Home Sign Up! Browse Community Submit All Art Craft Food Games Green Home Kids Life Music Offbeat Outdoors Pets Photo Ride Science Tech Modify Your Wah Pedal by James Haskin on June 2, 2008 Table of Contents Modify Your Wah Pedal . 1 Intro: Modify Your Wah Pedal . 2 Step 1: Research . 2 Step 2: True Bypass . 4 Step 3: Volume Boost . 7 Step 4: Wah-Volume Pedal . 8 Step 5: Vocal . 9 Step 6: Midrange . 10 Related Instructables . 11 Comments . 11 http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Wah-Pedal/ Author:James Haskin author's website [email protected] Intro: Modify Your Wah Pedal After making my talk box I started surfing the web for other guitar related things I could do myself. I found loads of info on the Dunlop GCB-95 wah pedal. This Instructable will walk you through all of the modifications I made to my wah pedal... *True Bypass Mod *Volume Boost Mod *Wah-Volume Pedal Mod *Vocal Mod *Midrange Mod After having completed all of these mod and a few others I recommend doing them one at a time and testing in between mods so if you don't like something, you can easily reverse it. Your gonna need some basic soldering tools... -good soldering iron (mines a Weller WESD51D I got for christmas) -solder -wire cutter/stripper -helping hand (a must!!) also the to wire anything to the board itself you will need 24AWG wire Image Notes 1. Stole for my DS-1 I'm working on when I finish THAT instructable I'll change this to a funk colored chicken head knob :] Step 1: Research I think this is a big step in all of my projects. You don't want to just jump in without input from multiple sources. A few of the site that helped me were... http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.castledine/greenfuz/wah.html http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/mods/dunlop.htm http://www.guitarzone.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=176864 http://www.geofex.com/ - click "FX Technology -Technology of the..." in the upper left http://www.geocities.com/overdrivespider/tb.htm http://www.geocities.com/j4_student/schematics.htm These are some pictures I found useful... http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Wah-Pedal/ Image Notes 1. thats the little guy 2. 4.7uF capacitor (Step 4) http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Wah-Pedal/ Step 2: True Bypass So when your have you pedal off it doesn't affect your sound right? WRONG!! You may have noticed that even when off some of you effect pedals "suck" the tone from your guitar. A better explanation can be found Here . I chose to remove the input buffer because it seemed to be the most easily reversible and from what I read, sounds better. 1. Open up the case and remove the circuit board. 2. Desolder the components. 3. Desolder the switch. 4. Install the new switch. (i used a 3PDT switch. Check out ebay for good deals) If you use a 3PDT switch you can also add an LED to you pedal but I didn't want to. Check It Out Image Notes 1. You can easily unscrew these with your fingers Image Notes 1. carefully disconnect the battery http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Wah-Pedal/ Image Notes 1. and its free 2. lost one of the black spaces but found it while cleaning my room Image Notes Image Notes 1. remove 1. before 2. remove 3. remove 4. remove 5. remove 6. remove 7. before http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Wah-Pedal/ Image Notes Image Notes 1. You need a lot of this or a solder sucker pump. My kingdom for a solder sucker 1. after pump... 2. Jumper to switch 3. Jumper to switch Image Notes 1. desoldered Image Notes 1. desoldered 2. desoldered 3. desoldered 4. desoldered 5. desoldered 6. desoldered http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Wah-Pedal/ Step 3: Volume Boost This is one of the easier mods because If you've converted to true bypass, all you need to do is replace the 68K series input resistor with a lower value. I read that too low a value is likely to result in the pedal picking up radio interference. I made the mistake of following That_Pink_Queen 's model almost exactly. Luckily this is one of the ones he made that sounds good. Image Notes 1. thats the little guy 2. 4.7uF capacitor (Step 4) http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Wah-Pedal/ Step 4: Wah-Volume Pedal Now I'm sure we would all love one of these here , but if your like me you just need something that works and wont cost you your left nut. By adding a DPDT switch that disconnects the 4.7uF capacitor you can cancel the wah effect and you'll have yourself a volume pedal. I got 50 of these babies on ebay for $10 w/shipping. Image Notes Image Notes 1. some fancy shrinkwrapping 1. A MUST!! http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Wah-Pedal/ Image Notes 1. thats the little guy 2. 4.7uF capacitor (Step 4) Step 5: Vocal This one is pretty cool because it allows you to treak the sound of wah itself. "Replace the 33K resistor... with a 68K. This gives a more vocal quality to the wah. Some Vox Clyde McCoy wahs had 100K resistors here." - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.castledine/greenfuz/wah.html I decided to go with That_Pink_Queen and use a 100k ohm lin variable resistor so I could dial in the sound I wanted. Or you can mess around with multiple resistors and a rotary switch. Your choice. http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Wah-Pedal/ Step 6: Midrange "Replace the 1K5 resistor... with a larger value. This increases the midrange and helps if your wah sounds dull and muted when you rock the pedal back. Try 1K8 to 2K7. Higher values than stock also smooth out the bass-treble transition." - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.castledine/greenfuz/wah.html So I replace my 1.5K (1k5 same thing) resistor with a 2.2k. Sounds fine but I since I did all my soldering in one go and the removed what I didn't like I cant say weather or not the difference was noticeable. Try it out for yourself. Tip: Save all of the components you remove and store them in a container. That way if you want to change something back... you can. Image Notes 1. My soldeing area. I recently rewired my friend's guitarist's LTD that he attempted (and failed) to switch to EMG Zak Wilds. 2. clipping leads 3. jars are so useful Image Notes 1. Thanks reno_dakota!! Image Notes 1. Stole for my DS-1 I'm working on when I finish THAT instructable I'll change this to a funk colored chicken head knob :] http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Wah-Pedal/ Related Instructables The FXaphone DIY MIDI Foot-on-pedal / DB-01 (Photos) by rinestone Scanner Pedal Expression True Bypass by butthead95 Board by raxel Pedal by SaM crybaby wah Guitar-Mounted HiLL mod by KoenB F/X for $5! by gmoon Comments 41 comments Add Comment madrobot3600 says: Mar 23, 2011. 8:28 AM REPLY hey i have gcb-95 too. but i have a problem. the pot in it stopped working is there anywhere i could find a new one? Jezrael says: Jan 13, 2011. 1:37 PM REPLY Wich resistor do you recommend to replace the 68k resistor? or, wich value did you use? Greetings thewizard42 says: Sep 2, 2010. 4:42 PM REPLY Do you mean spdt? or does it have to be double pole, because i do not see why you would need the second pole overdrive555 says: Jun 10, 2010. 3:38 PM REPLY hi boys, why u dont use a trimmer to replace 1.5resistor? butthead95 says: Jun 3, 2008. 12:41 PM REPLY Buy the Crybaby From Hell it has most of this stuff inclyuding a five selection knob for dif ranges DrXavierAJones says: May 23, 2010. 7:57 PM REPLY Yeah, its also 200 dollars. alenchence says: May 22, 2010. 10:01 AM REPLY Hi! I have a problem:when I click on the link for the installation of a new switch,it says the instruction is no longer available,so please help me out!I would like to do this mod,tone sucking is driving me crazy! Tnx mesaiphoneguy says: Mar 5, 2010. 3:07 PM REPLY will this also work on a 535Q crybaby wah pedal? stupidityisagift says: Nov 28, 2009. 11:20 AM REPLY hey, can you mod it for volume another way besides the capacitor? i have a snarling dog wah and want to mod it for voume, and i doubt the capacitor switch will work the same rcrane says: Aug 22, 2009. 7:02 AM REPLY Hey, I am stuck. I have a green board like the one above and it is labeled 'E". I did the following: Removed old switch Removed the buffer components replaced the 33k with a 68k replaced the 1k5 with a 2.8k installed a 3PDT switch My problem is that I only have four wires to attach to the switch: 2 blue 1green 1purple I dont see any pictures showing the installation of the 3PDT usingmy board. Do I need to install wires where I removed the buffer and solder that to the switch? I don't know how to configure the wires on the switch.