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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: Wah inductor source

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8/31/1999 2:31 PM

Re: Wah inductor source

I have one of Mike's inductors in my '79 Crybaby after the original died on me. It does sound very good and I'm quite happy with. BTW, I also put one of his wah pots in while I was at it and it sounds excellent as well. I kept the original dead inductor and even tried repairing it with some spare pickup wire that I had laying around. I guess I should clarify that the original inductor was the brownish red "03" marked one that has a four legged square base whith the inductor housing being shaped like a small stack of dimes.

Interestingly though the windings were on a small nylon spool and the whole thing was held together with a small brass screw and nut setup that I'm assuming is what you've been referring to as "the core". I always loved the sound of the original inductor and may try to rewind it some day if I can find the right wire. I was able to get a measurement on the impedance and approximate length of the wire. For now though the Fulltone parts sound pretty darn good.

8/31/1999 6:50 PM
BIG Dave	I replaced the pot in my '80's wah with a Fulltone pot. I feel the sound is more midrangey, definately less harsh, perhaps even not trebly enough. Do you feel the same way about your Fulltone pot?

9/1/1999 4:37 PM
pHiL	i didn't notice any change in the overall tone or response from the pot change itself. only a change in the sweep/throw of the wah. in other words it now goes from bottom of tone range to top much quicker than the pot that was stock in the pedal which i think was a cts. makes it much easier to get that quick thwacky wah remenisent of early Clapton. pHiL

8/29/1999 10:36 PM
nic	another benefit about volume pedals is the fact that they aren't used (rocked) as much as old wah pedals. You could get a very useful pot outta the case too! nic

8/29/1999 11:40 PM
Hammy	Another thing I just thought of... Is it possible that by adding a resistor across the wipers of a 'regular'audio taper pot that you could give 'wah' taper?

8/30/1999 12:09 AM

Yeah. I've been churning the math this weekend, going back over some earlier stuff on tapering resistors. I found the definitive source reference, a paper presented to the JAES in the early 60's; it was probably known well before then.

I think I found a mistake in my math from several years ago when I last did this, so I'm going back through all my pot calculations. I'll know more in a day or so.

There are also some dirty tricks that can be played on standard pots to do odd things to the taper - mechanical things, beyond the tapering resistors.

I'll have more on that in the near future.

In any case, knowing what the "wah taper" is is tricky. As someone noted earlier, a good way is to find a vintage wah pot, clamp a long indicator hand on it and use a protractor to measure resistance per degree turned. I'd do that as soon as I get my hands on some of the more etherial pots.

8/30/1999 1:05 AM
Hammy	Cool... We'll all have homemade wahs that sound as good as a Vox sooner or later..

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