Need help "softening" the wah

[ddog]

I've recently bought another wah pedal. It's all fine, however there is a big issue: the wah is not quiet. Even if I do not have my guitar plugged in and if I rock the pedal back and forth it still produces the wah sound. It is fine when playing with distortion but pretty terrible for clean playing. If I play quietly and I rock the pedal this wah sound is louder then my input signal. Note the input signal is still getting "wah -ified", but the pedal is producing other noise (which also sounds like a wah) that is louder then my playing. I opened it up and there are some mods done:

1) True Bypass, with the buffer removed
2) The vocal mod (33k resistor -> 68k)
3) Whipple Inductor installed
4) Mid-boost mod is done (1.5k -> 2.2k)
5) Gain mode done

Unfortunately I am not sure what each mod does individually. My gut feeling is that I should lower the gain. Does anybody have any advice?

[madbean]

Sounds like a bypass problem. Also, sounds like it has too much gain, IOW the emitter resistor off Q1 needs to be lowered.

[ddog]

Thanks, its currently at 390R, Ill lower it to 330R

How would I diagnose if it is a bypass problem? When the pedal is off and I rock it there is no noise. If the pedal is on and I rock it (without the guitar plugged in) only then there is the wah-ish sound

[madbean]

Sorry...I was eating. You should raise the resistor, not lower it. My bad.

As far as the noise, lowering the gain will mitigate that issue somewhat when you rock the wah. But, never completely. You will probably hear some "swishing" regardless. Any noise whatsoever in the pedal is being amplified and then frequency swept as the wah is adjusted.

You could probably take further steps such as replacing transistors and/or using metal film resistors. But, do step one first (lower the gain) then see where you are at.

[ddog]

I feel so stupid, I think I realized what the issue is - its a scratchy pot. The people on youtube are getting the exact sound I'm getting. I'll replace the pot first and then try your mod suggestions. Thanks again!

[jtn191]

It'd be cheaper to clean it with some Deoxit it works