Possible Maestro Wah pot substitute

Solidhex · January 11, 2010, 09:28:48 PM

Saw this at Small Bear. Its the wah pot used in the 105q Bass Crybaby. Http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=936 I know the Maestro wah pot is 25K. This one is a 20K so it might be a decent sub. Possibly linear taper since that circuit isn't your usual inductor based wah...

--Brad

Paul Marossy · January 11, 2010, 09:51:03 PM

A 20K pot should be fine. I've heard some peope say that 100K also works OK.

skiraly017 · January 11, 2010, 10:24:43 PM

Ernie Ball makes a 25k replacement pot for one of their volume pedals that works fine and I've used most of the wah pots from Small Bear in my Boomerang with no issues.

Chugs · January 12, 2010, 04:30:53 AM

I just made a Maestro boomerang and it works fine and dandy except that at the top of the sweep I get a crackling type sound. I have tried a 25K linear pot and a 100k Hotpotz with a 33k resistor soldered across it but I still get the crackling at the top of the sweep. Any ideas as to what might be causing this?

Solidhex · January 12, 2010, 05:50:00 AM

Check the two 1uf caps. You might be getting some DC across the wah pot.

--Brad

Chugs · January 12, 2010, 09:33:31 AM

I was using a couple of 1uf film caps and I swapped them for a couple of 1uf electro's but the crackle is still there. $:-\$

Paul Marossy · January 12, 2010, 09:04:39 PM

Quote from: Chugs on January 12, 2010, 04:30:53 AM
I just made a Maestro boomerang and it works fine and dandy except that at the top of the sweep I get a crackling type sound. I have tried a 25K linear pot and a 100k Hotpotz with a 33k resistor soldered across it but I still get the crackling at the top of the sweep. Any ideas as to what might be causing this?

Weird, I don't know why you would be getting that crackle, that never happened to me. How did you build your Boomerang, did you use perfboard or a PCB? Maybe you did something that is making DC apppear on the pot somehow.

BTW, I also have an original Boomerang that looks like it had a replacement 50K pot installed in it. It sounds just as good as the one with a 25K pot in it, to my ears.

Chugs · January 13, 2010, 05:34:02 AM

Perfboard. I've checked it against the schematic but I am going to triple check it again today. I also read your page on your Boomerang build. It was very helpful as I found out about the 620k resistor being an 820k resistor.

It is a shame about the crackle as the wah itself sounds really good!

Paul Marossy · January 13, 2010, 09:41:52 AM

When I can't figure something out, I'll put it aside for a few days. When I come back to it later, my mistake will often slap me upside the head. Sometimes when I am constantly looking at something, I can keep passing right over my error. If I don't look at it for a while, it becomes readily apparent.

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Possible Maestro Wah pot substitute