My weener needs help

[octa805]

Can't thank you enough. This made my rainy Sunday 😄

[octa805]

Haha, nice! 

So here is a picture of one of mine.



You need to rotate those middle and right lugs (C and B) and then it should be match the socket pinout.

The trimmers in order of adjustment will probably be:

R2: Adjust for the effect volume you like and the amount of saturation of Q1 at the inflection point of the sweep

FREQ: Blends two feedback capacitors together to change the center frequency of the wah sweep. adjust until you find the right balance of bass and treble in the toe down position of the sweep. 

R5: This effects the quality of the wah effect and also adds some midrange i feel like. I would adjust this until you get a decent amount of effect coming through. I typically settle on 1.5K.

Peak: This is the least noticeable of the controls IMO. I set it usually in the middle but supposedly it changes the quality factor of the bandpass peak. In which case you would get more effect with a sharper peak but you would start losing some of the frequencies that give the wah its character.

These are all pretty interactive too so once you adjust one you may want to go back and trim up the others to match. Good luck!

Ok, I think I got everything going now. adjusted Q1 per your helpful pinout. thanks for that. got it working. made the freq pot external which is nice and easier to dial in than with the tiny trimpot.

Need to adjust trimpots now to figure out how to keep it at unity and make it a bit quackier/more vocal. it's good but I know greatness is in there. I'm guessing that's just more spinning trimpots than anything?

On the plus side, boxed it all up and it looks great. have to throw some pics up later. thanks again for all the help!

[JakeFuzz]

You are very welcome. Congrats on the build!

My suggestions for this circuit can be found somewhere deep in the audio demo section of the forum. To summarize I highly suggest at least trying the circuit with the frequency pot removed. I can't really explain why but I feel like it sounds slightly more balanced with just a single cap (10-15nF usually) in the feedback path. Give it a try and let me know what you think. To try this just lift and leave open lug 3 of the frequency pot and put a 15nF cap in C5, I would then adjust R5 to get the amount of the wah effect you like.

Another little tweak I do in wah's that is usually overlooked is the position of the sweep pot pinion gear on the rack. I like to keep the sweep further toward the treble side. It makes a huge difference in where that little gear is; I typically will play with this before I mess with any of the circuit. 

[jkokura]

Another little tweak I do in wah's that is usually overlooked is the position of the sweep pot pinion gear on the rack. I like to keep the sweep further toward the treble side. It makes a huge difference in where that little gear is; I typically will play with this before I mess with any of the circuit. 

I've recently been working on a couple wahs, and have found the same. Unless you have the rack on the gear at the right spot, there's no point in playing with the trimmers. Get the rack in the right spot first, then you can really dial in the sweetness.

Jacob

[octa805]

You are very welcome. Congrats on the build!

My suggestions for this circuit can be found somewhere deep in the audio demo section of the forum. To summarize I highly suggest at least trying the circuit with the frequency pot removed. I can't really explain why but I feel like it sounds slightly more balanced with just a single cap (10-15nF usually) in the feedback path. Give it a try and let me know what you think. To try this just lift and leave open lug 3 of the frequency pot and put a 15nF cap in C5, I would then adjust R5 to get the amount of the wah effect you like.

Another little tweak I do in wah's that is usually overlooked is the position of the sweep pot pinion gear on the rack. I like to keep the sweep further toward the treble side. It makes a huge difference in where that little gear is; I typically will play with this before I mess with any of the circuit. 

I'll have to try that. So far I like the freq pot turned waaaaay up the most. Seems like I don't get enough wah effect for my taste otherwise. I need to take some measurements on the trimpots and see where I'm at and compare it to normal values

[octa805]

had a couple days to fiddle around with it and compare it to my standard crybaby as well as my hendrix fuzz wah and I just can't seem to dial it in to get enough wah effect going on.

this sound sample I found from Jakefuzz's waffle wah I believe is what I'm going for:

https://soundcloud.com/jakefuzz/wah-new

so far I've tried a few of the suggestions posted earlier. moved the treadle around a few times and can't get it quite right. spun the various trimpots all over the board.

my problems are as follows:

Not enough wah effect. it's at it's best when the freq pot is fully cranked but even then, not as nasty as that soundclip above (which I love)

Not quite loud enough either

scratchy wah pot

thanks dudes! so close

[JakeFuzz]

Didn't see this till now. I would try the frequency pot removal and see if that helps. I have found that the particular arrangement of the pot and those two caps seems to level out the wah effect a little.

[octa805]

cool. thanks!

will try that this week if I can.

I got 11 days off coming up! time to put that honeydripper together and dear god.............maybe even try the dirtbag...........

[octa805]

hi again! xmas break! weeeeeeee!

I pulled lug 3 of the freq pot off the board. no drastic change there for me.

I'll try swapping in 15n if I can find one locally today. I looked back in there at my wiring and remembered that in my search to ground everything possible I sure have a lot of wires in there.

maybe a long shot but I'm wondering if that is muting my wah somehow. crappy pics to come. thanks

[JakeFuzz]

The 15nF should make a big difference from what you have in there right now (3n3 if I remember right?) The sweep range should be much more full. If you weren't experiencing a big change with the FREQ control taken out I suspect the sweep was all in the treble range like it would be with just the 3n3. I have this setting (well 5n6) on my wah and it really starts to thin out down there. Try the 15nF or a 22nF and it should bring back the depth you are looking for.

[octa805]

hi again

found the only 15n cap at my disposal and plopped it in there. also added freq pot back in.

played with location of sweep pot too.

sounds better but still not the all encompassing nastiness I'd love to have.

Checked my trannies. they should be ok I believe.

Q1: 0
      .51
      7.65

Q2: 0
      0
      8

Q3: 0
      1.65
      8.57

Here are some pics of my latest wiring mess.




and a sound sample. clean first, then my hendrix fuzz wah as comparison, then the weener wah with the freq put turned 100% to bassier side. it's good, just not all there. I have R5 trimpot cranked to full right as well. just trying to get more more more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGcNakoSOog

[octa805]

Bump!

Still looking for ideas here. Thanks!

[JakeFuzz]

Sorry bout that! Been on vacation and it is tough to get to a computer around here. The wah sounds pretty good in your clip. I would try it with both the FREQ pot out of the circuit and the 15nF for the feedback cap. The Freq control may be doing some weird stuff to the bass content as it did with my build. I would just take it out and see if that helps. I would also start tweaking around with those trimmers to see if that helps. Other than that I am sort of stumped. That Q2 base voltage looks a little weird but I would have to confirm with my build which I wont have until I get back to work!

[octa805]

thanks! you've been unreal helpful. appreciate it

[ch1naski]

I've just finished my wah, and I'm pretty much in the same boat.  Very light wah, not loud enough, etc. I am going to jump R4, or put a very low value resistor in there and see if that dirties it up.
Also going to go lower on R2, to increase output. Maybe something in the high 20k's....
 I already have the 15n cap.
I also have a 12 notch 100k linear detent pot for the frequency. Doesn't do much until you turn it past the last couple of detents, and then it sounds like Bootsy Collins stole my guitar :-)

I've also noticed a weird pop when sweeping, only when the buffer is engaged. It's a deep pop, very noticeable, making the buffer unusable. Any ideas, Jake?