Wah Inductors. No hype. Just measurements.

[Stickman393]

Checked out both the Friedman and the danelectro triple-wah today.

Friedman: typical 1811P...but with a little twist (heh). They wound it with litz wire. Interesting...

That accounts for the relatively low DCR on this one. Not sure what the purpose is. Could have been done to try to match what dunlop's toroid cores measure out like. Certainly is unique.

The danelectro is a toroid and it's garbage. Weak Q. Weird setup too...SMD board, but it looks like the input, sweep, and the 220nf caps on either side of the pot are leaded, soldered to the SMD pass, and hot glued in place.

I'll probably end up replacing the inductor in that one, fixing it up a bit, and flipping it.

 

[Stickman393]

Update: OK, all my stateside homies, I've printed out the labels and will be sending these out tomorrow.

International: MyBud, I gotta figure out how international works. Customs and such. Its been a long time since I've done this. I'll look into it and see about getting it out ASAP.

Crazy Cat and Doomy, this is gonna depend on how quickly I can assemble the rest of my package for doomy. Hopefully within the next week or so.

 

[masonlewisdiesel]

Hell yeah, bought a 60s style board with some components from Ebay (Detrick_fx if i recall correctly), got a enclosure already, it will be game on!

 

[Nostradoomus]

No rush my dude, we chillin up here

 

[Stickman393]

I wrote a special message to each of you in the box.

I have no idea who is getting which Inductor and which message.

I also did not put any thought into each message. I just wrote the first thing that came to mind.

And my handwriting is near illegible, so you might not even be able to read it.

Just think of it like a fortune cookie.

Each inductor is labeled with its number, so you'll be able to look up the measurements I recorded for it.

I hope ya like em, but by all means if you have feedback on design, sound, etc that is less than positive, lemme know. I aim to make something that's easy to integrate into any design, and most importantly: I want it to *sound good*. Subjectively speaking.

Notes: I'm a fan of BC109b's and BC108b's in a wah. HFE between 225-500 Matching is not necessary. Some folks like Q1 to be higher than Q2, I prefer the opposite way around. Q2 ultimately has much less impact on the sound

I'm not a fan of MPSA18s in a wah. Those suckers are too hot and thin the circuit out. Err on the side of lower gain, it fattens

The range cap can benefit from something like a polypro or styrene, but plenty of folks get by just fine with mylar.

The wah pot is personal preference. Just a matter of how quickly you want it to sweep.

The 33k resistor in parallel with the inductor will affect q. Increasing this value increases Q, decreasing this value decreases Q.

Throwing a pot in series with the inductor will also allow for variable Q: this is how Dunlop does it on the older 535Qs. This works the opposite way: increasing resistance decreases Q, decreasing resistance increases Q.

These were designed to have a relatively high Q, while not being quite as sharp as something like the Eleca halo inductor. It's about halfway between your typical Dunlop inductor and an Eleca halo.

Also...I'm not entirely sure how the glue is going to hold up. Don't put undue leverage on the ferrites: I'm probably going to switch to an epoxy for future runs. If you find the ferrites separate from their bases, let me know. A bit of super glue should help if it separates. Just be careful: the wires I used to wind these are exceedingly thin.

 

[Stickman393]

Also: I recommend using as beefy of a bus wire as you can get to connect these to the board. 20awg works well in my experience.

Double-stick tape on the bottom can help secure it too.