Wah To AutoWah

[AzzR]

Just curious if there is any possible way to mod a wah into an autowah. Any websites or directions on how (if possible) to do this would be appreciated

Thanks

Dream

[nero1985]

you can replace the wah pot for a LFO or envelope detector and control the wah with it, like the DR Q....... check muzique.com

[Mark Hammer]

Actually there is no "easy" way, since the wah uses a pot as a voltage divider; i.e., both sides of the wiper matter and change in opposite directions.  Most autowahs that vary a resistance simply vary a single resistance, often a single resistance to ground.  Even when they don't vary a simple resistance to ground (as in the Mutron) the resistance that is changed is simply made higher or lower, not both at once.  You could certainly use a digital pot like the DS1668 or 1669 from Dallas Semiconductor, but then digitally addressing it is not exactly "easy".  Feasible, but not for a beginner, and if you had to ask the question in the first place, not likely the sort of project that will come to a happy ending for you quickly.

HOWEVER.....the reverse is a very different story.

It is plum easy to take an autowah and turn it into a wah.  For example, if you had a Dr Q /Quack / Nurse Quacky, all you would need to do to turn any of those into a foot controlled wah would be to switch the transistor for a simple foot-controlled variable resistance to ground.  Turning a Mutron/Neutron into a foot-controlled lowpass/highpass/bandpass filter is as simple as sticking a variable resistance between the positive supply voltage and the LED that shines on the LDRs.  Make the resistance higher and the light gets dimmer, causing the LDR resistance to go up and the filter frequency to go down.

Note that in all these cases, there has to be some minimum resistance in place, and quite probably some maximum resistance as well.