Crybaby mods. What a difference!

ghostsauce · February 24, 2011, 09:42:35 AM

So I have a GCB-95 that I've never really been happy with. Joe Sat always had such an incredibly throaty wah sound that I fell in love with, but I was never sure how to obtain it. To my knowledge he even uses the same crybaby as me (~~I'll have to google that later for fun..~~ Just did and I guess he's used a lot of different ones.) but it is ridiculous how different our wahs sounded. So anyways after I started building pedals I went looking for mods, and of course there are some really well-known ones out there. Well, today I finally got around to performing them, and I just had to share with you guys and anyone else who comes searching for this later on.. cause wow!

Here's the site I pulled the info from: http://www.wah-wah.co.uk/diy.html
(There are a lot more out there though that are basically the exact same thing)

Mods I did:
"Vocal mod" - 68k on the resistor in parallel with the inductor, instead of a 33k. I tried a 100k as well and thought it was better when this was the only mod I had done, but after I did everything else I swapped the 68k back in and it really made it sing.
Sweep adjust - 0.047uF for the sweep cap
Midrange adjust - 2.2k on the resistor between the base of Q1 and the inductor

It took a while to find the right values, but this combination was absolutely golden for me. I play with a big string gauge, and in drop C tuning, and I can't begin to express how much better this sounds with it. I get this huge throaty male-voice-sounding UUWaaah! kinda sound that was never obtainable for me before. Sounds great across my entire fretboard. It is a little less pronounced on that highest octave, but not enough to for me to really care. It's extremely useable now, and I have totally justified the extra weight on my increasingly heavy pedalboard.

Just thought I'd share. Anyone else try these or similar mods?

ghostsauce · February 24, 2011, 10:03:43 AM

Hmm, I should explain a bit. By 'less pronounced on the highest octave", I don't mean less so than before the mods, I mean less so than currently on the lower octaves. And really as long as I'm using the bridge pickup it is still totally awesome.

familyortiz · February 24, 2011, 11:07:54 AM

Very cool. The mods seem super simple with such a difference in sound.

ghostsauce · February 24, 2011, 11:27:58 AM

Yup! I strongly recommend socketing it all though, cause I had to play around with it quite a bit to find what was right for me.

amptramp · February 24, 2011, 03:40:59 PM

This page:

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/wahpedl/wahped.htm

also gives you some good ideas about what every part does for the sound.

BoxOfSnoo · February 24, 2011, 09:14:58 PM

I have a 535Q, you think the vocal mod alone would make this happen? I suspect I have the sweep already with the big silver cap dial, midrange adjust might just be handled by the Q dial...

shredgd · February 25, 2011, 07:57:22 AM

The biggest improvement I got with my Crybaby (except the true-bypass mod, which is a must) was when I replaced the stock inductor with a yellow Fasel. One of those mods that make your bandmates go "hey, that's really better than before!"

ghostsauce · February 25, 2011, 08:52:12 AM

Actually, I considered that.. but not wanting to spend money I did these, and then later when comparing the changes to videos on youtube, this has changed it even more than the yellow fasel mod, imho. And I'm not sure if I want to do the true bypass mod or not.. I mean, I don't notice any tonesucking issues. It's at the front of my signal, and I love my tone. It's probably one of those things though that you don't know what you're missing until you A/B it. At least for me. XD

BoxOfSnoo · February 25, 2011, 08:55:58 AM

What I'd like to hear is a bit more of a "grainy" sound, a little bit more broken up. Would the vocal mod or the yellow fasel do that?

ghostsauce · February 25, 2011, 09:00:16 AM

The vocal mod doesn't make it more grainy, it just makes it sound more like someone's voice. There's a bunch of vids on youtube with the yellow fasel mod, so you can hear that one easy, but it doesn't make it grainier. If grainy is what you want maybe you should just get a stock gcb-95. That is the reason I wanted to mod it. XD

It is pretty easy to add gain to it, but it also comes with more bass response:

QuoteGain and Bass Response

Replace the 470 ohm resistor (some have 390 or 510) at the emitter of Q1 with a lower value. This increases gain, which is useful if you've converted to true bypass. The bass response is also increased. Too low a value here may introduce some distortion and make the wah sound muddy. Try 270 - 330 ohms to start with.

BoxOfSnoo · February 25, 2011, 09:06:55 AM

From what I hear I think I want a Maestro Boomerang...

ghostsauce · February 25, 2011, 09:08:21 AM

Have you tried running a dirt pedal in front of your 535Q?

BoxOfSnoo · February 25, 2011, 09:10:03 AM

Quote from: ghostsauce on February 25, 2011, 09:08:21 AM
Have you tried running a dirt pedal in front of your 535Q?

Yeah I have my Axis Face in front, it sounds best there. It's not that I dislike the 535Q at all, it's great! I'd just like a little more "gnarly" sound.

joegagan · February 25, 2011, 09:21:26 AM

snoo , you rang? some boomerang and others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaKNbV2406Y&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_aBVa2rCMw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI7p5ex35YQ

BoxOfSnoo · February 25, 2011, 09:29:50 AM

Quote from: joegagan on February 25, 2011, 09:21:26 AM
snoo , you rang? some boomerang and others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaKNbV2406Y&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_aBVa2rCMw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI7p5ex35YQ

Awesome tests, that's what I like to see. The bird liked em too! I had heard the last one already but it was a bit noisy to listen for the subtleties of the wahs.

joegagan · February 25, 2011, 09:49:12 AM

that last one was made in a railroad car storage , we accidentally left the fan on, it was june, very hot.

Ed G. · February 25, 2011, 01:35:42 PM

The 535Q already has the vocal mod built in and is adjustable. Thats the "Q" adjustment.

ghostsauce · February 25, 2011, 01:44:56 PM

Neat. Is that the only difference between the two units?

shredgd · February 25, 2011, 05:06:23 PM

Quote from: BoxOfSnoo on February 25, 2011, 08:55:58 AM
What I'd like to hear is a bit more of a "grainy" sound, a little bit more broken up. Would the vocal mod or the yellow fasel do that?

As far as I heard (but only on youtube videos) the red Fasel accomplishes that. Check the video on Dunlop's site where someone compares the standard Crybaby to the so-called Classic Crybaby (a new model which comes with a red Fasel stock).
Hope this helps.

Giulio

shredgd · February 25, 2011, 05:15:37 PM

Quote from: ghostsauce on February 25, 2011, 08:52:12 AM
And I'm not sure if I want to do the true bypass mod or not.. I mean, I don't notice any tonesucking issues. It's at the front of my signal, and I love my tone. It's probably one of those things though that you don't know what you're missing until you A/B it. At least for me. XD

The true bypass helps a lot because the tone sucking forces you to add a little more treble from your amp. However, when you engage the wah, then that excess of treble badly comes out. At least, this was what I experienced. I was never happy with my wah because it "sounded" too trebly and piercing. So I did a simple test: I set my tone on my amp without the wah (just guitar-cable-amp), then I added the engaged wah to hear how it would "sound" with the true bypass mod. It showed me how really good the wah actually sounded! So I soonafter did the mod (which, by the way, lead me to discover the world of diy pedal effects!).

Giulio

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Crybaby mods. What a difference!