ivan H
Ambassador of Tubes & Grooves
Even though they are best used quite sparingly, a good wah has long been right up there amongst my all time favourite effects pedals. Thing is, not all wah pedals sound good, case in point being the Zakk Wylde cry baby that I've had for some years,,, sounded like ass when I first got it & took quite a bit of modifying to get to where I thought it sounded reasonable. So, I used all I had learned from that endeavour to build one from scratch. A wah enclosure/treadle kit was ordered from Amplified Parts Enclosure - Wah Pedal Shell and Hardware | Amplified Parts
Luckily I read the reviews so knew to also order a cry baby rack with it, as the kit supplied rack & pinion gear has a different tooth spacing to the typical cry baby counterparts.
A bare Arteffect circuit board was populated with a halo inductor (measures 510mH), polystyrene 0.01uf & Philips "tropical fish" (polyester film/foil) 0.22uf capacitors, Piher carbon film resistors & BC109B transistors (hfe; Q1 320, Q2 300). Here's the populated circuit board
The circuit is basically that of the Vox 846, schematic seen here.
I did implement a couple of resistance value changes. R1 is 82k (as used in the Vox Grey Wah), R5 is 390 ohms. C2 is 4.7uf, as is typical in cry baby's.
The pot is an Icar taper 100k type. Here is the completed pedal
The enclosure was already drilled for an indicator LED so I fitted one. I also fitted a 2.2 meg pulldown resistor (metal film) to the circuit input, so as to eliminate popping when switching the effect in. The enclosure came drilled for a DC power socket,
though I chose not to fit one. I'll fit a rubber grommet in there & use an adaptor lead (9V battery snap to 2.1mm female socket) if I want to power it off my pedal board's supply. Of course, I wired it for true bypass.
So after a few voltage checks I used an SG & my little 5F1 Champ type amp to first set the pinion gear to rack positioning, & then give it a quick try out. And,,, it sounds good, damn good, everything I was hoping for. No volume drop when switching it in, no switching pops or clicks, no hiss or noise during operation, just a nice, sweet, vocal "woh" effect (more woh than wah). The sweep is just right, no loss of volume or muffled sound from it going too far in the heel down position & not thin or ear piercing in the toe down position. I could only spend a little time with it, so am looking forward to trying it through a Marshall over the weekend. After all, that it what it will predominantly be being used through. Cheers
Luckily I read the reviews so knew to also order a cry baby rack with it, as the kit supplied rack & pinion gear has a different tooth spacing to the typical cry baby counterparts.
A bare Arteffect circuit board was populated with a halo inductor (measures 510mH), polystyrene 0.01uf & Philips "tropical fish" (polyester film/foil) 0.22uf capacitors, Piher carbon film resistors & BC109B transistors (hfe; Q1 320, Q2 300). Here's the populated circuit board
The circuit is basically that of the Vox 846, schematic seen here.
I did implement a couple of resistance value changes. R1 is 82k (as used in the Vox Grey Wah), R5 is 390 ohms. C2 is 4.7uf, as is typical in cry baby's.
The pot is an Icar taper 100k type. Here is the completed pedal
The enclosure was already drilled for an indicator LED so I fitted one. I also fitted a 2.2 meg pulldown resistor (metal film) to the circuit input, so as to eliminate popping when switching the effect in. The enclosure came drilled for a DC power socket,
though I chose not to fit one. I'll fit a rubber grommet in there & use an adaptor lead (9V battery snap to 2.1mm female socket) if I want to power it off my pedal board's supply. Of course, I wired it for true bypass.
So after a few voltage checks I used an SG & my little 5F1 Champ type amp to first set the pinion gear to rack positioning, & then give it a quick try out. And,,, it sounds good, damn good, everything I was hoping for. No volume drop when switching it in, no switching pops or clicks, no hiss or noise during operation, just a nice, sweet, vocal "woh" effect (more woh than wah). The sweep is just right, no loss of volume or muffled sound from it going too far in the heel down position & not thin or ear piercing in the toe down position. I could only spend a little time with it, so am looking forward to trying it through a Marshall over the weekend. After all, that it what it will predominantly be being used through. Cheers
