Wah Inductors. No hype. Just measurements.

[Stickman393]

Checked out both the Friedman and the danelectro triple-wah today.

Friedman: typical 1811P...but with a little twist (heh). They wound it with litz wire. Interesting...

That accounts for the relatively low DCR on this one. Not sure what the purpose is. Could have been done to try to match what dunlop's toroid cores measure out like. Certainly is unique.

The danelectro is a toroid and it's garbage. Weak Q. Weird setup too...SMD board, but it looks like the input, sweep, and the 220nf caps on either side of the pot are leaded, soldered to the SMD pass, and hot glued in place.

I'll probably end up replacing the inductor in that one, fixing it up a bit, and flipping it.

 

[Stickman393]

Update: OK, all my stateside homies, I've printed out the labels and will be sending these out tomorrow.

International: MyBud, I gotta figure out how international works. Customs and such. Its been a long time since I've done this. I'll look into it and see about getting it out ASAP.

Crazy Cat and Doomy, this is gonna depend on how quickly I can assemble the rest of my package for doomy. Hopefully within the next week or so.

 

[masonlewisdiesel]

Hell yeah, bought a 60s style board with some components from Ebay (Detrick_fx if i recall correctly), got a enclosure already, it will be game on!

 

[Nostradoomus]

No rush my dude, we chillin up here

 

[Stickman393]

I wrote a special message to each of you in the box.

I have no idea who is getting which Inductor and which message.

I also did not put any thought into each message. I just wrote the first thing that came to mind.

And my handwriting is near illegible, so you might not even be able to read it.

Just think of it like a fortune cookie.

Each inductor is labeled with its number, so you'll be able to look up the measurements I recorded for it.

I hope ya like em, but by all means if you have feedback on design, sound, etc that is less than positive, lemme know. I aim to make something that's easy to integrate into any design, and most importantly: I want it to *sound good*. Subjectively speaking.

Notes: I'm a fan of BC109b's and BC108b's in a wah. HFE between 225-500 Matching is not necessary. Some folks like Q1 to be higher than Q2, I prefer the opposite way around. Q2 ultimately has much less impact on the sound

I'm not a fan of MPSA18s in a wah. Those suckers are too hot and thin the circuit out. Err on the side of lower gain, it fattens

The range cap can benefit from something like a polypro or styrene, but plenty of folks get by just fine with mylar.

The wah pot is personal preference. Just a matter of how quickly you want it to sweep.

The 33k resistor in parallel with the inductor will affect q. Increasing this value increases Q, decreasing this value decreases Q.

Throwing a pot in series with the inductor will also allow for variable Q: this is how Dunlop does it on the older 535Qs. This works the opposite way: increasing resistance decreases Q, decreasing resistance increases Q.

These were designed to have a relatively high Q, while not being quite as sharp as something like the Eleca halo inductor. It's about halfway between your typical Dunlop inductor and an Eleca halo.

Also...I'm not entirely sure how the glue is going to hold up. Don't put undue leverage on the ferrites: I'm probably going to switch to an epoxy for future runs. If you find the ferrites separate from their bases, let me know. A bit of super glue should help if it separates. Just be careful: the wires I used to wind these are exceedingly thin.

 

[Stickman393]

Also: I recommend using as beefy of a bus wire as you can get to connect these to the board. 20awg works well in my experience.

Double-stick tape on the bottom can help secure it too.

 

[masonlewisdiesel]

Thanks stick! as always, much appreciated!

 

[masonlewisdiesel]

Got something in the mail today! This thing looks nice stick! looking back at your previous post..I got "lucky" number 4. Its got a little style to it! gonna pop in this weekend. Thanks again man, kinda rare in this day and age when people do cool things like this and send them to others, if that makes any sense? looking forward to getting some playin with it!

 

[chordball]

Excellent work here man! When I saw your original measurements I knew something was off, so I'm glad you were able to get a good meter and continue on. This is great data.

Just this week I scored a DER DE-5000 LCR meter on FB for $45 (still had the plastic film on the screen!). It's not quite as nice as yours but it's still recognized as a very capable meter. It only tests at 100 Hz, 120 Hz, 1 kHz, 10 kHz, and 100 kHz (irrelevant for us).

That said, I wanted to ask if you'd mind me posting some readings here to add to the collective knowledge base? If not I can start a new thread, just let me know.

Here's what I have to offer based on my memory this morning.

Joe Gagan Tone Tank 3X
Dunlop N30 3X
48 SOD 1X
03 SOD 2X
08 350 mH SOD 1X (sold by Chase Tone)
TDK 5103 1X
Venus Witch 1X
Whipple 1X (I think this one is still around)
Dunlop HI01 1X (in CM95 Clyde McCoy)
Filmcan 1X (in '69 Vox Cry Baby)
El Rad 1X (in Boomerang)

Edited to add "08" to the 350 mH SOD.

 

[Stickman393]

That said, I wanted to ask if you'd mind me posting some readings here to add to the collective knowledge base? If not I can start a new thread, just let me know.

 

[Stickman393]

Just kidding. Goddammit. Fuck. Jesus, posting that tickled me. I'm dying.

How's your excel skills? I wouldn't mind making this document collaborative.

 

[masonlewisdiesel]

View attachment 90615

He came out from under the bridge!! watch out stickman! haha, even has the username to fit. I wonder if hes ever met a leprechaun ?

 

[masonlewisdiesel]

Excellent work here man! When I saw your original measurements I knew something was off, so I'm glad you were able to get a good meter and continue on. This is great data.

Just this week I scored a DER DE-5000 LCR meter on FB for $45 (still had the plastic film on the screen!). It's not quite as nice as yours but it's still recognized as a very capable meter. It only tests at 100 Hz, 120 Hz, 1 kHz, 10 kHz, and 100 kHz (irrelevant for us).

That said, I wanted to ask if you'd mind me posting some readings here to add to the collective knowledge base? If not I can start a new thread, just let me know.

Here's what I have to offer based on my memory this morning.

Joe Gagan Tone Tank 3X
Dunlop N30 3X
48 SOD 1X
03 SOD 2X
08 350 mH SOD 1X (sold by Chase Tone)
TDK 5103 1X
Venus Witch 1X
Whipple 1X (I think this one is still around)
Dunlop HI01 1X (in CM95 Clyde McCoy)
Filmcan 1X (in '69 Vox Cry Baby)
El Rad 1X (in Boomerang)

Edited to add "08" to the 350 mH SOD.

Here is my data on that if you wanna add to it go ahead! List of Inductors

 

[chordball]