The perfect Wah

[Marshall Arts]

I had many wahs and envelope filters in the past and I think it is time to build my ultimate wah. For me, the ideal wah wah...

...has a switchable clean and a dirty mode
...has a wide, yet adjustable frequency range for both modes (e.g. like the parapedal)
...allows for Q finetuning for both modes

...doubles an adjustable envelop filter / follower mode (gain/peak/volume) - no fancy up/down, LP/HP/BP or Hi/Low selector like the "Naughty Fish" provides - I would be happy with the corresponding settings "UP-LP-LOW"

...can be played in a "stuck wah" mode (i.e. the pedal stays in the position that you select for a specific sound - some Morleys like the bad horsie don't have that option in favor of an "auto on" mode once you step on the pedal)

...doubles as volume pedal or pedal-controlled boost pedal. This will only be used for swellinng effects, NOT for a permanent volume setting (otherwise it would be impossible to use the wah when playing with a volume setting other than "max"). Wah will be used before drive/distortion, so this is where naturally this volume pedal will be located. This is not my preferred place in the signal chain, I usually use a volume pedal in the fx loop (before delay/reverb/looper etc.) for constant drive level. For this pedal build, I can live with the required pre-drive position, though. Range for volume function will be fixed from "0" to equity gain (input=output).

...has a (relative) small footprint for my small board (my big one has a seperate volume pedal and envelope filter and a morley on it - more flexible, but also a lot of space and weight)
...is not scratchy (i.e. uses LED/LDR or an Anderton mod)


That being said, I will need the following controls:

Footswitches:
On/Off
Volume/Wah
Auto-Mode On/Off
Clean/Dirty mode (just for the manual mode, not for auto-mode)

Trimpots (ideally accessible with a screwdriver from the outside):
Hi-Range Clean
Low-Range Clean
Q Clean
Hi-Range Dirty
Low-Range Dirty
Q Dirty

Pots (for envelope filter):
Gain (envelope filter)
Peak (envelope filter)
Volume (envelope filter)

This might appear crazy, but I think, that this is doable and I am eager to build this. It will take some time, though.

For now, I am thinking of a combination of

a "Naughty Fish" (stripped down to the one sound I dig)
a vox/crybaby inductor based wah (for clean) and
a parapedal based (inductorless) wah for dirty sounds and
a morley based volume control

To control Volume/dirty filter/clean filter (depending on mode), I will try to use LEDs/LDRs with a Morley-like approach (with a screen between the the LED and the LDR). Therfore, I will use a morley-enclosure that does not automatically return to the heel position (e.g. a pwo, little alligator). As an alternative, I am thinking of a standard crybaby with an external 1590b or whatever for switches and controls...

Any thoughts welcome!

[Betty Wont]

You've described everything the moogerfooger low pass filter with 2 expression pedals can do. With the exception of volume pedal duties (which could be cleverly worked around with the mix, gain, and cutoff) and that it is a bit big, I'd say copy that, or at least start there.

[Marshall Arts]

Cool. I should try this. Or The ehx q balls... Or Build something

[Marshall Arts]

Actually... The riddle q balls

[Luke51411]

I did something similar (not nearly as ambitious) converting the wah pot to control an LED I added an LFO that could control the wah as well. It would be pretty easy I think to hack in an envelope follower instead. My wah was loosely based off the boomerang and has a switch for volume which works well enough for what it is, it makes the signal a little darker and it doesn't go full off. I think a project like this you approach from a modular aspect. First you take the pot section, work up how to get it to run an ldr, then you work up the envelope section and how you are doing your switching. I used a 3pdt switch so that the treadle is still active in lfo mode but it changes to the rate control, if you wanted, you could do something similar with threshold or sweep or something on autowah. I'm not sure how useful that would be but it's a thought. Here is a brief demo of my creation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgxW5rwquNg
This might not be very helpful but it's my $.02

[Marshall Arts]

That is awesome, thanks for the inspiration...

[Luke51411]

Thanks, if there's anything you want to know feel free to ask. It's been a while since I built it but I can open it up to refresh my memory. I wanted to hack in an envelope detector too but never got around to it.

[Muadzin]

A lot of good options in this thread. I would like to add an option for an up/down sweep.

[DuctTapeRiot]

Well it is certainly not quite everything you want, but I built a Wiener Wah with the trannies and mods listed in this thread, and it is leagues and bounds above any other wah I have tried:  http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=4415.0

[Marshall Arts]

Now you got me on the hook... Sounds interesting!

[Marshall Arts]

I am on my Way :-)

Basically a Weener II with a Test Setup for C2 (Dip Switches/caps on top). Also added
A Q Control (R7=47 k with a 50 K linear Taper pot in Series). Everything Hooked up to a cry Baby Shell:

Getting there. Ordered some boutique Inductor and a 200k wah pot... Yeah, this will be MINE!

[AllenM]

Ah yes the search for the perfect wah.. I remember spending years (not all at once of course) putting ideas on paper and reading up any information I could find that would help me create my ultimate wah.. in the end I came up with the idea for my Studio Pro WAH and while it was a fun build and great learning experience it became a one off build. I have learned a lot from the build and after using it for a while I figured out the features I used the most and have started building a refined version that will fit in a normal WAH enclosure.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=6938.msg59616#msg59616

AllenM

[Marshall Arts]

And I thought, I was Crazy!!!!! That is awesome! You could Send this around for other People to learn what they like... :-)

[Marshall Arts]

This took longer than expected; a wah is a simple thing, but the impact of almost any component in there so important, it just takes a lot of breadboarding, ordering, comparing, tuning, playing,... Given that you are rewarded with YOUR wah (me for sure!) and given the importance of a wah wah in many styles of music it is absolutely worth the money, time and effort, IMHO.

This is MY Wah Wah:

Features:

• True bypass (relay switched with LED indicator) - I chose the relay switching mainly, because it is almost impossible to find switches that don't "click" mechanically (not electrically) when you just touch them (without switching) with the pedal, especially for the heel positions. The momentary switches are almost silent...
• Heel Switch for two different "Q" presets (3k3 or 59k3k (56k+3k3) for R7, relay switched with LED indicator). I have a moderate, very clean and funky wah with the 3k3 selected and an aggressive (yet not too aggressive) wah sound to cut through distorted sounds as well. Hendrix through Vai, if you wish. It is all in there, selecting these was the most crucial part.
• Three wah voicings (10, 15, 22nF for C5, C6, C7)
• Doubles as a volume pedal (you need to cut between C2 and the inductor and make that connection switchable (see image below). Also, you need to connect "Whack A" and the connection between C5 and R5 with 220nF and 4k7 in series (as done in the Mr. CryBaby wah wah). I realized this with a 3P4T rotary switch (3 wah Voicings, 4th position is volume pedal option) rather than the suggested 4P3T rotary switch (which you would use for just the wah voicings)).
• Boost (can be bypassed with a switch)
• Wah can be bypassed as well with a second switch - the pedal will work as a switchable boost
• Stack of dimes inductor from Arteffect pedals
• Carbon comp resistors (they just look nice)
• Hot Potz II pot (These are really excellent!)
• Hand-selected caps including tropical fish replicas from arteffect :-)
• Stock transistors (compared them to Timbo's 2n2925, but liked the stock ones better - really a matter of taste!)

[Muadzin]

Holy jumpin' mackerel, Batman! That is insane overkill. There is of course no overkill, only lock and load.

I like the idea of TB relay switching though. As of now if I ever mod another wah I'll go for that. I would also add a reversible input/output switch, so I could do Pink Floydesque seagull squeels.