Comprehensive Drive at more than 9 volts

[Alan W]

I have been using a Comprehensive Drive for about a week, and while I like it quite a bit, I can’t help but feel it would improve in pretty much every way with 15 or 18 volts running through it. Pretty sure the lowest rated parts I used were some 35v caps, but will double check. Besides probably needing to up the led resistor (and possibly replace the led) does anyone have either any experience with doing this, or specific reasons why it’s a bad idea to try it?

 

[Brett]

You're fine to run it at 18vdc. I've done it with mine when I only had an 18vdc tap available on my power supply.

 

[Alan W]

Yup, more headroom, less congestion. I think there’s still a bit of room for improvement, but it’s starting to earn its place. I was interested in this pedal after using several of the other Free the Tone pedals (delay, reverb, and chorus—I do not own that chorus yet) and believe that Yuki (the designer) has a very gifted ear. I think my next explorations with this drive will be opamp and transistor swapping.

 

[Brett]

Yup, more headroom, less congestion. I think there’s still a bit of room for improvement, but it’s starting to earn its place. I was interested in this pedal after using several of the other Free the Tone pedals (delay, reverb, and chorus—I do not own that chorus yet) and believe that Yuki (the designer) has a very gifted ear. I think my next explorations with this drive will be opamp and transistor swapping.

Indeed, it's a great sounding overdrive. I think the transistors on this one are used for the buffered bypass so they may have minimal effect on the tone when the pedal is engaged and may not be worth swapping.

Be sure to follow-up with your findings on any component changes you make.