Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I'd love to have people post some good sound clips of their wah builds... especially if you've done mods. It will be great to hear all the different inductors, sweep ranges, and pot changes.

So... here's what you do... post a reply here explaining your build (is it stock or modded, what mods it has, what settings we are about to hear, and maybe even where your trimpots are set), describe the rest of your rig (guitar, amp, other effects in the clip), add a photo if you would like, and a link to your sound clip.

Looking forward to hearing lots of funky wah goodness!

Thanks!

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Build me a new pedal... and step on it!

Here's a short clip of me and some friends jamming at a party.

Anyway, I'm on guitar, and BYOC wah , using a Warmoth Strat I built with Wagner SR pickups through an Allen Old Flame amp. The amp has NOS RCA Blackplate 6L6GC's and NOS Smooth-plate Telefunken 12AX7's and a 2x12 closed back Avatar cabinet with Celestion G12M Heritage speakers. It's a kinda crappy recording a friend did on God only know what kind of recorder.

The wah is a fully modded BYOC wah with dual inductors. This clip is using the vintage "stack-of-dimes" inductor and a cranked BYOC Comp built to Ross specs and a Rangemaster, also cranked, I built using an ExpressPCB board I designed. The Rangemaster has a Mullard OC81DM transistor, there's a Sweetsound's Ultra-Vibe on there too.

BYOC Wah clip

Hopefully this link will work...

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I... have become... uncomfortably numb...

baj,
I've been wanting to build an old flame for a long time....do you love it?

geek

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Everyone likes sausage. Nobody wants to see how it's made.

One of my favorite amps of all time... I'm also quite fond of my Fargen Miniplex... need to get you to build me one of those 18w/TR clones...

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I... have become... uncomfortably numb...

baj... GREAT sounding wah!!! There's definitely a "stack of dimes" in my future!

Damn good playing too. You've set the bar high. I'm gonna feel pretty silly when I post my fumble-fingered clip.

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Build me a new pedal... and step on it!

Music is about the feeling you put in to it... It's not a competition. I would love to hear anything anyone posts... every time I hear someone play I learn something... I look forward to learning something from you...

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I... have become... uncomfortably numb...

That clip sounds awesome - thanks Baj! The stack o'dimes rocks!

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Clip rocks, baj! Here's one through the Trex I made, BYOC Wah, with mods of course....my friend Lance, and his band, "The Horse You Rode In On".

http://homepage.mac.com/geekmacdaddy/Ge ... ing26.html

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Everyone likes sausage. Nobody wants to see how it's made.

Geek:

Your clips sound great. I would really like to find out how you get that midrange scratchy sound out of your wah. I have the parts but havnen't done all the mods yet. Which mods do you think will give me that sound? I'll probably start this weekend....

Ok, got mine to work and i'm lovin' it
here's my wah, made with a Whipple inductor, a smallbear ICAR 100k pot, and a range selector mod (this is done with a ~.013 cap).
playing through an old, pretty beat up Ibanez GIO(S-S-H) from the 80's (:P), to guitar-rig (twin reverb).
trimmers are around stock, a lil more mids, less bass, Q on ~12 o'clock . threw all that in a crybaby enclosure, and trimmed off those rubber thingies to get some more sweep...

* using the crappy guitar & guitar rig because it's too late for the 50W Plexi, and the other guitar's at a friend's house
** I know i'm not Jimi !
http://www.esnips.com/doc/dc967517-1c83 ... h-f-around

This clip is VERY cool! Wonderful guitar tones

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Jimi made me do it!

Here is a wee clip of my wah.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default ... ID=6209398

It just works so well with clean tones.

Awesome clip sammo, I really liked the whole composition. What gear you use for it?

Thanks man! A guitar, probably my Yamaha AES500. My amp, a Matamp First Lady. A TC Electronic GMajor fx unit. Distortion was probably my Boss BD-2 than I modded with a Monte Allums kit. I would have recorded it using a Shure SM57 microphone, added a bit of EQ and compression. I'm pretty sure that is all.

The guitar looks like this and was cheap when I bought it but worth every penny:


The amp is by a UK amp manufacturer and would probably be classed as 'boutique' whatever that really means other than expensive.
http://matamp.co.uk/home.htm

The monte allums mod kits are not bad. I've done a few, but the BD-2 Blues Driver mod is my favourite.
http://monteallums.com/pedal_mods.html

There, bet you wish you never asked now. And the reply is only 3 months late.

hey,
I want to build a wah myself, and I think the range-mod would be awesome.
but I'm a complete novice at swapping caps, so can somebody help me?
I can read, so I know which value they have to be, but al lot of those values are not for sale.
So here are those beginner questions:
if I want a cap of 82 uF, could I use 2 caps in series?
there are so many brands and types, which one(s) do you guys recommend?
I also want to externalize (don't know if it's a real word, but it sounds as if I know what I'm doing ) some trimpots, but there aren't any pots of 200 Kohm..help?!
and are there any other things I have to keep in mind?

grtz

Laurens

You can combine capacitors to get the value you want... but remember that caps work the opposite of resistors. That is, to ADD cap value you put them in parallel. (Ct = C1 + C2 +C3, etc) Putting caps in series will result in a smaller value, the same as putting resistors in parallel. (1/Ct = 1/C1 + 1/C2 + 1/C3, etc)

As for moving trimpots to the outside, simply use a pot that is close in value (e.g., a B250K in place of the 200K trimmer). I also recommend putting a small resistor in series with the pot, so that the value can't be turned to zero accidentally.

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Build me a new pedal... and step on it!

thanks..
I think i'm getting it..
as soon as my bos's finally pays me, I'll buy one.
of course not without posting and showing off ..

grtz

laurens

Here's one I did a while ago, I think straight from the wah into a 5-Knob then a Lazy Sprocket then into an Analog Delay...http://www.pantanosoftware.com/music/SprocketWahBlues.mp3

I'm not baj - and this thread is old - but...

I built an Old Flame a few years ago. First amp I've ever built after getting some confidence building pedals here. Absolutely love it. I can't imagine ever needing any other mid-sized or bigger BF amp. Classic BF tone with great reverb and very useful Raw and Master Volume controls.

Since then, I built a Trinity 18 watt to satisfy the Marshall itch and then an Allen Chihuahua for a little bedroom amp fun. If that Old Flame wasn't so killer, I'd have probably not built the others. At this point, the only factory built amp I own is my old Super Champ. It has nostalgic sentimental value.

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Go Buckeyes!

here's a demo of my drop in wah kit. couldn't be happier!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9nYljM6c-I

I have extensively researched the various wah wah circuits with different inductors and so on and it's my opinion that the only mod that is of any possible use is changing the fixed damping resistor to a variable Q pot (with a limit resistor in series).

Brad Plunkett at the Thomas Organ Company pretty much nailed the classic VOX pedal, as did Richard Peterson (now of Peterson Tuners - check out their recent bizzaro super Wah, the Sonuss Wahoo) while contracting for Maestro. Any other mod than the Q pot is a waste of space. If the classic Vox circuit is working properly it sweeps from around 300Hz to just over 2kHz which is exactly what you need to filter the harmonics of the electric guitar. Extra range capacitors won't help you.

The myths about the inductors are just that - myths. The original target value for the inductor is 500mH while in practice they range from 500mH to 680mH, resulting in an upper frequency limit of between 1930Hz and 2250Hz with a tuning cap of the right value and a properly operating sweep pot. I suspect this is the only difference people hear between pedals/inductors, differences in their inductance value changing the sweep frequencies a little. This can be adjusted for by mechanically shifting the pot and tweaking the value of the tuning cap (that's the 0.01uF cap, you would need to use 2 caps in parallel for fine adjustment of the top frequency).

The idea that some inductors are non-linear, or that there is something else special about them causing them to add some special magic to the sound does not seem to be true. There is significant non-linearity (distortion) in the two transistor circuit which swamps any coil non-linearity. Its the non-linearity from the two transistor which makes the Vox classic design sound special.

The original pots in the VOX were linear pots with large neutral bands at either end of the travel (S law pots). Replacement pots like the Dunlop Hot Potz are modified log. Depending on the type of pot you use you will get a different sweep characteristic. I don't know what type of pots BYOC ship with their Wah.