Generic Wah

[rocket88]

i put a post up under requests for a generic inductor based wah layout, but decided to give it a shot even though the inductor throws me off. the idea is that since all wah's are based on the exact same schematic, they just have different value parts, if there's a generic layout, just use the list on the schematic to pick the parts you need to create which ever wah you want. i need someone to take a look at it to check that it matches the schematic properly.

V1 - Halo Style Inductor


V2 - El Rad Style Inductor


Schematic from R.G. Keen

[Heath]

This is a pretty neat idea.  Thank you!

[KT]

Thanks for posting this!
It's maybe nice to have a layout with trimpots on some positions?
like here: http://stinkfoot.se/archives/557

[Kinski]

Hey thanks. I'm a bit confused though. If I were to use the whipple wah, how would I hook this up? There are only 2 legs that pass signal. The other legs are for structural stability. These layouts look like 4 legs are needed, no?

[rocket88]

ah, you don't need 4 pins for this, just the two that the signal needs to travel. you can do one of two things.
1: just solder the ones for stability right in place, they shouldn't effect the stability of the inductor.
2: cut off the extra legs and just use the two. in the wahs i've built i just use the two pins that the signal travels through. believe it or not, it shouldn't move around at all once soldered in place. just make sure it will fit the same hole span as the halo or el rad.

i think the halo and whipple have the same pinout.

KT: you should be able to sub whatever resistor you need with a trimpot, just us 2 lugs (1&2 or 2&3) and you should be good to go.

[Kinski]

Two questions:

1. where is Rw on the layout?
2. there are 5 cuts, but the layout says 4. I assume all cut marks are correct, yeah?

Thanks!

[rocket88]

My bad. There are 5 cuts, I have to fix that. And Rw is the pot. Man you keep catching my mistakes. I should just send you my layouts first before I post them for a look through. Lol

[Kinski]

Thanks! Colorsound built. Sounds good. Except the wah is reversed. Toe is dark and heel is bright.

[rocket88]

I had the same issue when I built mine. When I reversed the wiring on the pot it didn't work right, not sure why, so I just left it alone. i might go back and try to figure it out eventually. but lug 3 should be ground, lug 2 should go to the board, and lug 1 should go to the board and output. i even checked another wah i build, and it's that exact way and works perfectly (toe treble, heel bass).

 Glad it worked. What do you think of it? I think so far the colorsound is my favorite wah. I find it growly, deep, and vocal.

[Luke51411]

Nice work! I was trying to find a vero to build a boomerang a few months ago and all I could find at the time was a compact one with standing resistors that I made a mess of adding in an ldr control and an lfo. I did get it working eventually though. Now I'm seeing a bunch of wah layouts. (I probably didn't realize at the time I could have used any inductor wah vero and swapped values )
It would be cool to have a vero that included the ldr/led for remote control such as:

It looks like it would be easy... I guess I need to get into doing my own layouts.

[Kinski]

Okay, got everything working. I swapped Lug 1 and 3 and now it works as it should. Not sure why that did not work for you. There are TWO wires off Lug 1 that need to be moved to Lug 3. And move the single wire from Lug 3 to Lug 1. Thats it!

Sounds really great. Its fantastic for slow swell stuff. But, its a little too bassy on one end and not trebly enough on the other for certain uses. I think since this vero is so small, I'm gonna build the crybaby as well, and put it in the same enclosure with a toggle switch to select either the Colorsound or the Crybaby. I've got a Whipple on the Colorsound, but I've got a modern Red Fasel that needs a home, which I can use for the Crybaby.

Thanks for the layout and value lists!

[Luke51411]

Did you adjust the wah gear? That will change the sweep range. Just loosen the retainer so the rack gear comes free and spin the pot 1 or 2 gear teeth forward.

[Kinski]

Most certainly did. Toe is set with the pot as bright as it can go.

[Kinski]

And it sounds fantastic. I just think it would be nice to have a 2nd option. And since there is plenty of room, might as well add another circuit.

[rocket88]

I meant to say did you adjust and switch the wires. Stupid iphone autocorrect. What wires did you switch to get it toe bright, heel bass? So I can make the same change. Also, if I mad a the mistake in the wiring on the layout I can fix it there too.

[Kinski]

Run "wah 3" wire to Lug 1.
Run both "wah 1" and "output" wires to Lug 3.
Thats it!

Found a new problem with this. I'm getting a weird oscillation at a vary small point in the sweep. Not all the way, but very near the full heel position. So, everytime I rock back and forth, I get a "BLEEP!" sound. When I touch or wave my hand anywhere near the input wire off the board, i get insane amounts of noise. If touch the wire, the whole thing starts screaming.

Strange thing is, I just built the Crybaby in this same enclosure, and its totally fine. No noise of any kind, even when touching that boards input wire.

I replaced that wire with some serious shielded cable and it did absolutely nothing.

Any ideas?

[rocket88]

I'll make that change and flip the wires.

Wow. That's nuts and I have no idea, cause I don't have that problem at all and mine is in an old colorsound enclosure without a bottom. I know the sweep of the pot should be from 45k - 100k. Not sure if that's causing any issue.

also, i fixed the issue on the layout. but looking at it now, if wah 1 & output are switched with wah 3 then the output is connected to ground....

[Kinski]

Hmmm...yeah, I'll take a closer look at the board and see if I can figure it out.

I managed to put the crybaby and the colorsound in the same enclosure, using 2 DPDT toggle switches to switch between the two.

One toggle routes the input and output wires, and the other toggle routes the pot wires. So you just gotta flip both toggles to the left or right and you flip between 2 different wahs. Its quite nice.

Its hard to say which I like better. They are both quite different and useful in their own way.

The weird noise problem I'm having with the colorsound was happening before adding the crybaby, so I know that the toggles are not the problem.

[rocket88]

so shouldn't it be wah 3 & output, wah 1 ground or am i crazy...

i'll see what i can figure out as far as the weird oscillations. i know i took the Clyde McCoy i build and put a fuzzface after it, and it was rediculous. i had nothing but a high pitch oscillation, but if the fuzzface was off it was perfectly fine.

[Kinski]

Yeah, seems like you are right. All I know is thats what I swapped and it works great.

Also, I fixed the noise problem with the Colorsound. I traced it back to a bad BC108. Swapped it for another and it works perfectly now.