hi, i just finished modding my Crybaby GCB-95 with this site

http://www.diyguitarist.com/DIYStompboxes/WahMod.htm

it sounds great, but i'm just wondering about additional tweaks i can do. I'm going to true bypass it tommorrow, is it generally reccomended to remove the input section? how does it change the tone?

i've heard some people like to change the fasel inductors, i'm not sure what that is, i assume its the big circle thing in the middle of the wah. They're kind of expensive like 15-20 bucks, how much do they impact tone, and are they worth it?

there are a couple of tranisitors in there, are there any i should change to further improve the tone?

also, i hear that with true bypass, sometimes people expierence "clicks" when turning the wah on or off, is there a way to eliminate this problem

also, there are these little box shaped caps in there. I don t know much about them, would changing them to poly film ones benefit the tone at all?

thanks for the help

Quotehi, i just finished modding my Crybaby GCB-95 with this site

http://www.diyguitarist.com/DIYStompboxes/WahMod.htm

it sounds great, but i'm just wondering about additional tweaks i can do. I'm going to true bypass it tommorrow, is it generally reccomended to remove the input section? how does it change the tone?

I wouldn't remove the input buffer, you'll get "tone sucking" if you do.

Quotei've heard some people like to change the fasel inductors, i'm not sure what that is, i assume its the big circle thing in the middle of the wah. They're kind of expensive like 15-20 bucks, how much do they impact tone, and are they worth it?

Yep, that's the round black thingy. Inductors are a very subjective topic. Changing the stock inductor to a Fasel might make it sound a little sweeter, and you might not really notice much of a difference. Things like the sweep cap value and the pot sweep have much more of an impact on the sound, IMO.

Quotethere are a couple of tranisitors in there, are there any i should change to further improve the tone?

Changing the transistors really won't change the tone much at all.

Quotealso, i hear that with true bypass, sometimes people expierence "clicks" when turning the wah on or off, is there a way to eliminate this problem

1M resistor to ground on the circuit board input.

Quotealso, there are these little box shaped caps in there. I don t know much about them, would changing them to poly film ones benefit the tone at all?

Another subject of much debate. You might notice a little bit of a difference if you go with polystyrene caps or tropical fish caps.

hey thanks

i screwed up a little with true bypass, dumb mistake, i read something wrong

on a GCB-95, on the 8 pin connecter, is the battery on the left, or right side

also on the 8 pin side opposite of the battery, is the last wire purple, or green?

If you look at the GCB-95 PCB with the jacks at the top, the battery connections are on the left and the last wire on the right is purple. From left to right: battery ground, battery positive terminal, black wire to pot, green wire to switch, yellow wire to pot, blue wire to switch and pot, purple wire to switch.

thanks, this is looking at the component side right?

i have something screwed up i have Black battery, Red Battery, black to pot, blank, yellow to pot, blue to pot, blank, and blank

i pulled the wires out of the connector, but later i fugured thats not how its done so i resoldered the wires back so i have (looking from component side left to right)

black battery, red battery, black to pot and ground from switch, then a blank space, than yellow to pot, blue to switch, green to switch, purple to switch

i really screwed this up, and now i'm confused, this is my first time doing true bypass so i've only been going off of online directions

i have no idea about the 4th terminal, i dont even see a wire laying around in there

i'd also like top mention that this is an H model

terminal 1 is jumped from teminal six
terminal 2 has a wire from board on the left side of the transistor i took out from the input buffer labled q3
terminal 3 has a to the 8 pin connecter (slot 3 one right from red battery)
teminal 4 has two blue wires, one from 8 pin connector one from pot
teminal 5 has purple wire from 8 pin connector
terminal 6 has green wire from 8 pin connector

alright, i used this as a guide

http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/mods/dunlop.htm

now i don't know what goes in the 7th slot from the left. are the 6th and 7th wires both blue? here it says you take the extra blue and put wire it with the switch, but what do you do with number 7

man i cant find info on the net anywhere about this. all i want now is for it to at least work again, it sounded great with the mods i did

i may have the 8 pin connector backwars, but it seems like theres alot of resistance from the wires to keep it from going the other way around which makes me think i have it right

i read this on there

Note: some wahs (mostly newer ones with the Hot Potz II pot) have two blue wires soldered to the switch. If so, solder both to the new switch as well.

this is the one i have, so i guess the 8 pin connector doesn't have two blue ones in a row

its frustrating, its as if i'm totally missing a wire to put in the 8 pin connector in the 7th slot, and i checked my wiring a bunch of times

i pulled a few of the wires out of the 8 pin connector since i thought that was what i was supposed to do, but after i did it, i realised i was wrong

arrrrggghhh this is confusing i dont see why it wont work

but i did learn a whole lot about how this wah works so it wasnt totally a bad expierence, i just want this to work again

Hmm... I think you just have some wires crossed. The Rev G & H boards should be the same in terms of the wire connector configuration. Here's a picture of my GCB-95 wire connector:



Here's what each wire is doing again, from left to right - left black wire is battery ground, red is battery positive terminal, third black wire goes to CCW terminal of pot, green wire goes to the switch, yellow wire goes to pot wiper, blue wire to switch and CW terminal of pot, purple wire to switch.

oh thanks alot paul, thats what i needed

on mine i had the empty space in spot 7, but actually its over one more

thanks alot for the pics, its greatly appriciated your mod sounds great 

Glad to be of help.  And, I'm glad that you like the mod(s).

omg!!! it finally works, hours of frustration are over 

all it was is i had the purple wire in the 8th slot instead of the 7th, as soon as i switched it, it worked, no pops and true bypass 

all thanks to your pics i never would have done it without them

thanks so much for all your help and great mods paul 

That's good news! See, it was something simple. 

i knew it had to be something real small i checked everything like 100x and i think i set a record for disassembling a pedal, and putting it back together lol

heres some soundclips of before and after, i only have a cheap mic for recording, but you can hear how much smoother the wah sounds

this is before i put in true bypass, so the input section is still there

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=438076

Hmm... I heard part of a Joe Satriani tune. Yeah, it does seem to sound smoother after you did the mods. So, do you think it sounds a lot different with the true bypass vs. not?

i don't think it's as drastic of a change with true bypass w/o the input section as the change was from those 3 resisitor and one capacitor change

its great to be able to turn the wah off, and play a nice sounding clean section, i was never able to do that before having true bypass

i'm not sure what the difference is w/ true bypass and no input section is when the wah is on, but all i know is that i love how it sounds i think i like it a little more with true bypass now, but maybe its just because it took me like 5 hours to figure what i did wrong 

hey, what exactly did changing the sweep cap do? did it increase the range of the wah or something, i'm just curious, the mod you made said it just shifted the range of the way towards the bassier side

is there a way, to put like a sensitivity level potentiometer on this wah without doing anything a rookie builder like me could do? i think it'd be cool to be able to tweak that, even thought i'd probably keep it around the same level its at now 

but your mod is great this is how i always wanted my wah to sound, and through all this "tweaking" i even learned how to tweak the sensitivity level for turning the wah, on or off. I made it so now i don't have to put practically all my body weight on the wah to turn it off. It was a small thing, but another thing making me love this new wah even more now 

i'd easilly pay $150 or more for this wah, it kinda seems wrong it costed me less than $70 to have an amazing sounding wah like this one

building/modding effects is quickly turning into a hobby of mine, i think its amazing that i can just tell someone how i want my pedal to sound, and i can get advice, and step by step processes on how to achieve the sound i want

Quotehey, what exactly did changing the sweep cap do? did it increase the range of the wah or something, i'm just curious, the mod you made said it just shifted the range of the way towards the bassier side

Yeah, the bigger you make that cap, the more it will accent the low frequencies. I probably wouldn't make it any bigger than about 0.022uF, and that may be too big. In my recently completed Bow Wow Yoy Yoy build, I socketed the sweep cap so I could experiment.

Quotebut your mod is great this is how i always wanted my wah to sound, and through all this "tweaking" i even learned how to tweak the sensitivity level for turning the wah, on or off. I made it so now i don't have to put practically all my body weight on the wah to turn it off. It was a small thing, but another thing making me love this new wah even more now

Yeah, I hate it when they are hard to switch like that! Not sure on the sensitivity meter thing. 

Quotebuilding/modding effects is quickly turning into a hobby of mine, i think its amazing that i can just tell someone how i want my pedal to sound, and i can get advice, and step by step processes on how to achieve the sound i want

Look out world! Here comes another DIY junkie! Seriously, though, it is really cool to be able to tweak stuff to your liking by yourself, for yourself, isn't it? 

alright i have a little better recording this time, this is the mods including true bypass without the input section

enjoy  http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pageartist.cfm?bandID=438076