WAH pictures- diy , modded & etc.

[joegagan]

DIY & Modded Wah Picture Thread. please post any and all wah pictures you have!
interior, exterior, action shots anything.

to kick off:

[joegagan]

[Gila_Crisis]

although vox is written, this is no more a vox:





Inside the circuit was converted to Boomerang specs with 6 position rotary switch for the sweep cap (5.6n, 10n, 15n, 22n, 68n, 100n), middle control (10k pot, since the middle resistor on the boomerang is normally 4k7), foxrox-output-buffer-clone and a series-split-parallel switch for the 2 inductors:

[joegagan]

looks great! what are your favorite settings on the sweep cap?  i repaired a keeley modded crybaby, it has series/parallel settings for the dual inductors. i noticed some of the inductor settings made the sound very deep ( series, i presume).

also, i played around with a boomerang clone, i also replaced the 4.7k R for a 10k pot for the R off Q1 base to inductor, except as a trim. you know what? i liked the 5k setting best, i guess that is part of the boomerang magic.

[Gila_Crisis]

normally I use 10, 15 or 22, I like to have more sound options. Yep the inductors in series are really deep sounding.

about the mid pot it's never in the same position and I like how it affects the sound. I never understood the "Q mod" by replacing the 33k in parallel with the inductor, to me to middle pot it's a more effective mod to tune the Q of the wah

[1878]

Just started building this. Waiting on a delivery before I can finish it. It'll be housed in an old Frontline volume pedal, which is basically a Colorsound Wah shell.

[joegagan]

i like it. who made that red inductor? looks bloody, awesome.

[gmoon]

That first pics giving the inspiration to maybe convert my old crybaby to true bypass. It's a Thomas Organ wah with the "Stack 'o" inductor.

Nice pics, Joe.

[1878]

i like it. who made that red inductor? looks bloody, awesome.

It's a Whipple inductor & one of his boards. You can get his stuff on Ebay & he's a good bloke too.

[joegagan]

oh , ok  whipple guy. he is a frined of mine on facebook, but we don't really chat. he is into cars and alot of stuff. interesting guy.

gmoon, thanks. go for it on your old crybaby. 
on any future thomas TBP conversions, my new interior aesthetic is going to be carling dpdts to make the interior look more period correct. those blue 3pdts look like sunglasses on the mona lisa.

[joegagan]

[tubelectron]

Hi joegagan,

I have several wah and wah fuzz pedal projects dans les cartons (in the closet, awaiting), and all the required stuff to make experimentations, but no time these time - pest !!!

What I have done and took picture of - at the moment - is this :

A Colorsound Swell Pedal to Vintage Wah transformation :



A dead CryBaby to Vintage Wah transformation :



I hope I will find the time to go further soon - designing / tayloring wah is interesting...

A+!

[Pigyboy]

Here you go Joe G.
The best thing about this is the shell for 5 bucks at the flea market. That is one of the tonepad or GGG pcb's I made with all the mods.
Sounds like shite actually. I have a bunch of old crazy pots here to try with a boomerang circuit and a handful of inductors(thanks Joe) to mess with one of theses days...

[joegagan]

awwright, france and spain checkin in!

bruno, i love the large inductor and amp style build of the top one.  also like the single strip wah , that look is cool.

chris, that is one hell of a 5 dollar find. i hope you leave it all rusty. that looks swell. please let us see the rest of your experiments as you get time to do them.

[Thomeeque]

   

   

click for higher resolution..

Basic CB with input (G-2) and output (JFET) buffers (and status LED). Input buffer makes input buffer for my whole signal chain. Output buffer is not used. Later I have yet added switch to switch between RED FASEL and original stock inductor (I was missing original character in some ocasions, switch is most time in the "stock" position actually).

T.

[phector2004]

Joe, that's a badass wah shell you've made there... there's something really cool about the rusty body, oxidized chrome, and orange paint on the vox treadle
Old, banged up, and most importantly, used/loved wahs have a hell of a lot more mojo than "professionally" "distressed" guitars

I also like the gearless mechanism in Pigyboy's wah... is that DIY?

[joegagan]

tomas, cool. did you etch that board? i picked up a red fasel in a used wah recently, will have to give it another try.

phil, thank you so much, that is what turned me on, seeing these really beat up old wahs on stage and pedalboards, they look like a million gigs.
the one you mention wasn't a vox treadle but a regular thomas CB that i stenciled the vox logo into, then polished away while watching tv, plus recoating and rubbing (lather rinse repeat). i wanted it to look like someone removed a logo years back but didn't remove the glue. the colors are just colors i like. after aging the alum with battery acid, i rubbed again and hit with a couple coats of lacquer.

chris can jump in here, but i think that plastic loop cam/rod assembly is the stock colorsound mechanism from certain eras, i have seen this on many colorsound wahs and swells.

[Pigyboy]

^^
Yeah, like Joe said, that is just the colorsound cam type mechanism to give the pots a different turn ratio. I never really thought about it needing that in this original shell as it was a swell pedal, which is basically a volume pedal, and there is really no need for is to be any other ratio than 1:1.

Yeah Joe - I am gonna leave it like it is - no black dye job on that 40 year old

[joegagan]

volume pedals need non-concentric action just as much as wahs do, even with log tapers

since most gear or rack setups can only manage approx 170 - 180 degrees of  rotation ( i think pots are usually around 270* rotation?), the mechanism must go from zero to near full value in less movement. i was building passive volume pedals using NOS allen bradley  1 meg lin. pots, but the toedown value only went to around 450k if the heel down setting was zero.

[Thomeeque]

tomas, cool. did you etch that board? i picked up a red fasel in a used wah recently, will have to give it another try.

Thanks Joe! Yep, I did. Red Fasel sounds "vintage" to my ears, much more Hendrix-like compared to stock inductor, stock on the other hand makes "deeper" effect I would say.. I'm happy to have both options (in opposite with vocal switch and frequency switch, I had these there before and I had found them useless for me). T.