Bludave
New member
:fingersx: :fingersx: This thing smokes. But let me give you guys who care a little backround.
About 2 or 3 years ago John modded a Thomas Organ Company Crybaby from the 60's and a TS9 that have never left my board since I got them. The Wah is the best Wah I have ever owned. But I had this old 847 laying around, and after reading several posts about his mods to this Wah I thought I should do it. I keep a pedal board and amp at my drummers house and the Wah I have on that board is a Vox Clyde McCoy...... also a very nice wah. My thinking was to upgrade the Clyde.
I got the Wah about 2 weeks ago and haven't had a lot of time working with it, but the little I have I can see this wah is completely different what it was. It now has an external gain control, so you can dial in different tones with it pretty easily. On the outside of the Wah there are 3 marks colored Green, red and blue. The green is voiced very much as a stock Vox and as you move from green to to blue it start to add more bottom and more gain. A very cool setup. There was also quite a few changes made internally to it, but John can explain better what they are. Here is basically what I have done with it so far:
At home I have a Bogner Shiva, a 1968 Super Reverb and a Deluxe Reverb (1967). I used a Les Paul Standard (1990) with stock pickups. With the Les Paul I liked the Green setting a little better, as the gain is increased it thickens up an already pretty thick tone, but in a really good way. Me being more of a blues/blues rock kind of player with the Bogner and the LP the green work really well. In the clean channel there was plenty of range as I rocked the pedal up and down, very vocal sounding and really sweet at the same time. As I rolled the volume back on the guitar it cleaned up some of the bottom also. Really cool sounding. When I kicked in the TS9 it took on a whole different tone. The range was shortened slightly but the wah just howled with harmonics. The little extra gain that it added was the cause of those lush harmonics coming out. I had the gain on the TS9 barely on, it was set more like a volume boost.Great sounding pedal.
Next I plugged in my '85 RI Strat. This is equipped with a set of Texas hots and OMG with a Strat this thing sounded completely different. The vocal range was increased dramatically. I rolled the external gain over to the blue and it really thickend things up nicely, but not in a harsh way. The pedal handeled it all well, but I still think I like the a point somewhere in between the green and the red.
Later in the week at band practice I used a Marshall 900 combo with the same guitars and with the Marshall it still sounded quite rich and vocal. At the end of the night I played a few things with the gain rolled over to blue and it was pretty impressive with the Strat in the drive channel of the Marshall. The following week I used a Shecter Tempest equipped with a set of Duncan Antiquity P90's and my "Twitedcaster" that I got from Mike (Xsissive). The Tele has a Duncan Firebird Pickup in the Neck and a Hotrail in the bridge. With the P90's I thought this Wah took on characters reminisant of an old set of HB pickups. It was warm and full yet the treble side was not harsh at all. Really quite pretty espicially in the clean settings. In the Drive settings it really got Nasty. Espicially with the bridge pickup.
The Twistedcaster is such a versatile guitar, it can do metal(although I can't
). In the middle position thru the clean side of the Amp it sounds really sweet and has a huge amount of sweep to it. With the Neck pickup it got a little darker sounding but just what you would expect from the neck and wah combination. The Bridge in the Drive channel just killed. A huge amount of bite and nice and chewy at the same time. Next is the Fenders amps. Over all I am extremely pleased with this Pedals tone. When I removed to bottom plate to examine it, it looked like it came from the factory this way. John is an artist with a soldering iron. He even hardwired a bad plug right to the board that was probably like that when he got it (sorry John I forgot about that). He communicated with me every step of the way sending me photos of the work (although I have no clue what the hell I was looking at :9: ). If anyone here is considering getting this done I would strongly recommend it. What John does is take a so-so Wah and makes it into an amazing Wah. This Wah is as versatile as any Fullertone or Tesse Wah that I have played thats for sure.
It is a very different Wah than the other Crybaby that John did for me a few years ago, but thats a good thing. It gives me the option of picking the Wah that will work best for me. I love my Crybaby, but this one may become my # 1............. we shall see. GREAT JOB JOHN! and thanx for doing a great job for me!
About 2 or 3 years ago John modded a Thomas Organ Company Crybaby from the 60's and a TS9 that have never left my board since I got them. The Wah is the best Wah I have ever owned. But I had this old 847 laying around, and after reading several posts about his mods to this Wah I thought I should do it. I keep a pedal board and amp at my drummers house and the Wah I have on that board is a Vox Clyde McCoy...... also a very nice wah. My thinking was to upgrade the Clyde.
I got the Wah about 2 weeks ago and haven't had a lot of time working with it, but the little I have I can see this wah is completely different what it was. It now has an external gain control, so you can dial in different tones with it pretty easily. On the outside of the Wah there are 3 marks colored Green, red and blue. The green is voiced very much as a stock Vox and as you move from green to to blue it start to add more bottom and more gain. A very cool setup. There was also quite a few changes made internally to it, but John can explain better what they are. Here is basically what I have done with it so far:
At home I have a Bogner Shiva, a 1968 Super Reverb and a Deluxe Reverb (1967). I used a Les Paul Standard (1990) with stock pickups. With the Les Paul I liked the Green setting a little better, as the gain is increased it thickens up an already pretty thick tone, but in a really good way. Me being more of a blues/blues rock kind of player with the Bogner and the LP the green work really well. In the clean channel there was plenty of range as I rocked the pedal up and down, very vocal sounding and really sweet at the same time. As I rolled the volume back on the guitar it cleaned up some of the bottom also. Really cool sounding. When I kicked in the TS9 it took on a whole different tone. The range was shortened slightly but the wah just howled with harmonics. The little extra gain that it added was the cause of those lush harmonics coming out. I had the gain on the TS9 barely on, it was set more like a volume boost.Great sounding pedal.
Next I plugged in my '85 RI Strat. This is equipped with a set of Texas hots and OMG with a Strat this thing sounded completely different. The vocal range was increased dramatically. I rolled the external gain over to the blue and it really thickend things up nicely, but not in a harsh way. The pedal handeled it all well, but I still think I like the a point somewhere in between the green and the red.
Later in the week at band practice I used a Marshall 900 combo with the same guitars and with the Marshall it still sounded quite rich and vocal. At the end of the night I played a few things with the gain rolled over to blue and it was pretty impressive with the Strat in the drive channel of the Marshall. The following week I used a Shecter Tempest equipped with a set of Duncan Antiquity P90's and my "Twitedcaster" that I got from Mike (Xsissive). The Tele has a Duncan Firebird Pickup in the Neck and a Hotrail in the bridge. With the P90's I thought this Wah took on characters reminisant of an old set of HB pickups. It was warm and full yet the treble side was not harsh at all. Really quite pretty espicially in the clean settings. In the Drive settings it really got Nasty. Espicially with the bridge pickup.
The Twistedcaster is such a versatile guitar, it can do metal(although I can't
). In the middle position thru the clean side of the Amp it sounds really sweet and has a huge amount of sweep to it. With the Neck pickup it got a little darker sounding but just what you would expect from the neck and wah combination. The Bridge in the Drive channel just killed. A huge amount of bite and nice and chewy at the same time. Next is the Fenders amps. Over all I am extremely pleased with this Pedals tone. When I removed to bottom plate to examine it, it looked like it came from the factory this way. John is an artist with a soldering iron. He even hardwired a bad plug right to the board that was probably like that when he got it (sorry John I forgot about that). He communicated with me every step of the way sending me photos of the work (although I have no clue what the hell I was looking at :9: ). If anyone here is considering getting this done I would strongly recommend it. What John does is take a so-so Wah and makes it into an amazing Wah. This Wah is as versatile as any Fullertone or Tesse Wah that I have played thats for sure.It is a very different Wah than the other Crybaby that John did for me a few years ago, but thats a good thing. It gives me the option of picking the Wah that will work best for me. I love my Crybaby, but this one may become my # 1............. we shall see. GREAT JOB JOHN! and thanx for doing a great job for me!
