Thomas Organ Wah Score!

[Curly]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

hey John,
have you tried the Whipple inductor?

I've had one a while, but haven't used it yet ..

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

hey John,
have you tried the Whipple inductor?

I've had one a while, but haven't used it yet ..

Hi buddy,Yep.....Look at the second photo in the earlier posting on here of my buddie's wah....That's a Whipple inductor...The Arteffect "Halo" is pricey but nice also.

A Friend's Modded CryBaby(Same Era) Whipple Inductor

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Thanks guys....hehe I am connected to other sources...I am just a lazy bum that needs to check out our own suppliers...
But thanks a bunch!
200k is not very common anymore.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Christian.....I Looked at the Wilson wah site....It's funny cause I have a bunch of those selectable(clickable variable pots) but I've never used them....Here's the thing....Guitar players are pretty simple minded....Once I dial the wah in to my own liking,I pretty much just only use that voicing....So why put 12 different cap values on the wah? LOL...

I'll experiment with different cap values and resistance values...From there,I'll usually just solder the cap(s) and resistor values I came up with...The really tweaky guys like the adjustment and so then I'll either do an external mounted variable pot or I'll mount trimmer pots on the board....

Once I find that "sweet spot" sound,I find I always just come back to that setting on my wah....LOL...The Fulltone Deluxe wah also has the variable cap value pot and it just lowers or increases the cap values...That wah also has the 3 settings that I Liked on Lew's wah when he let me borrow it..

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Thanks guys....hehe I am connected to other sources...I am just a lazy bum that needs to check out our own suppliers...
But thanks a bunch!
200k is not very common anymore.

No problem.....My good deed of the day! :naughty:

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Hehe yeah indeed!!
I've tried a few 250k, but it was never as sweet as the old 200k one.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Christian.....I Looked at the Wilson wah site....It's funny cause I have a bunch of those selectable(clickable variable pots) but I've never used them....Here's the thing....Guitar players are pretty simple minded....Once I dial the wah in to my own liking,I pretty much just only use that voicing....So why put 12 different cap values on the wah? LOL...

I'll experiment with different cap values and resistance values...From there,I'll usually just solder the cap(s) and resistor values I came up with...The really tweaky guys like the adjustment and so then I'll either do an external mounted variable pot or I'll mount trimmer pots on the board....

Once I find that "sweet spot" sound,I find I always just come back to that setting on my wah....LOL...The Fulltone Deluxe wah also has the variable cap value pot and it just lowers or increases the cap values...That wah also has the 3 settings that I Liked on Lew's wah when he let me borrow it..

Kevin is really big on the tweakable wahs, so is Geoffrey Teese and they both sell a lot of them but I hate 'em myself...

I have no outside controls on my wah at all.

I actually had Kevin just built me a drop in board for a Vox shell I had. It has 2 trim pots for fine tuning but no outside controls. Also worth mentioning...i've never even adjusted the trimmers from the wah Kevin had it set up when I got it!

Here is a quick shot of it...all except the buffer board which is mounded up above the switch.

It's a REALLY great sounding wah.

Here is a UTOOB comparison between a Wilson Signature and Kevins personal Clyde Signature wah.

 

[bungalowbill]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Very cool John....I must have overpaid for mine...$50.00 cash from CL.

Mine sounds great....I only use it a couple of times a night (I am no Kirk Hammett)..but is very vocal and works well clean or dirty.

I still wonder about different inductors....I should probably leave well enough alone.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Very cool John....I must have overpaid for mine...$50.00 cash from CL.

Mine sounds great....I only use it a couple of times a night (I am no Kirk Hammett)..but is very vocal and works well clean or dirty.

I still wonder about different inductors....I should probably leave well enough alone.

Your wah sounds really good Joe! I'm going to pretty much set mine up just like your's....If I come up with anything better,I'll be sure to pass that info on to you buddy.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Kevin is really big on the tweakable wahs, so is Geoffrey Teese and they both sell a lot of them but I hate 'em myself...

I have no outside controls on my wah at all.

I actually had Kevin just built me a drop in board for a Vox shell I had. It has 2 trim pots for fine tuning but no outside controls. Also worth mentioning...i've never even adjusted the trimmers from the wah Kevin had it set up when I got it!

Here is a quick shot of it...all except the buffer board which is mounded up above the switch.

It's a REALLY great sounding wah.

Here is a UTOOB comparison between a Wilson Signature and Kevins personal Clyde Signature wah.

Nice clean looking wah on the inside Christian...Cool to have adjustments on the pcb for "gain"...."volume".....and "Q" I prefer to keep everything on the insides of my wahs these days...External mounted pots can break and they move on adjustment...Your wah looks to have trimmers for gain and Q....Sometimes I install a midrange trimmer,but I've found I always go back to the midrange set resistance I like..Looks like the stock trannies(MPSA18) that Vox/Modern Dunlops use?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Nice clean looking wah on the inside Christian...Cool to have adjustments on the pcb for "gain"...."volume".....and "Q" I prefer to keep everything on the insides of my wahs these days...External mounted pots can break and they move on adjustment...Your wah looks to have trimmers for gain and Q....Sometimes I install a midrange trimmer,but I've found I always go back to the midrange set resistance I like..Looks like the stock trannies(MPSA18) that Vox/Modern Dunlops use?

Thanks John!

One of the trimmers is labeled "Bass and Gain" and the other is labeled "sweep".

Like I said, the funny part is I've never once even tweaked them...it nailed the sound I hear in my head right out of the gate!

I'd have to look to be suyre but the trannys are 2N5232As I think...

I tried not to tell Kevin too much about specific parts...I just wanted the sond to be right and the gain to be right, it needed to have a fuzz buffer and I wanted it to be non true bypass...past that I didn't sweat too much in terms of details.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Thanks John!

One of the trimmers is labeled "Bass and Gain" and the other is labeled "sweep".

Like I said, the funny part is I've never once even tweaked them...it nailed the sound I hear in my head right out of the gate!

I'd have to look to be suyre but the trannys are 2N5232As I think...

I tried not to tell Kevin too much about specific parts...I just wanted the sond to be right and the gain to be right, it needed to have a fuzz buffer and I wanted it to be non true bypass...past that I didn't sweat too much in terms of details.

It's funny....as you increase the overall gain of the wah,you also increase the bass and the overall volume of the wah....The one trim pot is right beside the inductor...I'm guessing that actually changes the Q adjustment values for the inductor...The other trimmer sits right where the Q1 gain set resistor normally sits...And yes the 5232s would make sense and are less gainier trannies..I like the BC109Bs also.

Mike Fuller actually uses a 100k adjustable pot on the outside of his wahs...This replaces the usual 68k resistor normally seen in that spot...I Like my wahs to have at least unity gain when switched on,but I actually prefer a slight boost with the wah engaged...Increasing gain or lowering the 68k resistor value normally creates the proper unity gain differences...I hate stepping on anything that lowers the volume throughout the chain to the amp....The EH Small Stone is bad about this..

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

I hear ya on all counts!

The great thing about the Wilson is that it is above unity, has that slight little boost but it stays clean and pure but it's not all clippy like my Teese Picture wah was.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

I hear ya on all counts!

The great thing about the Wilson is that it is above unity, has that slight little boost but it stays clean and pure but it's not all clippy like my Teese Picture wah was.

For the money,the teese pw just wasn't all that...Maybe I had a bad one? ;o)

 

[xxxplorer]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

fwiw I had 4 teese wahs, and sold all 4. I wanna try some Wilson stuff someday! Especially his freaker wah!

 

[RickyduRock]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

I have the same wah here and I think they're not from early 70s, and maybe even from 70s. Same structure, TDK inductor, same jacks, same pot.
Mine came with a paper label tied to a wire saying "84" and at the board you can read 84 too. My guess is that those things were made in the 80s.
I changed those jacks because they were loose and scretchy. The pot worked fine for months but now its crappy. I measured it with a multimeter and found some "dead" spots in the the pot course.
Changed the 4uF electrolytic cap with a modern 4.7 bipolar electrolytic cap.
Made it true bypass with a xingling DPDT (enforced with some heavy glue).
Voice resistor 100k instead of 33k.
Input resistor 33k instead of 68k to balance off and on volumes.

Since I bought it from a guy in ebay (4 years ago) it sounded too mid-treble to me. The sweep were so short, lacking that "ooouwha" sound. Never used this wah so much since then because I really didn't like the sound. When rocked to the treble position, this thing was so treble and harsh that I could hear radio stations. Also, when loud, at treble position the amp was noisy and microphonic. Just impossible to use.

Some months back I founded a "Led Zeppelin Tribute Band" that forced me to start using it again. After too much reading on the internet I decided to try some BC109B transistors in place of "5117" that it has originally. Bought 2 of them from a site and got it soldered (with some terminal re-arrangements because of different pinout).

The diference was day and night, heaven and hell, water and wine, **** and virginity, wherever you like. I'm shure you know what I mean.
All that bass and that "oouwhaa" sound it's there now. With pedal back I can even do some palm mute things. With the pedal forwarded, the treble is almost the same when it is in bypass mode.

All I need to do now is to search for a good pot.
Almost everything I found on ebay was fake Taiwanese Alpha "ICAR" taper pots.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

I have the same wah here and I think they're not from early 70s, and maybe even from 70s. Same structure, TDK inductor, same jacks, same pot.
Mine came with a paper label tied to a wire saying "84" and at the board you can read 84 too. My guess is that those things were made in the 80s.
I changed those jacks because they were loose and scretchy. The pot worked fine for months but now its crappy. I measured it with a multimeter and found some "dead" spots in the the pot course.
Changed the 4uF electrolytic cap with a modern 4.7 bipolar electrolytic cap.
Made it true bypass with a xingling DPDT (enforced with some heavy glue).
Voice resistor 100k instead of 33k.
Input resistor 33k instead of 68k to balance off and on volumes.

Since I bought it from a guy in ebay (4 years ago) it sounded too mid-treble to me. The sweep were so short, lacking that "ooouwha" sound. Never used this wah so much since then because I really didn't like the sound. When rocked to the treble position, this thing was so treble and harsh that I could hear radio stations. Also, when loud, at treble position the amp was noisy and microphonic. Just impossible to use.

Some months back I founded a "Led Zeppelin Tribute Band" that forced me to start using it again. After too much reading on the internet I decided to try some BC109B transistors in place of "5117" that it has originally. Bought 2 of them from a site and got it soldered (with some terminal re-arrangements because of different pinout).

The diference was day and night, heaven and hell, water and wine, **** and virginity, wherever you like. I'm shure you know what I mean.
All that bass and that "oouwhaa" sound it's there now. With pedal back I can even do some palm mute things. With the pedal forwarded, the treble is almost the same when it is in bypass mode.

All I need to do now is to search for a good pot.
Almost everything I found on ebay was fake Taiwanese Alpha "ICAR" taper pots.

I think the Thomas Organ wahs are from the 70's but I guess I'd have to research that for sure.....You can't always go by those stickers...I want to say that Dunlop came into the picture into the 80s though...This would be after the Thomas Organ series.But you may be very well right.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Found this quote from Teese/AnalogMike about the Thomas Organ wahs.....Seems 83 was the last year for the series..I wanna say that most if not all of the Thomas Organs I've seen and have modded,were 70s models...

What is the fasel inductor?

A) To the best of my knowledge fasel refers to the appearance and

conjectured make up. A way of discerning them. According to Thomas they

used one company to make all their inductors from 1958 to 1981.

Porr-Wagner probably made all the inductors, except the TDK, as TDK was

not listed in the VOX/THOMAS Vendor Files. TDK was introduced in roughly

1968 and used up to the close of Thomas in 1983. They still sold old

stock through 1983 when the rights were purchased by Jim Dunlop.

 

[bungalowbill]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Here is a cool sight..it is translated, so some of the text seems weird.

http://translate.google.com/transla...eocities.jp/e08120/wahwah/wah.html&hl=en&sa=G

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thomas Organ Wah Score!

Here is a cool sight..it is translated, so some of the text seems weird.

http://translate.google.com/transla...eocities.jp/e08120/wahwah/wah.html&hl=en&sa=G

Awesome site! Thanks Joe.Looking at the pictures and the info,the wah I bought is a 1972 model year or there abouts..Mine looks like the Crybaby second from the right..