I had this crazy idea

[huston93]

I actually don't know how crazy this is. I know next to nothing about circuitry and electronics and what have you but I do play guitar and I do use lots of effects. So here is my crazy idea.

I wanna know if its possible to wire in a phaser pedal in parallel with a wah pedal. Basically I want to have a phaser pedal set just how I like it and its off. And then I step on the wah pedal and the phaser turns on with it and I play phasy wah shit and then when I turn off the wah it kills the phaser again.

Don't know if that makes sense or not but I had that thought today and I figure if anyone knows how to do that I will find them on a forum such as this.

Sorry if I sound bat shit crazy haha
Thanks in advance!

[Ed Nice]

I probably know even less about circuitry but until the brains of the outfit come and tell you otherwise, here're my thoughts on this.

Cool idea so there are probably other people who thought the same and as likely as not with phasers, delays, overdrives and allsorts in a wah?

In theory (I think my theory is basically sound?) you create the phaser circuit and the wah circuit, then they both sit in series between the footswitch input / output (footswitch -> phaser input / phaser output -> wah input / wah output -> footswitch).

I know there are a lot of small considerations but essentially it's just combining two effects in the chain to one bypass loop? You may need to isolate the DC etc to stop modulation bleeding through (although I'm not sure you'd ever know :)

Good luck and I look forweard to seeing and hearing the finished article :)

As an aside, I have a master plan for making a single 'set' of effects in one box, with their own footswitches of course, which are pretty common but will take a little planning.

[induction]

Ed's approach would work just fine (assuming you know what order you want the effects to go in).

Of course, if you already have a wah and a phaser, you could put build a true bypass looper. Put both effects in the loop, leave them on all the time, and use the looper to switch them in and out together. Much easier to build, leaves you more options for turning them on separately, and avoids the problem of mounting the phaser pots on the wah shell. A phaser might be a bit ambitious for a first build, and fitting one inside an already occupied wah shell is not a beginner's project either.

The original premise is sound, though. I'd just call it a formidable project for someone with no experience.

Not to say you shouldn't give it a whirl, though.

[huston93]

Would it be possible to use the on/off switch on the Wah pedal as the looper switch? The whole point of this exercise is to only step on the wah and have both effects running. Otherwise I can just step on the phaser and then step on the wah.

Or, would it be possible to wire in a separate "fx loop" within the wah? right before the normal output have an I/O that you can string any number of pedals that are bypassed when you deactivate the wah? 

This is purely theoretical by the way. I was just curious if its feasible. I realize its not very practical haha

On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 11:20 AM, induction [via Guitar FX Layouts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Ed's approach would work just fine (assuming you know what order you want the effects to go in).

Of course, if you already have a wah and a phaser, you could put build a true bypass looper. Put both effects in the loop, leave them on all the time, and use the looper to switch them in and out together. Much easier to build, leaves you more options for turning them on separately, and avoids the problem of mounting the phaser pots on the wah shell. A phaser might be a bit ambitious for a first build, and fitting one inside an already occupied wah shell is not a beginner's project either.

The original premise is sound, though. I'd just call it a formidable project for someone with no experience.

Not to say you shouldn't give it a whirl, though.

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[Travis]

You could use the switch on the wah, but usually wah pedals use an SPDT and you're going to want a DPDT so you can use true bypass

You could put in an effects loop too. I have a friend with a wah he got modded with an effects loop

[huston93]

The effects loop doesn't seem like it would be real complicated to do. Am I wrong in that assumption? 

On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 11:54 AM, Travis [via Guitar FX Layouts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

You could use the switch on the wah, but usually wah pedals use an SPDT and you're going to want a DPDT so you can use true bypass

You could put in an effects loop too. I have a friend with a wah he got modded with an effects loop

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[induction]

huston93 wrote

Would it be possible to use the on/off switch on the Wah pedal as the
looper switch?

...

Or, would it be possible to wire in a separate "fx loop" within the wah?
right before the normal output have an I/O that you can string any number
of pedals that are bypassed when you deactivate the wah?

Sure that's possible. (These two suggestions are essentially identical.) You'd have to mount two extra jacks (send and return) on your wah shell. How impractical this is depends on what wah shell (or pre-existing wah pedal) you use. Crybaby-type shells are a little tougher to drill than most regular pedal enclosures. They also use SPST bypass switches, so you'd have to swap the switch for a 3PDT (or maybe a DPDT would work, I haven't thought enough about it to be sure), and maybe fuss with the switch seating so that the height was right for it to turn on and off easily and at the right position. Not too difficult, I would think. I'm only familiar with the mechanics of Crybabies, though. Other wahs or shells may present different challenges, though I doubt any of them would be insurmountable.

If you're not really going to build it, the answer is much easier: Everything you've suggested so far is not only possible, but pretty simple, electronics-wise. I'd be amazed if somebody hasn't already DIY'd something very similar if not identical. (Edit: Travis has proved this point above.)

Remember, I only said it would be an ambitious first build. It's nowhere near impossible. With a little experience, it's be easily doable in any number of different ways.

The only real challenge to any of this is the wah shell. They can be a bit of a hassle to modify or even work with, but making your own shell from raw materials would be an order of magnitude more difficult than anything you've proposed, and I've seen plenty of examples of those on the internet.

[huston93]

Cool. modifying the wah shell will probably be the easiest part for me. I work in a machine shop so it wouldn't take me more than 5 mins to get a couple holes drilled. I think the fx loop is exactly what I'm after. I'll see if I can find someone around town to help me do it. 

On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 12:25 PM, induction [via Guitar FX Layouts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

huston93 wrote

Would it be possible to use the on/off switch on the Wah pedal as the
looper switch?

...

Or, would it be possible to wire in a separate "fx loop" within the wah?
right before the normal output have an I/O that you can string any number
of pedals that are bypassed when you deactivate the wah?

Sure that's possible. (These two suggestions are essentially identical.) You'd have to mount two extra jacks (send and return) on your wah shell. How impractical this is depends on what wah shell (or pre-existing wah pedal) you use. Crybaby-type shells are a little tougher to drill than most regular pedal enclosures. They also use SPST bypass switches, so you'd have to swap the switch for a 3PDT (or maybe a DPDT would work, I haven't thought enough about it to be sure), and maybe fuss with the switch seating so that the height was right for it to turn on and off easily and at the right position. Not too difficult, I would think. I'm only familiar with the mechanics of Crybabies, though. Other wahs or shells may present different challenges, though I doubt any of them would be insurmountable.

If you're not really going to build it, the answer is much easier: Everything you've suggested so far is not only possible, but pretty simple, electronics-wise. I'd be amazed if somebody hasn't already DIY'd something very similar if not identical.

Remember, I only said it would be an ambitious first build. It's nowhere near impossible. With a little experience, it's be easily doable in any number of different ways.

The only real challenge to any of this is the wah shell. They can be a bit of a hassle to modify or even work with, but making your own shell from raw materials would be an order of magnitude more difficult than anything you've proposed, and I've seen plenty of examples of those on the internet.

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[induction]

Excellent. Sounds like you have the perfect background for this particular job. The switch wiring shouldn't be too complicated. The specifics depend on whether you want the loop to come before or after the wah circuit. After would be easier, but it's doable either way.

Let us know if you need any more help. We'd love to see pictures and/or a demo once it's finished.

[Luke51411]

I think building a dual split/blend box with a master bypass switch would be a good idea. Then you can experiment with different effects in parallel. This would also be a great beginner project as it is quite simple. I think you could use the jfet split and blend layout from the main page or if you wanted to try a pcb, JMKpcbs has a circuit called the paralyzer which is dual parallel looper.

[huston93]

Nice. I will look into that as well.

I don't suppose any of you know a guy that lives in the greater Portland OR area that would show me the ropes? I pay in cheap beer and dumb jokes haha

Thanks guys this has been a lot of help!

On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 1:36 PM, Luke51411 [via Guitar FX Layouts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

I think building a dual split/blend box with a master bypass switch would be a good idea. Then you can experiment with different effects in parallel. This would also be a great beginner project as it is quite simple. I think you could use the jfet split and blend layout from the main page or if you wanted to try a pcb, JMKpcbs has a circuit called the paralyzer which is dual parallel looper.

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[induction]

Luke51411 wrote

I think building a dual split/blend box with a master bypass switch would be a good idea. Then you can experiment with different effects in parallel.

That would be cool to do for sure, but even though the OP asked about wiring a phaser pedal in parallel with a wah pedal, it sounds to me like he wants them wired in series and just used the word 'parallel' incorrectly to mean that they both get switched on at the same time with a single stomp.

Maybe you can confirm or refute this for us huston93?

[huston93]

Honestly I don't know the difference haha

On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 3:17 PM, induction [via Guitar FX Layouts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Luke51411 wrote

I think building a dual split/blend box with a master bypass switch would be a good idea. Then you can experiment with different effects in parallel.

That would be cool to do for sure, but even though the OP asked about wiring in a phaser pedal in parallel with a wah pedal, it sounds to me like he wants them wired in series and just used the word 'parallel' incorrectly.

Maybe you can confirm or refute this for us huston93?

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[bogey]

Hi Huston.
I would go with induction's suggestion of a looper.
Easy build,loads of variations(volume, feedback,killswitch)
Versatility=you can put anything in the loop
And you're not tampering with a perfectly good Wah shell.
Only my opinion btw
Best of luck

[motterpaul]

A "looper" box accomplishes this trick. Google it. It is just a box with a footswitch that connects a series of pedals in whatever order you want. When it is off the signal just goes through (true bypass, no effects), but when it is on signal goes through whatever effects are plugged into it. Plug in the phaser and the wah to the looper. Then the output of the wah comes back to the looper. Make it passive and just power up the wah & phaser separately.