Distroyer +

[Ettore_M]

That's my take on MXR Distortion Plus. I had built one before a few months, but i didn't like it. So I took it apart and rebuilt using Dragonfly's veroboard schematic, but I couldn't make it work. I checked it with a schematic fron tonepad.com, and I found that it misses a trace cut to the right of the 1u electrolytic cap. I fixed that and now it works great!

I'm pretty happy with the result. The distorted sound is pretty good and with enough gain. But it's a little more "trebly" for my taste (Maybe someone could help me change something in the schematic: http://www.tonepad.com/getFile.asp?id=115 to make it more "bassy" ).

I hope you like it!

Hector

P.S. Handpainted with a sliver sharpie (not a great look, but I like it). The two holes remaining are for the LED and a SPDT switch for LED diode clipping..

[nzCdog]

Hey Hector, nice work and congrats on getting it going! I'm diggin the sharpie action
Where'dya get that enclosure?

[Ettore_M]

I got that from an electronics store.. Here in Greece is difficult to find Hammond-like enclosures . This was the closest thing .. But now I'm thinking to make my own boxes like this: http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/steelstud/steelstud.htm   

[stecykmi]

nice build, the Dist+ is a pretty cool circuit. my first build was a Dist+ kit from BYOC years ago.

If you want to decrease the treble a little bit, add a capacitor in the feedback loop of the opamp. that's C5 on the tonepad layout (you can also increase the value if you already have one there). i suggest a pretty small value like 50pF or so.

[chromesphere]

Hi Hector,
i recorded a video of my distortion plus a while back and put it up on youtube and funny enough i actually talk about the, over the top, treble.  I found if you turn the treble way down on your amp, like, half of what you would usually have it set to, it's quite usable. Took me a while to work that out, as i thought that just how it was suposed to sound, hollow and trebly. Once the treble is balanced it sounds pretty good imo!

Heres the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maSkDb5pP24&feature=channel_video_title

Hope it helps, and good luck!
Paul.

[jtn191]

I've been eying Dist + ever since I found out it was responsible for some of my favorite sounds (probably on guitar at 0:20 on right channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvZseXEqdss&ob=av3n )

Neat enclosure, it looks geeky or military like. I swear my next box (or two) will be a Lego one once I get back into building 

[Ettore_M]

nice build, the Dist+ is a pretty cool circuit. my first build was a Dist+ kit from BYOC years ago.

If you want to decrease the treble a little bit, add a capacitor in the feedback loop of the opamp. that's C5 on the tonepad layout (you can also increase the value if you already have one there). i suggest a pretty small value like 50pF or so.

Thanks! The Distroyer was my first build too. That started my addiction with DIY pedals, although I was dissapointed with it in the beginning.

I already have a 10 pF (I think..) like the schematic. I will try that and other values, until I take the sound I  want. So, thank you for that!

[Ettore_M]

Hi Hector,
i recorded a video of my distortion plus a while back and put it up on youtube and funny enough i actually talk about the, over the top, treble.  I found if you turn the treble way down on your amp, like, half of what you would usually have it set to, it's quite usable. Took me a while to work that out, as i thought that just how it was suposed to sound, hollow and trebly. Once the treble is balanced it sounds pretty good imo!

Heres the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maSkDb5pP24&feature=channel_video_title

Hope it helps, and good luck!
Paul.

Thanks, Paul! It was really helpful to hear another DIY Dist +, so I can compare it with mine. I can say that they sound almost the same!

I tried the same thing you say with my amp and tone control pot on my strat and I have better results. But that "destroys" my clean sound. So it's not so practical. I want a more permanent solution!

[chromesphere]

Hi Hector,
The only thing i could think of, in a live situation would be to use an EQ pedal.  Or maybe as a future build you could build one?  Also, look around for a mod for the dist+ to add a tone control to the circuit (might be too late for that though).  I'm sure i've seen the discussion come up in the past.  DIYSB forum has the dist+ as a beginner project.  This would be the best place to look / ask about a tone control.
Hope it helps!
Paul