What should I do to my wah pedal?

[Eque1991]

Honestly: users choice.

Its not a bad addition to the circuit. I've made wahs with switchable input buffers, and I have a hell of a time figuring out if they're on or not.

The "classics" didn't have em, so it's ok in my book to strip em out. It does the job. I like swapping for a jfet-based buffer sometimes cause I'm fancy. Some companies take this approach...the ernie ball wah does, IIRC.

I picked up an old Thomas organ off reverb a while back: the seller said it had previously been played by Stephen Stills. Well, shit. I had to buy it for my dad. I told the guy "hey, I don't really care as far as how true the story is, but tell me a story I can tell him". The story sounded believable enough: shop in LA, his old guitar tech had brought em in. Tickled my dad when I gave it to him.

It was also converted to true bypass, with a mod on the collector of Q1: dropped that one down from a 470 to a 330 or 390 ohm. Shoot. Can't remember off the top of my head.

But what sold me on it was the notes on the back of the thing:

"Has true bypass"
"Sounds good mediocre"

Huh. Yup. That tracks.



I love the approach you took with the Stephen Stills story for your dad. Whether it's 100% true or not doesn't even matter—the "mojo" of a pedal is often 90% the story attached to it anyway. Sometimes you just need a win like that. It actually reminds me of the rush I get when I’m playing over at 1win—it’s that same feeling of chasing a big hit, whether it's a legendary piece of gear or a lucky spin. It’s a great way to kill time while you're waiting for the soldering iron to heat up or just taking a break from chasing down circuit diagrams.

That is such a classic gear story! Honestly, the "Sounds ~~good~~ mediocre" note on the back is probably the most honest gear review I’ve ever heard of. It’s funny how we chase these "holy grail" vintage pieces, only to find out they were just as temperamental and average-sounding back then as they are now.

I love the approach you took with the Stephen Stills story for your dad. Whether it's 100% true or not doesn't even matter at that point—the "mojo" of a pedal is often 90% the story attached to it anyway. Having a Thomas Organ wah with that kind of history (believable or not) is a centerpiece for any collection.

 

[Dumpster D]

Try a 250K tone pot.

If your wah still sucks after that, I'll punch myself in the nuts for you.

So far no one's said anything about tone pots.

That was the secret sauce that worked for me at least, and this just spits in the face of your typical coffee snob....Just pour some hot water on your instant coffee.

Initially I modded my pawn shop Dunlop crybaby to the 'stinkfoot' specs posted online...True bypass wiring 3PDTor is it a dpdt....(That sounds like an innuendo!)

Bypassed the buffer (So I have to now run a JFET boost after the wah now or it's very weak... but that is pretty gnarly because I can 'salt to taste' that way if I want it flaming hot or quiet as a church mouse) swapped a few resistors and caps to the suggested 'stinkfoot' values, sure you could play around here, at that point I might as well build a wah from scratch and spend time doing the proper bean counting nerd science stuff here tone chasing the elusive dragon.

Upgraded to a Red fasel coil....But it still needed something, the mids in the travel was just kinda dull. It's a reissue Red of course. (I took the pepsi Challenge, I chose JIFF peanut butter) Look I'm just never gonna know the difference anyway between the real McCoy, and the Reissue Marketing Gimmick hype....Unless you have an original coil you'd sell me, but that's throwing pearls before swine in my case.

We all want that mystical fricken tone of an original, but not everyone else is going to be able to have that, at the prices of originals.

shhh It can be our little secret, I won't tell. Neither will the audience of people you're performing for....Believe me, not one guy in the crowd will point that out 'Aww man, he's not using the Toroidal inductor... what a total poser!!'

Me: Waiter, Yes...I'd like to order a veal steak please

(Chef to the waiter behind the closed kitchen door, hey, we're out of veal!!)

Chef: * Takes a mallet and pounds a porkchop to a pulp.*

Waiter: *serves it to me*

Me: *Covers it in hot sauce and pays for the full price of the veal steak and goes home full yet none the wiser.*

I couldn't find a 250K 'wah' pedal tone pot so I just took the little 'gear' off the original stock 100K pot, and Jammed it on a Cheap $6 generic 250K guitar tone pot and stuck it in.

'Inconceivable!!!!'

Well, if it works...is it really a dumb idea?

According to research some well known legend *cough*Hendrix*cough* had a 250K tone pot in his Wah at some point? and looking into it, all I could find where the stock 100K pots and a few places were schlocking 200K pots for a lot more money....You pay mostly for marketing gimmicks and hype. Am I right or am I right?

I kinda suspect the 250K tone pot thing is like some kinda forgotten hidden secret or they'd be producing them, it seemed like it was something I was not supposed to know, or do, but ' I am Ahab, I will shoot out the sun if it suits me. '

Other than adjusting the travel, I think the 250K tone pot made the mids really gnarly. I'm not saying I made it any better than a stock wah, sometimes that's fine, I've had situations where my gear is not working in a recording session or someone hates it, at that point I got a stock crybaby on hand that is fine, just fine.

That said, My setup is irregular, I run vintage lo-fi Portable transistor radios for guitar amps and modded guitar as well.

It was just fun to try modding it out...It's still a better door stop.

What have you got in there right now for a tone pot?

Apparently most people like to plug their fuzz after the wah in their effects chain? I'm backwards, I'll run a fuzz into my wah, it just sounds more nasty.

Also, I painted my wah pedal GOld sparkle with a Red heart on the foot pad, with some nail polish. Far out man....Surprisingly that didn't make it sound any better.

 

[andrewsrea]

I suggest keeping it simple and focus on 'Q' for more vowel, to which the Clyde McCoy circuit delivers. IMHO, that is the gold standard for a musical effect.

Set the potentiometer gear so that the frequencies are more centered on the crossover point where the mids seem to 'jump' from low mids to middle-mids and avoiding the harsh treble when toeing in to turn off the effect. Also, set the treadle action just tight enough to hold a fixed position. I am also using no buffers and a rely-based true bypass.

I am literally waiting on a Halo 500mH inductor to be delivered tomorrow, to complete the simple Clyde McCoy terrraboard build. I am using 2N2222 NPN transistors, hand selected on hFE (gain), to replicate the vintage BC109B (I think the four I have in stock are from the late 60's, early 70's). Gain between 180 and 240 seem to be the sweetspot.

I am using only the bare treadle from a donor Dunlop 535Q wah, which as tweakable as it was, didn't have a good tone in it. There were no parts that could be recycled, as getting the double-sided PCB to give them up without damage, was not happening.

 

[Dumpster D]

You mean those awful board mounted 6-pin quarter inch input Jacks Dunlop uses as a deterrent to keep me from tampering with their board?

Yeah I trust the infinite secret wisdom of the corperate gods to serve me goop, and make me like it.

... I get finicky and loose contact whenever I go to plug any cables in? If my pedals don't make sound when I plug them in....guess what?

Yeah I sincerely despise those too, I'd be better off building a wah from scratch and gutting the original Dunlop board. True say. I'm not worried about using all the correct to spec boutique components, you guys deserve those magical vintage parts more than a guy like me.

Close enough.

I didn't touch the stock Transistors, hm...do you think using a 250K tone pot with the original stock transistors might lend the midrange some more punch? Is that what I'm hearing? Measuring transistor gain, or should I mod it out with Bias trimpots? Let's get a little crazy here. Tell you what.

Germanium or Silicon? Who do you like better, Stones or the Beatles? (correct answer: The kinks)

Are your milkshakes made with real milk or are you guys using that constituted shake mix stuf?

Uh, we have Vanilla, chocolate, and Strawberry sir. Would you like fries with that?

That said, I am always constantly re-adjusting the travel, because it's different with every guitar and amplifier I'm plugging into.

....'Ok new guy, take it easy, calm down....'

I'm still curious what Tone pot Values you guys are using for your wah, these are variable resistors, yes?

How does Tone pot value affect the notch filter sweep?