Trucks Posted February 19, 2006 Share Posted February 19, 2006 Hey people! Well after a night of drinking and jamming along to hendrix - filmore east I broke my Crybaby Wah Wah pedal, it still 'wahs' but when i push it all the way back with my heal i get a loud buzz.. Anybody come across this before? More importantly anybody know how to fix it? Thankyou Soundclick Myspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Ellwood Posted February 19, 2006 Share Posted February 19, 2006 HAY Lee,great name by the way! Well it just sounds like you finally wiped out the bypass switch. Or maybe you knocked off a lug and solder joint on the switch. Take it apart and take a look. You might have just worn it out or it was marginal in the first place, I had that happen on a Jordan Gig Whah and a Dunlop Cry Baby too, just replace it. Caevan or some of the guys here can tell you where to get a new one, like maybe Mousers Catalogue. No big deal one way or the other and cheap to fix too.....LEE in Detroit http://www.thestringnetwork.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesWithoutBlame Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 Originally posted by lee83: Hey people! Well after a night of drinking and jamming along to hendrix - filmore east I broke my Crybaby Wah Wah pedal, it still 'wahs' but when i push it all the way back with my heal i get a loud buzz.. Anybody come across this before? More importantly anybody know how to fix it? Thankyou One really quick, easy thing to try... Open up the back (4 screws) and loosen the screw that is holding the white teflon "pressure spring"...the white dealy that is holding the geared straight piece to the potentiometers gear...loosen the screw and turn the teflon slightly away so it isn't pushing on that geared bar..then (you have to check to make sure you know which way first) move the geared bar away from the pots gear, and move the pot 2 clicks (or one) AWAY form where it is when heel down...move it more to the direction it is in with the toe down. Put it all back together and try it. It sounds like, from your description, maybe the potentiometer has gone bad at the furthest point. If this experiment fixes it, that was the problem. You still could try some contact cleaner (maybe before even trying my suggestion) in the pot if you can get accesss. I did the opposite, with my Dunlop Crybaby, as an adjustment not because anything was wrong, but I moved mine so it was bassier range, and really liked the improvement. You will be moving yours the opposite way, so it will be more trebly...but this is just to test if the pot is bad at the one side of it's travel, not as a mod per se. ==================================================== Check out my original music at http://www.soundclick.com/bands/jacker "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but not in practice." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trucks Posted February 20, 2006 Author Share Posted February 20, 2006 Thanks for all your help peeps! Ive tried as you sugested Blues. It does appear to be a fault with the pot, but unfortunately i couldnt adjust it as when i did and tried to re-use it i couldnt push it all the way toedown to turn it on or off So for now ive bodged it the same way I repaired the brake lights on the car... with a piece of cardboard and tape increasing the size of the rubber buffer on the heal. Anybody have a spare pot they wish to sell? Cheers Lee Soundclick Myspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesWithoutBlame Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 Originally posted by lee83: Thanks for all your help peeps! Ive tried as you sugested Blues. It does appear to be a fault with the pot, but unfortunately i couldnt adjust it as when i did and tried to re-use it i couldnt push it all the way toedown to turn it on or off So for now ive bodged it the same way I repaired the brake lights on the car... with a piece of cardboard and tape increasing the size of the rubber buffer on the heal. Anybody have a spare pot they wish to sell? Cheers Lee Good to hear you found the problem anyway. Had you already modded the position of the pot previous to this? I wonder because I understood that stock Crybaby wahs ought to be able to be adjust two gears one way or the other and be fully funcional still. Good luck! ==================================================== Check out my original music at http://www.soundclick.com/bands/jacker "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but not in practice." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trucks Posted February 20, 2006 Author Share Posted February 20, 2006 I didnt mod it previously no... didnt even realise you could ALthough I do blurryly remember it making a pretty loud crunch a few months ago.. similar sound to a cog skipping a gear. So i guess my problem could have started then... can having an incorrectly adjusted cog cause the pot to fail after time? Soundclick Myspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesWithoutBlame Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 Originally posted by lee83: I didnt mod it previously no... didnt even realise you could ALthough I do blurryly remember it making a pretty loud crunch a few months ago.. similar sound to a cog skipping a gear. So i guess my problem could have started then... can having an incorrectly adjusted cog cause the pot to fail after time? Don't know...but it IS possible you can take out the pot, clean it, and it might be okay for a while again. I know, for myself, my Crybaby was too harsh sounding for me, I wanted it a little mellower so I adjusted more bassy, and really was amazed at how much better is sounds now. Then I got a "Picture wah" (Teese, RMC) and it was wah heaven. I still keep my Crybaby as backup and it sounds tons better, but the Picture is perfect. I forgot though, is there any opening in the pot, accesible from the bottom of the unit? If so, you might get som "canned air" and spray, or contact cleaner (just make sure it is made for poteniometers!) ==================================================== Check out my original music at http://www.soundclick.com/bands/jacker "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but not in practice." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trucks Posted February 20, 2006 Author Share Posted February 20, 2006 This is the same pot as mine... http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/Catalogue/getImage.aspx?imageId=2697 I cant see anywhere to gain access... Bit of a bummer. Soundclick Myspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesWithoutBlame Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 Originally posted by lee83: This is the same pot as mine... http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/Catalogue/getImage.aspx?imageId=2697 I cant see anywhere to gain access... Bit of a bummer. Well...IF it's broken and has to be replaced anyway, there is one option. I recently did some mods on an amp of mine, and in the process...lets' say the previous owner I think used some glue on some of the knobs, because removing the knobs actually pulled out the shafts on a few of the pots. I had to order new ones, desolder the old ones, etc. But in the process...it actually is really easy to open those babies up. There are like two or three metal tabs you can pry up (do yourself a favor and take a digital photo close up before doing anything though...just to have a reference) and the back comes right off. You can take off the wiper, can physically clean the track part of the pot, can put it togehter and ohm it out in different positions, see if you still have a dead spot. I mean, if you can't use it as is anyway, pots are physical objects, not like a chip, and I was able to redo mine until I got the replacement ones, and they worked fine (one of them is still in the amp, working fine.). Just a thought. ==================================================== Check out my original music at http://www.soundclick.com/bands/jacker "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but not in practice." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trucks Posted February 20, 2006 Author Share Posted February 20, 2006 Good thing about braking my wah wah is i've learned quite a bit about them now Think I may order a replacement pot for it and maybe some mod bits as well... hmmm... has anybody else self modded their wah's? Is it worth it? Soundclick Myspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 Hmmmnn, are the pots in recent Dunlop Crybaby wahs soldered directly to a printed circuit board, or are they connected via wires? It sounds as though either the pot's internal contact has gotten buggered up one way or another (as BW/oB suggested), -or- maybe the pot is being slightly pulled up by the treadle and geared strip in the extreme low end of its travel-range and flexing a connection. With just this typed stuff to go by here, I'd sooner thing that it's the pot itself as BW/oB has guessed. But it's possible that it's something else entirely, like my second scenario above... It seems odd that changing the relation of the pot's shaft and the treadle's gear-strip would affect the ability to press down and actuate the off/on footswitch; that's generally only going to be affected if you change the rubber stops, or the switch itself... In any case, you can do a search for those "Hot Potz" replacements, as well as Fazel (sp? Fasel?) Inductors and other wah pedal replacement parts. I'm guessing that replacing the pot will do the trick. Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trucks Posted February 21, 2006 Author Share Posted February 21, 2006 Oh i forgot to say before. For future reference the Hot Potz II's are "life time sealed" <--from advertising blurb.. So you cant open them up to clean them out without breaking the plastic shell. The reason it wouldnt actuate the switch when adjusted was, the pedal needed to go further toe down but the cog on the pot wouldnt turn anymore so it put strain on the geared bar thing.. made a loud crunch... skipped a few gears... and went back into the position it was in the first place Soundclick Myspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trucks Posted February 21, 2006 Author Share Posted February 21, 2006 Oh and its connected by wires, solder looks solid. But i am redoing the joints today anyway... just in case Soundclick Myspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trucks Posted February 22, 2006 Author Share Posted February 22, 2006 I dont freekin believe it! I spoke to a sound engineer friend about this today, he was pretty sure it wouldnt be the pot causing the problem and suggested that something could be putting crap on the mains supply.... low and behold after alot of searching around the house the bloody PSU on my wireless router was buzzing.. unplugged it and now my wah wah works fine Now I just have to work out how to stop it from picking up Radio Uzbekhistan when im recording Thanks for your help guys... and maybe this info could be of use to somebody in the future. Soundclick Myspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 Hey, glad that you were able to fix the problem, here's to no further gremlins! Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baronedo Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 I have an old Crybaby which developed a similar problem. When you take these apart it's easy to see that there are two moving parts which get worked a lot and wear out -the pot and the switch. After getting tired of fiddling with these, I finally purchased a replacement pot and the switch. I recommend that you get a new pot from Dunlop as they are a much better sealed pot design. While you're at it, I would get a Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) replacement switch from Fulltone (see Fulltone.com) along with their wirogram to rewire the Crybaby for true bypass. You need a DPDT switch in incorporate the true bypass mod. Actually, what I finally ended up doing was purchasing a Triple Pole Double Throw (TPDT) switch from Fulltone and incorporated both the true bypass mod plus I used the third pole to wire up an on/off LED light which I installed on the Wah. To install the LED, I got a very small LED and appropriate size resistor for 9 Volts from an electronics store and bought a small rubber grommet donut that fit the LED from a hardware store, drilled a small hole on the top of the wah for the grommet, then installed the LED and wired it up. Everything now works fine and I have a true bypass plus LED upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trucks Posted February 22, 2006 Author Share Posted February 22, 2006 Thanks Lancer, the pots fine, but are the mods worth it? The only thing i dont like about the sound is its quite high pitched fully toedown, even after taking the pot back 2 notches (which i was able to do without the interference noise i was getting from the 3com router). I was reading that there is a mod that makes the wah alot more mellow sounding. Have you (or anybody) tried these out? Soundclick Myspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baronedo Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 I have also heard about mods you can make by installing some components in the wah (e.g. the so called "Hendrix" modification) but don't have any info on this. If you're getting too high a sound despite pot/gear adjustments, the pot may just be be getting pretty worn - unlike guitar pots this baby really gets a lot of use and abuse. The new fully sealed replacement pots Dunlop now makes are far supperior to the open pot design which allows crude to get into the internals and is worth the upgrade. When changing the switch and rewiring to true bypass, when the wah is in the OFF position, the signal totally bypasses the wah circuitry. With the standard switch, the signal still goes through some of the circuitry when in OFF, and colors the sound somewhat. True bypass changes the wiring so that nothing in the wah (except for the input and output jacks) is in the signal chain - allowing a totally clean and unaltered signal to "bypass" the wah pedal. I've rewired most of my pedals to true bypass as it's fairly easy, not very expensive, and removes any residual pedal sound coloration. Go to the Fulltone.com site and they have easy to follow rewiring diagrams for the Dunlop. Fulltone also sells a very robust Triple Pole Double Throw (TPDT )switch which accomodates both true bypass and the addition of an on/off LED. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trucks Posted February 23, 2006 Author Share Posted February 23, 2006 I like the idea of the true bypass... But i do occasionally like the very slightly tainted muddy sound I get when the wah is off... I have a (crap) solid state amp and it seems to give it a bit more of an overdriven sound with my setup... Especially when im using my semi-acoustic resonator. I rarely play anyting 'clean'. Would there be a way of having true bypass & the original factory setup so i could switch between the 2? Soundclick Myspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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