Broken Wah (plus fuzz mod?)

[Marbles]

Hi there,

A friend of mine got a wah from someone. From his description (No real wah effect, does do something, mostly volume) I'm guessing it's broken caps (hopefully) or a broken inductor (less hopefully). Is that common?

Now I was wondering.. There's a lot of room in a wah.. At least room for a fuzz circuit. Has anyone got experience with this? Preferably one where just a volume knob will do (don't want to add too many bells and whistles).

Anyone suggestions? Preferably nasty, gnarly, noisy. Not a fuzz face though, cause I always have problems with coming up with what order (plus buffer needed).
A Superfuzz would be awesome, but I noticed that a superfezz + Wah is not ideal (as in: No wah effect).

Are there other noisemakers that would work well?

[Ciaran Haslett]

I had a crybaby do that once.  The cap connected to the inductor had a cold joint.  Reflowed it and all was good.  Try that or replace the cap.  Can't comment on the fuzz I'm afraid but if it were me, I'd find a fuzz/wah sound I like from a song then look into what the artist used.

Good luck

[Beaker]

Take a look at the Shin Ei FY-2 Companion Fuzz, as if I recall correctly, the Shin Ei Fuzz Wah uses a FY-2 as the "fuzz" section of the circuit. The "wah" part of the circuit is however hugely different to a Crybaby, Coloursound etc.

I would guess that any fuzz that works well with a Crybaby would work.

Remember that you need to work out whether you want fuzz before wah, or wah before fuzz. As you have said, they may not work well if you get them in the wrong order.

Also consider using a PCB for the fuzz to save space, if one is available, though there is plenty of space for a small board.

Finally, if the wah circuit is truly broken, I can highly reccomend the Pearl Vorg Warp Filter circuit as an amazing substitute circuit that will do exactly what you want, as it is a fixed wah fuzz, much beloved by My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields.

Take a look on page 30 on the "show us your pedal guts" thread. There are build photos and a short video demo of the one I built. (Can't seem to get a link to the post working!).

I mounted the volume pot for the fuzz in the power socket hole - I just had to drill it out a bit.

Finally, I got all the parts needed for this (it really was a wreck), from Das Musikding in Germany.

[Marbles]

Oh wow, that sounds awesome! Maybe I'll say it's broken and do that anyway... ;)

Thanks!

[Beaker]

Here's the layout for the Vorg:

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/pearlvorg-warp-sound-filter.html

I built it stock, with TL072 op-amps, and a couple of KD521A diodes, except for the envelope pot that I changed from 10k to 20k. I used a 20k Superswell wah pot, that I got from Das Musikding in Germany. Using the 20k compensates for the reduced pot rotation from the treadle rack gear.

[Marbles]

Thanks!

Got it to work though. Well, sort of.. There was a cap (C6) broken off. Pretty simple so far haha

Unfortunately the powersupply is positioned so terribly, that I feel that the powerjack just can't be plugged in far enough to power it with an external powersupply. With battery it works fine, powersupply nothing.

This ofcourse, I only found out after i boxed it again, totally confident that I fixed it haha. Will check if it actually does get  power. If so, I will probably drill the hole a little bigger.

The fuzz I will probably leave for now, since I have a lot of friends who apparently decided January is a great month to have me build fuzzpedals :/

It's good practise!