Loose play in pedal on Cry Baby Wah

[Jorge Zorro]

Any advice on how to deal with a loose pedal on a Cry Baby Wah? The toe is always falling forward when I take my foot off the pedal. It won't stay up in a "half-cocked" position on it's own.

My Snarlin Dogs had a similar problem. I tried tightening a screw that held the metal strip (a leaf spring?) over the pivot rod. That fixed it for a while but then it got loose again. Do I tighten the screw again?

[52 Bill]

My Snarlin Dogs had a similar problem. I tried tightening a screw that held the metal strip (a leaf spring?) over the pivot rod. That fixed it for a while but then it got loose again. Do I tighten the screw again?

Both of those pedals use a similar friction device (the metal strap) to control the pedal play or looseness.

On the Cry Baby, tighten down the nuts holding one side of the metal strap and you should be good to go. If your pedal has two nuts on the hold down bolt, be sure to loosen the second lock nut before trying to tighten them up. Be careful not to over do it, because the bolt will break off if you over do it.

As for the Dog pedal, on mine, the axle that runs from one side to the other was not well secured to the foot pedal itself, so tightening up the friction strap no longer helped. I had to peen (hammer) the axle end to make it fit tight in the pedal again.

Check yours to see if the foot pedal rotates around the axle instead of with the axle. I mean that the axle should turn with the foot pedal and not stay still with the base.

[Jorge Zorro]

Cool! Many thanks for the good advice.

The Cry Baby appears to be the easier fix. However in this pedal the metal strap was running UNDER the axle. Tightening the nuts wasn't going to help. I removed the strap and re-installed it over the axle. After that, it was a standard tightening job.

For the Snarlin Dog I hadn't previously noticed that the nut was turning with the bolt. The last time I tightened the bolt from above the nut was turning with it. Doh! Tightening the bolt and nut together seemed to do the trick. I'll keep on an eye on the axle too.