Wah pedal

[ggunn]

What do mean by shaving the stoppers? What does it do? What's the benefit of it?

The rubber stopper is there to prevent you from accidentally turning off the pedal when you push it to its max treble position. When you hit the stopper the wah is still on, but when you push it past the stop point and compress the stopper, the switch engages or disengages. It can especially be a prob if you have the pedal on carpet because the carpet may compress instead of the rubber.

By shaving down the stopper you reduce the amount of pressure needed to compress it enough to flip the switch. The switch itself, however, can be raised to achieve the same thing. The barrel of the switch that goes through the round hole where it is mounted is threaded, and it will have a pair of nuts or knurled rings to hold it in place. Loosening the bottom one and tightening the top one will raise the switch and make it engage sooner/easier.

 

[zinc1024]

I use the Vox wah, I like it much better than the crybaby I had years ago. I like the feel better, it turns off/on reasonably easily. And most important, so far (knock on wood!!), I haven't gotten dirt into the pot. Those crybaby's are prone to getting horrible crackle when dust gets into the potentiometer (I think it's a pot anyway). I always put my Vox away the moment I'm done playing it, back in it's little bag and into my gear bag, to reduce the risk of ruination due to dirt.

I was just playing through it and a classic green tube screamer last night as a matter of fact, trying to learn voodoo chile slight return licks, so fun...

-Kevin

 

[monkie]

The switch itself, however, can be raised to achieve the same thing. The barrel of the switch that goes through the round hole where it is mounted is threaded, and it will have a pair of nuts or knurled rings to hold it in place. Loosening the bottom one and tightening the top one will raise the switch and make it engage sooner/easier.

That's what I did. At first I thought the switch were dead, then I opened up the pedal and loosened and took out the barrel and put it back in and raised the switch up. It's now easier to switch but it can easily be switched if you accidentally push the pedal a little too far to get the higher frequencies, which I find to be pretty annoying at times.

 

[Toker41]

About 30 years ago I had a Dunlap stereo cry baby fuzz wah. Never should have gotten rid of it. I simply can not find one since then, and am always told that Dunlap never made a stereo fuzz wah, but I know for a fact they did. The fuzz was awful (think Rust Never Sleeps), but the stereo wah was sweet.

 

[suprstar]

I've actually got three. An original Dunlop, a Morley Steve Vai, and the one built in to my PODxt Live.

I had all 3 of those pedals at one point! I hated the morley, liked the Dunlop, don't have either of them anymore. I like the XT live wah sound despite popular opinion...

I also have a Dimebag crybaby from hell, which is basically the Dunlop with a camouflage paintjob and a couple knobs to tweak settings. I really like the way it sounds, I can (almost) get that Rich Ward (Stuck Mojo) tone out of it, which is the most awesome sickest wah tone I've heard yet. It's better than the xt tone IMO, but I still use the xt cuz it's there and I'm sick of packing extra pedals and cords and shit....

 

[Rokket]

Have you ever tried any of the dunlop models with a freq sweep knob? Like the dimebag or slash models, I believe.

No, but I have couple friends who have. They seem to like them well enough until I let them use mine....

 

[monkie]

No, but I have couple friends who have. They seem to like them well enough until I let them use mine....

What do you have?

 

[polishdog90]

I had a Dunlop Cry Baby for a long time but it got little use due to its clunkiness and difficulty in changing out batteries, which it ate. Adding an AC adapter mostly added hum, so I gave up on it.

Now I use a Line 6 Floor Pod Plus, and I'm back into playing with a wah. It's more controllable than the CB, with a similar tone. The downside is that it's about $300; the upside is that it has quite a few FX and amp models. It's not perfectly quiet, but it's better than the Dunlop, which gets scratchy sounding as the pot ages.

Hmm maybe I'll look into that. I have th CB right now and I'm experiencing the same problems you were.

 

[Toker41]

About 30 years ago I had a Dunlap stereo cry baby fuzz wah. Never should have gotten rid of it. I simply can not find one since then, and am always told that Dunlap never made a stereo fuzz wah, but I know for a fact they did. The fuzz was awful (think Rust Never Sleeps), but the stereo wah was sweet.

Ha! Found one! Turns out it was a Thomas Organ Crybaby. Anyone know the history on this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Thomas-...52|39:1|66:2|65:12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1318