wah mod thread

joshuablevins

joshuablevins

New member
so i have heard the fasel reds and yellow have them the reds my favorite way to subtle of a mod for the money

i have done a vocal mod with a 100k i like it

i have done a midrange mod with a 2.2k and i like it

i am gonna mess with the vocal mod it seems like its only vocal when clean so it might be too much for hi-gain

i was wondering i know the first transistor or one of them affect how wide the sweep is. is there anybody out there that has done a transistor swap if you have i want to know which transistor for q1 q2 q3 and if there are any other mods on your crybaby.

i havn't really gotten to true bypass yet just bc the buffer.

if i do the true bypass will i have to take out the buffer?

and when i do true bypass which is more effective for volume compensation changing the 68k input resistor or the 390 emitter off of the transistor?

all help will be appreciated i just dont want to dunk into my funds anymore than i have to.
 
Re: wah mod thread

whatever mods i come up with i will post on the forum and on my website.

this is a labor of love not a bussiness
 
Re: wah mod thread

I did one to my Snarling Dogs, which is made similar to a Crybaby. I got the mod from a site that had Crybaby mods, so I took a chance and tried it. The Dog has so much awful bass and no sweet spot in the trebble and mid range. So I switched the 0.01uf cap with a lower value of 0.0047uf, and it made a world of difference. It added all the mid range vocalness I was after. Waht and amazing wah now!
 
Re: wah mod thread

i have already done all of the wah mods from those i have like three different modded wahs just for modding serivice trials i want something a little more complex than the volume knob tone knob sweep knobs and the basic circuit mods like dual fasel crybaby mods not diy kits CRYBABY mods not to be a jerk but some ppl seem to think diy board kit is a mod its a whole different project and tone and transistor changes

any help is appreciated thank you
 
Re: wah mod thread

I mostly noodle on Vox wahs and there are only two transistors in them.

- Replace 33k "vocal" resistor for 18k + 100kB potentiometer, drill and be able to dial in the amount of vocalness. Agreed about higher values working best with less gain, but mine is currently set at 100k and I've gotten compliments on my modified wah from guys that own ProAnalog SupaQuacks.

Grab some sockets from smallbearelec.com and experiment with different transistors. To start, try out 2N2222, 2N5088 or 2N5089, BC109, 2N3904. See if you hear much of a difference.

Inductor: there's a guy on ebay once upon a time who builds clones of the old school inductors... Whipple or something like that. I've never used because I managed to snag a Fulltone Inductor just after he stopped selling them to modders. Inductors I hear a difference but who knows whether thats the inductor or just poor tolerance between the same type of inductors.

IMO the biggest difference in wah sound is that vocal resistor and then the Wah pot itself... sweep of the wah pot is a major factor in the sound.
 
Re: wah mod thread

That's great info according to my research one of the transistors controls how wide the sweep is I know it's not the in the buffer...I think
 
Re: wah mod thread

If there's one thing I've learned after 6 years of tinkering, a B.S.E.E. and soon to be an M.S.E.E., there really is no better or worse. Just different. "Better" and "worse" are subjective assessments, and depends totally on the player. I play in a 90's rock style band and use a wah that is almost completely vintage-modified. ICAR pot, Fulltone inductor, 100k vocal resistor, BC109 transistors... truth be told it wasn't sounding modern enough so I did a really, really, whacky mod to it that if I showed the guts of my wah pedal many people here would cringe but I gig out almost weekly for 3 hours a night and it gets stomped hard and often. I got frustrated because I couldn't get an awesome vintage and an awesome modern sound out of the same wah. After many hours frustrated I realized it was the sweep of the wah pot itself that was giving me the vintage-y sound. so, I improvised a bit. If you're looking for a modern, metal sounding wah I wouldn't modify much at all really. I'd throw true bypass on a crybaby or buffered bypass, increase the vocal resistor from 33k to 56k, change the mid resistor to 2k2, and call it. The sweep will be just fine. Going too high on the vocal resistor I feel loses some of the "cut" that a wah has when soloing under high gain, which I'd imagine a metal player wouldn't want.
 
Re: wah mod thread

joelap said:
I mostly noodle on Vox wahs and there are only two transistors in them.

- Replace 33k "vocal" resistor for 18k + 100kB potentiometer, drill and be able to dial in the amount of vocalness. Agreed about higher values working best with less gain, but mine is currently set at 100k and I've gotten compliments on my modified wah from guys that own ProAnalog SupaQuacks.

Grab some sockets from smallbearelec.com and experiment with different transistors. To start, try out 2N2222, 2N5088 or 2N5089, BC109, 2N3904. See if you hear much of a difference.

Inductor: there's a guy on ebay once upon a time who builds clones of the old school inductors... Whipple or something like that. I've never used because I managed to snag a Fulltone Inductor just after he stopped selling them to modders. Inductors I hear a difference but who knows whether thats the inductor or just poor tolerance between the same type of inductors.

IMO the biggest difference in wah sound is that vocal resistor and then the Wah pot itself... sweep of the wah pot is a major factor in the sound.
Click to expand...

In addition to all the usable ideas posted so far:

5172 trannys work pretty well too. I am also going to try out BC108s.

Yes, the inductor clones are called Whipple inductors - eBay @ $25 - nice.

You can also alter your sweep with a slightly larger sweep cap value and / or changing the position of the treadle on the pot gear. I went to a .022 but then I ended up back with a .01uf styrene cap and just moved the gearing slightly more into the bass side of the pot's range
 
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