Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

[Lewguitar]

I have two Jim Dunlaps and one old Vox Crybaby Wah Wah that don't work.

They've been broken and just sitting in a box for years.

When I put a new battery in them they sound thin and weak and the wah effect has no volume. You know: the typical sound of a broken Wah Wah.

I've never tried to repair a Wah Wah - what's probably wrong with them?

Is it usually a bad inductor? A bad pot? Both?

I'd like to get them working again but don't want to spend $100 each on an Area 51 upgrade kit. http://area51tubeaudiodesigns.com/M...01&Product_Code=wahboard&Category_Code=cat003

Any suggestions?

Thanks! Lew

 

[Stratman]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

Lew:

I suggest that you contact Geoffrey Teese and request his services.

http://www.realmccoycustom.com/REPAIRS.htm

While his site does state no more repairs, he might have a change in heart...

About 12 years ago, I had a wah stop working and Geoffrey fixed it for me.

(I later purchased a RCM3 and never had anymore problems)

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

Mr's Teese's name is Geoffrey not George and having spoken to him very recently (last month) he's not doing repair workj on non Teese wahs...he simply has no extra time.

Lew, There are a few guys that do wah pedal repair but the truth is that not knowing what each of them need and having to pay bench fee for trouble shooting then pay for the cost of parts and labor for repairs you'll likely have more in the repairs then you would if you dropped in new Area 51 kits plus if you did kits they would likely sound head and sholders above how they woudl sound after just simple repairs.

All that said you have several good wahs now Im not sure you really want to add 3 more wahs to the mix!

If you really want to look into wah repairs Mike at AnalogMan offers repairs but Im not sure he does the trouble shooting, George Bleakas at Pedal Worx does wah repairs, Robert Keeley offers mod work...don't think he does repairs but after the mods all the parts would be replaced anyway...there are a few other guys but those 3 are the ones that come to mind right now.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

I have to think the problems are either pot, switch, or jacks. Not much else to go wrong. Shouldn't be too hard to troubleshoot.

Just don't do it on New Year's Eve, 4 hours before a gig, like my boss did on Tuesday. He called me mid-afternoon, having removed a busted switch from his Teese, and then realizing he couldn't solder well enough to install the replacement.

 

[Curly]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

Lew,

you may need to search for some wah repair FAQs

here are a couple:

My wah's sound was getting thinnner and thinner until now it works almost like a volume pedal with little or no wah at all.
Loss of "wah" in inductor-based two-transistor wahs (nearly all of them except Morely's) is most often a failure of the 4.7uF to 10uF electrolytic capacitor connected to one end of the inductor. Replace the capacitor and wah on.

My Crybaby is acting like a volume pedal and not WAHing, what's wrong?

This typically occurs when the inductor (also known as the coil) on the pc-board becomes defective. Usually this is from dropping the pedal, or trying to do a modification to the pedal and the drill goes a little too far. The inductor can be found near the center of the pc-board and is the largest component on the board (except for the input and output jack on later revisions). You can determine if the inductor is bad by measuring the resistance across the 33Kohm resistor (orange orange gold); if you measure 100 ohm or higher, the inductor is definitely open (i.e. bad). For you tech types, the inductor is in parallel with this resistor - thus the reasoning behind measuring the resistor.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

I'm going to also guess capacitor. It sounds like you have a dead or dying cap in there. If it were pot, switch, or jacks, you'd get no sound at all, but your description really sounds a lot like what happens when a capacitor dies.

You will want to look at the electrolytic caps. The electrolytics are the cylindrical ones, and these are used to couple the signal to ground. They can degrade over time, especially if they're cheap. Start with the one mentioned in Curly's post, and if that doesn't work try the others one by one until the problem is gone.

 

[thesameage]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

I just pm'd you. I'm currently upgrading a Dunlop GCB-95 that I bought off of craigslist locally. I'm going to be taking out the pcb and jacks and totally replacing them (I'm keeping the pot, though). It's an older model before they started mounting the jacks on the pcb. If you want a cheap fix, you could just buy this one off of me and drop it in to get things working. Then you won't have to go back and forth soldering caps in and out.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

Thanks! I have a Teese - so I have a nice working pedal. My buddy John Spina has offered to take a look at these broken ones. Eventually I'll send them off to him. Lew

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

Why have you not sent me your pedals Lew? I have offered to get you squared away on them.....You didn't even need to post on this really....:wave::wink: As a friend,I'd take care of those wahs for ya! Get them in the mail so I can fix em!

:lmao: John - this is a post from a year ago before I got distracted with illness! The original post at the top is a full year old. I'll send them to you next week so you can take a look at them. Many thanks! Lew

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

:lmao: John - this is a post from a year ago before I got distracted with illness! The original post at the top is a full year old. I'll send them to you next week so you can take a look at them. Many thanks! Lew

LOL......Oh ok....:eyecrazy:

 

[Curly]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

haha ... we tricked John into doing wah mods again!!!!

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Three broken Wah Wahs pedals - how to fix?

haha ... we tricked John into doing wah mods again!!!!

Just for some very select few buddy! Sounds more like "repairs" in Lew's case. LOL