Stickman393
Well-known member
Also:
There is a lot of interbreeding between wah pedals.
Budda bud-wah? That one uses a Dunlop board, albeit a "custom" crybaby variant. Also a Dunlop shell.
I've read that VOX pedals were made using Dunlop parts as well. At least, up until their production shifted to China. They tended to use an earlier variant of the Dunlop board that omits the input buffer.
There are two different third party manufacturers in China that do the crybaby-style pedal that I know about.
The first produces the Eleca brand: these are typically identifiable via the horizontal striped pattern on the wah tread. Rocktron, Modtone: these are made in this factory. They're also built with the infamous lightweight aluminum enclosure that is sold on aliexpress, and the rocktron example I have even has a bunch of weights bolted near the heel position to give it more of a sense of heft.
Honestly: it's a perfectly serviceable enclosure. I actually like their version of treadle tension adjustment more than the Dunlop version. They also tend to use the Eleca halo inductor, which gets a thumbs up from me.
There's another manufacturer that operates out of China that uses heavier enclosures: Ruby Tubes, Guitar Research, Carbon: these can be identified via a diamond shaped pattern on the tread. My only complaint with these is that my ruby tubes example is that the plugs they used on my particular example were the "outie" variety, which made extracting the circuit board perilous.
Either of those examples are just fine, and good platforms for modifications. The basic wah circuit is present in all of them.
Another note: I've added a few more inductors to my document.
Other observations:
Regardless of the date, Thomas Organs were beautifully built. There's a real sense of craftsmanship to each, with the wiring harnesses expertly secured by a single length of waxed thread. The leads are terminated at wire wrapped posts that are soldered to the circuit board. Not quite turrets, but similar enough.
Dunlop immediately started making changes for the sake of mass-production. Quick connects and zip ties. When they started running out of the Thomas organ stock that they bought, they often switched to cheaper options. This is particularly noticable in the mid-80s models, which contain then infamous cylinder of death inductor. The Q is shit, they're up around 350 ohms on DC resistance, and they sound like ass.
Any other Dunlop inductor is AOK and potentially usable, though most are relatively tame in terms of Q, so if a sharper roll off around the resonant peak is desired, any of the commercially available 1811p/halo inductors will fit the bill.
There is a lot of interbreeding between wah pedals.
Budda bud-wah? That one uses a Dunlop board, albeit a "custom" crybaby variant. Also a Dunlop shell.
I've read that VOX pedals were made using Dunlop parts as well. At least, up until their production shifted to China. They tended to use an earlier variant of the Dunlop board that omits the input buffer.
There are two different third party manufacturers in China that do the crybaby-style pedal that I know about.
The first produces the Eleca brand: these are typically identifiable via the horizontal striped pattern on the wah tread. Rocktron, Modtone: these are made in this factory. They're also built with the infamous lightweight aluminum enclosure that is sold on aliexpress, and the rocktron example I have even has a bunch of weights bolted near the heel position to give it more of a sense of heft.
Honestly: it's a perfectly serviceable enclosure. I actually like their version of treadle tension adjustment more than the Dunlop version. They also tend to use the Eleca halo inductor, which gets a thumbs up from me.
There's another manufacturer that operates out of China that uses heavier enclosures: Ruby Tubes, Guitar Research, Carbon: these can be identified via a diamond shaped pattern on the tread. My only complaint with these is that my ruby tubes example is that the plugs they used on my particular example were the "outie" variety, which made extracting the circuit board perilous.
Either of those examples are just fine, and good platforms for modifications. The basic wah circuit is present in all of them.
Another note: I've added a few more inductors to my document.
Other observations:
Regardless of the date, Thomas Organs were beautifully built. There's a real sense of craftsmanship to each, with the wiring harnesses expertly secured by a single length of waxed thread. The leads are terminated at wire wrapped posts that are soldered to the circuit board. Not quite turrets, but similar enough.
Dunlop immediately started making changes for the sake of mass-production. Quick connects and zip ties. When they started running out of the Thomas organ stock that they bought, they often switched to cheaper options. This is particularly noticable in the mid-80s models, which contain then infamous cylinder of death inductor. The Q is shit, they're up around 350 ohms on DC resistance, and they sound like ass.
Any other Dunlop inductor is AOK and potentially usable, though most are relatively tame in terms of Q, so if a sharper roll off around the resonant peak is desired, any of the commercially available 1811p/halo inductors will fit the bill.
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