DS-1 Fleet

For my own future reference, here’s the status of my DS-1s. I switched the battery covers and knobs to get them back to “stock.”

OG “Dark Satellites” and Lab

On the left is my first pedal ever, circa 2001-02 for use in No Front with a borrowed double cut Les Paul Jr. and AC30. Cole performed the Casper Electronics mod and did the battery cover art around 2014-15, I did further Casper-related mods in 2016, and recently I put a tone stack mod on a toggle hidden in the battery compartment. This unit will live on the synth minirig board.

On the right is the “DS-1 lab,” my research platform and repository of all of my favorite adjustments, from 2016. It’s a studio piece for guitar, mostly.

Pedal work

Been working on pedals for the past few weeks while I write Fight Songs lyrics.

From top left: V4 MV, DS-1 mods, 404 M 2 ST, R2-T2

These are all one-off builds for my own use.

  • V4 MV – Passive master volume control for my Ampeg V4 amplifier. Ampeg used to sell these as an accessory but they’re dead simple to make; a single potentiometer wired as a variable resistor. The amp is incredibly loud so this will help bring it partially under control
  • DS-1 mods. This pedal is literally my first, from around 2002 (except for the battery compartment cover donated from the “DS-1 lab” unit). At my request Cole modded it years ago with the Casper Electronics gated feedback/oscillation mod. I added my flat + LPF tone stack mod, tucked away on a toggle in the battery compartment
  • 404 M 2 ST – A passive mono-to-stereo passive pan box mostly designed for use with my SP-404 sampler. The 404 can record in mono or stereo, and has stereo effects, but doesn’t have any type of simple pan control to move things around in the stereo image. With this I can pan stuff as it’s being sampled
  • R2-T2 – Breakout expression box for the Pigtronix Rototron rotary speaker simulator (which mostly lives with my Roland VK-1 organ). The footswitch and toggle engage the Brake function. The knob can be plugged into either the Low or High Rotor Control to defeat the on-board Speed control for that “rotor.” If it’s reminiscent of anyone’s favorite droid, well, that’s a happy coincidence
Daylight Express Deluxe 1776 Effects ‘Plex Delay

Then, I made two of these (one went to Drew). It’s a dual delay based on the 1776 Effects Multiplex Jr. with custom additions and modifications. I’m not aware of any other pedal on Earth that does what this does.

There are two big things left on this summer’s soldering list: rebuilding my AX-60 synthesizer’s power supply (already under way), and fixing whatever’s wrong with Scottie’s Rhodes amp (I suspect just a bad joint or hardware connection). Then I suppose I’ll turn to the breadboard and design something. No shortage of ideas.