Converting wah pedal to volume (swell)

  • Thread starter Thread starter mtjames
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mtjames

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So I've got this old Morley Bad Horsie wah pedal someone gave me for christmas a few years ago that I've barely touched since. I just never have a use for the sound. But I have been wanting a volume pedal (or a variable control for the negative feedback on the amp i'm building) for a while and it seems like it should be a pretty simple conversion, I'm just not sure what it would take. Any ideas?
 
Save yourself a big headache... sell the wah... and pick up a volume pedal...

Although the construction is similar, the electronics are different... trying to find a components that will match perfectly (mechanically) will be either a nightmare or too expensive.
 
he's right, I wish Chessrock would kick in one of his "analogies" but since he didn't, suffice it to say just cuz it looks like a duck, doesn't make it a duck.
 
First you need to find out the pot value. The wah is an active circuit, so it might be low impedance. A volume control can be a passive device, but would need a high impedance, like 500Kohms.

If you've got that, rip out everything but the switch and the pot, wire from the switch to one leg of the pot, the other leg to ground (you'd need to sort out the leads so the pedal works the right way), and the wiper to output. The other side of the switch also goes to output, that's the bypass.

If the pot is low impedance, you'd need to retain the buffer portion of the circuit, and just defeat the EQ part of the circuit. If you had a schematic, that shouldn't be too tough to figure out.
 
Sorry if I gave bad advice, I've tried that to one of mine and screwed it up, maybe you'll have better luck.
 
Remember, the morleys aren't like the crybaby's. There is an optical sensor that senses where the pedal is. It isn't a gear on a pot, it's much more complicated. Sell the wah, buy the volume pedal.
 
Farview said:
Remember, the morleys aren't like the crybaby's. There is an optical sensor that senses where the pedal is. It isn't a gear on a pot, it's much more complicated. Sell the wah, buy the volume pedal.
Click to expand...

Oh. Yeah.

Although playing with an optical sensor could be fun. You could make a strange compressor pedal :o
 
Save yourself a big headache...

Not impossible... just hardly worth the effort... with the price of volume pedals.. ;)
 
I'd have to go with everyone else saying that it's really not worth the effort. You'd pretty much have to redesign the entire circuit inside and get someone to do it for you, or do it yourself. Mind you inside is probably a bunch of PCB boards and possible some ICs, so it would be a job.

I'd say sell the thing and pick up a lil' alligator or some other good volume pedal, preferably one that has less moving parts to wear out/break.
 
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