DOD 250 GREY SPEC MODS

[Tone Slinger]

I agree. Great tones for single note stuff, not so much chords.

[donbarzini]

I agree. Great tones for single note stuff, not so much chords.

I didn't mean just outlier's either, the original grey as well.

[outlier]

I'm the sort of person that turns off overdrive pedals during rhythm, but plenty others leave them on during rhythm. Perhaps an example of that would be Joe Stump. I have a lot of his CDs and like 'em a lot, but his rhythm sounds are a bit too saturated for my taste.

A lot of interesting comments though. You're making me think of what I should include, not include, etc. in my own OD pedal. Thanks!

[outlier]

Funny thing about the grey 250, the first time I'd heard one many years ago, I didn't like it. I briefly played with another guitarist that had one of those cheaper Les Pauls through the grey 250 and then into a Fender Twin. Honestly, it sounded garbled and harsh as I recall. I guess he liked it though...

[donbarzini]

Funny thing about the grey 250, the first time I'd heard one many years ago, I didn't like it. I briefly played with another guitarist that had one of those cheaper Les Pauls through the grey 250 and then into a Fender Twin. Honestly, it sounded garbled and harsh as I recall. I guess he liked it though...

Yes, it's certainly not a "works with everything" type of OD pedal.

[outlier]

Coming full circle here, as I'd previously mentioned, one of the things I'd noticed about the 250 series is that many of them sound different. This again, is due to the parts and circuit differences. I guess that guy had one of the not-so-good 250s.

Anyway, The Priest is tonight. That is, Judas Priest... Gotta run!

[donbarzini]

Coming full circle here, as I'd previously mentioned, one of the things I'd noticed about the 250 series is that many of them sound different. This again, is due to the parts and circuit differences. I guess that guy had one of the not-so-good 250s.

Anyway, The Priest is tonight. That is, Judas Priest... Gotta run!

Cool. They were here a couple weeks ago but it was the only stop they played a "free stage" at an outdoor festival. I really wanted to see them but no thanks to see Judas Priest at a free for all, give me a ticket and a seat please.

[Tone Slinger]

Yeah, ALL 250 verions are a little 'flabby' and when the output is low, they seem 'harsh', sometimes this harshness remains depending mainly on the amp settings. A 250, when used on an already toneful amp (like say a Marshall, mv or not) can crate more warmth and gain, but on cleaner, high headroom type tones, Fender, Music Man,etc) doesnt work well at all.

My old Voodoo Lab 'Overdrive' is about the biggest, fattest, with more gain on tap 250 clone I've ever heard. It has gobs of output.

[vanhalen5150]

Interesting thread here. Has anyone ever tried the General Guitar Gadgets 250 Grey clone? I think they are like $50 or $60 for the kit. Just wondering since it was never mentioned.

[Sparky]

I have built a few GGG kits and was impressed with the quality of the parts and instructions, BUT for half that you could buy a YJM308 and mod it pretty easily. YMMV

[Lonkero]

Hello everyone!

I found this thread via google and thought maybe some of the experts here can light up the weird thing i've encountered with YJM 308 pedals.

Half year ago I got my first YJM 308 which was used when I bought it. It's great, I never use any other overdrive anymore. But since I'm curious person, I decided to buy second YJM 308 (secondhand also) and I thought I'll send that to Analogman for mojo mod (which I eventually didnt't because of this strange thing..)

Now the weird part comes here. There two YJM 308 pedals I have sound absolutely different! The first one I got has slightly less gain, more bass and to put simply it just sounds a lot better than the other one I got. The better sounding could be the older production of DOD YJM since there are some minor cosmetical differences between these two:

The chassis inside the newer one is slightly yellow coloured, but in the older one it is gray/metallic color.. Also the imprint (text) in the chassis is more lighter yellow in the older one. Inside the newer ones baseplate there some serie of numbers which doesnt exist in the older one's (better sounding one's) baseplate.

My wild guess is that DOD might have done some minor electronical changes to YJM 308 while it was on production. Other explanation for this could be that the first one i got second hand has been modded to grey 250 specs by previous owner. But by looking inside the chassis it doesnt look like that.

I've been considering mailing to DOD regarding this thing but I doubt they're engineers would reply even if they know what causes this. I read this whole thread and it seems here are many experts who could at least throw some wild guesses what's causes this difference between two YJM 308 ...?

[outlier]

Some YJM308s come equipped with the Samsung KA4558 chip. Most seem to have the Texas Instruments RC4558P, which is what all of the new YJM308s I've bought for modification and sold have. They definitely sound different.

Needless to say, I remove the chip and convert for a 741.

I doubt that one could discern which pedal has which chip based on cosmetics.

[Kapo_Polenton]

Hey Outlier, how are your grey spec clone/originals coming along? I still love mine. Level almost all the way up, gain just cranked. Beautiful.

[outlier]

Slowly, unfortunately. My day job has been eating up a lot of time with overtime and travel. We're in the start of a two year implementation.

So a lot of time that I devote to matters concerning these pedals is spent on modifying YJM308s for customers, answering emails. (I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like for a Paul Cochrane or Robert Keeley!) On top of that, I'm writing an fairly comprehensive article for one of the guitar magazines. I can't complain, just need to organize my time better!

I've also been researching a circuit — have an idea for the pedal, nothing outrageous, but sort of got a brainstorm about something I might want to try.

[Lonkero]

Bought second-hand DOD250 REISSUE pedal today. Slightly warmer sound than in YJM and just a bit more bass. But I gotta say the low-end is really flabby, especially when you play something with your low E string. No separation between notes at all, just pure mush. But the tone on high strings is pretty good.

This REISSUE pedal is quite tonesucker compared to YJM 308. Even when it's bypassed it cuts all high frequencies away! I wonder what causes this
I thought that YJM and 250 Reissue had same buffer, and YJM doesnt suck my tone at all

Perhaps I should change the switch to true bypass type. Does the original 250 (yellow or gray) cut the highest frequencies too?

EDIT: A little update. Bought the vintage Yellow DOD 250 a couple days ago
Works great, and doesnt suck my tone nor high frequencies. I can't believe how great sustain this beast delivers even in moderate gain settings. Also I can't believe how responsiveness touch this one has ! Year of production in mine is 1981.

Next gotta buy the AnalogMan 250 and the original grey version