first complete wah build...

[jonathan perez]

it started as a dual inductor wah, but forgot to have dual sweep caps too. the board was made for me by Dan at area51, and i never got around to finishing it.

i use the same value resistors as he does, but i have a different souce of carbon comp resistors. not to mention i use real fish caps.

i dont know what the value of the transistors are, as my friend Orion sent them to me with a message of "since you use high gain, these are for you!" and inked the numbers out.

all i know is that the middle and right leg need to be switched in order to be installed and working correctly. the only tranny that is similar to having to do that are MPSA18 trannys. does anyone know what transistor this might be?

i put the halo from my old 66 clyde on the left for a VINTAGE tone, and put an area51 inductor on the right for a modern fat wah tone. switched by a spdt switch.

the sweep caps are an OLD polypro .01 cap from an old radio, and a .015 cap from my Teese Wizard Wah. switched by a spdt switch.

my idea was to have the ability to switch between a "teese wizard wah" and a "jonathan wah". with the inductor switch up, and the sweep switch up, i can get that fat, awesome wizard wah tone.

with both switches down, i get the "jonathan" tone, which is modern and has full range.

yeah, i feel happy.  the enclosure is drying, so ill take pictures of that in a couple days.

i know it doesnt seem like much, but its only my 3rd build, and im REALLY proud of it.

oh, and within a couple of days, im going to have the 22.uf caps switchable, so i can REALLY hear the difference between metal film, trop fish, box caps, and those green ones.

[alderbody]

all i know is that the middle and right leg need to be switched in order to be installed and working correctly. the only tranny that is similar to having to do that are MPSA18 trannys. does anyone know what transistor this might be?

If i remember well the MPSA18's have a "normal" pinout. 
At least the ones i tried once had the same pinout as the BC10x.

I think some people use 2SC828 which have a different pinout. Not sure though.

anyway, if it sounds good to you, why bother for the transistor type?... 

the sweep caps are an OLD polypro .01 cap from an old radio, and a .015 cap

the .01 cap looks like a polystyrene to me. Isn't it the one soldered with the .015?

Does the .015 cap give you less highs?
If the cap has a wide tolerance then it's quite possible to fall in the same ballpark as the .01...

i once tried a switchable sweep cap and i used a .01 with a .0068 for treblier tone,
because after some tests i found that it was better for me to have optionally more highs than less.

I later realised i was always using the "stock" value cap, so the dpdt went out... 

Now i prefer to select between my Fulltone inductor and the (much thinner sounding) Banzai.
The banzai is better to be played with added mids (IMO).

btw, i use Mallory 150 caps because i found them to be the most natural and ...3D  sounding. (at least for my setup/gear/etc)

what's your electro? 4.7uF or else?
I have a 4uF and i kinda prefer it than the 4.7uF i had before.
Makes the wah operate differently. More realistic "vocality" to my ears.
Never really liked any larger value than the 4.7uF though...

the carbon comps are Xicon? (from Mouser)
be careful with the soldering iron. too much heat and the nominal values drift really quick... 

[Paul Marossy]

Nice work. 

[jimbob]

Nice. You even used different colored wires!

[jonathan perez]

yeah, the transistors sound good, but never figured out what they were.

yeah, thats it! the .015 is to compensate for the lack of "girth" of the halo inductor. nice and fat. 

but no, it doesnt have less treble by any means. i would have thought so, but it really doesnt.

yeah the electro is a 4.7 uF, i had an oooold 4 in there once before, but didnt sound very different.

actually, i bought my carbon comps from a store here in sacramento, downtown. its an old radio parts and surplus store.

jimbob, i dont even notice what colors i use, i got that white wire from BYOC. the rest are just wires i had from other wah pedals that are now in the "junkyard."

[Paul Marossy]

I think the 0.015uF cap is perfect in a wah. 

[jonathan perez]

agreed

[The Furious One]

That's pretty sweet! I'm working on my 1st build right now and it's a Wah. I got the standard board from GGG. I'm still waiting on my inductor and trannies and it should be complete! But I've been looking at alot of mods and things so I don't it will stay that way for long. A buddy of mine donated an old Thomas Organ housing that it's all getting planted in so it should have a little mojo!

[GuitMan]

Sweet build!... and thanks for the info on the blue inductor in my 80's Cry Baby.  My Cry Baby will be my 1st mod.  I'll see how it does for tone.  When I get a little more comfortable with hotrod mods maybe I'll try that dual inductor/dual sweep caps setup.

Cheers,