Wah wah... too much trebly

[plucky]

Hi all,

I bought an old sound king wah, it's OK, only that I thought it's too much trebly in the last range of the pot, there is a way of change it???... the board seems like a crybaby wah, what could I do???...

Thanks...

[Nuts]

Hi,
If the board seems like a crybaby, look here http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/mods/dunlop.htm
Go down to "Lower range".

[Paul Marossy]

Before you go modifying the circuit, try changing the range on the pot. You do that by adjusting how the rack and pinion gear move the pot shaft. A wah pedal doesn't use the full range of the pot, so there is some adjustment that can be made. If that doesn't help, then you should look at modifying the circuit itself.

[jonathan perez]

i agree with paul, that is your easy bet, before dicking around with the rest of the circuit .     

if you dont think that is enough, replace the sweep capacitor (or both, if unsure) with a .015uF capacitor.

[Mark Hammer]

+1

Well, maybe +.95.  Note that while the rack and pinion generally does not force the full rotation of the wah pot, there is a good reason for that.  Namely, pushing your whole weight and foot pressure such that the wiper goes right to the very extreme of rotation (on either end) risks damaging the pot.  I suspect there may also be some issues of wiper-to-strip contact at the extremes that may create risk of crackle (the rivets holding the resistive strip to the pot chassis may compress the strip a little more towards the chassis at that point).  Consequently, feel free to move the gear on the pot shaft a couple of "teeth" this way or that, but make sure there is always at least one or two teeth's worth of movement left over in each direction.  In other words, take advantage of the margin of error the pot and gear system provides.

[shredgd]

I must disagree with all of you  ...

I considered my Crybaby Wah too trebly as well, prior to converting it to true bypass. That was because the known tone-sucking of those stock wahs led me to compensate adding more treble on my amp when the pedal was bypassed: this added treble was terrible, though, when engaging the wah effect.

So, plucky, the first thing you must do in my opinion is the following: set your amp for your favourite tone without the wah or any other pedal in the signal chain (guitar straight to the amp via one cable), then insert the wah in the signal chain and (without minding the tone you get in bypass mode) have some fun with it and check for excessive treble again.

If I am right, you'll find the tone of your wah ok, while you'll notice a dullness in your sound when bypassed because of the tone-sucking: convert your pedal to true bypass and have fun!

Giulio

P.S.: if I am wrong, follow those previous suggestions... 

[Paul Marossy]

Yeah, that's a good point. If it's an old wah, you might need to true bypass it.

[plucky]

Thanks guys...

I think i'll make it true bypass.... and change the caps... because I tried to change the pot range, and I didn't like the new range...
I also noticed that when it's in the max treble range, it receives radio signals... something weird...
Another idea?


Regards...

[plucky]

i agree with paul, that is your easy bet, before dicking around with the rest of the circuit .     

if you dont think that is enough, replace the sweep capacitor (or both, if unsure) with a .015uF capacitor.

I wonder.... what is the sweep capacitor??

[Paul Marossy]

The sweep cap basically controls the sweep frequency range. It is normally 0.01uF. Making it smaller shifts the range up, larger shifts the range down.

You could try a 0.015uF or a 0.022uF to fatten up the tone some.

[plucky]

Sorry for my ignorance, but, where the sweep cap is?...

thanks

[Paul Marossy]

The sweep cap is connected to the inductor, the emitter of Q2 and the input of Q1, thru the 1.5K resistor.