DOD 250 GREY SPEC MODS

yngwie308 · Post by **yngwie308** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 7:47 pm

Recently I had the extreme pleasure of receiving my Analogman modded YJM308 pedal back from John of Nash Vegas, who has modded it to early grey specs and I can atest to the fact that it exactly replicates Yngwie's Alcatrazz tone. This is the holy grail of Malmsteen tones and for John to have done all the research he has and experimentation with many eras of 250's, including the later YJM308, we can all benefit from his work.
This is the most musical sounding, warm, tubey feeling tone you can imagine. I almost felt like a 12AX7 was in the circuit. The gain is increased, increasing sustain, yet the pedal is super quiet, much quieter than before!
With my YJM Strat, the pickups have come alive and I never heard them sound so good.Through my Handwired Marshall/Metro, the sound is just incredible. The level control is much more interactive as well.
I would post a clip, but my playing isn't really up to demonstrating the full qualities of this pedal. Rockstah in particular, I know would love this pedal as his favorite Malmsteen is the Alcatrazz period.
This pedal would cost hundreds of dollars if some boutique guy came out with it.
For just $75, plus $10 shipping, John will mod your Grey/Yellow DOD250 or YJM308.
The quality of the tone is unbelievable, I will stake my reputation on it.
Also John is a very experienced electronics repairman/tech and a guitar instructor for many years. So he really understands tone and being on the Yngwie forum with him is one of the highlights for me personally.
He may be contacted through me, just email or PM me and I will pass on his contact info and shipping address.
This is the greatest tone revelation on the Malmsteen tone chase, I have ever found.
It also does an incredible Ritchie Blackmore boost tone. Not being a treble boost circuit per se, it get that Deep Purple tone as well with a Strat and Marshall. Please investigate this amazing mod for yourselves, you won't be sorry. I am yngwie308 and I endorse this recommendation!
yngwie308

NY Chief · Post by **NY Chief** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 1:49 pm

yngwie308 wrote: I am yngwie308 and I endorse this recommendation!
yngwie308

Well done in the spirit of the moment!

carlygtr56 · Post by **carlygtr56** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:31 pm

Sounds cool. I got the Analogman YJM-308 recently.

You're saying this guy's mods take it up a notch?

Kapo_Polenton · Post by **Kapo_Polenton** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:40 pm

Sounds cool. I got the Analogman YJM-308 recently.

You're saying this guy's mods take it up a notch?

Yes, do tell... does it improve the already analogman version?

yngwie308 · Post by **yngwie308** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:30 pm

Guys, I sent him my Analogman modded YJM308 with everything modded, Mojo741, true bypass and led indicator. John's mods include an op amp change to 741, but there are more components changed and some added, to bring this pedal to a whole another place.
I seriously am letting everyone in on this amazing tone.
To my ears it is , miles ahead of even Analog Mikes YJM mods, and truly an incredible, quiet,more gain/sustain and the addition of such a sweet, musical tone.
I cannot more highly recommend this mod.
Some people in the recent past have ripped John off by copying his mods and claiming them as there own. I don't know any details about that, but all I know is that I trust him 100% and he is truly a professional when it comes to this and has proven research behind these mods!
If you are skeptical or want to keep your AM YJM308's as be, send a stock YJM308, they are cheap enough. But for me I want , one pedal that's all!
Also I have no connection with John, other than being fellow Yngwie forum members and the satisfaction of seeing him succeed with his mods.
yngwie308

Kapo_Polenton · Post by **Kapo_Polenton** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:58 pm

How does one get in touch with him? I am surprised he doesn't just build clones? Wonder if I could get him to get me a Dod pedal and mod it as tuff in Canada is wayyyyy overpriced. hook us up, I'd love to feel as if i was adding another gain stage to my amp..

yngwie308 · Post by **yngwie308** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:17 pm

Here is Deuterium's post on the private YJM forum, I'm sure John (Deuterium) will not mind me posting this. Outlier(John) who does the mods never expected the reception he has recieved and greatly deserves!!
Posted by Deuterium on Aug 9, 2008, 23:27
Hi folks!

I had sent my stock Dunlop YJM 308 pedal to John E. (Outlier), so he could perform his diabolical, evil genius pedal modding skills, and upgrade my stock 308.

Outlier's skunkworks division was able to turn my pedal around in short order, and I received the modded pedal back in the mail, just the other day. Unfortunately, I was not able to test it out until tonight.

I just spent 3 hours playing guitar and testing out my newly modded 308 pedal from Outlier.

My God, this pedal SMOKES !!! It has been converted into a 205 Grey Spec on steroids.

Outlier has turned the stock pedal into something quite magical. I do feel that the stock DOD YJM 308 pedal is quite a fine OD/distortion stompbox, in it's own right. However, there are definitely room for improvements...especially when it comes to resurrecting the vintage glory of the old DOD 250 "Grey" Specs.

Outlier replaced the 308's stock 4558 Op-Amp with an LM741CN, as used in the original 250 "Grey" Spec... along with other 250 tweaks, such as the input cap, diodes in the audio path, etc.

The result is a pedal with much more musical gain, and a smoother, tubey tone. Gone is the "shrillness" and unpleasant highs of the stock 308 pedal.

Even though the gain (and quality of the gain) has increased, Outlier's mods have resulted in a somewhat quieter pedal, compared to stock.

This is the real deal folks. Outlier's wonderful pedal mod compares favorably to my AnalogMan 308 with their 741 "mojo mod". They both have similar sonic qualities...with Outlier's mod being slightly quieter overall. I believe that is the result of John using superior quality caps in the audio path.

The Outlier modded 308 has established itself a primary position in my main pedalboard. I have it installed in the Loop of my NS-2, and go into the low gain channel of my Marshall Vintage Modern. The Vintage Modern just loves this pedal, by the way.

THANKS JOHN, for turning my stock 308 into a 250 vintage grey, with Megaton yield! I can know Unleash some most Righteous Fury

PLAY LOUD PLAY LOUD PLAY LOUD PLAY LOUD!!!!! yngwie308

outlier · Post by **outlier** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 10:44 am

Hey all, first post here! I registered for this forum some time ago, but for one reason or another, just lurked and hadn't posted anything until now.

David, geez, thanks for the compliments! You have no idea how reading stuff like this really makes my day. As I wrote on the Yngwie board, I sent the pedal out with my fingers crossed hoping you'd like it and hoping you'd hear the same thing I was hearing.

About the mod: This all started as something just for fun and was the culmination of a lot of research that a good friend in New Zealand and I did into the early history and circuitry of the 250.

There's more to this than just finding a schematic and blueprinting the pedal to that. I don't have to tell any of you on this forum how official schematics aren't always reflected in an amplifier's actual circuit.

So what I came to understand is that the particularly good sounding 250s shared certain aspects not shown on schematics.

The centerpiece of my modification is based on out-of-production parts that I have one source for. I have a decent, but limited supply and I suspect that when they're gone, that very well may be it...

I also improve the quality of components in the audio path. As part of what was just hobbyist tinkering, I originally rebuilt two 308s from the ground up, replaced everything including jacks, footswitch, etc.

What I came to notice is that one of the rebuilt 308s that had the 308 spec .001 input cap didn't sound tremendously different from the other 308 with the 250 spec .01 input cap.

This was really interesting to me and got me to thinking that maybe some of the charcteristic raspiness associated with the 308 wasn't just due to the use of the .001 input cap, but also the cheaper quality of the parts.

A while back I got a PM from former Yngwie manager Mike Spitzer and he told me that the .001 cap was installed as Yngwie wanted a slightly tighter low end on rhythms. With the rebuilt 308, it did just that: A little tighter on the low end, but a lot closer to the 250 in many respects.

This also got me to thinking that the 308 was probably bread-boarded with quality components, but the production version ... well, whaddaya expect for $30.00?

I do use the same chip as Analogman, the LM741CN. It's spot-on to what I was hearing in my head, but I've also used 1970s-era Texas Instruments Made In Malaysia 741 chips as per some 250s and like that too. Just cleaned out of 'em though, so if anyone knows where I can get some, let me know!

I could also use TI 1458s, which are basically the same thing as many of you surely know, the difference being that they are dual opamps. I bought some of these and have experimented with them. With my Strats, it's a bit more of a Blackmore-ish type tone with these. Very cool.

As far as copying my mods are concerned, I began to notice that there were some sellers on eBay selling modified 308s with not only the mods that I detailed on the defunct Yngwie board, but including text that was practically copied and pasted from my descriptions!

But there's one big difference and that is this: They don't have the OOP parts that I do and that is crucial to getting this sound from the pedal.

Why don't I build clones? Maybe I will someday, but as I wrote, this all just started out as something fun to tinker with, not as some business venture. The friend in NZ talked his up as did a guitarist in Serbia I rebuilt a 308 for and it took off from there.

I suppose if there's enough interest, I may build some clones. I'd like to look into having cards etched, so we'll see... Maybe!

Kapo_Polenton · Post by **Kapo_Polenton** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 5:22 pm

I haven't had any luck finding a used 308 for a good price and that is why I asked. I am up here in Canada where everything is over priced it seems. I am definitely interested in this/your pedal though. Have you considered doing the analogman thing and having the pedals already, modding them and then selling? Keep us posted , I can wait till you are ready whichever way you go...

yngwie308 · Post by **yngwie308** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 6:42 pm

Kapo, just search Ebay under Yngwie Malmsteen and you will see YJM308 pedals forever in the thirty dollar odd range!
yngwie308

Guitar-Sam · Post by **Guitar-Sam** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:57 pm

Kapo_Polenton I just bought a RI 250 from musicians freind last week for $39.

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:20 am

I've messed about with this circuit quite a bit. Taking it to a distortion + spec as well as hybridizing it between the 250 and distortion + (well, as close as you could get to a true hybrid) I havent noticed any great sonic differences, other than a couple component swaps here or there, gives the tone either more clarity in a tighter crisper kind of 'gainy' way, or a slightly less gain, more open creamy kind of way. The diodes and the op amp selection is the main point of focus that I've found. Still, this is a GREAT circuit (1978 version), that matches a strat's single coils VERY well. Its like sorta getting Blackmore,Roth and Malmsteen in one fell swoop, though I know that only Malmsteen uses one.

outlier · Post by **outlier** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:52 am

In response to the emails and PMs I have been receiving, I have purchased several YJM-308s for modification. I'll let you know when I have them and they're ready to go. Some of them will be sold to members here, others placed on eBay.

Please note: I have received emails asking if modified pedals and kits on eBay are mine. Just so there is no confusion, let me be clear: They are not.

yngwie308 · Post by **yngwie308** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:59 am

John has fallen pray to the internet phenomenon of stealing his descriptions almost word for word and blatant copying of his ideas. But.. they make many critical errors in attempting this, so Outlier is the one to purchase these mods from.
To have a prebuilt YJM308 to his specs is ideal and certainly a bargain. Also he is a very nice guy and is for the player, like VG, ect.

Best of luck and a great idea to pre-build them John!
yngwie308

Kapo_Polenton · Post by **Kapo_Polenton** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:45 am

Ahhh nuts.. I got one used last week, should have just waited for you to mod and sell the ones you got. did you get my follow up pm by the way outlier?

By the way, stock, this pedal SUCKS. I recorded a very bad version of the final countdown with it.For rythm it is scratchy , squeals, and for leads it is harsh. Malmsteen and DOD screwed us!

If my playing were better I would post it so people can hear how bad it is.

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