Should I try this mod?

Pseudosam74 · Apr 28, 2008

I'm playing some really detuned stuff with active pickups through an UltraXL. Sounds great. But the one thing I would like is tighter attack. There's a high gain mod on the grailtone page that says it'll do just that. You just replace on cap for another one with a different value, supposedly.
Not real confident with messing with electronics. But I can solder a connection if that's all there is to this mod.
1. Is it an extremely simple mod that any monkey with a soldering gun (me) could do? Or should I spend the $60 bench fee for a tech to do 2 minutes of work?
2. Are these caps available at any hardware store?
3. Which type of solder should I use?

Moe. · Apr 28, 2008

If you have experience soldering, than all means go for it.
I'd practice a bit more before trying to solder the mod myself, but that's just me.

tonymustang302 · Apr 28, 2008

Cap's are available at radio shack, soldering i rec practicing. I had an old computer i took apart and practiced soldering on that circuit board.

Pseudosam74 · Apr 28, 2008

Ok, so I went to Radio Shack and got a .001u cap. But what they gave me was a ceramic disc cap which is quite a bit smaller and different looking that the on currently on the mod. Is this ok?

JKD · Apr 28, 2008

Pseudosam74 said:
Ok, so I went to Radio Shack and got a .001u cap. But what they gave me was a ceramic disc cap which is quite a bit smaller and different looking that the on currently on the mod. Is this ok?

So long as it's rated at 500V or above, it should work fine.

Different cap types do sound different though...I think Pete was saying he prefers ceramics for certain things:

http://mtsforum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=2137

Pseudosam74 · Apr 28, 2008

Cool. I did it and I'm extremely pleased. I was thinking about doing it on my other modules as well. Ultra and SL+. But I don't use the active pickups or detuned stuff on those. Just plain on Les Paul type guitar with standard tuning for an AC/DC type sound. So maybe the mod isn't as well suited in this instance?

PS Would you consider the Top Boost to be a high gain module?