Potentiometers always have static scratching noise

[Mark Hammer]

Do you think he used cheap pots on purpose to keep cost down thinking people wont be too bothered about the scratching? if quality pots fix the issue id rather upgrade them.

No, he used BETTER quality parts than the counterfeit ones, which is why he got so angry about them. Would you want someone passing off an inferior version of your product as "the real thing"? The "crackle" was simply an electronic artifact of making something that might normally be fixed a variable control.

[Fuzzdemon]

The pedal sweep is controlled mainly by the taper of the wah pot. Original pots in the '60s were very fast in tonal sweep, which contributed to their vocal phrasing sound. Through the years with different manufacturers, the tapers started to change and now pots are available in a number of different tapers, none of which have been documented of compared, as far as I know of, at least.

Original pots had a reverse audio taper. To get a wider tonal range, I'd suggest that you try and find a pot with a linear taper.

All I know is I heard theres a specific type of Vox wah pot that has a longer taper or travel or whatever its called. Its disappointing nobody has picked up on that and made one. Having said that I am happy enough with the control I have over the sweep control but the drawback is it removes a little treble the more bass side you go.

I will look out for linear taper then thanks.

[Fuzzdemon]

I suggest you put it all back to stock and simply change C7 currently 10nF, e.g. 4.7nF will shift the resonance peak higher by half an octave.

Ive got a few stock wah's ill try it on one of them thanks.

[Fuzzdemon]

I think you're still missing a Tesla coil and a couple Jacob's ladders
Just half-kidding. If you're aiming for laboratory gear, I say go for it! If you want something gig-able, take Nick's advice and scale back. I have a hard time coordinating standing up and playing; just thinking about tweaking half a dozen knobs and switches during a performance makes me dizzy

haha yea true but this started as an experiment to try to make the sweep the way I want and now I find its not that easy. Its not overwhelming all these knobs once you get one and use it, its easy to remember what does what without looking for a label. In a gig situation and you wanted to use totally different voicing then yea you would need to buy a few of them, I will do a discount for you though lol

[Fuzzdemon]

Here's another approach I just thought of.

If it's just the bottom end you don't like you can reduce the range of the wah by adding a resistor ( or pot) between ground and pin 1 of the the wah pot to avoid the bassy end that you don't like. The value of the WAH pot is not shown (100k?) so I suggest a pot wired as a variable resistor of half of the value of the WAH pot would be suitable. You can then tweak to get the desired range.

Thats a good idea, ive already tried that on these mini pots, only problem is it isnt always consistent but i'll try it on these pots anyway, thanks for another good tip.

[g1]

I don't think the pot you heard of would have a longer travel. Probably different taper like 52Bill mentioned.
A longer travel pot would require a longer rack and maybe even a deeper cutaway for the heel to rock back further.

[Enzo]

Or a pot gear with fewer teeth, so each inch of rack travel turned the pot shaft more.

[Fuzzdemon]

Or a pot gear with fewer teeth, so each inch of rack travel turned the pot shaft more.

I considered that already, I might buy a bunch of cogs and try it out, the results would be what im looking for, I might need to grind the pedal at the back so it can go lower.

[Fuzzdemon]

Here's another approach I just thought of.

If it's just the bottom end you don't like you can reduce the range of the wah by adding a resistor ( or pot) between ground and pin 1 of the the wah pot to avoid the bassy end that you don't like. The value of the WAH pot is not shown (100k?) so I suggest a pot wired as a variable resistor of half of the value of the WAH pot would be suitable. You can then tweak to get the desired range.

Interesting to see these are the results:

dunlop 1990 pot - 124k
hot potz 2 - 104k
chase tone pro 100k - 96k

Im gonna play around and see what happens when I add resistors like you suggested, I cant believe it didnt occur to me to use the MM on the wah pot already.