Morley Power Wah Fuzz

[peccary]

I had a little free time today, though not as much as I thought I'd have. I planned to work on my B-15 but with less time I thought I'd poke around in this old Morley boat anchor.

This thing has a long history with my family: my step dad gave this to my uncle sometime in the early 80's. He used it for a while and then it sat around for a few decades till my cousin came across it. He plugged it in and it didn't work so he game it to me.

I pulled it apart a while ago and it was a mess inside. Today I replaced the bulb and fixed the little curtain that covers up the LDR. Those were the obvious issues but I figured it'd take more work. I plugged it in to test out and it worked perfectly

I'll take it!

I'm going to clean it up and find a more permanent solution to keeping the curtain in place. The way they put this thing together is kind of ridiculous. It's literally held together with masking tape

Here's a video of the what the treadle is actually doing:

New video · Sunday, Mar 24, 2024 🎬

Tap to view!

photos.app.goo.gl

And here's a quick video with proof of life. It sounds great on bass. Fair warning, this is my first time with a wah (leave me alone , I'm a bass player!) and I have no idea what I'm doing with it :

Shared album from Joe 📸

Tap to view!

photos.app.goo.gl

I'm going to pull it apart again, replace the jacks, clean all the old grime off it and get it looking as close to new as I can next time.

I haven't built anything in a while but fixing this felt pretty good so I wanted to share.

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

 

[chris.knudson]

I had a little free time today, though not as much as I thought I'd have. I planned to work on my B-15 but with less time I thought I'd poke around in this old Morley boat anchor.

This thing has a long history with my family: my step dad gave this to my uncle sometime in the early 80's. He used it for a while and then it sat around for a few decades till my cousin came across it. He plugged it in and it didn't work so he game it to me.

I pulled it apart a while ago and it was a mess inside. Today I replaced the bulb and fixed the little curtain that covers up the LDR. Those were the obvious issues but I figured it'd take more work. I plugged it in to test out and it worked perfectly

I'll take it!

I'm going to clean it up and find a more permanent solution to keeping the curtain in place. The way they put this thing together is kind of ridiculous. It's literally held together with masking tape

Here's a video of the what the treadle is actually doing:

New video · Sunday, Mar 24, 2024 🎬

Tap to view!

photos.app.goo.gl

And here's a quick video with proof of life. It sounds great on bass. Fair warning, this is my first time with a wah (leave me alone , I'm a bass player!) and I have no idea what I'm doing with it :

Shared album from Joe 📸

Tap to view!

photos.app.goo.gl

I'm going to pull it apart again, replace the jacks, clean all the old grime off it and get it looking as close to new as I can next time.

I haven't built anything in a while but fixing this felt pretty good so I wanted to share.


View attachment 71412

I had a Morley volume pedal that I've had since the mid 80s. The tension was wearing out, and it would just volume up on its own, so I decided to just give it away. Fast forward six months, and I start building pedals -- not a day has gone by where I didn't wish I had never given that thing away.

 

[peccary]

I had a Morley volume pedal that I've had since the mid 80s. The tension was wearing out, and it would just volume up on its own, so I decided to just give it away. Fast forward six months, and I start building pedals -- not a day has gone by where I didn't wish I had never given that thing away.

This thing is kinda weird in that, without either effect enabled, it acts as a volume pedal. So I guess it's a "Power Wah Fuzz Volume" pedal.

 

[Robert]

Very nice!

Man, I knew these were optical but had no idea just how much of a "Rube Goldberg" contraption they were. That's really cool to see.

 

[peccary]

Very nice!

Man, I knew these were optical but had no idea just how much of a "Rube Goldberg" contraption they were. That's really cool to see.

It's a pretty ingenious idea. It's got a real "some dude in his garage figured it out after a few bong rips" vibe to it

It's literally a piece of cardboard that's held over the LDRs with tape. The bottom of the enclosure has a piece of foil to help reflect light that's was held in place with masking tape that disintegrated when I touched it. The little curtain that rolls up was held down with another piece of disintegrated masking tape.