Panner in a wah box (problem)

[AntKnee]

I built a panner in a wah box with sends and returns to use it as a clean blend with any pedal. It works great, except the pedal wont turn the pot enough to achieve full clean or effect. There just isnt enough travel in the wah motion. Can I remedy this with a different pot value or pot cycle, or would it require some mechanical modification to the enclosure?

Could I use a higher value pot, like 25k (instead of 10k) and situate it so that it travels from 0 resistance to 10k (or so) by the time the pedal runs out of travel?

[AntKnee]

I suppose a more appropriate question would be: How can I shift the unity point of the balance/blend control so that it falls within the motion of the wah pedal?

I am trying to achieve wah closed as completely clean and wah open to be completely dirty.

[jkokura]

A Wah treadle just doesnt travel far enough. Some volume pedals do. I think a normal pot is 300 degrees of travel, and a Wah is 250.

My only advice is to find a sweet spot, or a range on the pot you can be happy with. Changing the value won't do anything in this case. There may be some rack and gear sets out there that would help you get more out of your pot.

Jacob

[AntKnee]

Hey! Thanks for replying!

I have placed the wah pot back in the enclosure and I have been experimenting with various resistors across the pot lugs and I have been able to shift the center point of the panner in a way. This is a bit helpful in dialing in that sweet spot, but the problem I am having is that it tends to blend too quickly. Since I am not using this as a panner, but more for fading effects in/out with the clean signal, I don't think a linear fade is what I need. I am thinking a logarithmic blend would work better, so I can more slowly bring in the effect. As it is, it tends to stay cleaner for a long travel, then BOOM, effect is in your face for the rest of the travel.

The original 100k wah pot brings about another problem, too. It makes the signal much louder, so I get a huge boost when I turn on the panner, which isn't good for my needs here. I think I may be able to find a usable range on the wah pot if I put a 5k across two lugs to get it back to around 10k and then experiment with the resistor value on the other two lugs to center it where I need it. I suppose I'll be creating a pseudo logarithmic frankenstein pot this way.

So there may be a few ways to go about this... I can tweak the values until I find a sweet spot, I can try a 10k log pot to see if it makes the range more usable, or I can mechanically modify the gearing so I can use the 10k lin as per the panner circuit.

[AntKnee]

I should also specify that I was originally using a 10k lin wah pot, by Dunlop. I assume this would have the correct amount of travel for a wah.

[jkokura]

An actual Wah pot will be better than a standard pot, but even then, the travel is designed not to go to the full end of either travel, which protects the pot. Stomping on a Wah treadle can put a lot of stress on a pot.

It sounds like experimenting is the way to go here. I've tried to make this work myself in an old bespectacled volume unit , and eventually gave up because of the issues you're facing. Hope it goes well.

Jacob

[AntKnee]

The thought has crossed my mind of using a Morley style optical setup with a bypass stomp on the side, instead of the stomp under the pedal like a dunlop. This may work better here for adjustability and it eliminates the pot use altogether. I don't have any idea how dificult that may be to make it work, though.

[AntKnee]

Also...
I'm getting a significant level cut when I have this in bypass.  Any thoughts? Should I add an input buffer?
I already tried replacing the 3pdt, no difference.

[AntKnee]

More digging into the geofx end of this leads me to believe I am dealing with a phase issue on my bypass signal.

[Aleph Null]

Maybe the solutions is a mechanical one? Use the treadle to turn a gear. Chain the gear to the pot. With the right gear ratio, you should be able to get the full rotation of the pot within the action of the treadle.