Changing Wah Pot Taper

[Joe Hart]

I've searched for this and didn't come up with an answer (although I did not read every single thread, so I may have overlooked something). Anyway, I want to open up the middle bit of my wah. There always seems to be a "kink" in the middle of the travel where the tone goes from bass to treble too quickly for me. I want to unlock some of that midrange goodness! I have read (many times) The Secret Life of Pots, but since I don't really know what a wah pot taper is to begin with, I'm not sure what to use to change the taper. And, of course, I'm not totally sure what to change the taper to! Anyone have any ideas? It's a V845 with almost all SMD, so I can't really just change the "more mids" resistor (as much as I'd like to) because I don't know which little speck on the board it is! Thank you!!
-Joe Hart

[joegagan]

icar is a slower ramp. can't speak about the durability of the currently available icar clones, the ones dunlop used in the mccoy reissue (discontinued) lasted exactly one half of a song before going scratchy.

the propot appears to be cts made, i am suspicious of their durability, garmopat mods ( prominent ebay wah modder) says he likes them a lot for durability.
the  4 modern/recent available icar taper pots i tested all are consistently within around 5% of each other for taper, so i trust the recipe is secure...
the hotpotz 1 and 2, along with all claro and AB pots for crybaby going back to the early 70s have that rapid rise you refer to. the spec has not changed from 71 or so to at least 05.

[pinkjimiphoton]

dude, just google wah mods...there's tons of them, and one really simple resistor change can even out the sweep for you...

http://www.wah-wah.co.uk/diy.html

http://www.diyguitarist.com/DIYStompboxes/WahMod.htm

the "vocal mod" seems to do the trick on the ones i've modded. try it out~

[Joe Hart]

Jimi, when I started to read your reply, I felt like an idiot for missing obvious info from a simple Google search (which I did)... then I saw the links. I've read and re-read those sites and the problem is that the V845 board is a complete mystery to me! The only resistor that isn't SMD is 1K. And I think that's just the resistor that goes from the 9V to Q2 -- nothing to see there.

The entire circuit rundown is:
1 potentiometer
2 transistors
8 capacitors
2 electrolytic capacitors
20 resistors
2 diodes
4 "L" inductors

And the V845 supposedly doesn't have any buffers, so I don't know what's what with this thing!

Does anyone have any other thoughts? Thanks!!
-Joe Hart

[pinkjimiphoton]

shoot bro, i'm the idiot...i missed the smt part. the only thing i could think of maybe is to try and find a schematic for that puppy

here it is...



and maybe...just maybe...if you have a steady hand and a fine pointed iron, you can take an 1/8th watt resistor that's a much larger value...sorry, no good with the math part, so you'll have to experiment to find what size to parallel the necessary part with to get the right value or in the ball park...and just tag the leads on to each side of the fly speck.
it's still a pretty stock crybaby circuit it looks like...if you're lucky, ya may just be able to pull it off!!!

and if it fails..just build a new board for it with normal size parts and stuff it in the box. i've gotta spare gcb95 board with a red fasel in it i could mod for ya that i ordered because i was an idiot and had an oscillation happening after a mod...cuz i plugged the feckin' thing in backwards. if the board has the in/out jacks hard mounted to it it may fit.
it cost me about 40 bucks shipped, i'd send it to you for the same if ya want it.

otherwise, get in some good light, use one of them helping hands things to hold it, avoid coffee and have at it man...good luck!!

[pinkjimiphoton]

check here...mayyyyyyyyyyyyyyybe a little help...

http://stinkfoot.se/archives/561

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WHIPPLE-PCB-wah-board-Fits-Crybaby-Vox-most-pedals-/290557890989?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&clk_rvr_id=233748521348