This site contains information pertaining to a "for fun" project that I have started.  The project consists of replacing the digital control circuits of an ADA MP-1 guitar preamp with a more moderm micro controller such that the user interface can be updated and new features can be added to the unit.  The MP-1 has much technical information avalable such as schematics, board layout, etc.  However there is no firmware source code avalable making it difficult to add or fix anything associated with the digital control.

 

My plan is to remove the digital chips from the MP-1 main circuit board and wire in I/O from another board that will be mounted just above the main board.  The stock MP-1 has membrane switches for user input and 7 segment LED's for its display.  This is somewhat limiting in that the buttons make it a little cumbersome to edit patches and the display only allows numerics to be displayed instead of more detailed text.  My plan for this mod is to replace the membrane switches with mechanical rotary encoders and replace the 7 segment LED display with an LCD display capable of displaying text.  In addition there are many other features that this mod could help facilitate such as:

• SD card or USB storage of patch data 
• Battery Elimination
• Improved MIDI control such as continuous control 
• More chorus options and exposure of a short digital delay (up to 50 ms) using the BBD chip
• Extra I/O for mods like true bypass, more effect loops, new mods being switched into the signal chain, etc.
• Possible tuner add-on
• Possible test tone generation for alignment purposes 
• Firmware updates via usb or sd card
• Other things that I probably haven't thought of...