Wah tweking problem

[deadsnake]

I've built a wah pedal and I'm having some issues with it.

1st - when I play my guitar using a DS-1 plugged in the amp I can hear (lets say, from a scale of loudness from 0 to 10) a "10" sound which is normal. Now when I plug my guitar through the DS-1 out to the Wah pedal and out to the amp I get a "5". The signal seems to drop quite a lot. This way, even tough I don't have a true bypass in it, it becames unrealiable to have true bypass because each time I bypass the signal straight to the amp I'm going to have to lower the volume to not sound wierd, and turn it back up when it's on.

2nd - this one occurs only when the pedal is depressed all the way. When I do that I get a loud output. If the sound is like "5" it goes to "10". There is a 10K pot in the circuit I tried turning it down but it's acts just like a volume knob. I thought it was there so you could set the max effect level.

This is this the PCB layout.


Is there a resistor that I could change to get the right output when the effect is off and on?

Note: I wanted to have the same output as I had not wah pedal at all plugged in.

[deadsnake]

I got a schem for it. I've changed the 100ohm resistor for a 3.3k resistor, the led I got is too bright .

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/4795/schemwah2op.jpg

[deadsnake]

I forgot to mention that when the pedal is no depressed I get a warm and soft sound just like if I turned my amps HIGH's all the way down. And when I depress all the way down I get a much pressence filled sound with more HIGH's. I wanted the pedal to sound just like it would if it was directly plugged into teh amp.

[deadsnake]

Please help everybody I need your help. Here this is what I found. It a simple circuit for frequency passing.

The output signal seems muffled when the pedal is not depressed. I know that changing some cap for another value can change the output frequency. I just don't know which one and what value it should be. Please take a look at the schem and this figure there is a formula for the output frequency based on caps and resistors.



The second example which is the lowpass is cutting the lows in the schem.

[Ry]

I guess I'm having a little trouble understanding your problem (I just got up, which doesn't help).  Does this solution from the GEO page 'the technology of the Wah Pedal' help explain your problem (and give a solution)?

Loss of signal level
After putting in a true bypass switch, people often find that they lose a bit of volume when the wah is kicked in. This comes from one of two places; either the forward gain of the wah circuit is a bit below one, or the loading of the wah circuit cuts the guitar signal down a bit. You can correct for this by lowering the value of the 68K input resistor somewhat (to 33K-47K maybe) to increase the gain. Notice that this also lowers the input impedance and may change the tone of the wah in the effect setting. The bypass setting will be unaffected because of the true bypass switching.

[deadsnake]

I just don't know what ressitor I should change tough. I acctually went to GEO and I found that article. They talk about wah wah effects using inductor the circuit is quite diferent. The circuit I'm using is inductorless, that's why i could figure out what I should change there. Thank you I think it's a matter of input/output signal strengh.

I'm going t make everything more simplified. Disregard the other post it's going to confuse you, just focus on the first one.

When I depress the wah pedal I expect it to have the same(at least close) volume level as play. That's not what happens. When depress the pedal it's like somebody has just cranked up the volume knob. I get the wah sound and with it I get a loud output. As I take my foot  out of it, it goes back to normal (it's supposed to do this).

The other problem is that I'm having tone sucking even without having a bypass switch in it. Acctually tone sucking occurs when my foot is not depressing the pedal. As I depress the pedal I get the regular wah sound I expected.


I hope that you get. Please everthing is usefull for me to try. If you have a suggestion, I would be glad to hear it.

[Ry]

You could try making your 'level' pot lager, say 100k and see if that helps.

Ry

[powerplayj]

Check out Geo's site and note that there is one particular cap that if removed turns your wah into a volume pedal.  I'm not familiar with your circuit but could it be that the particular cap in question has a soldering issue and is turning your pedal into 1/2 wah / 1/2 volume pedal?

Also, what happens when the wah is first in the chain?

[deadsnake]

Thanks for the advice both of you. I really apreciate it.

Well I looked at the soldering and I checked continuity  on the leads and on the traces just to make sure it was not cold soldered. I don't really know what cap to look at since my schem is not much like the one that uses inductors. At GEO (http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/wahpedl/wahped.htm). I definately not a expert on electronics but I'd agree with you saying that my circuit is acting like a both a volume and a wah pedal but with no volume change. I think that the pedal is acting as mixex, mixing the wah signal with the input signal resulting in a gain of volume. I don't really know if it's supposed to be this way, but it should have a balanced output.

I chose to do this project because I wanted something relatively simple and cheap. Build a wah with a inductor would be a lot simplier and with less tweaking, but I could't find any inductor of 500mH(I acctually did but I didn't want to pay that much for it, I'd rather make one).