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.

Comments

[jphoton]

hi guys, lifting the ground of the cap in question will indeed kill MOST of the wah effect, but it will not make it a true volume pedal...it will make it a tone pedal for all intents and purposes. it will kinda work on volume...sort of...but it won't be a true volume pedal. tried it on my old gcb95 long ago, was too lazy to un-do it...it can be interesting, but don't be disappointed when it doesn't work the way you'll probably envision. good luck mate!

[thewizard42]

Do you mean spdt? or does it have to be double pole, because i do not see why you would need the second pole

[stupidityisagift]

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

[abehughesmusic]

Hey I just did the Wah/Wolume mod, (that's the only mod I did). Admitably I didn't do a great soldering on the board, but all the contacts seem to be solid and the pedal basically does as it's supposed to. The problem I'm having is that in the Volume setting in the pedal doesn't get all the way quiet in the far back position. Did I miss something? This was my first attempt to mod a pedal and except for that one thing, which I'm really not going to loose sleep over, it seems to be working and not giving me any particular trouble. Thanks for this instructable. After I do some more work, I'm going to try a keely mod I found for my tube screamer, and (fingers crossed), try doing the seeing eye/ ultra mod for my DS-1. Thanks again.

[James Haskin]

When you move the pedal your actually turning that big greasy pot. the range of the pedal is shorter than the range of the pot. Basically, when engaged, the pot is never fully on or off. Look up how to calibrate a wah pedal and you'll see what I mean. The fact that it doesn't go dead silent doesn't bother me.

[somerockenguy]

could you elaborate on this i would love to do this mod (wah-volume mod) but i only partly get how to do it. you think you could do an instructable on just that or point me to a web site that has a how to on it?

[James Haskin]

Ok so here the deal, sometimes people say they have "broken" wah pedals. They will say that its only changing the volume. Well that happens when this capacitor blows/dies/goes bad. So what I did was desoldered it from the board and hooked up two wires to it (pic1). Then I soldered the wire next to the gray (negative) to the middle switch. Then I soldered a lead running from the switch to the left hole (negative), and soldered the other lead on the capacitor to the right hold on the board. The only thing that matters is the Polarity. You can have the switch on either side of it. If you still don't get it PM me you # and Ill give you a call. (I just don't fell like taken pictures right now)

[mrwonkaland]

hi. i dont know much about fixin these electronics but i can learn pretty fast. i was wondering if you could help me with my dimebag wah pedal. its not crying anymore. and that makes me sad. i thought it was the pot. but on ur blog u say its the capacitor. id rather take ur word over my assumption. id really appreciate it if you could help me out. u say to leave a #. i dont know if you were talkin to someone else or just offering yourself. but in any case, my number is 602.295.0008. my email is [e-mail] thx for your time.

[stupidityisagift]

hey, im a lil confused. is this mod for switching from the wah, to the volume mod, or is it wah volume combonation? thx

[James Haskin]

The switch cancels out the wah circuit and turn it into a wah pedal. The rest of it changes the tone of the pedal.

[trgz]

I've got an old Cry Baby that, way back in the 80's, I modded it to be a Wah/Volume and I only used a couple of parts in the mod, sadly though I can't remember what they were but I suspect I managed it with a simple change to the stomp switch and/or pot (multi-way versions),- it might have shorted out/bypassed a section of the circuitry like above (James H). It's up in the loft but I un-modded it when I went thought about selling it (20 years or so ago).