It lives, with thanks again to Jack Orman and Brett Miller. I’ve mixed their ideas with my own and as you can see, if you look carefully, I have six new component values working in the DS-1 lab. (They’re the ones on the tall, spindly legs.)
It’s sounding great; clearer, more responsive, gain range brought under control. At minimum gain it’s a barely-there overdrive, just a dirty edge to the string attack, and if less drive is needed you’d need to not start with a DS-1! At maximum gain I played Sabbath riffs for ten minutes. The distortion is amp-like without trying to be anything it’s not. That’s in keeping with my goal; to bring out the best in a cheap, widely available platform with the minimum effective number of changes.
I haven’t messed with the tone stack yet, but I have some ideas and it’s up next.