Behringer - Vintage Distortion VD1 improvements

A forum devoted to mod, tips and suggestions for upgrading and rehousing your VERY CHEAP commercial stompbox to near boutique excellence.
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pinkjimiphoton
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

hi guys, decided to break my vintage distortion today. ;)

and came up with an easy mod that seems to give it more clarity, headroom, and much better (imho) fuzz.

all ya need to do is open it up, and look at the main circuit board...there's 4 little diodes, and all the bands are facing the same way, towards the mounting screws.

take your iron, and remove the first two diodes...heat the side opposite the band first, then the side with the band, and they'll pop right off.

now the fun part...

take a ge 1n34a, and carefully solder it in place of the first diode (they're labeled d2,3,4,& 5) with the band facing the same way as the two that are left. that's it.

to me, it made a huge diff in the tone...

for extra points, add a switch with another diode from the unbanded side of d3 to the banded side of d4...maybe add a volume pot...you may be able to get it to do some weird shit like drop the tone an octave of fuzzy goodness.

anyways, hope ya diggit if ya try it. have fun!!
peace

jimi
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JiM
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Post by JiM »

Gotta try that.
Right now, on mine there is a switch to remove those diodes in the first clipping stage. This provides a huge increase in bass and volume, and more of a fuzz feel than a distortion. Great with bass too !

I could easily change the switch for a on-on-on and try other clipping arrangements.
Damn, one more item on the to-do list.
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pinkjimiphoton
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my favorite amplifier: my own, a redesigned princeton
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there's videos that totally suck of about 90 of 'em here:
http://youtube.com/666pinkster
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

it's a fun circuit to play with for sure, subtle changes can lead to some big changes in the sound!!
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Andy2No
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Post by Andy2No »

I'd love to see some gut shots of one of these. I did a quick search, but I couldn't find any.

Is the standard Big Muff schematic applicable to these?

Are the components all "man sized" ones, or have they used SMD?

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tabbycat
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Post by tabbycat »

Andy2No wrote:I'd love to see some gut shots of one of these. I did a quick search, but I couldn't find any.

Is the standard Big Muff schematic applicable to these?

Are the components all "man sized" ones, or have they used SMD?
http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/for ... 74-/page24
http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/for ... 9/1817565-

collective speculation (for all that's worth) across most forums where i've read things about it seem to suggest it's a muff or a very slightly tweaked variant of.

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Post by Andy2No »

Excellent. Thanks, tabbycat.... The :thumbsup button has gone missing again, or I'd press it.

I love how much empty space there is around those tiny circuit boards :mrgreen: I wouldn't fancy trying to swap out those SMD resistors and capacitors though, to try different values.

I actually went to a shop to buy one, earlier. Their website said they had them in stock, for £31.99 GBP (about $50-$55, I guess). It turned out they didn't, but if I see another one for sale I may still get it.

Very much off topic; I bought a Behringer BLE100 Bass Limiter / Enhancer while I was there though. The first two knobs are good, though the Enhance knob adds a fizzy sort of LFO noise in the background, at higher levels. The other two knobs are too subtle to be sure what they're for :) There are some normal sized small can electrolytic caps though, so I may try messing with those, at some point. On the whole, not a total disaster.

I also picked up a faulty BOSS CS-3 compressor in a second hand shop, on the way there. I talked the guy down to £10 ($15 or so). As soon as I took the back off when I got home, it started working. It seemed to be shorting out on the back plate, so I put some cardboard under the PCB. Result! :D

The CS-3 has very similar controls to the BLE100 - four knobs, in the same order, and also gets noisy with the tone knob (=Enhance) turned up. The Attack and Sustain knobs actually do something useful though.

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JiM
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MXR MicroAmp in a volume pedal
TubeDriver (w/ NoS russian tube and big muff tone contol) + Phase 45 (w/ univibe cap ratio)
Dallas Rangemaster (w/ noisy OC75, negative ground)
SubCaster tube booster (w/ NoS russian tube, PtP)
Hot Harmonics
Music From Outer Space SubCommander in progress
Crackle Not OK
Simple bass blender in a 1590A
Bazz Fuss with a photo-darlington
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Post by JiM »

tabbycat wrote:collective speculation (for all that's worth) across most forums where i've read things about it seem to suggest it's a muff or a very slightly tweaked variant of.
I've traced it to be a Big Muff indeed, but a mix of different revisions.
I only give negative feedback.

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