DIY Wah pedal

[brogh]

Hi,

Today I was doing some cleanup in my drawers and found an old expression pedal which I really forgot about, I have no use for it actually so I was thinking of using the case and do some DIY project.
I'm planning to do a wah pedal with it, the thing is I'm really not familiar with wah's and I don't know which one to choose, I found a bunch of schematics around is there anyone who can point me out in choosing one schematic ?

Here are some to choose from (link removed)

i've also found this one whic appeals my ears I don't know if it's possible to mod it and use the wah pot instead of the pot in the project to have it variable.

Thank You !

 

[printer2]

Probably make more sense to be in the Burnt Fingers DIY Effects forum.

 

[limbe]

Yes it does.If you build something like the Colorsound Inductorless Wah Wah,you will save on the expensive inductor and pot.

http://beavisaudio.com/Projects/ColorsoundWah/index.htm

 

[halfmassive]

I gutted an old cry baby and built a wah from scratch on strip board. I followed a layout for a clyde McCoy version but sub out parts based a number of different schematics and ended up with a cross between the vox clyde and the color sound wah. It was a pretty cool build since you could just change a few resistors and have a different model wah. I read rg keen's article on wah technology a whole bunch of times to figure out where to make my changes while I was building this.

 

[limbe]

Yes Halfmassive.If you have a junked Cry Baby you can experiment with different values to really hear what "the vocal mod" does for instance.With the parts you´ve got Brogh,you can explore the different inductorless designs Twin-T, IC-based and read about them,or you could buy a small transformer to act as the inductor in the "classical" circuit.
I would have advised you to drop the idea if you had nothing,and wanted to build a Wah Wah from scratch since it would have made more sense to try and get hold of a Crybaby,broken or not and take it from there.Meanwhile,good luck whatevever you do!

 

[limbe]

The transformer that apparently works OK as a Wah Wah inductor is the Radio Shack 275-1380.Here´s the article "The Technology of Wah Pedals" by R.G. Keen which covers the subject.:
http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/wahpedl/wahped.htm#ryo

 

[Joe Gagan]

just a heads up, those transformers will only sound 'OK" in wahs. shinei and other japanese brands tried, it. they are ok sounding wahs, but i would suggest trying a real wah inductor, they are easy to come by, as little as 6 bucks for a used dunlop black cylinder, which sound better than those transformers in my tests.
when RG wrote that article, approx 14 years ago, parts supply for pedals was minimal, he was trying to offer a solution for people they could buy in their hometown. now, we have many more choices for pedal parts thanks to the internet.

 

[limbe]

Thanks Joe for correcting information that´s outdated and no longer valid.
I didn´t think of how much the net has changed the market for parts,so thank you for an update.Maybe I should go to the amp section and stop advising people to "consult a reliable radio man"? Thanks again,I hate misinformation!

 

[Joe Gagan]

you know it! i laughed at the radio repairman thing. but let's not write them off either. some of my buddies have been scoring some good tubes and transfomers etc at the monthly ham radio swap meet here.

 

[limbe]

I have the highest respect for radio repairmen.My dad started out that way and I have inherited tubes ,a tubetester and many other things from him.In those days they really had to be capable of fixing `most everything that were thrown their way.He built the first stereoamp on the block 1957,and we had all of the neighbours over to listen to people playing ping-pong and ambulances driving from one end of the livingroom to the other.It was nice talking to you and take care of your squarewaves!You never know when you´ll need them!