trying to bend an old distortion, no idea where to start

[brummy]

This is probably a pretty bad first post, so hopefully I won't get shit on too hard. I have an old danelectro t-bone distortion a friend practically gave to me years ago that I've been meaning to circuit bend for a while. I've bent a few things before, mostly cheap dollar store toys, but it's never been anything more extensive than wiring a couple switches and potentiometers together. First of all, am I just wasting my time with this shitty pedal or is there the possibility that cool stuff can be had from it? If so, how? haha pretty vague, but I don't really know where to start, which is obviously the hardest part. Any ideas?

[veteransdaypoppy]

Idk about the distortion you're talking about, but I circuit bent my Big Muff. Put in a switch and a pot and now it oscillates and squeals and goes absolutely nuts. With circuit bending ya just gotta dive in and start fiddlin, ya know? Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

[Scruffie]

I like to use my finger to connect places on the board till I find something interesting and then recreate it by joining the neccessary components.

Ya could go the less guess worky way though and find a schematic for it, being Danelectro it'll be based off something else... DS-1, SD-1 usual sorta thing...

[brummy]

being Danelectro it'll be based off something else... DS-1, SD-1 usual sorta thing...

where can i find this type of thing? ive been searching for an hour or so and havent found anything other than shitty reviews and where to buy the damn thing

[Scruffie]

If you can post a gut shot i'll try and guess what it's based off...

[brummy]

ah cool, i appreciate the help

[Scruffie]

Is that SMD a LM324 chip yeah? If so with that clipping it looks kinda like it might be an Op Amp Big muff but rather than 1 dual and 1 single Op-Amps, one Quad... here's a schematic for the opamp big muff http://www.pisotones.com/BigMuffPi/psst/schm-opamp.gif

I can't read what the 40XX chip is but that'll be the switching i'd guess so i'd leave that alone and concentrate on the second board with the 324, all that SMD makes it a pain.

[brummy]

Is that SMD a LM324 chip yeah? If so with that clipping it looks kinda like it might be an Op Amp Big muff but rather than 1 dual and 1 single Op-Amps, one Quad... here's a schematic for the opamp big muff http://www.pisotones.com/BigMuffPi/psst/schm-opamp.gif

I can't read what the 40XX chip is but that'll be the switching i'd guess so i'd leave that alone and concentrate on the second board with the 324, all that SMD makes it a pain.

yeah if what i think you're referring to is right, it does read LM324M. So you're saying I should just concentrate on that one then?

This is where I'm lost though. The only real bending I've done just involved connecting two points of the circuit together using a simple switch, but can't you do waaaaay more than that?

[Scruffie]

Well yeah... you could go completely all over the place and start changing out components (although due to them being surface mounts you're gunna have difficulty probably unless you're very good at soldering) you could swap out the Diodes to change the tone of the pedal and even just removing them and jumpering them... (i've found diode type in Big muffs doesn't matter too much so removing them and then jumpering them is the best thing to do to make it big and fuzzy) then you could stick pots in places to vary things... jumpering 2 places is the easiest thing to do and I really wouldn't wanna go further than that or extra pots with an SMD pedal (SMD is surfacemount if you didn't know)

Just take I dunno a 100k linear pot, wire it up, set it to half its resistance or something so that it actually has an effect then try poking the 2 leads around, then you can vary whatever change gets made.

There's a feedback mod that can be done on big muffs where you connect the emitters of Q2 & Q3 that'll make the muff all nintendoy so if you transfer that over to the LM324 that could be fun.

[brummy]

Well yeah... you could go completely all over the place and start changing out components (although due to them being surface mounts you're gunna have difficulty probably unless you're very good at soldering) you could swap out the Diodes to change the tone of the pedal and even just removing them and jumpering them... (i've found diode type in Big muffs doesn't matter too much so removing them and then jumpering them is the best thing to do to make it big and fuzzy) then you could stick pots in places to vary things... jumpering 2 places is the easiest thing to do and I really wouldn't wanna go further than that or extra pots with an SMD pedal (SMD is surfacemount if you didn't know)

Just take I dunno a 100k linear pot, wire it up, set it to half its resistance or something so that it actually has an effect then try poking the 2 leads around, then you can vary whatever change gets made.

There's a feedback mod that can be done on big muffs where you connect the emitters of Q2 & Q3 that'll make the muff all nintendoy so if you transfer that over to the LM324 that could be fun.

Awesome, thanks a bunch. Hopefully this'll be enough to get me goin

[brummy]

cool so like every other electronic device i decide to fuck with, this distortion is no more. thanks for the help anyways