If we could design our own wah casing, what would we design in?

[Auke Haarsma]

looking very good!

[any]

Wow that's looking pretty sexy already!

It does look big though... how does it compare to an Ernie Ball?
(I personally like their "junior" sized ones the best)
On the other hand, it does open up a lot of possibilities in creating
analog multi effects (can easily fit 4 pcb's... )
They all have excellent travel though and it looks like this one
will definitely allow for a nicer travel then a "cry baby" tape case!

Great work Mic!

[MicFarlow77]

Hey Auke and Any,

Thanks for the comments.

As far as size, the chassis is 4.5 x 10 x 2 inches high. There is a slope that starts about 3" from the toe and drops from 2 inches to a little over 1 inch at the toe.

I am not sure of the dimensions of the Ernie Ball stuff.

Right now, the way it is looking, I should be able to get almost all of the pot travel out of it, even allowing for popping on and off a footswitch. Seems like it will only take about 1 to almost 2 teeth max of travel to allow for the switch, which should not be more than 20 to 35 degrees of rotation... I'm guessing at the math right now but I should be pretty close.

When I am finished, you should be able to get more than 1 PCB in there... depending on size, maybe several.

I now have the paddle mounted and the footswitch mounted. I'll get a couple of pics up here shortly.

Next step is to get the pot and track mounted. Also, if I do this right, I should be able to get 2 pots in there, with 2 tracks.... not sure yet, but I am working on it.... more to come....

Thanks,

Mick

EDIT.. Here's some pics:

[Dragonfly]

Looking GREAT so far !

[any]

May I say the treadle mount/pivot looks very minimal compared to the overall sturdyness of the pedal...
I can understand that using ball bearings will dramatically increase cost, but the pivot is the most
wear sensitive part of the case and is not easily replacable..
Are you sure it's up to the abuse?

Just trying to contribute some engineering criticism here, it might well hold up for ages to come... 

[MicFarlow77]

May I say the treadle mount/pivot looks very minimal compared to the overall sturdyness of the pedal...
I can understand that using ball bearings will dramatically increase cost, but the pivot is the most
wear sensitive part of the case and is not easily replacable..
Are you sure it's up to the abuse?

Just trying to contribute some engineering criticism here, it might well hold up for ages to come... 

Hey Any,

No criticism at all... it's an extremely valid point.

Only answer I have right now is that I have used stainless steel fasteners for the pivot area and I have stood on top of it with all my weight (170 lbs or so) and there have been no issues.

Also I have used phillips head screws for the ones on the sides because it was what I had on hand and I have used no lock washers yet either... still making sure it will all work out. Once I have all of the specifics worked out, I will be getting the most appropriate hardware.

I am not opposed to maybe using roll pins either but since I knew I would be taking this one apart a bunch, I went with what would be easiest to take apart.

One thing I think I will change is which part I tap in the future. For this one, I tapped the paddle instead of the yoke. Next time around, I am going to do the opposite. With that arrangement, I should be able to use a socket head screw that will allow me to get it really tight and since only a very small portion of the bolt will actually stick into the paddle (about 1/8 of an inch) it should not bend, even under heavy use.

Pictures to come in a little while of the finished design!

Thanks,

Mick

[MicFarlow77]

Hi All,

Some pics of the finished enclosure... minus the bottom of course... and I still have 2 more design elements to incorporate.. will do that tomorrow....

Also, in case youmight be wondering... this enclosure setup gets ALL the pot travel. I still have yet to add the tension clutch... will pop that on tomorrow as well!

Also, as you can tell, there is plenty of room on the left side to add another gear and pot setup, no problems.... this thing has plenty of ways to tweak it, no doubt about it.















Thanks all for your advice and comments and also your patience!

Mick

[Solidhex]

Yo

  Coming in late to this thread. The enclosure looks great! My concern though which was brought up by "Any" is the really small pivot point attachment of the treadle and the body of the wah. As a guy who has basically made my living onstage for the last 15 years I gotta say all it would take is one drunk dude ( me included ) stepping either sideways on the treadle or kicking sideways to break it beyond repair. It looks like there's plenty of room to have a really beefy treadle pivot on the outer sides of the treadle.

--Brad

[MicFarlow77]

The pivot points around the treadle are made from a single piece of 1/4 6061 aircraft grade aluminium. It is fashioned as a saddle of sorts for the treadle to sit on. Which way do you think it would need to be beefed up? The points that stick up to hold the treadle? I can make those a little deeper without any issues. The way they are set now was just a starting point.... had to start somewhere... :-)

Matter of fact, when I do the next one I was gonna tap the pivot point rather than tapping the treadle itself. Making the pivot point wider by an 1/8 or so would let me use a longer cap head screw and would also provide some additional mass.

I'll see if I can make some adjustments tomorrow while I am working on a few other things as well.

Thanks again Brad and "Any" for your comments! These are the kinds of comments that will make this the best Wah Casing possible!

Mick

[puretube]

Mick: great work!

Trick:
if the "rack" is mounted in the middle of the paddle,
a pot-mount-bracket could be installed on either side of it:
with that option, "logarithmic" pots can be installed as working "negative logaritmic"
or just the "electrical rotation" direction can be reversed;
see pic II. (L/R) :



in pic III. (Fw/Bw),
the same could be achieved, when the mounting of the "rack" were constructed such,
that it can be installed in a 180° rotated position
in order to reverse the pot`s rotation direction...

(1= pot; 2= mounting bracket; 3= pinion; 4= rack)

[EDIT]:

EU:

pinions
rack

[MicFarlow77]

Hey Puretube,

You have hit the nail on the head... Me thinks you have been reading my mind! These are just some the possible options that I designed in from the beginning!

Also possible... 2 racks... one on either side! So the possibility of up to 4 pots is very much a possibility! Why would you want 4 pots.... my thinking is that if you had 4 different dirt boxes, you could for example, modify the "drive" output to a jack and then send it to one of the pots in the "Expression Pedal" and then you could control the drive element to 4 different dirt boxes... heck, that's just one possible option.. there are tons more because every rig is different! Cross fades... Left-Right.... Multiple channel volume pedal....

When I was in the design and layout phase, the possibility of multiple pots was at the front of the line in options that I wanted to make sure that I incorporated. At the time I was not necessarily thinking of left and right, but more of "Fade in and Out" between two effects or amps. Mechanically, it's pretty much the same.

I still have a couple of other features to debut a little later today... stay tuned!

Thanks All,

Mick

[Dragonfly]

Great ideas PT and Mick.

multiple post could do some really cool things... control distortion/fuzz levels simultaneously with the wah sweep, control the depth of a tremolo at the same time as the rate, etc, etc.....

I agree on the mounting... over-engineering is NEVER a bad thing.

@Brad - is this giving you any ideas for some of the things we've been talking about ?

[puretube]

Mick:
I`m not new to Wah-Design... 

Since I had some minor problems in the late `60s in creating a mechanically proper working pedal
(which YOU obviously are able to solve tremendously well... ),
I had to invent the "Envelope-FolloWah" in 1971... ( = "TubeTron", nowadays aka: "E-H TUBE ZIPPER").


Got back to building a mechanical TUBE-WAH ^(TM) in the `90s...,
when I found the need for those mentioned options...


DO IT, Mick: DO IT!





[EDIT]:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=21247
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=43272

[MicFarlow77]

PT Doode... you ROCK!

I knew you had done some work with wah's when I was looking around a little, but I've never seen some of them pics... I really like the ones with the double racks... very much the direction I am heading!

One thing is clear, I am going to have to spend a little (or a lot) more time on your site!

Also, I have finished the bottom design and with it, one of my two remaining design elements... here are some pics:

Wonder why that bottom is in 2 pieces?



Well, it is certainly not because I was running low on metal..........



Yep, you guessed it... I slipped a battery compartment in yonder! (I was thinking about ya AC... this was on my list all along as well... 


Now, you can easily fasten any circuit board you wish to the bottom plate and not have to worry about changing the battery.

This whole battery compartment idea started as a request by Paul Nelson for a custom run I am doing for him.  (That is, If he likes the prototype I sent... :-)

I took his idea went a bit further and modified it to where it is now... still not perfect, but it will be for anything production...

I hope you like it!

PT, I will read up on your site a little more but for now, it's time to head to a Memorial Day picnic... 

Also, to all who have served in the Military, in any country, I Salute You and I appreciate your service!

Thanks again all,

Mick

[Dragonfly]

PT Doode... you ROCK!

I knew you had done some work with wah's when I was looking around a little, but I've never seen some of them pics... I really like the ones with the double racks... very much the direction I am heading!

One thing is clear, I am going to have to spend a little (or a lot) more time on your site!

Also, I have finished the bottom design and with it, one of my two remaining design elements... here are some pics:

Wonder why that bottom is in 2 pieces?



Well, it is certainly not because I was running low on metal..........



Yep, you guessed it... I slipped a battery compartment in yonder! (I was thinking about ya AC... this was on my list all along as well... 


Now, you can easily fasten any circuit board you wish to the bottom plate and not have to worry about changing the battery.

This whole battery compartment idea started as a request by Paul Nelson for a custom run I am doing for him.  (That is, If he likes the prototype I sent... :-)

I took his idea went a bit further and modified it to where it is now... still not perfect, but it will be for anything production...

I hope you like it!

DEFINITELY a welcome feature !]

Also, to all who have served in the Military, in any country, I Salute You and I appreciate your service!

Thanks again all,

Mick

Amen !

Always remember that the people who fight for us don't necessarily agree with the "politics" of war. Please don't confuse "politics" with "service".

[nelson]

PT Doode... you ROCK!

I knew you had done some work with wah's when I was looking around a little, but I've never seen some of them pics... I really like the ones with the double racks... very much the direction I am heading!

One thing is clear, I am going to have to spend a little (or a lot) more time on your site!

Also, I have finished the bottom design and with it, one of my two remaining design elements... here are some pics:

Wonder why that bottom is in 2 pieces?


Well, it is certainly not because I was running low on metal..........



Yep, you guessed it... I slipped a battery compartment in yonder! (I was thinking about ya AC... this was on my list all along as well... 
[

Now, you can easily fasten any circuit board you wish to the bottom plate and not have to worry about changing the battery.

This whole battery compartment idea started as a request by Paul Nelson for a custom run I am doing for him.  (That is, If he likes the prototype I sent... :-)

I took his idea went a bit further and modified it to where it is now... still not perfect, but it will be for anything production...

I hope you like it!

PT, I will read up on your site a little more but for now, it's time to head to a Memorial Day picnic... 

Also, to all who have served in the Military, in any country, I Salute You and I appreciate your service!

Thanks again all,

Mick

Looking good Mick!

[Fuzzy-Train]

This is coming together awesomely!!!

I know you probably have more prototyping to do and whatnot, Mick. And I also can't be arsed to look through the entire thread. Has there been any mention of a price yet?

Looks great man!!

[MicFarlow77]

Hey Guy's,

Thanks for the comments!

Alex, as for price, I am not quite to that point yet. I will be soon though. One thing I am pretty sure of is that there will be a base price for an enclosure that is setup like a traditional wah (with the exception of the grip tape or rubber on the face of the treadle.)

Then, I'll ala carte the parts necessary to customize it, namely the extra rack if necessary, extra mounting brackets, hard stops (probably won't get into rubber bumpers too much) and grip tape if you so desire. I figure a large percentage of folk's here will want to customize this enclosure thier own way and may already have parts lying around that could be used. If not, a few extra dollars get's you the wah casing of your dreams.

Steve at SmallBear will have pots and pinions and his service is, as we all know, top notch!

Thanks,

Mick

[Fuzzy-Train]

Sounds great, Mick.

Can't wait to get my hands on one when they're ready.

[carrejans]

Your proto looks very nice, mick. Nice work.