Morley wah (wah modders I need your help!)

[vendettav]

Hey guys. I've got a morley PWA from 1992. It's great really and I love it but I found recently I want a bit of a heavier sweep towards the heel down position. I dont know how to explain it actually, I remember Rob (dead astronaut) once put it down as having more aggression? anyways I'm thinking of moding it a bit may be. I totally dig Buckethead's wah and I know it's not a morley but I dont want to replicate the sound, I want something similar. Say in Soothsayer his wah sounds exactly what I want mine to be like. It's really vivid and well deep? Can anybody help me understand what I'm after in terms of electronics? I know it should be a cap swap btu what should I get that cap do? add more treble? bass? move the frequency response? I dont know much about the wah stuff that well...

so yeah guys help

[deadastronaut]

hi V.

i take it this is yours?...

http://www.morleypedals.com/pwa.pdf

i think the mods your after are changing  the C5  6.8nf   + C6  2.2nf

your probably best off socketing those 2 caps if you can to experiment.....but i changed my C6 2.2nf to a 4.7nf...  it was better on the heel, and less harsh on the toe....


edit: thinking about it, just breadboard it, and play with those caps till you find what your after...

[vendettav]

Hey Rob, I was actually looking forward to your reply

Yeah that looks as mine. I'll try fiddle with those, unfortunately I wont be able to breadboard it though
Hey can you tell me what each cap (C5 and C6) do?  

[deadastronaut]

not in a techie type terminology..i'm not up with freq's /numbers etc......but those are the parts i tweaked around to get what i liked...

that whole 'T' section is the crucial part of what your after though!....hi/lo etc....

shame you can't bread it though, it'd be much better to tweak, then apply to yours...

[StereoKills]

Pop some sockets in! I just did that last night to my Bad Horsie so I can try out different combinations of parts and give them a test run at my gig on sunday.

[vendettav]

ok then guys, thanks, I guess I'll have to just fiddle around

[GGBB]

Morley wahs (and volumes) are actually adjustable!:

http://www.morleypedals.com/ttwahadjust.pdf

I did this with a Little Alligator volume to change the taper a bit - and it actually works.  Just make sure you move the LED/LDR components small amounts and check the tone each time.  Don't know if this will do what you need but it might be the best thing to try first before modding.

[vendettav]

Morley wahs (and volumes) are actually adjustable!:

http://www.morleypedals.com/ttwahadjust.pdf

I did this with a Little Alligator volume to change the taper a bit - and it actually works.  Just make sure you move the LED/LDR components small amounts and check the tone each time.  Don't know if this will do what you need but it might be the best thing to try first before modding.

wooow, thanks a ton, that looks really handy and cool. Ima try the distnace thing haha

[LonePhantom]

Glad I saw this. I got a "broken" Bad Horsie II recently, and I figured it was just going to be something with the LED/LDR parts. I haven't had time to play around with anything yet, but I'm glad to see that document. I'm going to have a play with it soon.

[deadastronaut]

^ yeah they're quite easy to mess with.......

[Earthscum]

Trick to make the heel down cut more with opti's is make the notch in the paper divider smaller. You can pull it out, get another piece of paper or plastic, and make a copy with smaller notches in it, or you can just fold a piece of electrical tape over the end and cut smaller notches. Another trick is to use a piece of the frosted "removable" gift wrapping tape and fold it over the end. These methods allow a small amount of light to still hit the LDR, keeping it from cutting off completely.

If there is a resistor in parallel to ground with the LDR, you can increase the resistance, or put in a larger value trim pot. This resistor, when present, determines the frequency at heel-down.