Wah Inductors. No hype. Just measurements.

I believe it's a range switch. Extra 0.01uf cap in there, I thinks it goes in parallel with the 0.01uF range cap.

The actual on/off is in the heel position.
 
Aight stickman. I did it. I bought the wah(GCB95 with "Original" label). Looks like it's been propping up @Harry Klippton 's tractor for a few season. Hits the mailbox tomorrow.
I already have the StickBaby Baseplate and the StickTreddle Plate Foot Slicer 5000 to bounce the lasers into my retinas harvested from the equinox of PIF 2 years ago.
I feel we are both now invested into me having a wah that I don't dislike. But I don't need a wah that just appears to have been ruined by stickman. It needs to be fully ruined. It has to snuff roosters like no wah has snuffed before. Huge black roosters. Blacker than the blackest black times infinity roosters!
 
Okay. It's a 87-88 model with a "small POS inductor that sounded horrible"
Cool. So it's getting gutted.
I guess the "Original Crybaby" was just marketing to try and convince you that they didn't ruin it.
 
Yup. That's the lottery loser right there.

That's the one they transitioned to immediately after they ran out of Stack Of Dimes inductors.

Probably because they were cheap and, at least nominally, looked like the right component for the job. If you only looked at inductance at 1Khz.

But the DCR on those is around 160ohms, and the Q is pitiful. It's a very lossy component.

The circuit itself is still the same as the Thomas Organ pedals, though. Can't remember if they had altered the 470r Q1 emitter resistor or the 100K bias resistor at that point.
 
Stickman393 said:
Yup. That's the lottery loser right there.

That's the one they transitioned to immediately after they ran out of Stack Of Dimes inductors.

Probably because they were cheap and, at least nominally, looked like the right component for the job. If you only looked at inductance at 1Khz.

But the DCR on those is around 160ohms, and the Q is pitiful. It's a very lossy component.

The circuit itself is still the same as the Thomas Organ pedals, though. Can't remember if they had altered the 470r Q1 emitter resistor or the 100K bias resistor at that point.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. And it has a TS power jack as a cherry on top.
And it does sound like hot dogsh*t. Anemic and oddly unbalanced across the sweep.
 
jwin615 said:
Thanks for the info. And it has a TS power jack as a cherry on top.
And it does sound like hot dogsh*t. Anemic and oddly unbalanced across the sweep.
Click to expand...
From what I recall of inductors in audio, they rely heavily upon the magnetic flux density of the coil assembly. Depending on the coil-shape, housing & mounting material, the smaller they are physically, the less magnetic-flux impact they will have on the signal. The theory and practice is really much deeper than just that tho.
 
Cybercow said:
From what I recall of inductors in audio, they rely heavily upon the magnetic flux density of the coil assembly. Depending on the coil-shape, housing & mounting material, the smaller they are physically, the less magnetic-flux impact they will have on the signal. The theory and practice is really much deeper than just that tho.
Click to expand...
Yeah. There's a reason there's plenty of iron in inductor based eqs. You can make small inductors if your aiming for one spec, like for noise filtering in a psu. But trying to develop one with a usable Q across the audio spectrum... It takes a bit more space than this little guy occupies.

I saw Pedal Pawn are releasing a wah (Say Wah) soon and are wrapping their own inductors for it.
 
Might be a good topic to start off my wah blag on my website. Photos & descriptions of the different inductors used over time and general timeframes.

Truthfully, those little cylinders were the end result of a long process of dunlop cutting costs on production. Lighter gauge wiring, quick connects, cheaper resistors and capacitors.

Generally, when they ran out of stock from their acquisition of Thomas Organ and JEN, they tried to replace them as cheaply as possible.

What's astounding is that those little cylinders made it past QA. They shoulda plugged in the first and said "oh, oh no, thats not right".

Alas, it took a couple years for them to finally move on from those.
 
Last edited:
Yeah. Would be a great topic.
How long did dunlop hang on to the TS power jack? I wasn't aware they ever used them and didn't pay attention to the listing.
 
jwin615 said:
Yeah. There's a reason there's plenty of iron in inductor based eqs. You can make small inductors if your aiming for one spec, like for noise filtering in a psu. But trying to develop one with a usable Q across the audio spectrum... It takes a bit more space than this little guy occupies.

I saw Pedal Pawn are releasing a wah (Say Wah) soon and are wrapping their own inductors for it.
Click to expand...
Geometry and the magnetic properties of the material the core is wrapped around is important as well.

I have no idea what those cylinders look like on the inside. Should probably cut one open one of these days. But you *can* make a good inductor for a wah pedal with relatively small form factor: the Stack o' Dimes inductor is a 11mm diameter by 7mm tall pot core ferrite. Fairly small.

I'm no scholar of magnetics. Truthfully, I'm probably closer to ICP than anybody who went to school for this stuff. But there's a lot one can do with different magnetic materials and different geometries when building an inductor.
 
Stickman393 said:
Ok. I'm *way* more excited about this than I should be.

But...here's the thing. Dunlop bought the crybaby rights and all the extra materials from both Thomas Organ *and* JEN when they acquired the Crybaby brand.

They continued manufacturing the organ-variety Wahs at first using the exact same boards, inductors, transistors, etc, because those were part of the sale.

As time went on, they started making changes. Some because their parts started to run out from TO, some to reduce costs, and later on to add a buffer and make other assorted changes.

But I always wondered: what the hell happened to their stock from JEN?

Well, damned if I know for certain. But right now I'm holding a 1992 Mister Crybaby Super. This was their reproduction of the classic Jen model, Lo and behold: this fucker has a red fasel inductor inside.

Its *not* a toroid, as new production fasels have been since 2003. Its A 14/08p.

Case against this being old stock from JEN: well...during this time this *was* the form factor of ferrites that dunlop was using. Between 1991-1994 they threw 1408 pot cores in all their pedals, and it's one of the better inductors they produced. Also: my old JEN fasels had clover-leaf style ferrite cores. This one looks more modern, with only two cutouts.

Still, interesting to see this in a dunlop pedal from 10 years before.

Mister crybaby supers from after this period are far more complex, have external knobs and switches, and do not contain the "fasel" inductor. The only ones that actually have the "fasel" are the first generation: no external controls, but an LED on top.

View attachment 124771
Click to expand...
i always thought this was an occam's razor scenario. dunlop was in rapid expansion mode between 89 and 94, for example procuring the deal with whoever owned vox at that time to make the dunlop V847 ( a big win).
the original super mister crybaby by dunlop carried the text on bottom "licensed by jen italy" - just another crybaby trademark they wanted in the stable. in my dream scene, the licensing fee was likely small or free, but with the caveat that dunlop place an order for 'x" number of inductors. simplest explanation and most likely.
they were ambitious, a dizzying array of products were thrown at the wall to see waht stuck, the mister cryaby super only lasted in this single pot iteration for about a year, quickly replaced by the dual pot version of approx 93.

i have stashed away a mini museum of oddball 80s and 90s dunlop wah or vol pedal products with the intention of making a video series illuminating these things, but my interest in documenting it is fading.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top