What mods have you done to your cry baby?

  • Thread starter Thread starter capnkid
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capnkid

capnkid

Optimus Prime
I have an original 1969/70 thomas organ wah.
It cuts the tone in half, taking a lot of the bass away and lowers volume.

I looked in it and it seems to be all original, Switch, pot, nasty white capacitors. I have some carbon comp resistors, and some orange drops.

Is there any common values to change that makes it sound better besides the pot change and switch change to true bypass?
 
Here are the innards;

cb002.jpg
 
maybe you could make a couple of swappable circuit boards to try out some ideas.
 
Errrr....I cut off part of the rubber snubber so I didn't have to push the pedal down as hard to turn it on.

I'm guessing that's not what you're looking for. :cool:
 
capnkid said:
I have an original 1969/70 thomas organ wah.
It cuts the tone in half, taking a lot of the bass away and lowers volume.

I looked in it and it seems to be all original, Switch, pot, nasty white capacitors. I have some carbon comp resistors, and some orange drops.

Is there any common values to change that makes it sound better besides the pot change and switch change to true bypass?
Click to expand...

I have one of those old original design wah pedals too, and the volume drop just makes it pretty useless in a live situation. I wonder if there are just dried out caps in there but I need to resurrect the old beast-I'll keep tuned to the thread!! Wow-nice site you posted there Travis-I think I'll be checking it out for the rest of the evening!!!!!!!

Looks like some rebiasing of the transistors and replacing the transistor with higher beta ones will do wonders for the volume drop. Theres some great ideas on that site--thanks a zillion!
 
I was reading the myths about wah's in you link when a brilliant or not so brilliant idea came to me.

Wouldn't it be cool to be able to hook up your light show to your wah pot? You wouldn't have to run over like cheech and exuse yourself while you "work the lights" :D .
 
Anfontan said:
I have one of those old original design wah pedals too, and the volume drop just makes it pretty useless in a live situation. I wonder if there are just dried out caps in there but I need to resurrect the old beast-I'll keep tuned to the thread!! Wow-nice site you posted there Travis-I think I'll be checking it out for the rest of the evening!!!!!!!

Looks like some rebiasing of the transistors and replacing the transistor with higher beta ones will do wonders for the volume drop. Theres some great ideas on that site--thanks a zillion!
Click to expand...

Did you see the little ditty about adding a 200k trimpot? It's in the fattening the tone section.
 
i heard SRV had two crybabys and then he duct taped them together so they would work simutaniously ... just somthing to think about
 
capnkid said:
I was reading the myths about wah's in you link when a brilliant or not so brilliant idea came to me.

Wouldn't it be cool to be able to hook up your light show to your wah pot? You wouldn't have to run over like cheech and exuse yourself while you "work the lights" :D .
Click to expand...

You could do that with a midi controller. One of those footboard things with the expression pedals would probably work nicely.
 
STOP!
That wah could be valuable. Don't do anything like change out those old caps, or resistors, people pay big money to have them original.

I am certain what your problem is though. You should see one electrolytic capacitor on the boards. It should look like a can of sorts. It should read 4uF or so. These electroytic caps go bad with age, usually around 10-15 years. If that capacitor isn't functioning, you get volume drop. Replace that one capacitor and then try the wah. I wouldn't mod it beyond that, you'd be better off buying a used wah and tweaking that. Your sale price shouldn't go down for some simple servicing. I'd keep the old capacitor in a little baggie and tape it inside too, incase you sell it and somebody really anal wants it all original.

Peace! I hope this is of some use!
 
Put me down for the duct tape over the battery compartment to hold the 9 volt in. My original crybaby got too much carpet lint in it, so I bought another one and it was just as shitty. Plus the battery wouldn't stay in it.
 
One time I completely removed the plate on the bottom so I could use the screw holes to bolt it to my pedal board.
Worked like a charm.
 
I ordered a Fulltone pot and a new 3p3t switch for "True bypassing", I'll see what this does first. The pot in there is pretty scratchy.
 
Hold up, before you totally replace the pot, use some compressed air to blow out the pot, and then put in some pot lubricant. This fixes most pots in my experience.

Instead of true bypassing the wah, how about making a true bypass looper box? Four jacks in a box with that switch and you'll be able to true bypass it without having to do the toe click.

Really man, I'd keep it intact in it's original form. If you want to mess with a wah, buy a dinged up newer one on eBay.
 
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