Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: gwEm on June 21, 2010, 03:45:57 PM

Title: wah mods
Post by: gwEm on June 21, 2010, 03:45:57 PM

i have a jim dunlop crybaby classic which sounds very average.. so average i gave up using it and put it deep in a cardboard box in my parents house.

anyway i've been inspired by uli jon roth and michael schekner's wah stuff so i picked it up over the weekend. it would be nice to make this thing sound like a cool vintage vox crybaby.. but anyway i'm open to any good mods to it.

dmoney brought this to my attention:
http://www.chicagoiron.com/parababy.html

but maybe there are some other things people can recommend?

Title: Re: wah mods
Post by: bucketshred on June 21, 2010, 04:01:33 PM

www.wah-wah.co.uk

I've never modded my Wah (I've been through two CryBabies, A Slash Cry Baby and both versions of Morley's Bad Horsie, finally settled on a classic Vox Wah, its just sweet as a nut) but this guy is supposedly the best for mods, just email him telling him what you want and he can build a direct board replacement for you.

Paddy

Title: Re: wah mods
Post by: Denim n Leather on June 21, 2010, 04:05:16 PM

The Wilson wahs are tops, and quite affordable:

http://www.wilsoneffects.com/index.html

Title: Re: wah mods
Post by: PhilKing on June 21, 2010, 06:38:22 PM

I had a Dunlop Crybaby modded by Gary at http://www.garmopatmods.com/main.html (http://www.garmopatmods.com/main.html).  You might not want what I had (switchable inductors, one Fasel Yellow and one Halo inductor).

Title: Re: wah mods
Post by: gwEm on June 21, 2010, 09:56:05 PM

well, i played through my wah for the first time in years tonight - in fact i was wrong: its just a standard original cry baby rather than the classic one.

the problems i have with it are:

theres a bit too much control in the low end, and not enough in the treble
i can hear the tone suck when off
the effect is a bit flat, it doesn't have that rauchiness when sweeping the control

(i think the pot might be a bit dusty too)

wah experts feel free to comment :)
thanks for the tips so far!

Title: Re: wah mods
Post by: gwEm on June 21, 2010, 10:31:44 PM

google shows me theres a few sites dedicated to this:

http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/mods/dunlop.htm
http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/wahpedl/wahped.htm

a true bypass mod, new pot, new inductor and removing the input buffer all ought to help it seems.

i never thought (but should have expected) there to be so much involved in this effect!

edit: its actually personally fulfilling that i knew something wasn't right and i've never even tried any other wahs

Title: Re: wah mods
Post by: Denim n Leather on June 21, 2010, 10:34:41 PM

Fuzz pedals may have the most incarnations and variations, but wah is definitely the trickiest to get right.

Title: Re: wah mods
Post by: gwEm on June 26, 2010, 01:59:24 PM

well, i brought a pro pot, a yellow reissue fasel, and a 3pdt switch last week and they arrived in time for the weekend.

just whacked all this stuff in my wah, and it does sound far better. the fasel makes it sound a little more raunchy i'm sure, and the pro pot has a much nicer taper - its easy to find a nice sweet spot.

i don't know how it compared to a real vintage wah, but it would be interesting to compare.

Title: Re: wah mods
Post by: WezV on June 26, 2010, 03:37:30 PM

Quote from: bucketshred on June 21, 2010, 04:01:33 PM

www.wah-wah.co.uk

i did some of the circuit mods here to a few vox & crybaby wah's.  the vocal and sweep range mods were my favorite and really made the pedals more usable.

Title: Re: wah mods
Post by: HTH AMPS on June 26, 2010, 05:21:11 PM

the inductor replacements from wah-wah.co.uk are the BEST you can get, no question.