wah too quacky

[LightSoundGeometry]

the wah I have is way to quacky and I dont like the way it feels.  what can i do to fix this? is it the inductor, the pot or part of the rcl network? or the transistors?

I need a mellow growl ..metallica's wah or slashes sounds good to me

I took the a51 apart to give it a fixing

[thermionix]

Can you describe a little more what you mean by too quacky?  Are you referring more to the tone or the way it transitions as you move your foot?  What kind of pot is installed?

[LightSoundGeometry]

Can you describe a little more what you mean by too quacky?  Are you referring more to the tone or the way it transitions as you move your foot?  What kind of pot is installed?

the way it transitions when I move. we used to play white room by cream and some traffic in my old band and I had a cheap dunlop that seemed to do what i wanted it to ..I thought this would sound better when I got it. its like bass then instant treble. to me its unusable as if its broken if you rock it slightly too fast which is not much at all. not sure if its the inductor or a pot. inductors dont have any polarity do they?

I been reading people like the honk/quack but this pedal is off, I can just tell something is wrong with it ..

[GibsonGM]

Some wahs just sound different than others, man.   Read this and tweak:  http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/wahpedl/wahped.htm

[strungout]

Is the pot an audio taper or linear? I would think linear would give a smooth, more consistant transition.

If it sounds too quacky, my thought is that the filter sweep range needs to be lowered. I have a nurse quacky on my breadboard (not exactly the same thing) but lowering the range (by raising the cap values) definitely gives less quack and more human-like voicing.

My two cents.

[drummer4gc]

Try decreasing the value of the resistor in parallel with the inductor. 33k is what Dunlop uses.

[Gus]

What is a51?  Link?
is it area 51?  if so did you ask them?

Find the wha patent it has the best explanation on the web about the wha.

Do a search here lots of threads some have good information.

[thermionix]

Agree with lowering the "Q" resistor.  It looks like there's a 47K on the Area51 board, right next to the inductor.  Lowering it to 33K would probably be a fairly subtle change.  I've never seen or heard a wah with a lower value than 33K, but it might not hurt to experiment some down in the 20s.  You can tack on a pot in parallel with the 47K, say 100KL, and see if you can dial something in that pleases you.

You also might not be getting along with the pot you're using, especially in combination with this board.  That said, the old school Clyde McCoy-type circuit is generally a little quackier than the more modern Crybaby, and maybe it's just not your cup of tea.  I'm sure you could find someone willing to swap you, maybe even throw a little cash your way on top.

The inductor does not have a polarity.

[LightSoundGeometry]

looks like its a 26 ohm ? bands read 47ee3 47k , maybe a bad R?



51K

so the RL network changes the drop across the R? I thought only I and E changed ?

well its 51k now, and thats a lot higher than the 32k which I have here on hand to put in.



looks like the A51 has a 470 coming off Q1 instead of a 390 ..I cant tell but some of the resistors might have drifted..the 82k and the 4.7 look backwards to me? I am having trouble tracing this because its looks backwards ..dunlop has the 4.7 paralell with 82k to ground ..looks this is running neg side to the 100k ..the 470k is reading 300K right there as well ..this is messed up it seems

the +9 goes to the 1k and the 22k ..and tell me if I am not mistaken but that 4.7 electro is reversed  on G1 which is common?





nvm, I see it ..the junction he has a 100K instead of an 82 , i was looking at the electro wrong. I am going to change a few more resistors to the dunlop specs

[duck_arse]

while you have R1 out of the board, measure the resistance of the inductor. is it around 26R?

[thermionix]

The electrolytic is NP (non-polarized) so there is no backwards.  The emitter resistor (470 vs 390) is one of the things people often change to voice a wah to their liking.  However, it relates more to the overall tone of the wah, rather than the sweep.

The main difference between your Area51 circuit and a modern Crybaby is the fact that a modern Crybaby has an input buffer added.  That input buffer changes the sound quite a bit.  It's pretty simple consisting of an MPSA13 darlington transistor and a few other small components.  If you have a spot to mount it in your pedal, you could easily whip one up on a little piece of perf board.

[LightSoundGeometry]

The electrolytic is NP (non-polarized) so there is no backwards.  The emitter resistor (470 vs 390) is one of the things people often change to voice a wah to their liking.  However, it relates more to the overall tone of the wah, rather than the sweep.

The main difference between your Area51 circuit and a modern Crybaby is the fact that a modern Crybaby has an input buffer added.  That input buffer changes the sound quite a bit.  It's pretty simple consisting of an MPSA13 darlington transistor and a few other small components.  If you have a spot to mount it in your pedal, you could easily whip one up on a little piece of perf board.

I went ahead and changes all values to cry baby specs, only parts I left on are were the .22uF wimas and the 68K feeding into the Q1 base..I was going to change the resistor to a new but forgot as I was burning the midnight oil..

now my guitar is apart, I had a pup shorting out on a toggle..its fixed now but I need to restring it . a quick test with two strings I heard a subtle change, as you said, but it gave me the abilty to slow the foot action down and get a voicy growl ..not to my liking just yet but improved..the insane base to treble quack is still there but I am more able to slowly growl out a note.

probably going mess with it some more. maybe change the pot and inductor for the heck of it , or just go ahead and build a new one from scratch ..I have my small bear cart loaded with a few wah items

I love that silver wire..15 dollars for 10 ft but it looks so nice

ducky, i will measure the inductor here shortly when i take her apart .i am going to get that old 68k out of there and stick a real AB mojo one in and probably a short can electro , I dont like having to bend over a component.



http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/wahpedl/wahped.htm#basicmod
still need to make a few changes ..Cf and maybe increase the gain in R1. I run my wah near last so a buffer doesnt matter to me