Want a non-squeaky GCB-95? come inside! MOD

[ron vogel]

Yeah, they all eventually squeak...only bothers me during mixdown, when I can hear it on solo'd tracks CLEARLY! That's the fun of low powered tube amp recording...anyway, I digress.

This is a pretty easy mod for anyone slightly mechnically inclined.

First you need to remove the shaft that holds the two parts of the pedal together. It is knurled on one side to hold it in place. You will need to use a flat punch/hammer to remove it. You strike it on the side with the beveled edge...it will hang up a little coming out when you pull from the opposite side, but not bad.

The strap can come out next. It's held down by a nut and screw on either side. You need to remove the circuit board to access one of the nuts.

Both the strap and shaft will probably be pretty grungy. Clean it first with a scotchbrite type pade, warm water, and detergent to remove any dried up grease. Follow up with 600 grit, then steel wool...or like me; throw it on a buffing wheel to save some time.

You need a sintered bronze bushing (I got mine at Sears hardware) 1/4" ID-5/16 OD. Drill out the exsisting holes in the base the shaft rides in to 5/16". Since the pedal has no square side...you will either have to fixture it to drill it straight, or be lazy like me and drill them "close enough". Drive in the busings, and trim off the excess. To fix crooked bearings, run a 1/4" drill through the busings in-line (I did it with a hand-drill w/no issues).

Reinstall with white lithium grease...and enjoy! I can't believe how smooth this thing is now!

As a last note, the strap is a little tricky to get back on, but it can be done. You need to leave it loose with the screws/nuts on to get the shaft to go underneath it. Once installed, you have to use a nutdriver on the inside to snug it up. I put tension on the strap with a screwdriver to keep the screws from spinning.

[ron vogel]

More pics:

[dai h.]

thanks Ron, cool pics. I have a GCB which was really gritty from the factory. Loosening the strap seems to usually help loosen the action for me. Seems the "boutique" ones might already be well adjusted for smooth action out of the box (compared to Dunlop).

[Mark Hammer]

....and that's why they don't sell for $300 new.

I salute your ingenuity and diligence.

Wahs are essentially an attempt to provide the capabilities of speech inflection and prosody to your foot. Making the foot as instantaneously expressive as the mouth or hand is tricky, and unlikely, but there ARE things one can do to nudge the foot in the direction of mouth-like fluidity. And this is one of them. Working on pot taper is another.

I wonder if it would be possible to build in a pressure sensor of some kind that might allow one to use the heel as a means to alter wah resonance?

[52 Bill]

I wonder if it would be possible to build in a pressure sensor of some kind that might allow one to use the heel as a means to alter wah resonance?

Isn't that what the Patch of Shades pedal was?

[ron vogel]

I was thinking a little less esoteric...but I want to add counter-balancing springs to mine.

[Mark Hammer]

Isn't that what the Patch of Shades pedal was?

It may well have used an FSR, though from what I gather, the Patch of Shades was a uni-dimensional controller. What I was thinking of was a wah that responded to essentially two levels of pressure, a little bit like aftertouch on a synth keyboard, or like the dual-switch system on the Line 6 Tone Core pedals. So, you could apply low pressure to hold your foot in place and work the wah, or dig your heel in to vary the Q or resonance of the wah in real time as you work the treadle.

[Tony Trout]

Yeah, they all eventually squeak...only bothers me during mixdown, when I can hear it on solo'd tracks CLEARLY! That's the fun of low powered tube amp recording...anyway, I digress.

This is a pretty easy mod for anyone slightly mechnically inclined.

First you need to remove the shaft that holds the two parts of the pedal together. It is knurled on one side to hold it in place. You will need to use a flat punch/hammer to remove it. You strike it on the side with the beveled edge...it will hang up a little coming out when you pull from the opposite side, but not bad.

The strap can come out next. It's held down by a nut and screw on either side. You need to remove the circuit board to access one of the nuts.

Both the strap and shaft will probably be pretty grungy. Clean it first with a scotchbrite type pade, warm water, and detergent to remove any dried up grease. Follow up with 600 grit, then steel wool...or like me; throw it on a buffing wheel to save some time.

You need a sintered bronze bushing (I got mine at Sears hardware) 1/4" ID-5/16 OD. Drill out the exsisting holes in the base the shaft rides in to 5/16". Since the pedal has no square side...you will either have to fixture it to drill it straight, or be lazy like me and drill them "close enough". Drive in the busings, and trim off the excess. To fix crooked bearings, run a 1/4" drill through the busings in-line (I did it with a hand-drill w/no issues).

Reinstall with white lithium grease...and enjoy! I can't believe how smooth this thing is now!

As a last note, the strap is a little tricky to get back on, but it can be done. You need to leave it loose with the screws/nuts on to get the shaft to go underneath it. Once installed, you have to use a nutdriver on the inside to snug it up. I put tension on the strap with a screwdriver to keep the screws from spinning.

More pics:

Ron,

I'm a newbie here and I need help with this very thing - but I can't see any of the pictures. Why?