Another day, another modded Crybaby

[NippleWrestler]

Another crybaby, another slew of mods to make them as good as they should be.

This is a 1997 GCB95 I just picked up. It's not in amazing condition, but that's ok, it's about the mods.

I drew a happy face on the inductor.

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I think I've modded about 60 of these things over the years. They all become true bypass and then there's some changes to the circuit itself, but this time instead of hard wiring in some of the mods I'm putting them on switches. There's a 10n/22n cap on a switch - this is the stock wah, and the 22n is what Dunlop use in the Zakk Wylde and JH wahs. It basically shifts the wah range down a few hundred hz. For reference the bass wah is more or less the exact same thing but uses a 68nf here so it works in their register. It's a really nice sounding wah now.

Some of the shitter quality components were changed out for better stuff, including the old crusty electrolytic (why do they only use 16v?) that I replaced with a 220uf/50v one I trust a whole lot more.

And I'm making it seafoam green because I'm going through a seafoam phase. The primer coat is done, scratches and all. We're going with an Orange on/off LED here and I think that will be quite fetching with the green and the black of the treadle pad and front logo.

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[GrantB]

Will the happy face make the tone warmer?

I had the Vox branded one of these, from about the same era...maybe even earlier, say '93. It was to this day, after very similar mods, the best sounding wah I've owned.

[NippleWrestler]

Will the happy face make the tone warmer?

I had the Vox branded one of these, from about the same era...maybe even earlier, say '93. It was to this day, after very similar mods, the best sounding wah I've owned.

It lets the inductor know that it's doing a great job and while it may spend it's entire life inside a dark and cold metal box, I value its contribution to the effort. Panpsychism is alive and well.

I think I could twist wires together in a power drill all day long. That's very satisfying.

[Miza]

Awesome. Are your mods based on commonly done ones, or just from your head?
I've got an old crybaby I seldom use. Sounds kinda, weak? Could do with some similar love I reckon.

[NippleWrestler]

Awesome. Are your mods based on commonly done ones, or just from your head?
I've got an old crybaby I seldom use. Sounds kinda, weak? Could do with some similar love I reckon.

They started off the as commonly done ones sure, as some of them are the only way to do what you need to do (true bypass, removing input buffer) but then it's trial and error, schematic analysis, and basically tuning the thing to make a better sound. It doesn't help that Dunlop use total garbage components either.

When I was down the wah rabbit hole I basically socketed about 10 components and rolled different values until I liked what I heard all across the sweep.

You can go crazy and change transistors but I didn't hear much (if any) obvious change by doing that.

So, a bit of both

[Slowy]

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Wanna have a go at this one next?

[FuzzMonkey]

Up the Wah(s)!

[clubhouse]

tcy.JPG


Wanna have a go at this one next?

Needs a true bypass!

[Slowy]

tcy.JPG


Wanna have a go at this one next?

Needs a true bypass!

And a mute.

[clubhouse]

tcy.JPG


Wanna have a go at this one next?

Needs a true bypass!

And a mute.

Has a truth bypass!

[jeremyb]

Up the wahs!

[NippleWrestler]

It lives.

Seafoam ish with an orange LED and some mods on switches. RANGE is the stock cap, or one that's an octave lower. SWEEP affects how much wah you get basically. Stock is stock, goes from bass to treble quite abruptly. MOD smoothes is out, and limits both extremes so you're basically operating the whole treadle in about 40% of the wah's total band... hopefully that makes sense but it's like a fine control option.

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cool stuff.

[Miza]

Awesome. Great colour (more surf green?)

[NippleWrestler]

Awesome. Great colour (more surf green?)

surf/seafoam/mint. There doesn't seem to be an agreed upon shade that's universal across manufacturers, hence why I said "seafoam ish". It's close enough.