DOD250/Dist+ (Gray Box-ish): Update

[MichaelW]

Is this why your Jump drive sounded like ass?

I view the DOD250 in light of it's place in history. There's a roughness to the edges, but it's still enjoyable. Just don't do a side-by-side comparison

Hahahaha....no, this just happened when I installed an update either yesterday or the day before. And looks like there's yet another update....sigh.....wonder what it will break this time......

 

[Locrian99]

I have breadboarded a Distortion +/250 several times, and have never gone beyond that. I end up adding so many mods to make is sound how I want it that it kind of defeats the purpose. I would love to build three in a big box: Distortion +, 250, and the Ross (Black). I'm sure I'd be underwhelmed, though...

I was just playing around when one of the black Ross the other day I really liked it. Thinking I might toss one in strip board. I kind of like the raw no frills design, when I want to crank the distortion knob to 11 and just make some noise.

 

[Route14]

@MichaelW Do you use pre wired LEDs? If so do they come with a CLR?

 

[MichaelW]

@MichaelW Do you use pre wired LEDs? If so do they come with a CLR?

No, I just use some 24awg black/red stuff I got off Amazon just for LED's and solder them on myself with some heatshrink. I wanted something thin, flexible to snake through the pots and also 2pc ribbon so I only have to deal with "one" wire.

It connects to the LED pads on the board and uses the CLR on the board, which is almost always 4k7 for me. I've tried some other values but 4k7 seems to work the best EXCEPT when I use water clear LED's, those suckers are are like High Beams.....and blind me hahaha.....

 

[Route14]

No, I just use some 24awg black/red stuff I got off Amazon just for LED's and solder them on myself with some heatshrink. I wanted something thin, flexible to snake through the pots and also 2pc ribbon so I only have to deal with "one" wire.

It connects to the LED pads on the board and uses the CLR on the board, which is almost always 4k7 for me. I've tried some other values but 4k7 seems to work the best EXCEPT when I use water clear LED's, those suckers are are like High Beams.....and blind me hahaha.....

Ah, you are a better person than me. Soldering wire on LEDs is one of my least favorite things. I've see the pre wired ones but they always have a resistor already. I worry those won't be flexible enough to sneak into some places I might want to put an LED. It makes your builds look tidy and professional.

 

[MichaelW]

Ah, you are a better person than me. Soldering wire on LEDs is one of my least favorite things. I've see the pre wired ones but they always have a resistor already. I worry those won't be flexible enough to sneak into some places I might want to put an LED. It makes your builds look tidy and professional.

Thank you for the kind words, I'm so professional that I leave out components on builds and forget to turn my amp on then bitch about how bad the pedal sounds...........

 

[Dan M]

 

[Route14]

Thank you for the kind words, I'm so professional that I leave out components on builds and forget to turn my amp on then bitch about how bad the pedal sounds...........

Hey... I only said they "look" professional. I made no assessments on your ability to use an amp modeler...

 

[steviejr92]

View attachment 35727

I can hear the voice still

 

[Locrian99]

Ah, you are a better person than me. Soldering wire on LEDs is one of my least favorite things. I've see the pre wired ones but they always have a resistor already. I worry those won't be flexible enough to sneak into some places I might want to put an LED. It makes your builds look tidy and professional.

Love switches has prewired leds that do not include the resistor. Little on the pricey side but they look good.

 

[cdwillis]

I don't know if you've seen this. I came across this chart looking up different versions of the 250. Seems like they sorta used what they could get like EHX in the 70s and 80s.

 

[cdwillis]

I really want that EQD Gray Channel until I realized that you couldn't stack both sides together. You had a bypass footswitch then a channel footswitch to switch between channel A and B.

 

[owlexifry]

if you haven’t tried a pair of green or red LEDs for the clippers…. you’re missing out

 

[MichaelW]

if you haven’t tried a pair of green or red LEDs for the clippers…. you’re missing out

Hmmmmm, that's an awesome freaking idea. I'm loving how the Ge side sounds, just like my old Dist+ (except for the volume loss).
But maybe tomorrow I'll try some LED's on the Si side. What size LEDs have you used? 3mm or 5mm? Any guidance of Vf I should be looking for?

 

[Coda]

Hmmmmm, that's an awesome freaking idea. I'm loving how the Ge side sounds, just like my old Dist+ (except for the volume loss).
But maybe tomorrow I'll try some LED's on the Si side. What size LEDs have you used? 3mm or 5mm? Any guidance of Vf I should be looking for?

Size doesn’t matter…for clipping LED’s, at least. Green or red, thats about it. I tried blue a few times, and I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between blue red or green. Honestly, between LED’s and no diodes, I can’t hear the difference…

 

[owlexifry]

Hmmmmm, that's an awesome freaking idea. I'm loving how the Ge side sounds, just like my old Dist+ (except for the volume loss).
But maybe tomorrow I'll try some LED's on the Si side. What size LEDs have you used? 3mm or 5mm? Any guidance of Vf I should be looking for?

ive only ever tried 3mm.
green is noticeably brighter than red, despite the mild differences in Vf.

don’t stress too hard about Vf numbers - if it sounds good, it is good

generally speaking, LEDs, with a larger Vf than Si diodes, will clip at a higher threshold, giving you a hotter output, and the gain pot would need to be turned up higher to achieve an equivalent amount of clipping (vs. Si diodes with lower Vf).

 

[Feral Feline]

Hmmmmm, that's an awesome freaking idea. I'm loving how the Ge side sounds, just like my old Dist+ (except for the volume loss).
But maybe tomorrow I'll try some LED's on the Si side. What size LEDs have you used? 3mm or 5mm? Any guidance of Vf I should be looking for?

With an on-off-on you could have Ge/LED/4148
(I don't know if I missed it or if that question was left — what switch do you have in there?)

 

[MichaelW]

With an on-off-on you could have Ge/LED/4148
(I don't know if I missed it or if that question was left — what switch do you have in there?)

It's an On-On. Not sure that board I used will support 3 different flavors of clippers. I'd have to hack something for that.

 

[Feral Feline]

It's an On-On. Not sure that board I used will support 3 different flavors of clippers. I'd have to hack something for that.

You just solder the LEDs anti-parallel across the middle lugs, their higher voltage gets ignored (for the most part) when the lower-voltage Ge or Sili diodes are switched on.

Or leave off the LEDs and have Ge/no-diode/sili for some op-amp-only clipping in the middle position (if the gain is pushed and rails start to get hit with it).

For some builds, on-on is surely the way to go, though.

 

[MichaelW]

You just solder the LEDs anti-parallel across the middle lugs, their higher voltage gets ignored (for the most part) when the lower-voltage Ge or Sili diodes are switched on.

Or leave off the LEDs and have Ge/no-diode/sili for some op-amp-only clipping in the middle position (if the gain is pushed and rails start to get hit with it).

For some builds, on-on is surely the way to go, though.

Thanks for reminding me! I knew this at one point hahahah. (This tidbit probably came from you to begin with..) I may try adding the led's via some jumper leads to the ground lugs today and see how it does.