While taking a break from checking student's papers (gawsh my most hated part of my part time dayjob) I thought I'd breathe life back into this Maxtone Pedal which I had since I was a teenager.
Never liked it much before, sound was too flat (2D) and sharp (masakit sa tenga). So after replacing a pot and cleaning the rest, I decided to apply an asymmetric clip mod and lower the shunt output resistor (the "hard drive" mod). Used a silicon signal diode instead of the Germaniums I used to use.
Good heavens ! I don't know if my ears are tricking me but it sounds better than the DS-1's I've applied the same mods to. I can almost swear I can hear my rig "breathe" just like what would happen on a large head-cab all tube setup. Albeit less intensity shempre.
Surprisingly, the innards of a Maxtone are electronically superior to a Boss DS-1, featuring 2X JRC 4558's and there's another Toshiba chip here which I still can't read the markings. By contrast, a Tube screamer has only 1 4558, and the DS-1 only 1 in-line OP-Amp.
Now I'm inclined to call out...if you guys have Maxtone pedals that are defective and you want to get rid of, I'll buy them at P500 apiece max depending on cosmetics
. After all, these things were had for 1K apiece.
I'll post soundclips tonight. Tamang-tama, praktis my miking techniques hehehe.
