Q About the ColorSound Wah

Paul Marossy · June 10, 2005, 12:58:41 PM

This ColorSound Wah that people rant and rave about, does that employ the inductorless wah schematic that I have seen floating around on the net? Anyone know anything about the ColorSound wah circuits?

cd · June 10, 2005, 01:21:30 PM

All sussed out here:

http://diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=25279

I love the inductorless one myself. I think that's the most common one, the re-issues were inductorless.

Paul Marossy · June 10, 2005, 01:36:19 PM

Thanks! That answers my question. I'm going to build this one tonight and play around with it. Oh boy! :lol:

12afael · June 10, 2005, 03:24:04 PM

I have an swell fuzz supra wha colorsound and it have inductor. and use tropical fish and polypro box caps.

vanhansen · June 10, 2005, 03:51:34 PM

Quote from: cdAll sussed out here:

http://diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=25279

I love the inductorless one myself. I think that's the most common one, the re-issues were inductorless.

That is kick*ss! I HAVE to try that one. Thanks for the link. That was all talked about a year before I joined the forum so I never saw that post and didn't know there was such a thing as an inductorless wah.

Fret Wire · June 10, 2005, 03:58:02 PM

cd, were the values NS gave you ever verified?

cd · June 10, 2005, 04:23:42 PM

Quote from: Fret Wirecd, were the values NS gave you ever verified?

Yup. I checked it against a re-issue and the values were pretty much the same. I think the 5M7 was a 3M3 (to account for a different transistor) but other than that no significant difference.

I can't remember why I got rid of mine. Probably for $$$ to get other pedals, but I vaguely remember either the throw of the foot pedal was too large and the wah sweep too small, or the throw of the foot pedal was too small and the wah sweep was too large. If you're putting it in a Crybaby enclosure it may require some tweaking - easy with the single resistor Q adjustment.

cd · June 10, 2005, 04:28:22 PM

Oh yeah if you look at the sweep on the second page of the thread I posted above, I *think* the sweep range (of the graph, not the actual Q of the wah) is 10hz to 10kHz, with the frequency scale (x axis) being logarithmic. I'll see if I can dig out my original simulation file but I'm pretty sure that's right since I do 99% of all my sims 10-10kHz.

Fret Wire · June 10, 2005, 06:11:31 PM

Verified, that's great.

Yeah, it does appear to have quite a sweep. I've never tried one, but I remember reading that the original had a long pedal throw. Probably best suited to the Vox shell then. Who knows, someone else might prefer it with the Crybaby's shorter throw. I wonder if the long throw was sore point, or part of it's charm as the "funky wah".

Almost forgot, I wonder if the Hotpotz, having a quicker taper than the "Icar types", might be help or hinderance to this ckt?

Paul Marossy · June 10, 2005, 11:47:56 PM

Well, I made up a little PCB (1-3/4"x1-5/8") and populated it tonight. In the morning I will test it out. Gotta go to bed now, I'm beat!

Fret Wire · June 11, 2005, 12:03:47 AM

Paul, let us know how it sounds.

cd · June 11, 2005, 07:59:34 AM

Quote from: Fret WireAlmost forgot, I wonder if the Hotpotz, having a quicker taper than the "Icar types", might be help or hinderance to this ckt?

IIRC the pot in the re-issue was linear taper

Fret Wire · June 11, 2005, 11:05:31 AM

I wonder what the original pot taper was? That wah had enough of a unique sound where just cloning the original would be good. But, it looks like you could experiment a bit with short throw/long throw enclosures, plus quick (Hotpotz) and slower (Icar) pot tapers.

Paul Marossy · June 11, 2005, 12:16:37 PM

Tested it out this morning, seems to sound pretty cool. Woke up with an idea of how to make my own wah body and stuff, so I'm currently in the process of building it. I have created the base and footpaddle arrangement in the space of 2-1/2 hours. Now I just have to figure out how to make it all work. At least I have a wah to use as a guide.

Anyhow, I am curious about the pot, too. I have a Hot Potz from a CryBaby that I was using for testing. I'm not sure that the actual pot is really terribly important on this circuit, though, since it's a different animal from a inductor based wah. In this circuit, it's just a variable resistor, so it seems to me that the main question is: linear or log?

I'll post pictures of my creation in the next few days.

cd · June 11, 2005, 01:56:36 PM

FYI on the RI, the resistance goes from 36k (pulled up) to 0k (pushed down).

Fret Wire · June 11, 2005, 02:19:10 PM

That's with the lin 100k?

Paul Marossy · June 12, 2005, 12:30:32 AM

OK, I have the basic wah assembly done. It took about half of my day today, but I am pretty happy with the results thus far.

Check it out: http://www.diyguitarist.com/DIYStompboxes/DIY-Wah.htm

Addendum: BTW, does anyone know the taper on one of those 100K Hot Potz?

nelson · June 12, 2005, 12:22:51 PM

That has to be the most professional looking DIY wah shell I have ever seen.

Good work Paul.

Paul Marossy · June 12, 2005, 04:54:25 PM

Thanks nelson! :wink:

I'm working on the pot arrangement right now. With some luck, I'll have it wrapped up by tonight. I'll let y'all know when I'm done, and I'll update that webpage, too.

TheBigMan · June 12, 2005, 05:38:54 PM

Pretty sure it's a linear taper, I replaced the pot in my RI a few months back with a Bourns pot from wah-wah.co.uk

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Q About the ColorSound Wah