Adding a bass pot to a Tweed Sound OD

[HamishR]

Despite my reservations about mosfets the Tweed Sound and Box of Rock are decent sounding overdrives IMO. I like the Tweed Sound version better but these mods work on both pedals. I always want to be able to adjust how much low end is produced - I'm kind of surprised that so many ODs have no control over this. I also find each pedal just a little thin in the mids - I'd love a bit more thickness to the tone.

So, if you want to add a bass pot it's easy. Don't install the 470K resistor just above the middle transistor. Instead, solder a wire in each hole and connect one of the wires to to pin 2 and the other to pin 3 of a C1M pot. A B1M will work but I like the taper of a reverse audio taper pot. Now you have a bass pot.

Another simple mod is if you want to add a little midrange you can just increase the value of the 470pF cap just below the middle transistor. 1nF or 2.2nF work and will increase the thickness of the tone nicely. It makes it easier to get lead tones. You could also use a switch to go between different cap values if you wanted.

I didn't come up with these mods - I asked around at various sites and found these answers. But I thought it would be handy for people who have bought the boards here to have access to these mods.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

I've noticed that quite a few pedals contain the Fender tone stack with the Bass & Mid pots hardwired to a fixed value. The Sabbath Distortion has all three tone controls hardwired. If you're only going for that one sound, then no need to change the tone settings. Otherwise, it's a simple mod to replace fixed resistors with front panel pots.