How to Modify Guitar Pedals: A complete how-to package for the electronics newbie on how to modify guitar and bass effects pedals

by Brian Wampler

This book, which is a temporary re-release of a DIY basic electronics classic, will teach you exactly how to modify and custom tailor each of your effects pedals to your needs and tastes. No experience needed. Note that since this is a limited release of the last version of the book, some of the links inside may be dead. However, the book is being made available temporarily due to customer demand. Includes modifications for these
Arion Tubulator 11
Arion MDI-2 Bass Distortion
BD-2 Blues Driver
Boss BF-2 flanger
Boss CE-2 chorus
Boss CE-3 Chorus
Boss CH-1 Chorus
Boss CS-2 Compressor
Boss CS-3 compressor
Delay pedal modifications
Boss DF-2 super feedbacker & distortion
Boss DS-1 Distortion
Boss DS-2 turbo distortion
Boss GE-7 Equalizer
Boss HM-2
Boss MD-2
Boss MT-2 Metalzone
Boss od-1 mod
Boss OD-2 R
Boss OD-2
Boss OD-3
Boss odb-3 bass overdrive
Boss OS-2 Mod
BOSS SD-1 Mods
Boss sd-2 Dual Overdrive
Boss TR-2 Tremolo
Boss Xtortion XT-2
Crybaby gcb-95 wah
Danelectro Daddy-o
Danolectro Fabtone Mod
Digitech Bad Monkey
DOD FX60 Chorus
DOD Grunge
DOD od250/YJM308
DOD Supra distortion FX-55B older style
DOD Supra Distortion FX55C mod – newer style pedal
Electro Harmonix Russian Big Muff Pi
Electro Harmonix Smallclone Chorus
Ibanez CM-5 Distortion
Ibanez DL-5 Delay
Ibanez DS-7 Distortion
Ibanez MS-10
Ibanez Powerlead PL-5
Dod FX59 Thrashmaster
Ibanez TM-5 Thrashmaster
Ibanez FZ-7 fuzz
Ibanez TS-7 Tubescreamer
Ibanez TS-5 Tubescreamer
Ibanez TS-9 TubeScreamer
Ibanez TS-9DX Turbo Tubescreamer
Ibanez SM-9
Ibanez Smashbox SM-7 Distortion
Jacques Tube Blower
Johnson “Distortion plus EQ”
Marshall bb-2 bluesbreaker mod
Marshall Guv’nor Plus GV-2
Marshall Shredmaster
Maxon OD808 TubeScreamer
Morley Classic Wah
Morley PWOV Power Wah Volume
MXR Distortion Plus
MXR Dynacomp – Ross Mod
MXR PHASE 90 MODS
Nobels ODR-1 Overdrive
Nobels DT-1
Nobels ODR-B
Nobels ODR-S
Proco Rat
Rocktron Sonic Glory Overdrive
VooDoo Lab Sparkle Drive
VooDoo Labs Microvibe
Tube Driver – 3 knob version
Visual Sound Route 66
Visual SoundJekyll & hyde (gray box version)
Visual SoundJekyll & hyde (Red Box version)
Vox 847 wah
H & K Warp factor

Genres: Music

363 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2007

Reviews

[East Bay J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brian Wampler is the man behind Indyelectronics.com and has been messing around with guitar electronics for at least a decade. His book, How To Modify Guitar Pedals, is of great use to the beginning stomp box enthusiast.

If you have a bunch of stomp boxes and are willing to do some experimenting (and investing in tools and components), this book will be your new best friend. Wampler has detailed several modifications for several dozen of the most popular stomp boxes. Want to improve the sound of your stock Crybaby Wah? Increase the top speed of your Boss CH-1 Chorus? Need more distortion out of your Ibanez TS-9 Tubescreamer? This is the book you need. It will tell you which components to replace, what value to replace them with and what changing each component will do to the sound of your pedal.

Your specific pedal may not be in here, but that's another way this book comes in handy. Maybe you have a distortion pedal that is similar to the Boss DS-1; you can make some of the same changes to your pedal that Wampler indicates for the DS-1. One of the great values of How To Modify Guitar Pedals is that you can use the information gleaned from here and apply it to other projects and designs. That's one thing that makes this a great book for beginners with just enough knowledge to be dangerous.

Another excellent source of information are the first seventy five pages. Wampler does a reasonable job of explaining the various components used and what they do. It's not the most thorough explanation but it'll do. There is a section that gives ideas for where to buy components, which will turn the reader on to a whole wealth of potential component sources. He also details what kinds of tools you'll need, talks about how to use a multimeter, shows you how to solder and de-solder and even how to fix broken solder traces and tabs.

My one complaint about this book is in the editing and layout. It looks like this book was laid out on a home computer and sent straight to the printer. Many of the pages have huge blank spaces and in many cases, information is spread over two or more pages that could have been made to fit on one, which would make reading and taking in this information easier for the reader. In addition to increasing the page count and, thus, cost, I have to question the relative accuracy of the information presented. How well was this proofed? While I haven't found any specific instances of errors in component values or what to do with them, I haven't done every modification detailed in this book. I have a feeling, though, Wampler would be happy to help if you were to contact him through Indyguitarist.com.

In fact, the internet, as a general thing, is an important resource in your electronics education. No book can contain everything you need to know!

Just reading through this book and studying the projects was invaluable to me at the time in that it taught me a lot of the basics of stomp box construction and function. The important thing is to actually do some of these mods. That's when you will really start to figure out what's what. A massive part of learning this stuff is to actually do it. It's empowering to be able to fine tune a stomp box to your needs and very satisfying to know you did it yourself. With some patience, dedication, the right tools and a pile of components, How To Modify Guitar Pedals will teach you exactly what the title implies.

[Don Carlisle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Expensive book for how sloppily it's laid out. Most of these mods are available for free if you know how to use a search bar.

[Haig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this is less of a book than a half-baked collection of pedal mods, with brief descriptions and not really enough information about what the mod will sound like, it's written by Brian Wampler, the guy that started the whole pedal modding community. So it feels good to support his efforts by buying the book.

You can find all of the mods by weeding through forums but it's nice to have them as a paperback reference and it's all written in Brian's voice which is informal and pretty humorous.

[Conor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice introduction, I'll see how helpful it is once my new tools come in the mail and I start trying the stuff I read about.