TearJerker Wah on a Cry Baby shell

[caiofilipini]

As I hinted at here, I bought a cheap stock '90s Cry Baby recently and was experimenting with some mods. I started with the basics, like trying out different inductors, different values for the Q resistor, etc.

My original idea was to actually do the mods on the stock PCB, but it's not a great board, some of the pads came off while I was removing the input buffer, so I gave up on the stock board and built the TearJerker instead, which is basically a standard GCB-95 circuit with the most popular mods implemented: no input buffer, adjustable Q, mids, lows and overall volume. I experimented with three different inductors (Red Fasel, Yellow Fasel and Sabbadius Halo) and a bunch of NPN transistors. The low hFE transistors were my favorites by a mile in Q1, so I ended up with a Motorola JAN2N2222 there (hFE around 160) and a BC549B (hFE around 300) in Q2.

Replaced the SPDT with a Carling DPDT (no LED on my build), and swapped the pot out for a Joe Gagan 100K pot. I still need experiment and fine tune the trimmers, but I have it set to a stock Cry Baby (with the exception of the Q raised to about 68K), but so far I'm really happy with the results!

Pics:

 

[Big Monk]

As I hinted at here, I bought a cheap stock '90s Cry Baby recently and was experimenting with some mods. I started with the basics, like trying out different inductors, different values for the Q resistor, etc.

My original idea was to actually do the mods on the stock PCB, but it's not a great board, some of the pads came off while I was removing the input buffer, so I gave up on the stock board and built the TearJerker instead, which is basically a standard GCB-95 circuit with the most popular mods implemented: no input buffer, adjustable Q, mids, lows and overall volume. I experimented with three different inductors (Red Fasel, Yellow Fasel and Sabbadius Halo) and a bunch of NPN transistors. The low hFE transistors were my favorites by a mile in Q1, so I ended up with a Motorola JAN2N2222 there (hFE around 160) and a BC549B (hFE around 300) in Q2.

Replaced the SPDT with a Carling DPDT (no LED on my build), and swapped the pot out for a Joe Gagan 100K pot. I still need experiment and fine tune the trimmers, but I have it set to a stock Cry Baby (with the exception of the Q raised to about 68K), but so far I'm really happy with the results!

Pics:

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Very nice. I have a Sabbadius, Tropical Fish, BC109s and a Chase Tone pot and i'll be using this post as an inspiration to get my wah retrofitted!

 

[caiofilipini]

Very nice. I have a Sabbadius, Tropical Fish, BC109s and a Chase Tone pot and i'll be using this post as an inspiration to get my wah retrofitted!

Do it! I tried BC109s, but I liked the tone of the lower hFEs even more. I recommend socketing Q1 or breadboarding the circuit before commiting to them.

 

[Big Monk]

Do it! I tried BC109s, but I liked the tone of the lower hFEs even more. I recommend socketing Q1 or breadboarding the circuit before commiting to them.

Well, I bought the BC109s for this particular project but have a whole mess of Amperex A115 as well that are mostly 175 hFE and under. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Mcknib]

That is a thing of booty

Looks excellent

 

[caiofilipini]

That is a thing of booty

Looks excellent

Thank you!

 

[cooder]

Excellent build.

 

[caiofilipini]

Thanks!

 

[fig]

That is really nice!

 

[caiofilipini]

Thank you!

 

[Big Monk]

I've just put a retrofit board together to allow switching between fasel and halo type wahs internal to the pedal. I need to work on the layout a little more to get things to fit but it's roughly the size of the wah nameplate at the front of the pedal so it should be able to be mounted right by the switch.

It will have a Fasel/Halo Switch and then a switch to go between red and yellow fasel inductors.

 

[jcrhee]

Does anyone here know if the Tearjerker wah can do the Clyde McCoy voicing? I've always loved the aggression of the McCoys.

 

[caiofilipini]

I'm no expert by any means, and I never played a real Clyde McCoy, but from what I read, I think you could get there with the TearJerker.

Others can correct me on this, but I believe most of it comes from what's known as the "vocal mod", which is basically changing the resistor in parallel with the inductor to affect the peak resonance, or Q, of the filter. Cry Babys come with a 33K resistor there, and I think the originals had a 100K instead.

The TearJerker has a trimpot there, so you can tweak it until it reaches the aggressiveness you're after.

 

[matt3310]

I've built a few of these Tearjerkers. I think its the best sounding Wah available! And super versatile!