How to date a Thomas organ Wah

[paulyy]

I picked up a king vox wah off of evilbay and heard you can date the wah looking at the numbers on the pot. If so, How do I Do that?
The numbers on the pot are=   24-5318-3
                                              1347320

The pot also says (Centralab) Thanks for your help.

[joegagan]

the code 134 is centralab's mfgr code. 7320 trnasltes to 20th week of 73. this is right in the era of the king wahs, so i would guess you have a mid to late 73 there.

the king wah is electronically identical to the cybaby of same era, but that chrome top sure looks cool.

[Quackzed]

also thomas organ made crybabys out of sepulveda cali as well as chicago ill, some with the 'red box' 5103 cube inductor and some with the 'stack of dimes'  'liver brown paintgoo' covered inductor...

[paulyy]

@ joegagan
I knew you'd be the first one to answer my question I figured the 73 was the date but did not know about the last two numbers. I also knew about both the vox and crybabys having the same boards. The only difference I would see is some had the tdk inductor or the stack of dimes inductor and maybe some odd ball 4.0/4.7 electro caps. I went with the king vox wah because I never see them as much as the crybaby wahs. Let alone the standard vox wah. Really, I just liked the way it looked. Can't go wrong with chrome.

@ Quackzed
I'm aware That both wahs were buit in Cali and Chicago and the inductors that came with them. I figured any thomas organ wah I get will be good no matter what the inductor is. Whether its the Tdk or the stack of dimes. I already have a wah with the stack of dimes and sounds pretty good. The vox that I just bought has the tdk and it sounds really good as well. Now I just need to save up for an Itatly made wah.

[markeebee]

"How to date a Thomas organ Wah"

Send it flowers, maybe an Italian dinner, then some dancing....it is Valentine's Day tomorrow, after all.

Sorry.

[joegagan]

don't forget to play side one of zeppelin IV

[paulyy]

  Hope I get lucky.

[Paul Marossy]

"How to date a Thomas organ Wah"

Send it flowers, maybe an Italian dinner, then some dancing....it is Valentine's Day tomorrow, after all.

Sorry.

Let us know if you score! 

[joegagan]

in general,  i find either chitown or cali thomas wahs have around 80% tdk inductors. you can find stack o dimes all through any of these eras, early 70s all the way into the late 80s dunlops.

i read in one of the stompbox books that thomas was using tdk because they offered a price far lower than the SOD, but at times could not deliver consistently. i assume thomas kept the SODS on hand to fill the need when tdk was not delivering in time.

[Paul Marossy]

i read in one of the stompbox books that thomas was using tdk because they offered a price far lower than the SOD, but at times could not deliver consistently. i assume thomas kept the SODS on hand to fill the need when tdk was not delivering in time.

Could be. Or they purchased some S.O.D.s when TDK couldn't deliver the goods.

[zombiwoof]

When I was looking around on Ebay for a Thomas Organ wah from that period, it seemed to me that the stack of dimes inductor was more often found in the Chicago version.  Most of the Sepulveda wahs had the TDK.  I ended up with a Sepulveda one with the TDK, and although that inductor has a bad rep, it sounds pretty good to me.  Different of course to the original Vox Clyde McCoy wah that I had when I was a kid (and stupidly sold later), but nice.  Right now I'm mostly using a BBE Wah, which is closer in sound to my old Clyde, and I have several other wahs.  There are of course Chicago versions with the TDK inductor, but I didn't run into any Sepulveda wahs with the stack of dimes when I was looking around (though that doesn't mean they don't exist).

Al

[Paul Marossy]

When I was looking around on Ebay for a Thomas Organ wah from that period, it seemed to me that the stack of dimes inductor was more often found in the Chicago version.  Most of the Sepulveda wahs had the TDK.  I ended up with a Sepulveda one with the TDK, and although that inductor has a bad rep, it sounds pretty good to me.  Different of course to the original Vox Clyde McCoy wah that I had when I was a kid (and stupidly sold later), but nice.  Right now I'm mostly using a BBE Wah, which is closer in sound to my old Clyde, and I have several other wahs.  There are of course Chicago versions with the TDK inductor, but I didn't run into any Sepulveda wahs with the stack of dimes when I was looking around (though that doesn't mean they don't exist).

Al

Hmm... more food for thought.

[artifus]

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World

[rawsaxy]

I came across this post a few days ago searching for some information since I just came into possession of a Cry Baby [Thomas Organ Co./Sepulveda, CA] pedal. I'm also curious as to what year my pedal is from (I think it's early 70's), and what would be a reasonable selling price for it. The pedal is clean, no major scratches on the body, and was tested to make sure it works.

It seems some describe pedals with a stack of dimes to not be from California, yet mine is an original from Sepulveda, CA, (bottom plate reads "THOMAS ORGAN CO./SEPULVEDA, CALIFORNIA"). That I'm aware of, no modifications were ever made to this pedal. To not take up so much space here, I would like to share a link to ten pictures I took of the pedal, and hopefully someone would be able to orientate me better. I would really appreciate any information/help from any of you.

Here is the link: https://imgur.com/a/YDnyx

In God's Harmony

[Quackzed]

  OOoohhh that thing is near MINT CONDISH!!!