Yellow Shark mods

[oldhousescott]

I had built a Yellow Shark a while back, but wasn't overly impressed with it, which was odd as I really like my (purchased) SHOD, and the two are, or should be, fairly similar. I put the YS on the shelf and relegated it to the "oh well, they can't all be home runs" category, but in the back of my mind it still bothered me that it sounded so "meh". I had seen a note somewhere about increasing C5 by a factor of 10x, and that helped brighten it up a bit at the extreme of the nature setting, but the overdrive character was still kind of boring and lackluster. There it sat again until my frustration level rose enough to dive back in to the circuit. After looking at a few drawings for the HBOD on the net, and comparing them to the YS, and also looking at the SHOD and the Model H, I noticed a few differences. R9 in the YS was 47k, whereas in the others was 147k or 150k. Also, C5 was originally 4n7 in the YS, but 220n in the others. Time to heat up the iron.

Well, I didn't see the heavens part or hear angel choirs singing, but the changes did make the pedal useable. The low end is still a bit fizzy, and everything is a fizzy mess with the gain above 1 or 2 o'clock, but between 10 and noon on the drive dial, there's a nice crunch. The Nature knob is much more useable now, except at the extremes, which I can live with. Plenty of volume for driving an already cooking amp, or stacking into another pedal, and perhaps that's where this pedal best lives. At least, that's what I've read about it. I have to say, though, I still prefer my SHOD as it acts better as a drive channel for a clean amp, which is how I run my setup.

[midwayfair]

I might try these in mine but ... it might be helpful to know that the SHOD is a different circuit from the other two. The Yellow Shark was a clone of the Honey Bee OD. Mine sounds pretty similar to the HBOD I compared it with, minus some difference in the clipping (I used germanium). It doesn't sound much like a SHOD, which is brighter. I liked the SHOD better, but I still liked the ROG Supreaux Deux better than both.

[oldhousescott]

Yes, thanks for the clarification, Jon. I know the YS is derived from the HBOD, but not having a real one about, I made the comparison to the SHOD. Looking at the two circuits, they certainly have some similar (and distinctive to MP designs), elements, although as described in my above post, even changing the value of a few components can radically alter the sound. So, with the differences in circuit configurations, they very well could, and do, sound very different.

[stevewire]

Not that I have much that is relevant to the modification subject.  I just can't understand how I have seen so many posts about how people didn't care for their Yellow Shark build.  Mine turned out great.  Must have been my favorite OD for 1 1/2 or two years.  I'd have to open it to see when I built it.  I still really like it; although, it might have been replaced with with the JMK SHOD build I just finished.