Who's up to speed on Crybaby Wah Mods?

[Chris of Arabia]

I picked up a used one last night, and although it does what you'd expect, the top end (fully forward position), is just too bright and screechy for my tastes. - it's like the range has gone well beyond where the pedal was designed to go. I know there are loads of sites out there that deal with this pedal and options for modding it, but so far, I've not landed on one that really hits the nail on the on head with the problem described. Anyone care to suggest a fix for that?

 

[trevorus]

Re: Who's up to speed on Crybaby Wah Mods?

You can adjust the sweep by changing the relationship between the wah pot and the foot pedal. You can index it one gear tooth at a time rolled back at the lowest position. Then sweep it back and forth and see if you like it better. start here! because it's free! Then there are a couple resistor/capacitor changes that can be done to change it's tone.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Who's up to speed on Crybaby Wah Mods?

Change the sweep by swapping the 0.01µF cap between the emitter of Q2 and the inductor. A smaller value will make the wah sweep more trebly and vice-versa. If you're converting to or from a bass wah, this is the one to change. Try 0.068µF for a bass wah.
http://www.wah-wah.co.uk/diy.html
ive done heaps of mods over the years on my crybaby, hendrix and vintage 70s vox wahs. I even built a vox style wah. You can do pretty much everything you want to by just using the advice on this page.
In the end tho, i just bought an MXR CAE wah cos it does everything no sweat - and the two inductors are way cool because sometimes you want a dark and thick wah, and sometimes you want a trebly wah depending on the requirements of the band mix.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Who's up to speed on Crybaby Wah Mods?

Here's what I used:

http://www.wah-wah.co.uk/diy.html

I pretty much raised the sweep cap value to .022uF, the midrange to aroun 3K, 330 ohm, gain/bass response, 100K vocal mod, 47K volume resistor, and it has a red fasel inductor, though I'm thinking of changing it to a yellow fasel. I would also recommend playing with the rack placement which really affects the range (you don't get the full sweep of the potentiometer with the rocker).

 

[hermetico]

Re: Who's up to speed on Crybaby Wah Mods?

After years hunting wahs, the Area 51's one has the tone I ever wanted.
They sell a harness than can be installed in any cry baby.
Also, Roger Mayer (who run all Hendrix electronics gear) has some harness (the Red Lion) to be installed in any cry baby.

I like the Area 51 better.

 

[Johnny-DK]

Re: Who's up to speed on Crybaby Wah Mods?

Another source with cool tips:
http://stinkfoot.se/archives/tag/crybaby

What I did to my GCB-95 revision E:
True Bypass
LED indicator
Vocal mod (68K Resistor used)
Sweep mod (0.015 cap used)
And later i replaced the worn pot with a new 100K Icar standard pot.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: Who's up to speed on Crybaby Wah Mods?

Thanks all, lots of good stuff to go at here. Looks like the weekend is for tinkering.

 

[J E C]

Re: Who's up to speed on Crybaby Wah Mods?

I've been wanting a wah and have looked at a number of things on the net about modding them. I think it would be fun to try different mods. Not sure what would be a good wah to get for this purpose. Preferably cheep and maybe used. Any suggestions anyone?

 

[trevorus]

Re: Who's up to speed on Crybaby Wah Mods?

Another source with cool tips:
http://stinkfoot.se/archives/tag/crybaby

What I did to my GCB-95 revision E:
True Bypass
LED indicator
Vocal mod (68K Resistor used)
Sweep mod (0.015 cap used)
And later i replaced the worn pot with a new 100K Icar standard pot.

nice site. I'm going to be doing a bit of this stuff with mine. The revision I have has a DPDT switch, with all the connections bridged, so no switch replacement.