Guitar Toad
Toadily Stratologist
Hi guys I thought I might tell you what I did to my wah.
I used the mods that are recommend by ErikH and Paul Marossy at www.diyguitarist.com as a guide to improve the tonal and voice quality of my GCB-95 wah.
First, I asked ErikH what pot I should get to replace the scratchy one that it had. He said get a Dunlop Hot Potz II. I was looking on the Antique Electronic Supply site. They had the pot that ErikH recommended. But that also had a HotPotz 470K the pot they use in the Jimi Hendrix wah…yep I fell for the Jimi hype and bought the Jimi one.
First I changed the pot out with the Dunlop HotPotz 470K pot for my wah and the red Dunlop fasel inductor. After that change, my GCB-95 revision G wah has a bit smoother, better overall sound but 470K pot made it really bright when in the full toe position. I'm sure the 470K pot has something to do with that.
To increase the midrange, the recommended changed is to replace the 1.5K resistor between the base of Q2 and the inductor with a 2.2K resistor. Since the wah was really bright I went with a 2.7K resistor
To change the wah’s voice there’s 33K resistor that's in parallel with the inductor. Some recommend changing that one to a 47K others say 68K. I flipped a coin and went with the 68K. I expected this change to give the wah effect a little better enunciation.
Now to address the wah’s gain. The recommendation is to change the 470k resistor at the emitter of Q1 to 270 Ohm. I used a 270.
What can I say but wow! What a difference! It's voice is much more pronounced now with the voice change. The mids much richer and thicker. I'm talking thick. The gain increase was substantial. When playing around after making these changes I was very surprised. My strat I gets very, very close to Alex Lifeson's tone on Limelight. What a transformation? I love the way it sounds now. I could have three of these GCB-95's one left stock, one as I have it now, and one that has a bit less gain. Eventually, I may take out the 270 and try a 330 as it has a bit more gain now than I expected. But it sure sounds good. I've discovered that wahs really do make great booster pedals.
Previously, it did a sound a bit thin...but not anymore. Talk about a tweak that will take a strat into LP territory...leave the wah in the bass-mid region where the highs are cut...If I wasn't me playing it there would be no way that I would guess that thick tone could come out of a strat.
I have one FAT WAH now, baby!
Mods are fun...
This is a public service announcement...
Special thanks go out to ErikH, Paul Marossy and the great guys (thebattleofmidway) at aron's diystompbox forum.
I used the mods that are recommend by ErikH and Paul Marossy at www.diyguitarist.com as a guide to improve the tonal and voice quality of my GCB-95 wah.
First, I asked ErikH what pot I should get to replace the scratchy one that it had. He said get a Dunlop Hot Potz II. I was looking on the Antique Electronic Supply site. They had the pot that ErikH recommended. But that also had a HotPotz 470K the pot they use in the Jimi Hendrix wah…yep I fell for the Jimi hype and bought the Jimi one.
First I changed the pot out with the Dunlop HotPotz 470K pot for my wah and the red Dunlop fasel inductor. After that change, my GCB-95 revision G wah has a bit smoother, better overall sound but 470K pot made it really bright when in the full toe position. I'm sure the 470K pot has something to do with that.
To increase the midrange, the recommended changed is to replace the 1.5K resistor between the base of Q2 and the inductor with a 2.2K resistor. Since the wah was really bright I went with a 2.7K resistor
To change the wah’s voice there’s 33K resistor that's in parallel with the inductor. Some recommend changing that one to a 47K others say 68K. I flipped a coin and went with the 68K. I expected this change to give the wah effect a little better enunciation.
Now to address the wah’s gain. The recommendation is to change the 470k resistor at the emitter of Q1 to 270 Ohm. I used a 270.
What can I say but wow! What a difference! It's voice is much more pronounced now with the voice change. The mids much richer and thicker. I'm talking thick. The gain increase was substantial. When playing around after making these changes I was very surprised. My strat I gets very, very close to Alex Lifeson's tone on Limelight. What a transformation? I love the way it sounds now. I could have three of these GCB-95's one left stock, one as I have it now, and one that has a bit less gain. Eventually, I may take out the 270 and try a 330 as it has a bit more gain now than I expected. But it sure sounds good. I've discovered that wahs really do make great booster pedals.
Previously, it did a sound a bit thin...but not anymore. Talk about a tweak that will take a strat into LP territory...leave the wah in the bass-mid region where the highs are cut...If I wasn't me playing it there would be no way that I would guess that thick tone could come out of a strat.
I have one FAT WAH now, baby!
Mods are fun...
This is a public service announcement...
Special thanks go out to ErikH, Paul Marossy and the great guys (thebattleofmidway) at aron's diystompbox forum.
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) After 1990 Dunlop started the D rev. or E rev.? Regardless if yours has the input & Output jacks mounted to the PCB? It's a major P.I.T.A. to make it true bypass. You have to cut some trace's in your PCB to do it! I'm a modaholic, But I don't like any mod that is irreversible.:eek13:
