Vox Satchurator Mods

funkadelic

Hi. The Vox Satchurator distortion pedal has some nice hi gain and sustain, but the tone is very top end, with scooped mids. The volume knob must be dialled to almost 75% to get unity gain. I like the pedal though so want to get it modded. So far my “research” has shown that the pedal can be modded at three ways. Two relative simple mods are shown below. The third, true bypass, mod seems way too complicated.

Tone Mod:
Replace the C3 capacitor, 47uF, with a lower value to put some mids back (39, 33, or 22uF).

Volume mod:
Whatever the value of the volume pot is; replace it with a pot with 50% higher value.

Has anyone attempted these mods? What was the result? Or is there an alternative pedal in the same price range with a beefier tone plus good sustain and gain. Hi gain but not metal please.

Chocklit_Thunda

True bypass is easy to do (if your pedal is an analog pedal what's wired conventionally) ... I can show you how to do that?

This being said, I've never built a pedal but I have done the true bypass mod on a few of my friends' ?

funkadelic

Hi. Yes the pedal is analog. Not sure if it's conventional wiring though...I have no idea what's going on in these boxes. I only reserach what's needed. I'll be glad if I can have it modded to true bypass but not even sure if I need it with this pedal...to be honest I don't know what the deal is with true by[pass. LOL!

Yesterday I placed the Vox Satchurator in front of the my amp's built-in tubescreamer (low gain; high volume). The TS gave me a nice light tube breakup. When I engaged the Satchurator (Gain 50%; tone 30%; volume 50%) I was stunned...gone is the volume, mids, and too top end problem. It was pure beefy hi gain. A total transformation. So I think I will most probably use the pedal in that context from now on.

AlanRatcliffe

Something tells me it's really supposed to be matched with the Ice 9, which IINM has a mid hump. You'll probably find the two are specifically designed to stack well together.

I dunno, but these days, with so many pedals of every conceivable tonal variation, I find it's quicker and easier to move on and find the right one to suit you, rather than futzing around for ages trying to dial in the circuit of what you have.

MikeM

^^ That. If you don't know what exactly these mods do, or how to do them, you probably shouldn't be doing them.

Attila

True Bypass

Of course Equinox becomes your Satch......

The 3PDT footswitch (green) handles the true bypass AND also controls the tails+LED on the PCB. The DPDT toggle switch (red) simple directs the bypass signal either through the circuit or through the true bypass

easy