Fulltone OCD v3, looking for mods to clarify tone

[Om_Audio]

Hi, I have an OCD v3 and cannot understand all the hype about clarity and such- mine sounds woolly as hell- I like it but needs some work IMO. I already own it so not wanting to build an EgoDriver yet esp if they sound like what I already have.

After opening it last night I also noticed a funky jumper from a cap and lots of the solder joints have dry holes on non trace side which I know is not an issue but to be honest the workmanship was surprisingly less that inspiring.

What I would like to do is come up with some part swaps or mods to try and make this pedal sound better.
Any suggestions welcome. Found some info on these 2 pages but it is a lot for me to digest:

http://www.pedalarea.com/ocd.htm
http://revolutiondeux.blogspot.com/2008/07/fullclone-vlod-fulltone-ocd-by.html

I added a resistor to the super bright LED, I'm halfway there!


gut pics:
https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B4HE5N1xRnHJZDlmQkpxUU8zZE0/edit

[mgwhit]

Did you buy that new or used?  The capacitor nonsense appears to be different than stock (or at least the v3 photograph in your first link).  Looks like someone modded it to do an end run around the tone capacitor in one of the switch settings.  I don't know if Fulltone ever sent them out like that (maybe someone with more knowledge of the product can chime in), but that may explain why it's muddy.

Any chance you can bend that big greenie back so we can see what's really going on under there?

[Om_Audio]

Bought it new at TrueTone in Santa Monica years ago. I just added new pics which show things more clearly, using zoom on my phone camera makes things grainy, the new pics are better.
Looks like someone named Rico was involved, maybe I will go by their shop which is near here and just start yelling "Rico!!!! Hey Ricooo!!" until I get some traction.
Thanks for looking,
C

PS fixing photo rotations shortly, oops.

[mgwhit]

Looks like Rico made the v3 at pedalarea.com, too, but the solder joints look a lot nicer on that one.  That one was made only a month before yours, and, as far as I can tell, the v4 board doesn't change the part of the circuit around the tone cap and pot.  It seems highly unlikely that Fulltone would experiment with a hack on the tone control on a production release, but who knows?

It would be interesting to email Fulltone with the pics of your board and ask them if they ever released the OCD like that or if they have any idea what it is.  Or just go looking for Rico....

Does the tone control work for you in both switch positions?  From what I can see, it looks like it would only work in HP mode.

[Om_Audio]

Tone works in both positions, but I always set it fully clockwise as it is unusable for me otherwise, super wooly turned counter clockwise.
I will email them the pics and see if I get any response. I messed up the LED a bit just being a nOOb but good god that light was bright and old parts from boss tuner came in handy, a 57k I think. Good practice as I am bad at reworking stuff but good at populating fresh.
C

[mgwhit]

If you don't get a satisfactory answer from Fulltone, you could always move the tone cap back to the appropriate pads and see how that sounds.

[Om_Audio]

I pulled the cap and actually the traces go to the same places it was soldered to- just looks like the pads were messed up and they had to fix. Very strange. I am trying to find mods for other DIY OCD clones etc to see if any suggestions might apply to mine. I don't understand basic pedal circuits enough yet to know what swaps and such might affect changes.
Thanks again-
C

If you don't get a satisfactory answer from Fulltone, you could always move the tone cap back to the appropriate pads and see how that sounds.

[Om_Audio]

Fulltone's response was really lacking. I told them I bought it new. They didn't ask for a receipt or extend any good faith to me whatsoever. They can do what they want but in the end the impersonal implication that I could be telling falsehoods is annoying, esp when I told them I have bought and owned at least 7 of their products over the years. Oh well!

They said "Since the OCD is several years old, it's hard for us to know if somebody has worked on the pedal or not since it has left here.  Those may have done here when we updated the pedal.

If the OCD is broken, we can repair it.  If the OCD is working fine, there is nothing we can do.  Also we are not offering pedal modifications/updates/upgrades."