The Watering Hole

Just curious since I've never heard an OCD before, but I have an Analogman-modded DS-1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiSSnhJCawo

In the sense that you can hear the differences between the pedals, yeah.  In the sense that it's 2013, and people still spend 1/3 to 1/2 of their youtube gear demo videos talking, no--but that's just my pet peeve.

DS-1s are similar to OCDs... in the sense that they are opamp-driven distortion pedals which clip to ground.  In that sense, they're also like Rats and about a hundred other pedals, but they sound pretty different.  Personally, I've picked up a few DS-1s to try all the different mods--(where else can you get a $20 used pedal!) and generally, they just have a character that is not very musical, even with mods.  You can hear the way they pinch the distortion in this video, they kind of suck the life out of the attack and have a weird grabby swell.  You;d have to change an awful lot to "fix" the essential character of the pedal.  So why does everyone mod them?  Because they are probably the most prevalent distortion pedal in the world...  Both of these pedals might work for you... there are lots of other pedals though...

Interesting.  I don't know enough about the inner workings of any stomp, but this particular stomp is one I pretty much don't use.  It's just never done it for me, however I couldn't say why (except that it's a noisy mo-fo).  Maybe I'll sell it too and get $20 to put elsewhere - lol!

It's worth more than $20 with the mods! You're looking at $50.  I could build something that would slay you for $65-100... Or on a serious budget, look at the Joyo clones, you can buy them on Amazon.  You'll have to search the web for a list of what each pedal clones, but they are pretty darn accurate clones, built very well, and they cost around $35.  I don't generally advocate buying Chinese gear, but it's the pedal world, truthfully no one's invented anything.  For example, the Joyo ultimate drive copies the OCD, which copied the Voodoo Labs Overdrive.  Devi Ever, Death By Audio, and Zvex actually invent circuits, but they are the exceptions.  Most people take someone else's design, tweak it, and charge $200...

Cool.  When I'm getting the Rock Master ready to sell I think I'll put the DS-1 up as well, then take stock of what I've got left.  It gets confusing since I've got a few pedals, but I mostly use my G-Force and I've got the Artist Card for it as well - so lots of options.  The one thing is sucks at is distortion.

Instead of some no-name clone though, I'd rather save up for a Charger special and have a better looking stomp with more features!  ;)

Craig, I have an OCD clone built by Stephen (Mod at BYOC) that I'd sell you cheap.  

Couple comments about the vid.  These pedals are not even comparable, as Charger mentioned.  I had a Keeley DS1 and while it was much better than stock, it was nowhere near the pedal the OCD is.  

Secondly, I'm wondering what the guy was thinking doing the demo this way.  THe DS1 is not true bypass, and the OCD is after it in this chain, so when the DS1 is off and he's playing the OCD it has the DS1 buffer and the OCD is a bit sensitive to that even if it WERE a good buffer.  

Not the way to demo these!  

DreamTheaterRules — Oct 18, 2013Craig, I have an OCD clone built by Stephen (Mod at BYOC) that I'd sell you cheap.  

Thanks, but I don't have $5 at the moment.  ;)

I'm still at the stage of figuring out what I need (and what I don't).    The below is what I'm starting with:  

From top left of picture below - Note that things aren't necessarily hooked together this way but were for the picture and that my custom guitar has both passive and Variax circuitry in it.

Morley ABY (Usually used to have separate circuits between when I'm using the Variax circuitry in my guitar or the passive pickups)
Boss GE-7 Equalizer (modded by our own Darwin Kornowske  :) )
Aphex Guitar Xciter 1403 - Used only with non-acoustic settings of the Variax circuitry
Ibanez TubeScreamer (modded by Analog Man with TS-9, TS-808 and Silver mods)
Boss DS-1  (modded by Analog Man) - I really don't use this because it's noisy and just doesn't make me happy.  :-/
Keely Compressor
MXR Phase 90 (still love this little guy)
? Wah (I guess I should go look and see which one - or not)
Peterson Strobostomp Tuner
Ayan Smooth & Slim - Helps tighten up the flubbing of Rectifiers (I've got a Rectifier Recording Pre and used to have a Dual-Recto)
Aphex Acoustic Xciter 1401 - Used only with acoustic settings of the Variax circuitry



Remember, beyond these I primarily use a TC-Electronics G-Force which has LOTS of abilities and kicks ass at most of them (especially the tough stuff like intelligent harmonizing, multi-tap delays and reverbs).  However, the "distortion" area (which could include other terms I confuse with this like overdrive, crunch, etc.) is a weak spot with the G-Force.  When I was young I had a ProCo Ratt and a Distortion+, but those were stolen decades ago and the modded DS-1 is really the only distortion-type pedal I've had since (I used to use a cranked amp through a Weber MASS or one of my Hot Plates instead, but all of these are gone now).

The G-Force has a gate, a compressor, a parametric EQ, a resonance filter, a wah-wah, a formant filter, a phaser, a panner, a tremolo, a pitch-changer, detuner, delays, chorus, flanger, reverb and a drive section (which is its weakest part).  On top of all the normal presets (or ones I could create), I also have the "G-Card" which gives me 245 more presets created by artists including David Fiuczynski, Frank Gambale, Dweezil Zappa, Bob Bradshaw, Eric Johnson and Steve Vai (along with several others).  I've got a Behringer FCB-1010 pedal board to use with the G-Force.

The bottom line is that I can probably get most of the weird stuff from the G-Force so, whenever my pedals are used, it's to create the best originating tone.

One last comment:  My VHT Valvulator GP3 has a dedicated loop just for stomps and buffers them.  Plus, as you can see in the picture above, I power all of them from the Furman so I'm not toying with voltages or using batteries (at least not now).

Wait, your Tubescreamer has TS808, TS9, and Silver mods? How is that even possible?