Several years ago, I bought (and have thoroughly enjoyed) Brian Wampler's book, How To Modify Effect Pedals, which includes a mod for the MS10. This mod corresponded with what I had already seen in forums here and there, but included a couple of other tweaks that I hadn't seen. Brian's awesome, so I went with his suggestions.
I started by removing D5, D6, and C12 and changing R11 from a 4.7K to a 1K resistor. I zipped it up and noticed a bit of an improvement. The pedal seemed a bit louder and the distortion sounded a bit more pleasant. I then removed D3 and D4 and think I noticed more of the same. I judged only by ear, not with an oscilloscope or anything, so it's hard to tell. I can say that I plugged in and actually enjoyed playing with the pedal for a while, which was not at all like my initial experience with this pedal.
Fig. 2. D3, D4, D5, D6, and C12. D1, D2, and R11 are up near the ribbon cable. |
I might try replacing D1 and D2 with a different configuration (Brian suggests 4148-4148 in D1 and 4148-1n5001-4148 in D2 for "better clipping, fuller and thicker." I will probably put sockets in so I can try several different diodes without ruining the trace. But for now, at least the pedal is usable: