capasitor change/ higher voltage ???? (4 pics)

[HelpingFriendly]

Hello,
I am running my wah at a higher voltage (16v) than the suggested 9v and like it alot better. I would really like to go some higher though and experiment with 24v. I need to change the caps though to a higher value so it can run accordingly. Can you guys take a look at these pics and tell me which are the ones I have to change? I think there are the 4 black caps rated 10uF 25v.. But what is with the green one rated 6.8uf 63v?

[R.G.]

But what is with the green one rated 6.8uf 63v?

I don't know what's "with" it, but it'll be fine at higher voltages than 24.

Choice of a cap's voltage is sometimes based on operating conditions, sometimes on what's cheap; and sometimes cap makers decide to make all low-capacitance caps in higher voltages to up the quanties and save some bucks.

It's very hard to say anything other than 24V won't pop it.

[HelpingFriendly]

But what is with the green one rated 6.8uf 63v?

I don't know what's "with" it, but it'll be fine at higher voltages than 24.

Choice of a cap's voltage is sometimes based on operating conditions, sometimes on what's cheap; and sometimes cap makers decide to make all low-capacitance caps in higher voltages to up the quanties and save some bucks.

It's very hard to say anything other than 24V won't pop it.

Thanks R.G-
Out of curiosity, was I correct on my assumption on the 4 black ones?

Also, I am on a quest to get more headroom out of it. Any thoughts on this? Would a cap change along with running at a higher voltage help?

[slacker]

I'd try it first and see if you like what 24 Volts does, the caps are rated at 25 Volts so no issue running it on 24 Volts for a while, they're not instantly going to explode if you go a bit over 25 Volts.
Without the schematic we can't say whether you need to change any of them, they could be somewhere in the circuit where they don't have the full Voltage across them. With the circuit running on 9 Volts you could measure the Voltage across those caps, if you get 9 Volts then they will have 24 Volts across them if you run it on 24 Volts. If you measure less than 9 Volts scale that up by 24/9 and that will tell you what voltage they'll have across them with a 24 Volt supply.
Or just change them all

[R.G.]

Out of curiosity, was I correct on my assumption on the 4 black ones?

They'll be fine at a power supply of 24Vdc too.

Also, I am on a quest to get more headroom out of it. Any thoughts on this? Would a cap change along with running at a higher voltage help?

That's a strong "maybe".

First, when you say "headroom" do you mean the engineering definition - "bigger signal without encountering distortion" ? Or the musical definition "louder"?

There are a problems with simply increasing voltage on a circuit, not least of which is the possibility of the devices overheating. At 24V, you're about 3x the original voltage, and possibly 9 times the power dissipation, depending on how the circuit happens to self bias.  Changing the power supply all by itself in a search for "more" may not give as much "more" as expected because the biasing may not let it exploit the greater voltage.

[HelpingFriendly]

Out of curiosity, was I correct on my assumption on the 4 black ones?

They'll be fine at a power supply of 24Vdc too.

Also, I am on a quest to get more headroom out of it. Any thoughts on this? Would a cap change along with running at a higher voltage help?

That's a strong "maybe".

First, when you say "headroom" do you mean the engineering definition - "bigger signal without encountering distortion" ? Or the musical definition "louder"?

There are a problems with simply increasing voltage on a circuit, not least of which is the possibility of the devices overheating. At 24V, you're about 3x the original voltage, and possibly 9 times the power dissipation, depending on how the circuit happens to self bias.  Changing the power supply all by itself in a search for "more" may not give as much "more" as expected because the biasing may not let it exploit the greater voltage.

Yes that is exactly what I mean by headroom (bigger signal without encountering distortion).
I'm not sure if its my hotter pickups or what, but I get an annoying clip when I dig in to the strings on this wah. Running the voltage higher than 9v helped alot and also made it more dynamic with harmonics that I really dig, especially on single coil mode. Unfortunately I don't have the schematics and Mr. Teese has been very helpful with other things but sighs away from any type of modification to the circuit. Which I guess I can understand seeing he put in many years perfecting it. It sounds great but I just need to improve the slight dirt when digin in. I prefer a clean wah over a dirtier one. I am willing to do what it takes to make this happen though. If someone can help even just a little would be helpful. I would pay someone for the the knowledge to mod it if I had to, I just want to find out if it is even a possibility. 

The wah does have a mid and low pot, which of course is less clippy when they are rolled back. But I like a thicker tone with them both at about 3/4 up. Now maybe this has something to do with the dirt that's coming through? Maybe a mod in that department would help? I can post pics of the trace side if anyone wants to investigate?

[HelpingFriendly]

yes

[HelpingFriendly]

Anyone help?