Will a 500k pot work in a Wah that has a 100K in it now?

[BillyJ]

And what might the effects of that change be?
I guess I can always just try it but I don't want to buy the 500K if it simply won't work. I am so broke these days....damn 'hobby' turned habit.  

This is for a 535 Dunlop WITHOUT 'Q' btw.

I remember reading that Colin (I think) said about using a 1m and 'tuning' the device.
Colin if you read this can you shed a liyttle more light on it.


Damn I wish I had time to go back to school.
You youngins' in High School and college learning this stuff I envy you sooo much!!

Thank you all!!

[Ansil]

from what i have noticed in changin out the pots. is that the larger the pot the more inbetween sounds you get.  not that they aren't already there its just like taking a guitar string and stretching it over a bass scale neck your harmonics will tend to jump out more  cause theres tha much more room to hit the harmonics.  anyway.  you can possibly loose some extreme highs and some extreme lows  as in the range of freq.  this depends on a couple of things. one.  does yoru pot have complete rotation throw.  if it does then you will loose nothing.  i modded my wah years ago to have complete throw.

[BillyJ]

Thanks Ansil.. Sound like it might be worth it to try it then.
I too have noticed with past wah that there is always that lack of throw in one direction or other. I usually tune it up or down depending on what works best for me..However I would like to have complete throw if possible.
Could you enlighten me on how to do that?
Do I need to find a longer toothed staright gear or replace the gear on the pot shaft or???
Thanks very much for sharing your experience with me!

[Ansil]

the easiest way to get more throw is as follows.

1.remove rubber feet all the way around wah.
2. longer gear tooth.  this can be acomplished fairly easy.

buy a spare from dunlop and cut it to suit and glue to original.  this way you can do this mod for a few friends.

or you can disasemble this and cast it with palster of paris and the make your own gear tooth. then you cut this and make a new mold of your now longer gear tooth.  i usually go 1.5 times as long. taht way you can trim off the excess.  you can either use plastic resin and a plastic makers kit. or you can do this..


take 1 3 liter bottle of pop.  strip it down to just the bare plastic and remove all the hard ends. to it.. like the imediate bottom and the top where the spout is.  cut it into little pieces. like 1*1" squares.  add in 1 cup water and a bunch of squares to the blender.  blend until you have a nice puree of plasticwater.

strain water. let dry. using double boiler and a little bit of cooking oil.   bring the plastic and the oil to a safe melting temp. and then pour into a properly greased mold.  let set. or dunk imeadeatly in cool water.  break open mold and tada you have homemade plastic.

the above process is not that hard once you prep it up. you can also make knobs and pickguards. cover the tops of your pedals with harden plastic.   fun stuff.

[BillyJ]

Ooops forgot to ask about taper. I thought I read that log pots are most common. What if I use a linear?

I have read all that stuff about how a log taper pot and human hearing works but I got to tell you log pots ALWAYS seem bunch up at the end even when used as volume.
I wonder if these are just made poor or the theory isn't all that tight or my hearing just sucks...

Anyway would like thoughs on different tapers for wah.

Big Thanks!

[Ansil]

i dont' bye into the whole log lin thing.  i know it is correct but i use lin for guitar volumes and tones and stuff i hardly ever use log. for anything.

i use lin for wahs.  maybe thats why my wahs always sound different.

[R.G.]

You might want to read "The Technology of Wah Pedals" at GEO http://www.geofex.com

The function of that pot is as a volume control that changes the amount of gain seen by the first transistor.

The exact value is not important as long as
(1) the value is big enough that it doesn't load down the collector of Q1 too badly
(2) it isn't too big for Q2's base to pick up signal well.

Values from 100K to 1M ought to work fine, although there may be some differences at the extremes of pot travel with bigger pots as the pot value affects the impedance that the base of Q2 sees.

The insensitivity of the wah circuit to the exact value of the pot is the basis for the LDR based resistor-to-ground wah setups like the remote pedal wah based on Anderton's "Clean up your Wah Pedal".

[BillyJ]

Gosh I did it again. I was just had that page loaded yesterday and didn't get around to reading it and the today poof I forget about your site altogether....man I am losing it these days.
Thank you RG for reminding me.
I am not sure why but I always forget about geo and it is just packed with goodies. Sheesh I need my head swept.
THANKS!!