Cry Baby too Bright

[dumbassbob]

I have a old Thomas Bros. Cbaby from the late 1970's.I have changed the capacitors.and have adjusted the treadle,but it sounds too bright or too bassy.It looks just like a Vox wha from the same time period,when I use my slp 100 w.marshall it gets kind of square waved I changes the .22uf with vintage tropical fish and real nice polystyrene .01uf caps and a 10uf where the 4.7 tant cap was.It has a Stack 'O dimes Inductor It helped but I still dont get that nice vocal growel a Vox has.What else ?any resistors change?

[dumbassbob]

I found some answers here in the back pages

[Enzo]

Oh geez. I thought you were telling us Johnny Depp was too smart.

[dumbassbob]

Oh geez. I thought you were telling us Johnny Depp was too smart.

Hey Enzo do you have any tips,Why are crybabes so bright and the Vox are not

[52 Bill]

Overall, I find that the Q of the coil has a lot to do with the overall tone of these pedals. The better the coil the better the sound.

One trick that I used to use was to add a bypass cap to the 470 ohm emitter resistor of the first stage. For a stack of dimes coil try a 0.01 cap. I also like the sound of a 0.013 - 0.015 cap for the feedback cap instead of the original 0.01 value.

[Chuck H]

Why not just reduce the value of the pot so that it doesn't swing so wide??? I use to do this with my wha pedals. Not a different pot. But I would bumber the back swing and change the runner position on the gear so that I had a more limited range to work with. Keeping me from wanking too wide in either direction. I havent looked at the circuit, but it seems like a smaller pot value would give a similar effect with more leeway. Just thinking out loud.

[pdf64]

When in doubt, check out geofex
The Technology of Wah Pedals
Pete.

[dumbassbob]

crybaby is too Brite

Overall, I find that the Q of the coil has a lot to do with the overall tone of these pedals. The better the coil the better the sound.

One trick that I used to use was to add a bypass cap to the 470 ohm emitter resistor of the first stage. For a stack of dimes coil try a 0.01 cap. I also like the sound of a 0.013 - 0.015 cap for the feedback cap instead of the original 0.01 value.

Thanks for the tips,But Why are they so brite sounding,and the Vox has that nice growl Both look the same I wish i didnt sell the vox ri I had from 1992

[dumbassbob]

Thanks for the tips,But Why are they so brite sounding,and the Vox has that nice growl Both look the same I wish i didnt sell the vox ri I had from 1992

How do it get more growl,and if I adjust the pot it sounds to low or too brite...If I play clean and real low it is Ok and with distortion it sounds kind of "tuby" ocilation

[Chuck H]

If I were you I would find a Vox pedal. Used gear stores, a friend, consignment shop, etc. and borrow it or take your rig to the pedal. Then you can test your ears and memory for accuracy. There may be other differences in your gear, sound, setup that is influencing the tone in how it works with the wha. If the Vox wha sounds good while yours still sounds bad then you have a problem to chase and fix. If the Vox wha also sounds bad you have a reality to deal with.

[dumbassbob]

Overall, I find that the Q of the coil has a lot to do with the overall tone of these pedals. The better the coil the better the sound.

One trick that I used to use was to add a bypass cap to the 470 ohm emitter resistor of the first stage. For a stack of dimes coil try a 0.01 cap. I also like the sound of a 0.013 - 0.015 cap for the feedback cap instead of the original 0.01 value.

Thanks Bill that.01uf cap on the 470r helped a lot. I have been reading Geofx for 6 yrs and never saw that.I did change out all the caps to polystyrene and T-fish

[52 Bill]

Thanks Bill that.01uf cap on the 470r helped a lot. I have been reading Geofx for 6 yrs and never saw that.I did change out all the caps to polystyrene and T-fish

There are a few "secrets" around that have yet to be discovered. Glad it helped you.

A lot of people suggest that you replace the 470 ohm resistor with a lower value like a 390 ohm. That will increase the gain, but it increases the gain across the entire frequency spectrum so a bad sounding wah just gets louder. I thought that by adding a bypass cap across the emitter resistor the signal could be selectively increased depending upon the value of the chosen cap.

I found that the 0.01uF value worked well for stack of dimes and most TDK coil pedals. The really horrible thimble coils needed a 0.1uF cap. You can also replace the 470 ohm resistor with a trim pot and wire it as a variable control with the bypass cap going from the wiper to ground.

The warning here is that too large a value of bypass cap will turn the circuit into an oscillator, so keep your volume levels low while testing cap values.