Wah pedal building- how to turn the impossible into possible?

[Francisco_BR]

Hi folks!

My name is Francisco, I'm from Brazil.

About a month ago, I gathered around with a couple of friends and we have decided to build some wah pedals for us, as we are not only short on budget (dunlop stuff, for instance, tends to be rather expensive around here, roughly at least 50% more than it is in the US- and I'm not very fond of paying 300 dollars on a pedal for now), but we are also seeking a whole lotta fun (and headache as well).

It is no news at all that wah pedals have a very easy-to-execute electronic part, and an almost impossible mechanical part, which is not due its insignificant complexity, but rather due difficult on working on it in low quantities and (therefore) without heavy machinery.

Have you ever had the experience of building a wah pedal? How was it? Is it reliable, does it work fine?

Does a reasonable pedal needs a build as rugged as a ernie ball or duncan one?

Does anyone own an Ernie Ball volume pedal? It seems to have a very rational mechanism of action, as it employs no gears, and is probably less difficult to buy, and of smoother action. I'd like to see pictures of inside it.

Thank you very much for any feedback.

[Shed_FX]

Hi Francisco,

The Ernie Ball is definitely the easiest to build. The one I built in my shed using only hand tools and a cheap drill press. The only difficulty maybe the pulley on the volume pot. The pedal itself is very reliable and works well, I havent built a wah in one but that should be possible. Ive just about finished a full size ernie ball clone which looks exactly the same and I will post photos of it later.

The best source of materials is if you have a non-ferrous scrap metal yard near you as you can get the materials really cheaply!

[JasonG]

Francisco
Welcome to the forum! All the info your looking for is here. If you didnt see the search button up top I would recomend you search for "wah enclosure "or "wah shell " I know puretube has made is own enclosures and a few others. There are some clever enclosures out there.

[puretube]

check out Paul`s work! 

[Meanderthal]

 There's always the Morley led/ldr approach also... But then ya have to deal with the anti-mojo. They have a bad reputation which from everything I've ever heard from the pedals themselves is highly undeserved. (they're much better than rumor has it). Seems to me, a Morley clone (or even crybaby with led/ldr instead) would be easier to build mechanically... no pot to worry about!

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I'm wiht Meanderthal on this one, I have seen plenty of the Morley led/ldr optical shutter based wahs that were severely misaligned, whihc may account for the bad reputation. Personally if I was just wanting to have a wah sound, that is how I would go.
Also, by doing funny things to the slit that adjusts the amount of light coming through, you can have interesting alternatives, for example a wah that goes through more than one cycle as it goes from top to bottom!!!

[Paul Marossy]

Here's a wah pedal I built just because the physical challenges appealed to me. http://www.diyguitarist.com/DIYStompboxes/DIY-Wah2.htm

There's several other ways to accomplish the same thing. 

[dxm1]

If you want to go the traditional route, and buy rather than build the mechanical parts, Steve at smallbear has you covered:

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Categories.bok?category=Wah-Wah+and+Swell+Pedal+Parts

[Paul Marossy]

If you want to go the traditional route, and buy rather than build the mechanical parts, Steve at smallbear has you covered

That works as long as the cost of shipping isn't prohibitive...

[Shed_FX]

Here's the photo, these pedals are the same mechanically and were made using hand tools. The one on the left contains an orange treble booster with the treddle controlling the tone. They are pretty easy to make if you want to invest the time.



If you want any more details I take some photos of the current one which is being assembled and post them.

[BN]

I would love to see those photos Shed.

I started a wah-from-scratch project about a year ago after a look at Paul's site. I choose the Dunlop path when it came to mechanics and actually got the thing working but then the pot broke (became scratchy much to quick). Guess it broke from to much stress from the rack...

I also tried to some kind of LED/LDR approach but couldn't figure out how to design the "shutter". I have never got the chance to look inside a morley wah. Anyone who's got any ideas on shutter-design?

Now it's time to go to bed, sleep well!

/BN

[Francisco_BR]

Hi guys!

First of all, thank you very much for all of your replies- they are being of great help to me.

I have no trouble on finding good and cheap- and also new- aluminium over here, according to one of my friends who is also into this wicked idea.

Shed, your pedals are looking very interesting- I would like to see more pictures, please. They are going to help me a lot.

Anyway, what we are planning to build is a pedal using a Dunlop board (basically a clone- we even want to buy the Fasel inductors), but with true bypass, and Ernie Ball mechanics, as they look simpler and perhaps more reliable (Ernie Ball's volume pedals are built as tanks, I've heard). We are also going to use Dunlop Hot Potz II potentiometers, due to availability and price, and adapt them to use the new mechanism (it doesn't seem to be a problem at all). However, DXM has shed light on a new perspective that I was not imagining- buying the rack and pineon gears. Has anyone here ever done that? How is it? Is still the Ernie Ball mechanism preferable? Please, share your thoughts =)

Thank you,

Francisco

[Meanderthal]

 The Ernie ball mechanism is a string wrapped around a pulley, with a spring to hold it tight. I can see a big problem with getting a spring with just the right pull- too much and the pedal snaps back, not enough and ya slip on the pulley.

The hot potz II will come with a pinion gear. The rack that smallbear sells works fine with it- I did buy one of each (for an ANCIENT crybaby).

[Paul Marossy]

I'll take the rack and pinion thing over the string and pulley system any day. 

I've got an Ernie Ball volume pedal, and I've messed with it a lot. IMO, they're hard to adjust. But, OTOH, they feel quite smooth to operate... 

[tcobretti]

In the old Sho-Bud volume pedals, the pot was mounted in the rocking part of the pedal, and the sting is connected to the foot plate, wrapped around a screw thru the pot shaft, then connected to the bottom plate.  So when you move the pedal, the string rotates the pot.

It a pain to set up, but pretty simple.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I also tried to some kind of LED/LDR approach but couldn't figure out how to design the "shutter". I have never got the chance to look inside a morley wah. Anyone who's got any ideas on shutter-design?

I tisn't difficult, if you can arrange a piece of metal (or, maybe, hard plastic) to move up and down as the pedal moves, then imagine a point that the metal moves past.... now put a LED on one side & a LDR on the other. Now cut a track in the metal so that the LED & LDR see each otehr as the metal moves... now vary to track width to get the right sound.
Actually thns might be easier using transparent plastic & either painting on the plastic with opaque paint, or usign black tape (note you have to stop stray light from the room getting on the LDR). It is fiddly but it is doable, and gives you more freedom over the response than any other method.

[BN]

Thanks Paul. It sounds like what I tried, but maybe I just didn't get it good enough. Guess  should give it a few more tries 

In order to not hijack this thread I'm going to start a new one about this (I have a few other questions as well).

EDIT: Here's the new thread http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=55979.0

/BN

[wake01]

It's pretty easy to build a solid wah shell (any other shell if you like actually). I built my own wah shell over 30 years ago and it's still my main wah pedal. It follows the Vox style but has a little larger footprint and with a bit more travel.

What you do is make a timber pattern of the two shell halves and get the shell sandcast in aluminium at a local foundry. 30 years ago in Australia it cost me $10 (US$8). The pattern should be as nice as you can do, but it's not precision engineering.

For the rack and pinion I cut the rack by hand from an old plastic screwdriver handle and the pinion gear was from an old meccano set! These days the rack and pinion parts are cheaply available (some pots even include the pinion gear). Only changed my original rack 2 years ago!

Even though I have a couple of crybabys I still prefer mine as the cry babys are too narrow and wobble around when you're jumpin' on 'em!

IMHO pedals fabricated from sheet aluminium are too flimsy for real gigging. Just frustrating to use. It's enough of a challenge to make the other hardware and electronics reliable enough without the box bending all over the place. If you're spending the time and effort to make a good sounding circuit please put it in a tough enclosure!

[David]

I would love to see those photos Shed.

I started a wah-from-scratch project about a year ago after a look at Paul's site. I choose the Dunlop path when it came to mechanics and actually got the thing working but then the pot broke (became scratchy much to quick). Guess it broke from to much stress from the rack...

I also tried to some kind of LED/LDR approach but couldn't figure out how to design the "shutter". I have never got the chance to look inside a morley wah. Anyone who's got any ideas on shutter-design?

Now it's time to go to bed, sleep well!

/BN

I did some research on this once.  Look up "diffraction grating".  I'll bet you can find a pattern that would work if you could multilayer it.

[Shed_FX]

From what experience I have of these the string method is my preference. It allows for a certain amount of mis-allignment of the system and you can control the travel of the pedal by the diameter of your pulley.
I have also tried a two bar linkage system as found on some of the coloursound wah's this is a possibility if you have the patience to mess about with the length of the linkages to gain a suitable travel.
I will post some pictures of my ernie ball clone in an hour or so, just gotta charge my camera. Its definitely a neat solution. Oh and the tension spring is not all that difficult to get and it only adds tension to the line rather than pulling the pedal back down. The trick is building friction into the pedal's axle so that it holds position when set.  More details to follow.