Wah wah sound problem

[uan]

i dont know exactly.. but when i build rocket fuzz, i need to bias the transistor to get smooth and enough gain. I read that he has done almost everything even restoring the components back to standard and the pedal still muted on the high notes when  heal down the wah. I believe the gain comes from the resistor but i'm not sure.

[jonathan perez]

yes, but these transistors to need to be biased that way.

[Fuzzy-Train]

I e-mailed Andreas Moeller who made the stinkfoot wah mod page, and here's what he said:

"Well, it sounds like it's mostly normal. A wah works by creating a sharp peak (boosting a small area of the frequency spectrum), while lowering the gain of the signals above and below the peak. With the foot pedal, you can then alter the center frequency of the peak. This means that any notes that gets boosted enough to feed back with the foot pedal fully in the heel position will stop feeding back when you move the pedal towards the toe position (of course, moving the foot pedal will boost other notes instead, as you noticed). The inherent boost to certain frequencies is what makes the wah sound like a wah, but it's also the reason why the amp sometimes distorts when you're wah:ing, even though it's otherwise on a clean setting.

Basically, it's the nature of the beast. But you can alter the characteristics of the wah to make it more or less "beastly". =) Lowering the 68K input resistor makes the wah louder, while lowering the 390 ohm (410 in your case) makes it both louder and bassier. Raising the value of the 33K (vocal mod) makes the peak sharper (affecting a smaller portion of the frequency range), and raising the 1.5K boosts and alters the midrange.

In your case, it seems like you'd prefer the wah to be a little flatter (with less dramatic effect). I'd probably put the 410 ohm resistor back - since you already raised the gain at the input stage, you don't need the second boost with the added bass that gives. You might also think about raising the input resistor to 47K or so - 39K is a rather drastic change at the input. Also, I'd look at dialing the mid boost resistor down a little - about 1.7K is my favourite value here."

I actually did have a 470 ohm resistor, not 410 ohm... I got the purple and brown confused. And I did the mods he suggested except I didn't have a 1.7k resistor for the mid boost, so I'll have to try and get that. His suggestions actually improved the sound some... maybe the mid boost will help even more, but I guess I'll have to live with my little sound problem.

I'll ask him about the transistor swap and see what he says. But like he said "it's the nature of the beast" so I'm not sure it will help. I'll keep you guys informed on what he says. But he gets a lot of e-mails so it'll probably be about a week t'ill he gets back to me.

*completely off-topic*

I just won a GFS superstrat wiring kit off eBay (you know the on/off/on switches) and the kit comes with 500k pots for the vol. and tone controls. Should I use those or should I stick with the 250k I have now? Because from what I understand, 500k pots should be used for humbuckers, but maybe when you use those on/off/on switches you need to use 500k pots instead.

Thanks a lot for the help everyone.

[Fuzzy-Train]

I just got an e-mail from Andreas, and this is what he said:

"Well, my personal wah has BC109's in it, and it is almost too smooth sounding for my taste. So that might be one route for you. Mind you, it also has a Fasel inductor and some other goodies inside But the transistors can definitely make a difference."

Do you think I should ask him "what other goodies" he has. I'm gonna try the BC109's, and get either a fasel or halo. But I'll put it for a little while and do more research about the difference between the fasel  and halo. Then I'll grab all the parts I need.

BTW, how do I go about painting a wah? Is it like a guitar where I have to sand it down first, or can I just wipe it down with alcohol and paint it?

Thanks a lot for the help. 

[jonathan perez]

sanding it is your best bet...unless you paint it with a super flat base coat, thats real strong...like that "goop" you can use on pedal guts...ill post some paintings i did in a few minutes...

[Fuzzy-Train]

^ No need man. I saw most of your wah pedals in the "pictures of your pedals" thread. Nice work man... very nice work. Do you remove the actual pedal that rocks back and forth or do you just work around it? I wanted to paint my entire pedal, and put some more grease in the joint because it squeaks when in use. That pin holding it together is a pain in the ass to get out though.

[jonathan perez]

yeah, i take the whole sucker apart. the pin can be hammered out from right to left, switch up on top.

whats tough for me is putting the thing right under the pin back on...so i just leave it out. it makes for a smoother/easier wah.

[Fuzzy-Train]

The uhh... flat piece of metal with the 2 screws holding it down right? Yeah, now that I look, AND think about how it all goes back together, it does look like it's a pain to get back on properly.

Thanks for the help man.

[lacto]

Things are always a matter of taste, but I can't imagine leaving the flat spring out and having the pedal loose with no resistance at all. Yeah it would be smooth alright that way... It's not a big deal to insert the pin through the flat spring as long as you have loosened up the nuts on the underside plenty. You have to make sure you put the pin in the right way, but you would have to do that whether you use the flat spring or not. One can always customize and modify the way you want, but most things are designed a certain way for a reason.

[uan]

............. Especially around the 12th and 15th fret on the G, B, and high e string. The sound drops and it sounds almost muted, BUT if I move my foot just a teeny tiny bit forward (toe) the notes have that nice gain/feedback sound that the others have when heeled out.

i read all the post and cant see any specific solution regarding this problem.. anyone?