Distortion 555-A

The DOD "Perfomer Series" Distortion 555-A. This is pretty much a stinker of a pedal. There's nothing about it that we can point to as redeeming. Well, that's not true. The font on the pedal where it says "Distortion 555-A" is handsome. DOD made another version of this pedal in a grey colored-enclosure called the "555" without the "-A" designation. We believe that the 555-A came after the 555.

The way this pedal sounds is so inferior that it made us laugh after having heard it.

The DOD Distortion 555-A stopped being made a long time ago.

Controls

Image from an eBay auction

• Knob 1 - "Gain": Sets the level of distortion of the pedal.
• Knob 2 - "Tone": Sets the brightness of the pedal. Fully counterclockwise is dark. Fully clockwise is bright.
• Knob 3 - "Output": Sets the volume or output level of the pedal.
• Footswitch 1 - "On/Off": This plate turns the effect on and off in the signal chain.

There is a single input and a single output.

If using 9-volt batteries, to prevent them from being drained while pedal is not in use, be sure to remove any plug from the input jack.

Bypass: Buffered

All DOD pedals from this period had a buffered bypass - this generation of pedals is considered to have some "tone suck".

General Information

We obtained this pedal simply for the perversely fond memories of the first Distortion 555-A that we had access to while young and stupid. This pedal would be the impetus for the Bad Device Chain Challenge. Back in the 1980s when this pedal was first introduced, it ate batteries like they were for lunch. If you want to spend a lot of money on batteries, use this pedal in battery mode, otherwise buy an 18-volt AC power adapter and modify the plug for a 1/4" male instrument cable end...

The DOD "Flap" Footswitch

These old(-ish) DOD pedals with the "flap"-style footswitch are not always the most cooperative in terms of consistently working. It's not that the switches actually fail or break terribly often because they actually don't "fail" or "break" terribly often. What they have a reputation for is that they do not consistently toggle between "active" and "bypass" when stomped.

This is actually kind of weird and takes some getting used to. Again, it's not because the pedal is "broken"; it's because the switch was poorly designed for this generation of DOD pedals.

What we mean by this is that you could depress this pedal with reasonable force and yet fail to cause the footswitch to toggle on or off. Alternatively, it's also possible to touch the pedal with a feather's weight of pressure and trigger it just fine. Now, combine this fact with the other, very real issue of a lack of tactile feedback when switching and it makes for a pedal that takes some familiarity to reliably operate. What's the tactile feedback issue, you ask? It's this: If you step on the pedal to toggle it on or off, there's no click - to be heard or felt. There's no sense of movement, or tactile feedback to inform you that you've successfully switched the pedal. You actually have to look at the LED to verify that you've turned it on or off. So with the switching being inconsistent and, combined with the tactile feedback problem players need to be reasonably warned that this isn't the most cooperative of pedals to operate.

Pedal Manual

There may have been a pedal manual that came in the box with this pedal. However, this pedal and all others like it that still exist from the early 1980s all seem to have lost the boxes that they were sold in. Given that these pedals were made in the 1980s and given that there was no Internet in the 1980s, we doubt that there is any manual, especially a digital manual, that can be associated with this pedal.

Given that this pedal is a candidate for the Bad Device Chain Challenge we're not under any pressing compulsion to buy up every last available Distortion 555-A with the hopes of finding the associated box and printed manual. It just is what it is...

Phase Inversion: Unknown

We have found a schematic! We are shocked at our good fortune! See below!

Schematic

23-Oct-2018: WE FOUND A SCHEMATIC! After some clean-up on the image, we'll be posting it shortly.

Artists

We are currently unaware of any artists actively using the pedal now, or who have in the past.

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Additional Sources