5117 repalcements?

[Andy S.]

I am having ZERO luck today!!! I think my PC was hijacked tonight when I left it for a minute, ....Ok, 15 minutes. And now I can't find a thread on the replacements for a 5117 transistor in a Cry Baby Wah.

It was either here or on a DIY site. So I figured, ask here first.

I have a WAH that does little to nothing when the switch is activated. You can hear just a low signal with just a tiny bit of was activity. When not activated, it passes the signal through , no volume control.

It was not being used and the guy decided he wanted to use it. Says it had been sitting for a long time? I swapped out all the caps, still nothing, But now I can't find anything on the 5117 transistors in it.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Andy

(now, of course, I'll keep looking for info and find it in the next few minutes!)

[R.G.]

There is no magic about the "5117" transistors. Ordinary garden variety NPN signal transistors work fine. I like 2N5088. When you replace them, be CERTAIN you are getting the new transistor's pins in the correct holes. I don't remember the pinout on the crybaby board. You may have to bend pins to get the pins and holes to match.

I would have bet on a bad capacitor connected to the inductor, the ?? 4.7uF?? one. If you have replaced all of the capacitors, be sure you got them in the right way round.

Second step is to remelt all of the solder joints. 100% of them.

After that, bring your troubles to the diystompboxes forum and we can help you in more detail.

[Andy S.]

R.G.

Thanks for the reply. Yeh, the 4.7uF was the first thing to go. And I'm 98.9% sure I got the polarities correct. I'll check, though, just in case. Like I said, yesterday was NOT a good day! HA!

Just curious, why is it I can't find anything on any cross ref charts on the 5117's? Any info on that? Not that it's critical or anything.

I'll try new transistors tonight and hope for the best.

Thanks!

Andy

[Mark Hammer]

Many part numbers like "5117" are house numbers (i.e., a jobber made the part for a pedal manufacturer and the number reflects the manufacturer's internal inventory number) so you will be unlikely to find them cross-referenced. It's a bit like walking into a grocery store and attempting to find the spice your grandmother used and gave a nickname to. Not many will acknowledge that nickname.

[dai h.]

iirc someone on aron's site found that it was a 2N2925 (also IIRC the transistor in the wah patent was 2N2924). I actually bought some 2925 but they apparently had a diff. pin out than the ones which were in there (2n3914??) which I was too lazy to figure out when I tried them.

[Dan N]

We are kind of lucky in that a couple brands of vintage effects were either owned or had some kind of manufacturing tie with major organ companies. Some of the house numbered stuff can be cross matched at:

http://www.organservice.com/

Look in Thomas for Vox parts, Lowery for Maestro.

[dai h.]

FWIW, tried two 2N2925 in a Dunlop GCB-95. The pin outs (looking from the flat front, legs down) are ECB, so since the original transistors (2N3904) are EBC, you need to flip the two. They weren't available before, but you can google and get a couple of datasheets for the 2N2925. Also, another Thomas number 5115 which showed up in a pic of a fuzz wah I had is apparently 2N3405.

[dai h.]

some cool old wah pics stumbled upon:

http://www.geocities.jp/e08120/wahwah/wah.html

[Amp Kat]

I've also heard you can find the original 5117's in old Robert's ham radios.

[dai h.]

somebody was selling 5117s on ebay. They looked like the older type.