Crybaby problems (need help)

McLaughysSN

New member
i have a vintage (early 70's?) crybaby given to me by my father, its worked great until now. it seems to be a little weaker with response with cleans, but still sounds descent. but with distortion (ive tried multiple pedals (Big Muff USA, Boss DS-1, vintage Univox SuperFuzz, ProCo Rat II, and yes even a DOD grunge) and none of them work

the issue?. when the distortion is turned on all i get is this really high pitched squeal. you here no signal but the squeal when the distortion is on but with the distortion off i get my crybaby back

whats the problem?, fixable?
 
Re: Crybaby problems (need help)

John? Where you at boy? :smoker:

I have no idea what's wrong but John will know what's up...he's the Pedal Tweaker-mon.

For about $99 you can replace every little thing in your old Crybay with Fulltone Clyde parts, including the circuit board. THAT will improve that pedal of yours beyond your wildest dreams!

Lew
 
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Re: Crybaby problems (need help)

First off, the fuzz pedals always wreak havoc on wah pedals no matter what, unless you mod the wah with a JFET buffer/amp circuit to help punch the signal through the fuzz. I have a mod like that in my Vox wah, and it helps. Foxrox Electronics sells the retrofit for wahs, and you can get more info at this link:

http://www.foxroxelectronics.com/

Look for "Foxrox Wah Retrofit" on the left-side directory of the webpage.

Secondly, are you running your wah before or after the distortion pedals? You should have the wah before any distortion. I run my signal guitar->cable->wah before anything else. If that's not the problem, and the noise is still as you described, it sounds like you have an electronic problem either in the switch of your wah, or possibly there's a wire touching something possibly coming off the switch. Open it up and look in there and see if anything is obvious like that. Sounds like some kind of a short, but can't be sure without looking inside.
As Lew said, John (STRATDELUXER97) is our resident pedal guru. You might PM him and explain the situation to him in detail and see what thoughts he may have on this.

Good luck!

-Bob
 
Re: Crybaby problems (need help)

I would not recommend Modding a vintage pedal. If it is a true vintage pedal, it has good value in original condition. Get it fixed, but try to retain as much of the original componants as possible.(John pedal tweaker guy) he has a great rep here. But if worse case replace it with a new one.
 
Re: Crybaby problems (need help)

i think i will be replacing the wah soon just so i can have the extra options and something to not worry about resale value for

i just want to know what is wrong with it so i can fix it and have the security of knowing the pedal can be sold at a dsirable value
 
Re: Crybaby problems (need help)

you should be able to find some info on Teese's site (Real McCoy Custom.com), and other info in Dunlop's FAQ on their site.
 
Re: Crybaby problems (need help)

Are you sure it's not something as simple as killing the gain and/or treble a little bit? If you use a lot of gain (I see you have fuzz pedals?), then I've found the crybaby can be a bit bright and squeal when my toe's down.

I used to get this when I was cranked up loud through a Marshall combo with a lot of gain (I was using a tele copy with a Kent Armstrong Hot Blades at the bridge and a Squire strat with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails at the bridge). All I had to do to fix it was to roll back the tone pot slightly,to maybe 8.5-9 instead of on 10, that seemed to kill the squeal.
 
Re: Crybaby problems (need help)

McLaughysSN said:
the issue?. when the distortion is turned on all i get is this really high pitched squeal. you here no signal but the squeal when the distortion is on but with the distortion off i get my crybaby back

whats the problem?, fixable?
i have the same problem.
 
Re: Crybaby problems (need help)

Bludave said:
I would not recommend Modding a vintage pedal. If it is a true vintage pedal, it has good value in original condition. Get it fixed, but try to retain as much of the original componants as possible.(John pedal tweaker guy) he has a great rep here. But if worse case replace it with a new one.

I did the mod to my Vox, and it didn't require anything more than soldering a couple of wires to the switch. I didn't deface the pedal in any way, drill any holes or anything like that. I don't see how it could lower the value of the pedal as it would be easy enough to desolder the retrofit if desiring to sell the pedal as vintage.
But definitely take it to a tech and have 'em take a look at it. Why don't you PM John and give him the lowdown on the problem? I'm pretty sure he's dabbled into wahs a few times.
 
Re: Crybaby problems (need help)

McLaughysSN said:
i have a vintage (early 70's?) crybaby given to me by my father, its worked great until now. it seems to be a little weaker with response with cleans, but still sounds descent. but with distortion (ive tried multiple pedals (Big Muff USA, Boss DS-1, vintage Univox SuperFuzz, ProCo Rat II, and yes even a DOD grunge) and none of them work

the issue?. when the distortion is turned on all i get is this really high pitched squeal. you here no signal but the squeal when the distortion is on but with the distortion off i get my crybaby back

whats the problem?, fixable?

Good Gosh...So sorry to chime in so late on the post guys! :32: I have been so busy already at the start of this week with alot of different things! I have most of the parts to fix Crybaby and vox wahs with the exception of the inductor and the pot...If you'd like to send it and let me look at it..Go for it...I'll give you an address to send it to...Today I received a DS1 from "Stratandaks" and completed a TS7 for Fresh Start with other stuff in the works and waiting! But it's all fun really! :13:

John
 
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