Ashamed and amused by my new Crybaby wah; some help with sound needed

[bluesrockplayer77]

I bought a Dunlop original crybaby wah in hopes of taking away some of the harshness/ear piercing highs the newer pedals are known to have. I did some mods the day I got it in. The only one I haven't done yet is the true-bypass mod. Some interesting notes: I found a red fasel inductor inside the wah which completely blew my mind. It was a very unexpected and exciting find. I've heard of a very very few people who have also experienced this. Has anybody else on this forum found a red fasel inside their crybaby? Also, the back of the pedal says "Rev. H", but on the PCB it says "Rev. I". Was this an accident or was there a purpose for the Rev. mix-up?

Anyway, after doing the mods, the pedal is still very harsh and I just can't play with it. I've tried playing it though all other kinds of amps and it just does NOT work for normal wah use. I don't expect to turn my pedal into a gem by any means, so does anybody have any suggestions as to what I could do to make the pedal at least a little more useable? For what it's worth, here's the web page I got the mods from:
Wah Wah Mods

I did most of the mods on that page.

[Enzo]

Why does any product say revision X on the outside but have revision Y boards inside? Production changes.

The wah folks are making revision H pedals. The boards that go into them come from their board shop. SOme change - probably minor - is made in the board. perhaps they change brands of some part, and it requires some small change to the layout. They won't continue to make the old style board while making the new one as well. So the boards become revision I. And that is what goes into the revision H pedal shells. Not because some designer had a revelation and achieved more cosmic tone, just a small change in production. When they run out of revision H shells, then they will change the printing on it to say revision I. But they certainly are not going to throw out ready made shells for want of one revision letter printed on it. They'll change that when they get around to it.

[Bloodbath]

I've only seen red fasels in the Original Crybaby.

To get rid of some treble harshness, did you try moving the round gear towards the bass end a few teeth?

Remove the tension ring on the straight gear.
Move the straight gear away from the round gear.
Move the round gear towards the bass end a few teeth.
Put it back together.

Make sure you don't bottom out the pot. Be sure there is some movement left so you don't mess things up when you push down to turn the pedal on.

[Brad1]

I bought a Dunlop original crybaby wah in hopes of taking away some of the harshness/ear piercing highs the newer pedals are known to have.

I did some mods the day I got it in.

Anyway, after doing the mods, the pedal is still very harsh and I just can't play with it.

Just wondering...you got an original because the new ones are harsh, not more pleasant like the originals? The first thing you did was mod the original? Now, the original is harsh?

See where I'm going with this? Did you give the new (original) wah a good workout before you modified it, to see if it even needed all those mods?

Just wondering...

Brad1

[bluesrockplayer77]

I didn't buy one that was actually "original", as in the ones made several years back. The pedal I got was already very bad sounding, and after doing the mods it still didn't help that much. This is the one that I bought new:
Buy Dunlop Original Crybaby Wah Pedal | Wah, Talk Box & Filter | Musician's Friend

This was my first Crybaby wah. Sorry if there was any confusion with what I said.

[bluesrockplayer77]

I thought there were only the black cylindrical shaped inductors inside the new GCB-95 Crybabies?

Yes actually, I've tried that already. It didn't seem to help much. I still get a thin sound at certain positions on the wah.

[Brad1]

Oh...OK. I thought you got hold of a REAL original one. I believe Dunlop is reissuing "original Fassel inductors" in some of their pedals, taken to mean, probably...'original design'.

I have 3 of them with the old Fassels, (one doesn't work, just haven't fixed it), and the two that do work don't sound brittle or harsh. I also have a Hendrix Model, and it isn't spiky-harsh through the Marshall or the Deluxe Reverb. I have, however, reset the gears/pot positions a bit on them to where I like them. I can MAKE them super-treble, if I wish. It took a bit of experimenting, because one way had too much lows, and the other had too much highs...and it was a matter of VERY slight adjustments.

Brad1

[Jazz P Bass]

So you "did all of the mods" on that link.
What capacitor did you end up using on the "Sweep Mod"?

[freefrog]

I've bought a new one too (the cheapest) the last year.
I have found a red Fasel in it too...
... and I have modded it too: true bypass, 22n cap instead of the original 10n (I think I've used a simple Panasonic cap) and manual setting of the wheel...
I'm personally happy with these mods and don't find the sound harsh.
FWIW.

[bluesrockplayer77]

Jazz P Bass,

I did all the mods except the volume mod. And I used a 0.022uF cap for the sweep mod.

[bluesrockplayer77]

freefrog,

The new Crybabies really aren't that bad, especially with some mods done to them. What amp are you using with your pedal? And if it's tube, are you using an effects loop?

[Jazz P Bass]

Jazz P Bass,

I did all the mods except the volume mod. And I used a 0.022uF cap for the sweep mod.

Tack another .022 across the one that you installed (parallel)
Advise if there is any change.

[freefrog]

freefrog,

The new Crybabies really aren't that bad, especially with some mods done to them. What amp are you using with your pedal? And if it's tube, are you using an effects loop?

Marshall JTM, Vox AC15, Fender HRD White Lightning. Each has been modified by me to some extent. :-)
I use a series FX loop only with the Marshall and only for digital mdulation / delay FX's. the Vox has no loop (although I could mod it in the future) and the HRD has a loop but I find it pretty bad. With these two last amps, I plug all FX's in the guitar input (with a Blackstar HT dual for distorsion).
Of course, I don't use the wah in the loop... :-))