Modifying a Cry baby Wah Pedal into a Wah/Volume/Expression

[ronniegogs]

Hi just joined as I wanted to do my first mod...

Well I got a Alter ego x4 and found I can use an expression pedal but only 25k Ohm ones
Which got thinking that I could infact use the old cry baby which I have been meaning to fix for a while as an expression pedal which seemed like a common mod.
But I can also mod it so that it can act as a wah but will have to use different schematic than the original like the Maestro Boomerang which does use a 25k Pot

http://circuitdiagram.net/maestro-boomerang.html

Also I can put a schematic for simple volume pedal. Now with a 3 way switch I should be able to switch between the three modes.
Will need to drill holes to have 3 outs. In and Out for volume and wah. And one out for expression.

Will make it true bypass, might need to add a buffer for wah, Led mod which glows on the inside with different colors depending on the mode.

So in total all mods will be

Maestro Boomerang with buffer
Expression
Volume
3 way toggle
True Bypass
LED different Colors for 3 modes

Any thoughts on this.. Or major flaws in the initial idea ?

[digi2t]

Personally, I'm a "one pedal, one task" sorta guy. The expression pedal is for expressing, the wah is for... well, wah'ing, and the volume... you get the jist.

Having to switch modes means that for a particular song that may require both (all?) applications, you've given yourself the added task to bend down and switch modes. We have written some music that required me to use a wah, and expression pedal, though not simultaneously, of course. The expression pedal was set up to increase/decrease delay time, and the wah was used during the solo. Trust me, at a punk style tempo, you ain't got the time to be messing about buddy. Why would I try and make things harder for myself?

My setup uses MIDI extensively, mixed digital and analog effects, so the expression pedals are assigned to whatever digital parameter the patch calls for. My wahs, will always be wah only. Firstly, because I've yet to find a great digital wah patch that works well with an expression pedal (generally, most digital wah effects provide only rudimentary taper modelling), and an analog wah on it's own is a deal breaker. It's either great, or not. In your case, you can turn the Alter ego on or off (along with the expression pedal), and still kick your wah in if needed. Yes, needs a bit more real estate on the pedalboard, but hey... can a pedal board ever be "too big"?

If you gotta use your hands... then you're not playing guitar.

Just my two bits.

[thermionix]

The Maestro Boomerang II (BM-2?  Something like that) is a wah and volume pedal.  It's a simple switch to go between the two functions, however it doesn't make for a great volume pedal, as it doesn't go all the way to zero volume.  Some people call it "swell" instead.

Now, for an expression pedal, I imagine you'd want to bypass all of the circuitry except the pot.  It's not impossible to do what you want, but you'd probably end up needing a multi-pole rotary switch.  If you want a "pot only" volume pedal, you'd want a value much higher than 25K, maybe more like 1M, or your tone would be very dark.

And then there's pot taper.  For a Boomerang clone in a Crybaby shell, you'd want a 25K audio taper pot.  Is audio taper ideal for your expression pedal needs?  I don't know, it depends on the circuit you're using t with.

Just stuff to think about.

[vigilante397]

There's a simple mod for a Crybaby that "turns it into a volume pedal" at the flip of a switch, but I wasn't really impressed with it because, as mentioned here, wah pots have a different taper, and if it's set to sound very good as a wah then the sweep isn't quite right for a volume, and if you adjust it to sweep well for a volume pedal it sounds bad as a wah.

Dunlop makes a volume pedal that also has an output for an expression, but no wah. It just doesn't go well.