which colorsound wah?

[eggman6]

Got one of these for £13



Looks indentical to the colorsound wahs, should hopefully have it by tuesday. It needs repairs but i'll probaly end up putting a new board in, which leads me to ask, What are the main differences (sound wise) between the inductorless wah, and the ones with the inductor?

When i recieve it ill put up a schem, and some pictures if anyones intrigued. I cant find any infomation about these.
Heres a picture of the actual unit

[eggman6]

I noticed my post is not perfectly suited to context of the title, since i lost my original message and couldn't be bothered to retype it. But i would like to know what is preferred, with or without inductors.

[Exactopposite]

well, i guess that depends on who you ask. I have one of the reissues with no inductor. I'm planning on building a board to put the classic circuit with the inductor in it so i'll be able to compare. I have never used one of the models with the inductor, so i won't have a reference for comparison until i get the board built.

The inductoless version i have sounds kinda thin compared to my clyde clone. That's why i'm planning on building the inductor version.

[eggman6]

Thanks, thats the kind of info i'm after.

I was planning on modding my vox reissue to a clyde circuit, will give me a good reference, since thats set the standard and the most cloned. I've heard one of the fuzz wahs on youtube, sounds pretty good.

[eggman6]

I cant help but wonder if the reissue inductorless suffered in the same way many reissues have. For example the V847 wah is far from perfect due to choice of components. And you only have to look at marshall reissues, most people are unimpressed to the extent they replace the main boards or modify them, but i think you've got to be crazy to spend all that cash to rip out the main boards, might aswell buy one from a builder in the first place.

I would order from small bear, but i dont fancy a long wait, has anyone bought from this bloke?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/THE-WHIPPLE-Halo-Wah-Inductor-wah-wah-pedal-UPGRADE_W0QQitemZ300239726186QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item300239726186&_trksid=p3911.m14.l1318

[tungngruv]

I bought one from him (Michael). Sounds great and he's an honest seller and sells a good product. I also bought his Icar taper pot and wouldn't hesitate to buy from him again. I used them in this:

[eggman6]

cool, i'll probably order a taper and an inductor, reasonable prices aswell.

Any idea where i can get the rack from?

[tungngruv]

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=371

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=370

[Exactopposite]

I have used 2 of those inductors and i think they are great. I will definitely be getting more of them.

[Exactopposite]

Any idea where i can get the rack from?

why change the whole mechanism for turning the pot? The colorsound gets more rotation on the pot as is, and uses a linear taper. Even if u build another board for it with an inductor i don't think there is any need to mess with the part that turns the pot.

On my reissue it's already a really vocal wah. I think it would get pretty weird with an icar taper.

[eggman6]

I didn't make it clear, the icar will be for my vox. And i wanted to know where to get racks from for future projects. I think a uk site recomends those blue conductive plastic pots for colorsound wahs.

[Exactopposite]

sorry, I misunderstood.

I think those blue pots are Bourns brand. My reissue came with one of those blue pots, but it got scrathcy very quickly. From what i have read  those are very reliable pots, so I guess mine was one of the exceptions.

[eggman6]

looks like i'll be getting my hands on a real colorsound wah to have a look at, dont know if anyone here knows of the band Audience? Toured America in 69, were quite popular during the 70s i think.

Well the singer doesn't live too far from me Just spoke to his son a few minutes ago, he said he'll bring it round. Also he'll be clearing out his studio soon, so i might be able to get hold of a few interesting items.

[eggman6]

The frontline is indeed an inductorless wah, i haven't measured the resistors, but all capacitor values are the same (according to the reissue colorsound schematic) apart from the 6.8n cap, which is 4.7n

Looks like someones messed around with it, dry solder joints and some messy wiring. The pot has been replaced with a cheap 100k pot. Plenty of rotten foam as well.

With any luck its just poor wiring stopping this from working, or a buggered pot perhaps. The feel/sweep of the pedal is far superior to my vox, and i like the lightweight feel.

[eggman6]

Got the wah working, very different to the vox.

It seems a bit strange, as i go from the heel to the toe position, its initially bassy, starts with the wahing bit, but then gets near the end of the wah almost suddenly, and seems a bit too quick, and in the toe down it seem overly trebley.

I replaced the pot, but all i had to hand was a stanard 100k lin pot, should it have been log?

Could it be i need to adjust where the pot starts from? If so could someone tell me what the value of the pot should be in the heel position, will make it easier for me to set it in the right position.

[slacker]

I've got an old one of those, it was the first pedal I ever bought about 20 years ago.
The pot should be 100k lin and from what I remember the circuit in mine is identical to the Colorsound inductorless wah, except for the 4n7 cap you mentioned.

Sorry I can't help you with where the pot should be set because I took mine apart a while ago to try some different circuits in it. I'd just tune it by ear.

[Exactopposite]

i'm about 90% sure the colorsound uses a linear pot. I haven't had to buy a pot for mine in a long time, but i'm almost certain it's linear.

[eggman6]

The wah is almost useless to me, all the range of the foot travel is bassy, and and when you get to the position where u get the wah tone, it reaches the end too quick, and you get the impression the wah is just sitting on top of the guitar signal instead of transforming your tone.

I've started the pot right from the beginning in the toe position. I was just going to put it down to thats maybe what the wah is like, but i only have to plug in my vox for 10 seconds to realise how something cant be right. And starting the pot from a further position will just give me an even longer range of bass.

I suppose i'd go as far as describing it as a bit of a weak sounding wah.

Anyway the voltages on the transistor are
C: 4.27v
B: 0.60v
E: 0.00v

Is it likely due to using a cheap repalcement pot, that it rotates faster instead of giving a smoother travel of a heavy duty pot, i cant imagine the difference being that much.

[eggman6]

Everyone can call me an idiot now. I discovered there was no wah effect at the end of the travel so the wahing would cut out, just started the toe position of the pot a bit furtehr on problem solved.

[Exactopposite]

jsut an update on the inductor vs no inductor deal

I built the vintage colorsound circuit on a board from fellow forumite John Lyons, and it's a night and day difference compared to the non inductor circuit that was in my colorsound reissue. The inductorless version sounds pretty wimpy in comparison. The sweep and range of them is pretty close, but the version with the inductor sounds a lot fatter. It's like a vox clyde on steroids.