Are wah pots required?

[xorophone]

Hello! I'm currently planning a wah wah/volume pedal project. I bought a wah enclosure from china and tried installing a normal pot in it, which seemed to work fine. What's the difference between a wah pot and a normal pot? And can I use a normal pot for my wah wah instead?

[Transmogrifox]

Usually wah pots are more durable (constructed for continuous duty) and they have a certain type of taper you may not be able to get in standard pot tapers.

You already know the answer to your last question: you can use a normal pot in your wah wah and it will work. 

People talk about a wah being "toe heavy" or "heel heavy" and this refers to the pot taper.  It relates to where the pedal breaks the "wah" vowel sound, and how much travel is available through this range.

If you find it is just to hard to get your wah to say "wah", or it just doesn't feel right, then you can join yourself to the wah pot addiction.

Other things you can do is play with Vactrols (or home-built LED/CdS cell opto resistors) and do something like the Bad Horsie:
http://www.morleypedals.com/vai-2es.pdf

The nice thing about the optical control is no moving parts.  It takes a little bit of fiddling to get the slot and LED correct, but it can be done DIY.

[xorophone]

Usually wah pots are more durable (constructed for continuous duty) and they have a certain type of taper you may not be able to get in standard pot tapers.

You already know the answer to your last question: you can use a normal pot in your wah wah and it will work. 

People talk about a wah being "toe heavy" or "heel heavy" and this refers to the pot taper.  It relates to where the pedal breaks the "wah" vowel sound, and how much travel is available through this range.

If you find it is just to hard to get your wah to say "wah", or it just doesn't feel right, then you can join yourself to the wah pot addiction.

Other things you can do is play with Vactrols (or home-built LED/CdS cell opto resistors) and do something like the Bad Horsie:
http://www.morleypedals.com/vai-2es.pdf

The nice thing about the optical control is no moving parts.  It takes a little bit of fiddling to get the slot and LED correct, but it can be done DIY.

Thank you for the quick reply! I'll probably use a normal pot first and replace it later if I don't like it. I don't really have the economy to buy wah pots right now. They seem pretty expensive.

[jimilee]

Basically if you use a log taper, it will bunch up at one end, and if you use a linear taper, typically it will happen really fast. Don't forget to get the gear for the pot.


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[Mark Hammer]

The rack and pinion mechanism in a wah can apply a lot of stress to a pot.  Not only that, but the quality of the pot wiper can matter a great deal in the usable life of the pot (and wah).

Think of the different between a pistol and a marksman's rifle.  The longer barrel of the rifle allows for the bullet's trajectory to be planned accurately.  It is the long barrel that effectively "makes" the bullet travel straight.  The shorter barrel of the pistol allows whatever "wiggle" in in the bullet to be unconstrained.

Wah pots generally have longer threaded collars, and you'll find the shaft of the pot rotates very smoothly in that longer collar, with very little wiggle.  That means the wiper is going to spend much of its lifespan contacting the resistive strip at a perfect 90 degrees, with very little side-to-side variation.  My own experience has also been that larger pots have better quality wipers that make good contact without having an abrasive action on the resistive strip.  So those pots will be great for thousands of sets by your Cream tribute band closing the set with "Tales of Brave Ulysses".

[pinkjimiphoton]

he may get angry with me for suggesting him, but pm Joe Gagan, he knows more about wahs than god, and has the best quality pots i've found on the market. good dude, with some awesome product.

kalena 5 or something like that on ebay, or like i said... just pm him here. his smooth pots are the best i've used.

[thermionix]

The best wah pot I've tried, and also the cheapest wah pot I've tried:

http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/wah-pot-chase-tone-tru-talk-100k/

The taper is right on, and the shaft turns so smoothly you can feel the difference with your foot.

No affiliation.

[Transmogrifox]

he may get angry with me for suggesting him, but pm Joe Gagan, he knows more about wahs than god,

Who may get angry? Joe or god?

[pinkjimiphoton]

well, i know joe is real, soooooo.... 

[xorophone]

Thanks for all the replies! I think you've convinced me to put my wah project aside and buy a wah pot when I have the money. That smooth wah pot by Joe Gagan certainly looks interesting, but the shipping costs are very high, so I think I'll try something from moodysounds.com, which is a Swedish site.

[cab42]

I bought this one from the german Amazon

https://www.amazon.de/Stagg-W-POTH-WAH-MAN-Stimmgerät/dp/B0030M0RQW/ref=sr_1_1?m=A2221IGQM7CHE4&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1493068898&sr=1-1&keywords=Wah

Only 3.95 euros and a couple of euros for postage to Denmark. If you are in Sweden its probably the same. I had to try it for that price.

Seems to work really well. No noise and it quacks in the right spot.