Thomas Organ cry-baby like a volume pedal

[pbiagi]

Hello BB,
It was the inductor after all.. The whipple did not fit nicely to the pins holes.. I stretched them but one lead did not make the connection..
I unsoldered it with a solder sucker, resoldered, pushing it in well, and it's working, sounds nice.

Per the vintage sound.. - I remember well this wah in the '70's and it wasn't so great - bright and harsh.. I've just read that inductors are what make a wah sound good, and maybe the dime one could as well..
But the whipple sounds very good. This pedal is not too harsh or bright any more.

I'm curious is different brands types of capacitors make a difference in the sound.??

Just to clarify to Bob - the "volume pedal" issue was there since I found the wah recently. Probably there since early '80s. Nothing I did (in the past 25 years) created the issue.
This is all educational for me, so there's nothing to feel bad about.

One mod I hope to do tomorrow, 1500->2000 ohm resistor for more midrange, smooth wah transition.

But there is a new issue - when the wah is active, there is some hum, enough to want it to go away. And the closeness of the wah to the deluxe 5e3 amp makes a difference - closer, more hum. In by-pass mode, there is no hum at all.
I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. Any tips?

[R.G.]

Hello BB,
It was the inductor after all.. The whipple did not fit nicely to the pins holes.. I stretched them but one lead did not make the connection..
I unsoldered it with a solder sucker, resoldered, pushing it in well, and it's working, sounds nice.

Per the vintage sound.. - I remember well this wah in the '70's and it wasn't so great - bright and harsh.. I've just read that inductors are what make a wah sound good, and maybe the dime one could as well..
But the whipple sounds very good. This pedal is not too harsh or bright any more.

Cool - glad you found it.

I'm curious is different brands types of capacitors make a difference in the sound.??

Maybe. But only microscopic differences exist between any film capacitors.

But there is a new issue - when the wah is active, there is some hum, enough to want it to go away. And the closeness of the wah to the deluxe 5e3 amp makes a difference - closer, more hum. In by-pass mode, there is no hum at all. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. Any tips?

Yes. That inductor picks up radiated hum just like a guitar pickup does, and for the same reasons. Move it away from your amp, especially the power transformer. You can sometimes follow AC power lines inside the walls by using a wah pedal as a devining tool.

[pbiagi]

For the hum, what about using isolated jacks?
(I haven't yet had a chance to poke around.)

[R.G.]

For the hum, what about using isolated jacks?
(I haven't yet had a chance to poke around.)

Won't help, may hurt. Jack isolation/connection is a technique for *voltage* hum. The nearness to the amp is picking up *magnetic field* hum. Completely different animal. Isolating jacks may make a horrible voltage hum appear in addition to what you already have.

[pbiagi]

Thanks R.G. for the jack info. I may loosen them up, clean, spray some deoxit, and tighten to make sure they're making good contact. This is an old wah.

And moving the wah away from the amp solves the hum completely.

The wah is sounding good, but there is one remaining issue.
There is some wissshhey hiss, which changes per the foot movement, even with nothing played on the guitar. Not too loud, btut when playing the guitar, it produces a sort of annoying noise when the wah hits the high end.
I read somewhere that a bad resistor could cause that.
I just changed the 1500 ohm resistor (which had drifted to 1700) to 2K ohm.
(The 2K is brand new metal film.) I changed this just after I got the thing working, so I'm not sure the 1500 (or 1700) ohm original resistor works better. Could be a different resistor? Which one's should I be looking at?
(I could probably change them all...)

Side question: would using shielded cable (and grounding one side of the shield) help with hum, or overall tone?