whippled my wah...wow?

[BrianS.]

Wow...not really.

A while back I picked up a beat Dunlop CGB-95 for 10 bucks with the idea that I'd mess around with the circuitry a bit. Finally got around to ordering the Whipple "halo" inductor and the pot that they sell as well, as the original was wore out and scratchy as hell.

Got the goods and see that they also include some resistors that you can swap in to change the voicing of the wah a bit.

Before I swapped any new parts in, I recorded myself playing through the stock wah. Then, using the exact same mic placement/amp settings, etc., I recorded the sound of each mod before I did the next. Then I listened to them all back to back.

Results:

-Swapped inductor and pot: Not a huge tonal difference. The new pot made a huge difference in that the scratchiness was gone, but it was pretty hard to tell the difference between the two inductors. The halo maybe had less piercing highs, but that could have also been from a change in the sweep position of the pot.

-"Vocal Mod". Changed a 33k resistor to 100k: Again, a very subtle difference. I think this mod did help make the wah a little more "vocal", but the average user may not be able to tell the difference.

After the vocal mod, I decided to quit, as the tonal "improvements" were so subtle, and the wah sounded good to me. I did not do the true bypass mod, as I don't think this pedal "sucks tone". In other words, the bypassed tone sounds the same as when there is no pedal plugged in.

All my playing was done with a clean tone and no other pedals, so I suppose that results may vary when used with overdrive or fuzz or whatever.

Conclusion: meh

 

[Red_Label]

Re: whippled my wah...wow?

Wow...not really.

[snip]

Conclusion: meh

:lmao:

I gigged an Original Dunlop Crybaby for years and just couldn't make that thing come alive for anything. It sucked tone as well. Finally, I got off my butt and replaced it with a BBE wah. It was instant love. It just had everything I was looking for. That's been several years now and it's still my only wah. I've gone head-to-head with several other boutique wahs and still prefer the BBE. I even spent this week with a Mission Engineering ReWah Pro (Mmmm... "candy purple"). It has sweeter, more "talkie" tones in the mids and highs than the BBE. But the BBE has more low-end thump, and I couldn't get the ReWah to do that, even with the dipswitches. So it's headed back to my buddy's store with my wife (as I type this). Too bad... just a BEAUTIFUL pedal. If it weren't for my love of those deep, clear lows I would have kept it.

NO question which one is better looking!

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: whippled my wah...wow?

I did not do the true bypass mod, as I don't think this pedal "sucks tone". In other words, the bypassed tone sounds the same as when there is no pedal plugged in.

no wonder you did not notice any difference with the inductor and other stuff.

The good news is that you can not worry too about cork sniffing, and just concentrate on rocking out.

 

[XSSIVE]

Re: whippled my wah...wow?

I used to do a LOT of wah modding and collecting. Inductors in wahs don't make drastic tonal changes like pickups in guitars for example. It's more like different brands of strings on a guitar and how they sound a bit different but aren't a huge change like a pickup. There's a change from inductor to inductor for sure but that's not the point of the wah that really alters it as much as some think it does. The Q resistor (the vocal mod) changes the voice and can go from more waaaah to wooow if you go up or down in value there that has a bigger change than an inductor. Too drastic a change there and it can sound odd under gain but can get real quacky and funky for clean stuff.

Take the MC404 CAE wah with the two different fasels (red and yellow) what also switches when you switch from one to the other is the key part of the wahs voice...the sweep cap. Thus why the red fasel sounds drastically darker than the yellow, because the sweep cap value also changes along with the fasel. If it was just a fasel swap it would be much more subtle.

Change the sweep cap to a .012uf, .015uf, or .022uf (.010uf is stock GCB95) and the wah will sound very different since that alters the wahs range. The higher the value cap, the darker it gets. This is also how to tune a wah to a rig. You can socket the sweep cap and keep popping in different caps to see what fits your rig best and covers the part of the frequency range you want your wah to work the best in. I know with my EVH 50w I like .012uf but with my JMP I like a .015uf since it's a brighter amp with more mids and the .015uf gets a bit too woofy on the bottom end for the EVH head.

wah mod info...

http://stinkfoot.se/archives/549

 

[misterwhizzy]

Re: whippled my wah...wow?

I used to do a LOT of wah modding and collecting. Inductors in wahs don't make drastic tonal changes like pickups in guitars for example. It's more like different brands of strings on a guitar and how they sound a bit different but aren't a huge change like a pickup. There's a change from inductor to inductor for sure but that's not the point of the wah that really alters it as much as some think it does. The Q resistor (the vocal mod) changes the voice and can go from more waaaah to wooow if you go up or down in value there that has a bigger change than an inductor. Too drastic a change there and it can sound odd under gain but can get real quacky and funky for clean stuff.

Take the MC404 CAE wah with the two different fasels (red and yellow) what also switches when you switch from one to the other is the key part of the wahs voice...the sweep cap. Thus why the red fasel sounds drastically darker than the yellow, because the sweep cap value also changes along with the fasel. If it was just a fasel swap it would be much more subtle.

Change the sweep cap to a .012uf, .015uf, or .022uf (.010uf is stock GCB95) and the wah will sound very different since that alters the wahs range. The higher the value cap, the darker it gets. This is also how to tune a wah to a rig. You can socket the sweep cap and keep popping in different caps to see what fits your rig best and covers the part of the frequency range you want your wah to work the best in. I know with my EVH 50w I like .012uf but with my JMP I like a .015uf since it's a brighter amp with more mids and the .015uf gets a bit too woofy on the bottom end for the EVH head.

wah mod info...

http://stinkfoot.se/archives/549

Have you ever written a bad post?

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: whippled my wah...wow?

View attachment 55392

 

[xxxplorer]

Re: whippled my wah...wow?

+1 on tuning your wah to your rig. I've been digging my RMC-3 for this very reason. I eventually want to settle on one setting... Lol.

 

[crguti]

Re: whippled my wah...wow?

Before I swapped any new parts in, I recorded myself playing through the stock wah. Then, using the exact same mic placement/amp settings, etc., I recorded the sound of each mod before I did the next. Then I listened to them all back to back.

where're the recordings? :?:

 

[BrianS.]

Re: whippled my wah...wow?

where're the recordings?

Excellent question! I was actually going to post them, but I'm kind of a dunce when it comes to editing stuff in my DAW, and I f-ed it up and just erased it. That's not just an excuse, either, as I've posted clips to this site several times before. The last one was a comparison of the Soul Food and the OCD.

Change the sweep cap to a .012uf, .015uf, or .022uf (.010uf is stock GCB95) and the wah will sound very different since that alters the wahs range.

Good to know. I'll probably just leave it as is for now. I don't use a wah a whole lot, and the pedal sounds good to my ears.