War Scythe "Cleft Mod" - Which diodes do I replace?

[ridgedchips]

I built the War Scythe a few months ago and am currently converting it to the "Cleft" version since the 2N1308 transistors I used initially for the Hoof part of the circuit weren't well-matched and sound particularly fizzy. My question is: the build doc for the War Scythe doesn't individually label the 4 clipping LED's (D2-D5), so since the mod calls for replacing just D2 and D5 with 1N4148's, which two LED's is this referring to? Below is a screenshot from the build doc for reference.

 

[ridgedchips]

Also, for what's it worth, I used to own an actual Cloven Hoof (V2), and in addition to the component changes listed in the War Scythe/Ungula build docs, the Cloven Hoof also has different pot values than the original Hoof for Level and Gain. I think it's supposed to give it a wider gain range. Here's a gut shot I took of the pedal before I sold it on Reverb a while back.



The values are:

LEVEL - B100K (Ungula: A1M)
FUZZ - A500K (Ungula: B50K)
TONE - B100K (Ungula: B100K)
SHIFT - B25K (Ungula: B25K)

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

That 1M LEVEL pot is crazy, I used A100K on my Ungula with good results. I do not recommend B-taper LEVEL pots on BMPs unless you intend to run the LEVEL above noon. The 500K FUZZ/SUSTAIN pot will definitely have a different feel to it compared to the 50K. Only change that one if you couldn't set the FUZZ low enough with 50K. The LEDs you want to replace with 1N4148s are the two next to Q5. Changing those diodes will reduce the volume a bit. The reason your War Scythe was "fizzy" is because the 2N1308s you have are too leaky. Some circuits need the Ge transistors to be leaky to work right; this isn't one of them.

 

[ridgedchips]

My 2N1308's are really old US military surplus, so the leakage definitely makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Mine too, if you consider 1971 old. Not leaky at all. I thought I might have needed to tweak the bias resistors (R8 & R13), but it was good to go. The MPSA13s will bias cold by comparison.