Parasite Wah - Variable Q Mod

[Stickman393]

Just wanted to share this one for anybody who's interested.

It's trivially easy to add a variable Q control to the Parasite wah. I picked this up by dissecting the Hiwatt wah pedal: that one's based on the tychobrahe Parapedal, but with a couple of small changes to the circuit.

Basically, replace R4 with a 10Ka potentiometer with a 1.5K resistor across terminals 1&2. Terminal 3 goes to the side of R4 that is common with Pin 6 of IC1, Terminal 1 goers to the side of R4 that is common with Pin 7 of IC1.

Photo:

 

[Diederick]

Just made the parasite wah . With your variabele Q mod!
Also a volume knob mod
And a 5 position Q bandwith selector
(And al the pcb mods (components)that are meantioned here in other topics)

Work very wel now and so much more versitile!

 

[Diederick]

The pedal has one little issue:
When wah trottle is in the lower frequency registers the volume is not as loud as in the higher frequency registers.
Does some one have ideas how to boost the volume of when wah pedal trottle is in lower frequenties ?

 

[Diederick]

The pedal has one little issue:
When wah trottle is in the lower frequency registers the volume is not as loud as in the higher frequency registers.
Does some one have ideas how to boost the volume of when wah pedal trottle is in lower frequenties ?
View attachment 118233

Well you have tune the pedal I found out. Just adjust the stereo pot one teef further on the gear(heel down).I had a gain meter and all is unity gain now.

 

[sarcasticallyincharge]

Well you have tune the pedal I found out. Just adjust the stereo pot one teef further on the gear(heel down).I had a gain meter and all is unity gain now.

As in you don't use the full sweep of the pot?

 

[Stickman393]

As in you don't use the full sweep of the pot?

Ain't possible in a crybaby shell. It's designed to keep ya from over-rotating the potentiometer. Can't say exactly how much of the range you get, but I'd reckon it's about 70ish percent.

You can replace the bumpers and get a little more range out of it, but the last step in setting up a wah is getting the pot dialed to its sweet spot.

 

[neiltheseal]

View attachment 118189
Just made the parasite wah . With your variabele Q mod!
Also a volume knob mod
And a 5 position Q bandwith selector
(And al the pcb mods (components)that are meantioned here in other topics)

Work very wel now and so much more versitile!

Looks nice. Can I ask where you got that pot? I’ve been meaning to make one of these but cans find the pot

 

[Stickman393]

Looks nice. Can I ask where you got that pot? I’ve been meaning to make one of these but cans find the pot

Personally interested as well.

My parasite was built with an Alps RK27. It does the job quite well, but it's not meant for the heavy-duty back and forth rocking of a wah pedal.

It's only rated for about 15k cycles...better than some, but goddamn I wish I could find something from the same CTS series that all the big boys are getting their wah pots built from (1 million cycle rating).

 

[sarcasticallyincharge]

Ain't possible in a crybaby shell. It's designed to keep ya from over-rotating the potentiometer. Can't say exactly how much of the range you get, but I'd reckon it's about 70ish percent.

You can replace the bumpers and get a little more range out of it, but the last step in setting up a wah is getting the pot dialed to its sweet spot.

Oh sweet, I'll try that out. Semi-related, how do you keep the pot in place? Nuts on the pot aren't broad enough to keep it firmly attached to that arc thing it lies on. Not sure if there's like broader washers out there