Blubber Wah

[cab42]

I have an old Ibanez Blubber Wah, that does not sound very good. In the lack of better words I'll describe the sound a tired or dull and i haven't used it much.

Inspired by this very interesting thread http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=96176 I decided to do something about it.

But before I tear my Blubber apart I decided to document it first. Maybe someone will find some interest in it.

Below is the schematic I made (using an existing crybaby schem as a template) as well as a couple of images. In my very limited experience with wah's (both building and playing) it looks pretty much like a Vox to me. I only found three differences from the schematic I compared it to: Order is switched on input cap and resistor, the electrolytic cap to ground is 10u instead of 4.7 and the resistor from the emitter on Q1 is 470r instead of 510.

The original pot was broken when I got the wah and I don't remember the value.

Regards

Carsten

[joegagan]

i like the maxon logo on the board. these go for 200 or more sometimes on ebay, wow!

the schem is so dead-on crybaby, the prob might be basic. maybe a slightly failing cap to gd off inductor?

if that checks out, + you are just trying to make it more interesting sounding, i would play with the sweep cap ( increase in .002 increments, a little goes a long way) and/ or the 1.5 k R at B of Q1. 3rdly, it may be made more lively by lowering the Q1 E resistor.

the inductor looks like a fasel, but who knows what a fasel really was in this era. i find the transformers used in japanese wahs to be a big part of why they sound 'boring', i was half expecting to see one in your wah, but i know nothing of this era 'fasel'.

all that said, it may have too much collector value to mod it. maybe consider passing it on to a collector on ebay and buildin something else?

[joegagan]

just noticed the .01 input cap. this might be letting too little of the guitar freqs into the circ? CB/vox was .047. hmm.

[charmonder]

Don't the fasels deteriorate after a few decades?  I thought I heard that about vintage crybabies but this is just as easily some misinformation

[cab42]

Thanks for the comments.

The first thing I was going to try was replacing the caps with new ones of the same value, so thanks for the very specific suggestions, Joe. I will also reread the technolgy of the wah-article.

I compared the values on my board to the values on this comparison-chart: http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/TCobrettis-Stuff/Wah+Comparisons.gif.html. On this it says that the input cap on CB/Vox is 0.01. Is that not correct?

I have thought about the value for collectors, but it's pretty battered and the original pot and battery snap were already broken when I got it. Also it was missing two of the botton screws so they have been replaced too. But maybe someone would by it for the board alone?

Regards

Carsten

[joegagan]

ah, yes, i was confusing myself. for some reason i thought a lot of wahs had a .047 input cap.

i would leave the non-electros alone for now. just for fun, try subbing in another inductor to see if that livens things up.

[cab42]

An inductor will be added to my next parts order. Again, thanks for your advice.

Carsten