Questions about my weener

[aballen]

I've got a lot of dumb questions about my weener build.  For some reason the Wah has always been one of those pedals that leaves me a little wanting.  My wahs never sound like the wahs I hear other people playing.  I fully accept that I don't really know how to use one properly so while I have a working build, I'm not sure it's all correct. 

Anyway,  my build is a first gen weener.  I got a 4uf cap for it too.  I'm using ribbon cable for the sweep and buffer.  The rest is a mix of solid core and stranded wire.

The first thing I notice is its noisy.  Toe up a little noise, toe down much more noise.  Is this normal?  I would really like to solve the noise issue.  Is it just wiring?

Second thing I notice is the buffer seems to make no difference in the sound.  Is it that transparent or did I do something wrong?

Third,  I do get a decent wah out out of it,  but it seems mild.  Is this just technique?  Do I just need to add bends in with the wah stick a nice distortion or overdrive in with it?

Anyway, I suspect I just need to spend some time with it, but does any of the above stuff seems off?  Noise or buffer I mean.

[brejna]

I have similar problems with noise, I am using 2 inductors and one is noisy and other one is not. So it could be your inductor.
Wah ''intesity'' depends on q resistor, inductor cap and pot very much. I've tried 2 different pots in my build and they work totally different. At moment I am thinking about getting Sweet Pot or Mcon-O-Pot, they sound best that I've heard.

[madbean]

The inductor OR Q1 could be responsible for the noise. The amount of gain set on Q1 could also contribute. If you are using the stock 390R resistor, then that should be fine.

The buffer is less to with the sound of the wah and more to do with how it interacts with the pedals that follow it. In some setups it may be beneficial to have the output buffer going...it really just depends on the rig.

Probably the biggest complaint with v.1 was that people did not really like the Freq. control in it and felt that it made it harder to dial in. So, you could just forgo the trimpot there and stick either a 10n or 15n in C5 and omit C6.

[aballen]

thanks Brian.  I'll try that.  From looking at the schematic looks like I won't need to jumper anything.   What would be the difference between 10-15n?  I have both.

In the buffer, I expected a volume change, a pop, some coloration, something indicating it was on.  It just seems dead silent... I guess that is good... Or my tranny is backwards;)

[aballen]

Well. I spent some time trimming it today. I found the pot needed to be towards its limit with my toe down.  I re-centered the trimpots too.  Now it really quacks.  It's definitely sounding good now.

Im still getting a lot of noise though.  Could it be the 2n3565 I'm using in Q1.  Does the orientation looks right?  The flat spot is top left in the picture.

Other than that this "soul inductor". Might be the culprit.  I have a red fasel and another one is my old wah( that got scrapped).   Or should I just go with a whipple?

Any chance the ribbon cable I'm using on the pot or buffer could be responsible?

Definitely a lot of progress just need to dial out the noise now.

[aballen]

[lars]

I recently built a "clyde mccoy" type wah using some old parts. I've noticed that your noise level is greatly affected by the Hfe and type of transistor used in Q1. I've found that using lower Hfe trannies for Q1 doesn't affect your overall gain too much, but higher Hfe ones do definitely add hissy noise, especially MPSA types. My current setup that I'm happy with has a transistor in Q1 that is only about 100 Hfe; much lower than the typical 500-700 range they've decided to put in newer circuits. Q2 does need to be around 200+ to sound correct, but again, it's best to keep that Hfe as low as possible to keep your noise down, my Q2 is about 215 Hfe.
I would try a 2N3904 in Q1 that is around the 100 Hfe range. You'll probably cut your noise in half. I've also noticed that J201s tend to add a lot of hiss (every circuit I've tried that is designed to use them has been aggressively hissy). Maybe try a 2N5457 for your buffer as well as the change to Q1.

[aballen]

Thanks man.  I'll they the 2n3904.  The 3565 seems suspect.  Time to break out the hfe tester !