HISTORY / INFO:
I got a DOD Stereo Flanger from a friend of mine. He said it had sat in his closet for the past 15 years and wasn't sure if it even worked. I pluuged it in and didn't hear anything, but when pulling the plug halfway out, the flanger kicked in. I took a peak around and finally discovered that in the stereo jack, the 'leaf' that normally supplies the sound for mono (the left channel) had broken off. Simple enough fix there.
I then proceeded to poke around the pedal while my delay pedal kept a tune going so I could hear what each bend would sound like. In the end, I ended up with 19 bends (utilizing 29 points). Some as simple as distortion, others which torqued the sound so much that it helped name the pedal itself. I realized that I would need to have a breakout box to house all the switches for this monstrosity. I chose a 3 inch x 5 inch steel/tin box that I got at Marc's (a discount grocery/retail store in Ohio) for 50 cents. I knew that I would need to connect the breakout box to the pedal and did not have any 25 D-sub connectors lying around (and I wanted to start NOW!) so I got some L brackets. The breakout box features a print with lighthouses, sailboats, etc lending to the 'Sailor' part of the name.
In the end, I have to say that my 11th bend project is , without a doubt, my most ambitious project to date. Everything came out the way I was hoping. While the fit in the box was tight, I learned how to manage my space adn that taking the time to plan out where everything needs to go does leave you with a good looking gizmo. This project and its success definitely leaves me wanting to bend more guitar pedals. I enjoy finding bend on toys, but not being the biggest noise fan, I really enjoy bends that I can use when making music.
PRE-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
Here is a almost pre-modification picture. I had just finished the wiring and decided that I better get a photo of it before I 'permanently' attached it to the breakout box. Please imagine the stock knobs being in place (the knobs which are on it in the modded photos).
MODIFICATIONS: (using the terms that I wrote in the notebook where I keep my diagrams and bend mappings)
1) weird feedback distortion - This one utilizes a 1uF cap. It tended to have a more 'ringy' tone to it.
2) distortion - This one utilizes some weird military spec tantalum capacitor that I had. Since they are mil spec, there usually is not the usual capacitance reading. Just a bunch of numbers and letters. I have a feeling that it is a 4.7uF though.
3) jet airplane distortion - This tended to give the effect of an airplane taking off... or landing... can't quite remember which.
4) sitar-y feel (high end pass?) - Fairly self explanatory. Seemed to cut down on the low end frequencies giving it a more tinny / sitar-line sound.
5) potentiometer bypass - There were 3 trimmer pots on this pedal, this mod bypasses that pot and causes it flangey effect to get out of control. More bizaare than the alien distortion.
6) alien distortion - This makes the flanger go a bit nutty, putting weird harmonics on top of the source sound.
7) distortion / rhythmic - This is a 4 position rotary switch that controls which capacitor is sent to the bend. The toggle directly to the right is the on/off for this bend (hence the 'box' around this pair of switches.)
8) grumble distortion - This adds a HEAVY layer of grumbling to the sound. The original sound is buried underneath, somewhere. Very loud, high peaks.
9) distortion spring - Distorted sound with a bit of a springy sound.
10) drunk spring reverb - This is almost a combination of the alien and pot bypass mods. The bitch really gets out of whack with this one, plus is adds a nice 'springy' sound. This bend was one of the first I found and helped name the project the Drunken Sailor Flanger.
11) extra pulsing - This causes the flanger effect to cut in and out rhythmicly. The speed of the pulse is determined by the speed setting on the original pedal.
12) heartbeat - This is similar to the extra pulsing mod, however it doesn't cut out the main sound as much and the pulse is more like a heart beat: THUMP-thump.
13) angel - I can't remembe why I named it this. I thing it adds a little bit of ring to the tone.
14) spring reverb - This adds a nice 'springy' sound. More clean than the other spring mods.
15) distortion echo - Um, this added a little bit of distortion and echo.
16) jackhammer distortion - This adds a jackhammer effect to the sound. Can get fairly loud. Was touch finding this mod since I normally poke around using a 500k pot and this mod uses only a 1K pot.
17) no name regeneration mod - This one didn't even get a name. This is tunable using the pot on the left. I believe that it affects the regneration setting on the pedal more drastically. It sounds best if you are continuously turning the pot, but does have a decent affect even if you have it at one setting.
18) pulse - This causes more plusing but it tends to be more independant of the speed setting on the pedal. It is tunable using the pot on the left. At certain settings, if you play soft the pulse is not there, but if you start to WAIL, then the pulse kicks in. Kinda cool.
19) screaming sasquatch - This is a distortion of sorts. It really doesn't manifest itself until most of the sound is gone. It is 'tunable' using the pot to the left.
20) New 1/4" output jack - I had to buzz down the jack that I had since the original one was made to custom fit inside. Originally this was a stereo jack. I rewired this to be mono only... a decision that in hindsight, I regret. But it still sounds great.
21) New 9 Volt connector (and placement) - The old 9 Volt battery connector was the typical cheepo kind where the protective covering on the connector would split and come off since it was just thin plastic. I replaced it with a HEAVY DUTY connector which is set in molded plastic. Since the original battery compartment was going to be where I ran wires through to the breakout box and since I really didn't want to be opening and closing the breakout box, I mounted a 9 volt battery holder on the outside of the box. I used a 5mm LED holder to protect the wires from being cut on the hole I drilled.
POST-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
 front view |
|
 numbered diagram |
SOUNDS:
Drunken Sailor Flanger Samples <--- Click here to hear some sound samples of the Drunken Sailor Flanger
FUTURE MODIFICATIONS PLANNED:
I don't know what else I would add to this. If I really, really, really, really wanted to change the output jack from mono back to stereo, I could, but that would require cutting all the leads going from the pedal to the box... I'm not about to snip 29 wires
Last Modified: February 13, 2005