Crybaby original to jerry Cantrell mod?

[Chris oej]

Hi

A friend of mIne has just bought a jerry cantrell signature cry baby. I have a cry baby original but his Kerry Cantrell sounds so much nicerthan mine.

Is it possible to convert an original to a jerry Cantrell? Does anyone have a schematic of a jerry Cantrell crybaby?

Thanks guys.

[Luqqas]

Check out at Aron Nelson's schems to start.

Some of the different Crybaby's made by Dunlop are accessible to modify having the standard Crybaby (like the JH1, Zakk Wylde and others).

But to get some like the Kirk Hammett model for example, well, this is much complex.

Remember that some of this models are the Crybaby's rack of these guitar players put it into a wah enclosure.

For what I hear about Cantrell's signature, this emphasizes the sweep of the bass as one aspect among others.

[fretzburner]

Can you share the gut shots of your friends cantrell wah so we can analyze the circuit?Like pcb solder and component side pictures?

[joegagan]

someone said that the cantrell sound was primarily due to increasing the sweep cap to something larger than normal. normal is .01, bass wah is.068. the soundclips ( which i love btw) of te cantell sound like .047 or .068 sweep cap.

do a search here, someone posted the actual value a while back.

[Paul Marossy]

Some of the different Crybaby's made by Dunlop are accessible to modify having the standard Crybaby (like the JH1, Zakk Wylde and others).

But to get some like the Kirk Hammett model for example, well, this is much complex.

Remember that some of this models are the Crybaby's rack of these guitar players put it into a wah enclosure.

For what I hear about Cantrell's signature, this emphasizes the sweep of the bass as one aspect among others.

I can tell you with certainty that the Dimebag DB02 wah is NOT just a modified CryBaby. Way more complex than that.

[joegagan]

true paul, i have a dead soldier here, the massive board from a dime wah. i robbed the inductor and pot, used the shell for a test rig. fortunately i paid zero for it, it was thrown into a bulk buy of CBs a music go round.

[Paul Marossy]

true paul, i have a dead soldier here, the massive board from a dime wah. i robbed the inductor and pot, used the shell for a test rig. fortunately i paid zero for it, it was thrown into a bulk buy of CBs a music go round.

I bought one off of ebay for cheap and tried to fix it, but to no avail. But I got a cool camo enclosure out of the deal! 

[joegagan]

all that is missing is proper foot gear to wah it

[Paul Marossy]

all that is missing is proper foot gear to wah it

Whoa. I'll stick to my combat boots, thanks.  

[zombiwoof]

It's my understanding that the Cantrell Wah is based on the older Jimi Hendrix wah (the one with the lowered tonal range and 470k pot).  That was his wah of choice in the past.  I would expect that it is most likely the same circuit.  It only had a couple of changed components (I believe one of the .22uf caps was changed to .1uf, maybe one other component change, and the 470k ohm Hot Potz:

http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts/foxweb.dll/moreinfo@d:/dfs/elevclients/cemirror/ELEVATOR.FXP?item=P-ECB-24A

I don't know for sure that the Cantrell wah is the same circuit, but I bet it is.

Al

[joegagan]

i have inspected at least three of those 90s ish Hendrix wahs. they all had identical part values ( exc the 470k pot) to a like-era gcb95. i suspect dunlop figured out that the pot change alone did the job.

they sound great to my ears. a very pleasing whomp.

[Luqqas]

Some of the different Crybaby's made by Dunlop are accessible to modify having the standard Crybaby (like the JH1, Zakk Wylde and others).

But to get some like the Kirk Hammett model for example, well, this is much complex.

Remember that some of this models are the Crybaby's rack of these guitar players put it into a wah enclosure.

For what I hear about Cantrell's signature, this emphasizes the sweep of the bass as one aspect among others.

I can tell you with certainty that the Dimebag DB02 wah is NOT just a modified CryBaby. Way more complex than that.

I'm not doubt of that!

But I've never talked of Dimebag's wah...  

It's -as you well say- a crazy board!

[Paul Marossy]

I know that no one mentioned Dimebag's wah, but I thought I'd mention that it's not your typical "signature" Crybaby with only a part or two changed.  

[DiscoVlad]

Everything you need to know is in here:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=91315.0

[Paul Marossy]

From the gutshots I've seen (and can no longer find unfortunately) Both of these use the standard GCB-95 board, but with some changes.

Zakk:
Metal film resistors, 22nF sweep cap, Red Fasel inductor.

Jerry:
12nF sweep cap, 5k pot in series on the ground side of the sweep pot.

There's your answer. (emphasis mine)

[Chris oej]

Thanks for help!

So, before i go hacking up my crybaby, can i just check i've go the right bits identified.

Here's a pic:

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww286/chris-oej/lpb1/crybaby.jpg

As you can see i've taken out the input buffer and true bypassed it already. Am i right in thinking that the cap circled is the sweep cap that i need to replace with a 12nf and the red arrow is pointing to the lead (black) that the 5k pot needs to be wired to? Is the below correct:

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww286/chris-oej/lpb1/jerryshcem.jpg

I found the below pic. If you look carefully, you can see it's got a 100k sweep pot. I'm going over to my friends place tonight to have a close inspection of his Jerry Cantrell.

http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/magblogs/total-guitar/gear-images/february-2010/jerry-cantrell-jc95-signature-crybaby-wah-pedal-460-100-460-70.jpg

On a slightly separate note, my Crybaby is a good 15 years old or so. It's getting a bit stiff and squeaky in it's old age. Does anyone know a good way of getting a smoother action out of it?

[joegagan]

Thanks for help!

So, before i go hacking up my crybaby, can i just check i've go the right bits identified.

Here's a pic:

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww286/chris-oej/lpb1/crybaby.jpg

As you can see i've taken out the input buffer and true bypassed it already. Am i right in thinking that the cap circled is the sweep cap that i need to replace with a 12nf and the red arrow is pointing to the lead (black) that the 5k pot needs to be wired to?

yes, you are correct on these two.

Is the below correct:

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww286/chris-oej/lpb1/jerryshcem.jpg

yes, except i think the cap value off the pot is wrong.

On a slightly separate note, my Crybaby is a good 15 years old or so. It's getting a bit stiff and squeaky in it's old age. Does anyone know a good way of getting a smoother action out of it?

sometimes the play in the axle/treadle starts to cause a squeak. taking the axle out and smoothing it with some 400 sandpaper can help. same with the tensioning spring. sometimes just dissembling and re assembling can help, along with a little wd40. sometimes nothing helps and you have a wah that will never be quiet again. on a happier note, the inductor you have can often be a very nice sounding inductor.

please take some gutshots of your friend's cantrell wah if you can, would be fun to see it.

[DiscoVlad]

Thanks for help!

So, before i go hacking up my crybaby, can i just check i've go the right bits identified.

Here's a pic:

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww286/chris-oej/lpb1/crybaby.jpg

As you can see i've taken out the input buffer and true bypassed it already. Am i right in thinking that the cap circled is the sweep cap that i need to replace with a 12nf and the red arrow is pointing to the lead (black) that the 5k pot needs to be wired to?

yes, you are correct on these two.

Is the below correct:

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww286/chris-oej/lpb1/jerryshcem.jpg

yes, except i think the cap value off the pot is wrong.

The cap you need to change is the 10nf (0.01uF) cap connected between the emitter of Q2 and the 0 ohm resistor/33k resistor.  Looks like the one circled in your picture is correct, check the value and board traces to be sure though!

The caps connected to the potentiometer (220nF) should be left alone.

[Chris oej]

Here's the pic of my friends Jerry Cantrell. As you can see, it's almost identical to the GCB-95

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww286/chris-oej/lpb1/jccrybaby.jpg

[joegagan]

thanks for the pic. not surprising. it has a dpdt, but is it true bypass? i see a brown wire, but can't see where it is hooked to on the switch.