Crybaby mods (Catmandue's requested)

Thanks Ivan. My project will start coming together later tonight when it cools off in the garage. Sorry about your hang over! I bet it was fun at the time. I quit drinking alcohol back in late February 2017. I use to drink Red Stripe, Tsing Tao and New Castle. I've had my share of Budweiser and Coors, Modelo, Bohemia and others as well. I really dig that board with those cool looking resistors, caps and the nice inductor.
 
Hi C man, I feel much better now. Oh, I made a mistake with the inductors a few days ago. This is the type you have, yesC__Data_Users_DefApps_AppData_INTERNETEXPLORER_Temp_Saved Images_16303_th-01-01-01.gif commonly called a "trash can". The stack of dimes is this oneC__Data_Users_DefApps_AppData_INTERNETEXPLORER_Temp_Saved Images_42551_th-01.gif
So I apologize for any confusion. Cheers
Edit; there's nothing at all bad about the trash can type, they were used in many wah's. This is the type in the "Slash" signature wah. Cheers
 
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Ivan, I got a meter which measures inductance, Capacitance and resistance. On my N30 inductor it reads 55.7 ohms and .771 henries. After I do the "Q" 1 K ohm trimpot mod, if I don't get the proper tone I want with the trash can inductor, I may put in the N30 into the JH-1. What do you think? For the record before my GCB-95 had the pot get scratchy it had a pretty good tone even without "Q" adjustment. I figure on the JH-1 with those cool transistors I'm putting it and all, it could be a killer wah.
 
Yes, I imagine the N30 would do very well in there. I think lower gain transistors (than the MPSA-18's) would make any wah sound better, but there must have been a reason Dave Weyer chose those specific ones, the guy really knows his stuff. Cheers
 
Besides work and running domestic choirs I've been busy. I brought my Mom back from the hospital. Tonight I might start the project. I've taken photos, notes and have all the parts. I know what I want to do. I need to do some desoldering still, which is simple enough. I want to find the actually correct pinouts on the transistors I'm using. I'm going to take my time and get this right. It is not that time consuming, I just need to attack the project without distractions and such. If I don't like the tone I get out of the trash can inductor, I'll switch it for an N30 I pulled out of my original 94 Crybaby. I also will do the "Q" adjust mod which in opinion is critical to dialing in the proper tone. Mr. Ivan dialed me in on how to do this. I've been wanting to jump on this but with my Mom sick and working, I've held off. I'm glad I've held off so I can get the focus I need on this. I've only modded two pedals so far and I did not half ass or mess up anything so far. I plan on staying on that trail as far as working on pedals. I will show pictures along the way if you guys like.
 
I took more notes and measured the actual transistors I will be using. Even though I'm only removing and installing two transistors, I purchased two of each to decide which of the two I would use after measuring hFE on them. The results are:

2N3391A read 313 hFE and 319 hFE
2N3900A read 412 hFE and 329 hFE

The Fairchilds appear to be closer in specs than the Nationals. I need to check some stuff on the board and take further notes before I start desoldering. Even though this is not my first rodeo, I still feel I need to take all the proper steps and check. I'm working under some conditions which I'm only allowed to accomplish so much before I need to go on to some other domestic task which takes priority.
 
Hope your Mom doing well C man. I like the way your approaching this, I like to take notes also. Maybe socketing the transistor's would be worthwhile. R G Keen (GEOFX), who is very knowledgeable, says Q1's hfe isn't critical so long as its a minimum of 200, upto & over 400 is fine. He says around 400hfe for Q2 but I've read of people using down as low as 260 ~ 270hfe with good results. Of note, the Jerry Cantrell wah uses 2N2222A transistors which are spec'd in the 100 ~ 300hfe range. Socketing would allow you to easily try your transistors to find your preference. Cheers
 
Today I started desoldering the JH-1 board here is what it looks like now
n1IZMIe.jpg
 
Here are the components I pulled out. I wonder if the one I pulled out for the trimmer is some sort of resistor. I also include two caps I took from another board I have.

MO5r0d3.jpg
 
Catmandue said:
I wonder if the one I pulled out for the trimmer is some sort of resistor. ]
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They do look like a resistor, only a single black band around the middle. Called a "link". You'd think they have some sort of property, that they'd use this rather than just a wire link. I'll see if I can find out. I also have the components put away that I took out of mine (labelled too), though they'll never go back into. I also removed the input buffer. Looking good C man. Cheers
 
I just soldered in the .01uf sweep capacitor. I also soldered in before that two transistor sockets for Q1 and Q2. I want to do a little more reading on the "Stinkfoot" posts you got on this thread. I want to find out about snipping off which leg on the single turn 1K ohm trim pot I'll be soldering in shortly. It has been cooler today, so I've been able to solder in the garage without being too hot. I also want to check out what ohm setting I had set on the trim pot when I modded my GCB-95. I hope to have this completely modded before the weekend, if I'm lucky and nothing comes up. Thanks for all the help and encouragement. After this I'm going back to finish building my highly modified Muff Fuzz. I started this wah first, so I would love to finish modding it first.
 
I had to go with the 28 turn 1 k ohm precision trim pot. The legs on the other single turn ones I had I wound up snapping off one too many legs off on, whoops! The legs were a wee bit longer on the precision pot, so I settled with that. Now I also have all my anti-static alignment tools ( tweakers! ) to easily turn the little gold slotted screw. I'm going to try to adjust it with the same setting as on my other wah I modded, at least for starters. I'm getting more done right now than I figured I would today. I might have to put in the transistors first before I tweak the trimmer. Back to work on this again right now! I'm done with soldering for today, I hope.
 
I'm burned out on working on this pedal today. I will finish it tomorrow. Here is a photo of what I installed on it today. The brown sweep .01uf cap, two transistor sockets and one 28 turn precision 1 k ohm trimmer.
mnZ6pYW.jpg
 
Looking good. At least the 28 turn trimpot will give you much finer adjustment, & using the same setting as you previously used as a starting point cant hurt. I hope the transistor swap works as well (or even better) for you as it did for me. Really made a difference for the better. Cheers
 
I got it put together. It has a "not too bad so far" tone but it is not wahing! I need to pull out the board again and work on it some more. I have the pin outs right on the trannies also. I need to check it out real good. After I stomp it kicks in a tone but it does not wah. I will do further investigation today. I will try different things to fix it.
 
Hi C man. Ok, so your getting a signal through with it engaged (so we could assume transistors working), but its not wah ing. Do you get a slight treble increase with toe down?? This could indicate things like the inductor open circuit or lack of continuity in the added trimpit/inductor area. Or, is it acting a bit like a volume pedal?? This coould indicate that the 4.7uf electrolytic is on its way out, or a possible lack of continuity in that area. Hope this helps. Cheers

Edit; the inductor's wire is very thin, usually like #38 AWG which has a diameter of 0.0044". Because its so thin it is possible for one end of it to come unsoldered when removing or soldering the inductor in. Luckily, it is possible to carefully re solder it should this happen (you may have to open the plastic cannister, depending on inductor type). The inductor wire is simply wrapped around & soldered to the pins that are soldered to the board. Cheers
 
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I did not mess with the inductor at all. Today was a really hard day. I appreciate what you told me about the toe down treble. It is not acting like a volume pedal. When I stomp on the switch it sounds like when the wah kicks in but like I stated, it is not wahing. I pulled out the board and was going to using the old trannies and see if it still does the same. If it does I will go through the board to see that no solder "bridged" across like it is not suppose to. I've been doing house work all day. It does go treble toe down I should mention. I will check the electrolytic cap also. I probably won't do any of this today because I got a major curve ball hurled at me this afternoon which has got me all wacked out in my brain.
 
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