a DIY fashion. Cant remember if it has the pedal you're using. But deffo has the DS-1 seeing eye mods etc.

http://www.geocities.com/overdrivespider/ - Has nice pictures of how to do some pedals

http://www.robertkeeley.com/audio6l6/ - from the horses mouth.

I've modded a DS-1 with the seeing eye mod before. sounds awesome. If you look round on the net enough i'm sure you can find a guide for your pedal

S

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No prob. Ive been building a tube amp kit with a couple of mods for a little while, and researching for more than a year. Specifically, I was looking for someone who had played through the humphrey audio MT-1. I wasnt that impressed with the keeley twilight mod to the pedal,not because it wasnt cool, but it did more than Im looking for. The kit on the bay dosent have the MP3 clip to compare the two side by side.

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You say its a bit noisy... Its a high gain pedal... Its gonna be! If you want to get rid of the high end then use the eq on the pedal, and if thats not enough, use your amp eq and/or a eq pedal. Also have you got a noise gate?

S

I was going to suggest this as well. Just hit the pedal once and it's on for good. I do this to even out my tone and bump up my pickup sound a bit on my bass - I get great results from just using one pedal. But of course, this is for a bass and is all thru a clean channel. With distortion I'd be using a noise gate or EQ pedal. They're great just for this reason. Tweak them once, leave them on and not worry about it!

Let me know how any of your pedal mod's go. I'm very interested.

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  • 6 months later...

Man I forgot about this thread....got the pedal back, and I can get the Krankenstien tone out of it with the drive at 1/2 way. Think Damageplan's "New found Power". The tone controls are MUCH more sensitive, and while dialing in the sound, you CAN go to far. Still a bit noisy, but nowhere near where it was. Not quite the sound I was looking for, but for the cash, Id say it was worth it. Tested it with a Peavey Butcher on the low gain side, and a flat EQ, through a 4X12 with Celestions.

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