Here's A New Twist On The Teese Picture Wah

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Here's A New Twist On The Teese Picture Wah

Interesting...From what I've read, you and I share a similar taste in tone and this has me thinking of sending you an 847

MJ

This is a pricey proposition on your wah because you have to spend about $60 on the inductor and the pot before I even get inside of your wah...I don't get alot of wahs to mod for this reason...

John

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Here's A New Twist On The Teese Picture Wah

Ok, this is the last time I'll cast aspersions to Fulltone, but I'd still like to know, from a technical point of view, what the deal is with a Fulltone pot. As opposed to a CTS, for instance.

It's the taper of the pot and the way the pot works with the circuit...The ICAR pot used in the early wahs had the best taper and gave the wah the most high to low tone...You'd have to study about the early wahs to understand the whys...Not everything on paper is the end all to why something works better than something else...The key to great wah tone is the inductor and the proper pot..After that you can voice the rest of the circuit..

John

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Here's A New Twist On The Teese Picture Wah

Ah . . . ok. Still, that would only affect longevity, not tone.

Must be one of those "mojo" thangs.

The sweep and the way the pot tapers is what gives the wah more or less vocal range....I won't say the pot changes the sound in itself but the more range you get from the pot,the better the vocal quality from lows to highs..Read this link and you'll get more on all this..Some of it is accidental voodoo for sure...


http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/wahpedl/wahped.htm

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Here's A New Twist On The Teese Picture Wah

"Pot Secrets
The potentiometer (pot) that gets rotated to make the wah do its thing is also a source of myth and legend. While the original Italian Vox pots were almost certainly off-the-shelf things, they were obtained at a time before the MBA's convinced everyone to keep far fewer things on the shelves than they do today. As a result, "off the shelf" might well have had a far richer meaning than it does today. The questions surrounding the pot are (a) what value of pot resistance do you use and (b) what taper is the resistance in the pot?

As to value, the earliest wahs are supposed to have used 470K, 500K or 1M pots here. All modern pots use 100K. There is still more work to do to find out how this affects tone.

Taper is a big item. It's pretty certain that the pot taper in commercial pedals is not linear. An audio taper comes close, but wah afficionados say that it's not quite right. The best candidate seems to be a semi-logarithmic taper (like audio, but not as extreme) or a semi-log taper. Part of the search for perfect taper is a result of the fact that the full mechanical travel of the wah rocker pedal will not turn a normal potentiomenter through its full 300 degrees of mechanical rotation, so there is some pot travel that remains that is not used because the rocker can't turn it far enough.

The Teese Wah Pot is reputed to have "dead zones" at each end of it's travel, possibly a linear taper between the extremes. The Fulltone pot is also reputed to have a modified taper. Whether the HotPot, Rock Potz, and others have standard tapers or not is not well known.

Now that we know that the pot is doing, we can do some things about making special tapers for pots".

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Here's A New Twist On The Teese Picture Wah

The Wah Inductor...

"Inductor Magic

There's a legend in the music world that the sound of the old, original Vox Wahs with "Fasel" inductors is superior to what can be had from modern wahs. It turns out that there is some fact behind this legend. While it's clear that the other parts in a Vox Wah have something to do with the tone, the inductors have long been the subject of speculation. The wahs with Clyde McCoy's picture on the bottom plate and inductors marked "Fasel" are especially prized. I have a longstanding mistrust of any legendary mystical goodness that is not explainable by technical analysis, so I always wanted to test the magic inductor".

 

[TwofacePimp]

Re: Here's A New Twist On The Teese Picture Wah

Hah! I remember when I sent my DS-1 to John (great mod by the way) I wanted to send my Crybaby too, but then he said that it would be expensive and a Teese would sound better. Now that John has changed his tune, it sounds like he'll be modding a lot of wahs too, and then he'll be so busy he will never be able to sleep at night! NEVER!!!

Nah, just kidding John. You do great work, and a lot of others on this forum can back me up on that. Maybe I will send that Crybaby to you now...

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Here's A New Twist On The Teese Picture Wah

Hah! I remember when I sent my DS-1 to John (great mod by the way) I wanted to send my Crybaby too, but then he said that it would be expensive and a Teese would sound better. Now that John has changed his tune, it sounds like he'll be modding a lot of wahs too, and then he'll be so busy he will never be able to sleep at night! NEVER!!!

Nah, just kidding John. You do great work, and a lot of others on this forum can back me up on that. Maybe I will send that Crybaby to you now...

Thanks for the kind words brother...I really thought the Teese was going to be alot better...After experimenting more with some components on my 847 and listening to Teese's wah,I found myself liking my modded wah more...The mids are more out front on my wah which makes the wah seem more out front,plus mine was heavier and smoother in it's tone...I also have the same range as the teese because I'm guessing that Fulltone's pot and inductor are just as good as Teese's stuff...The rest is just my own trial and error until I dial the wah in perfect for what I need my wah to do....My wah is quiter because I used all metal film resistors,Teese uses carbon comp which adds noise..I realize all the early wahs used nothing but carbon comp resistors,but I don't feel they make the circuit any warmer or smoother...My wah is warmer and smoother with the metal film resistors,plus I don't have to worry about the resistors drifting out of spec over several years...I'm very happy with my wah..It's "MY" wah... :dance:

 

[Artie]

Re: Here's A New Twist On The Teese Picture Wah

"Pot Secrets
The potentiometer (pot) that gets rotated to make the wah do its thing is also a source of myth and legend. While the original Italian Vox pots were almost certainly off-the-shelf things, they were obtained at a time before the MBA's convinced everyone to keep far fewer things on the shelves than they do today. As a result, "off the shelf" might well have had a far richer meaning than it does today. The questions surrounding the pot are (a) what value of pot resistance do you use and (b) what taper is the resistance in the pot?

As to value, the earliest wahs are supposed to have used 470K, 500K or 1M pots here. All modern pots use 100K. There is still more work to do to find out how this affects tone.

Taper is a big item. It's pretty certain that the pot taper in commercial pedals is not linear. An audio taper comes close, but wah afficionados say that it's not quite right. The best candidate seems to be a semi-logarithmic taper (like audio, but not as extreme) or a semi-log taper. Part of the search for perfect taper is a result of the fact that the full mechanical travel of the wah rocker pedal will not turn a normal potentiomenter through its full 300 degrees of mechanical rotation, so there is some pot travel that remains that is not used because the rocker can't turn it far enough.

The Teese Wah Pot is reputed to have "dead zones" at each end of it's travel, possibly a linear taper between the extremes. The Fulltone pot is also reputed to have a modified taper. Whether the HotPot, Rock Potz, and others have standard tapers or not is not well known.

Now that we know that the pot is doing, we can do some things about making special tapers for pots".

Ok, this is starting to make sense. This pot does have specific design variances that distinguish it from off-the-shelf pots. That, I'll buy.

Thanks for all that info John.