Paul Marossy

Whew, that was close.

Thanks you very much, I can't express how much help you have been to me.

-Stormy

Glad I could be of some assistance.

I have a question that's going to seem really, really, really stupid, so here it goes:

What does the switch do? I'm assuming that it bypasses the wah, just want to make sure.

And, Is the switch a 3PDT? Or is it a DPDT? Because if it is a 3PDT I ordered the wrong thing.

Thanks once again!

-Stormy

Either one will work. You only need a 3PDT switch if you want to use an LED indicator. Otherwise, the DPDT switch will suffice.

OK guys, I have a hardware question.

Would 1\4 inch Aluminum work for the top\sides of the box? It would be reinforced by .5" wood blocks on either end.

Thanks!

-Stormy

1/4" is plenty thick.

If you plan on using your wah a lot, you'll want the Hot Potz as it will last a very long time. Regular pots aren't designed to take the kind of abuse that a wah pot will see.

That's actually something I dislike about the Ernie ball pedals - while the pots seem to last more than I thought they would, they do use normal conductive carbon potentiometers. I've been thinking of retrofitting mine with something like Andertons volume pedal descratcher. I wonder how well that would adapt to use in a wah? It's been ages since I've looked at the circuit.

I have had some success with using LED/LDR combos as well; nice thing about that is you can often use what works as a pot and get different resistance out of the LDR.

I'm rambling.

Also, best of luck Paul. I wish I could offer more than condolences.

Yeah, regular pots jusst aren't going to last that long. That's why I like the Hot Potz, they are supposed to last for a million operations.

On the Anderton de-scratcher circuit, I think it's noisy. I like my DOD FX-17 wah/volume pedal the best. It's compact, there's no pot inside to wear out, and it's VERY quiet.

Thanks for the well wishing, I appreciate the spirit behind it.

The auto kill switch idea has come up a few times at the DIY Stompboxes forum as well. ( I know because I raised the same question there years ago. It's been asked since.) R.G. Keen came up with this circuit: http://geofex.com/FX_images/stutter.pdf Whether or not it's worth a try, I can't say. I don't know if that circuit has been built by anyone, but R.G. knows his stuff.

I've heard about this one. I don't know if anyone has built it, either, but everything RG designs is usually spot on and works great.

Oh - just checked the Ernie ball website - they have a 25K version of their volume pedals, for use with active electronics or keyboards. They also sell the long shaft 25K replacement pot with the bit the string goes around for 15 bucks.

Huh, I didn't know they had those available. I will keep that in mind for future reference.

Thanks for the anwsers guys, I went ahead and order a 25K pot off of SmallBear, It was something like $1.25 so I figured, Hey, what the heck, I'll try it. If it works, Great! If not, I'll probley go with the Hotpotz.

Thanks for all the help, I couldn't have got this far without you guys.

P.S: And Paul, I've very sorry about your job.

If you plan on using your wah a lot, you'll want the Hot Potz as it will last a very long time. Regular pots aren't designed to take the kind of abuse that a wah pot will see.

Thanks for the condolances on the loss of my job. I went from making good money with fully paid benefits for me and my whole family to being way below poverty level for a family of four in just one day. Hopefully things will work out...

I can't find the schematics for those footswitches online. I guess it might be easier to buy the footswitch for the vox, its $35CAD, rather than trying to build my own.

Trust me, you wouldn't be able to build your own for any less than that.

why is that?

I agree 35 is not much at all.

but 2 switches and a stereo cable. hmm.

A decent metallic enclosure will be $10-15. Two heavy duty switches will be about $10. LEDs and bezels, another $3-4 depending on what type you use. If all you have is a RadioShack to get stuff from, you will not find what you need there, and all of this stuff will have to be mail ordered. Figure on at least $10 for shipping and handling that.

Grand total is estimated to be $39 for parts. Then you have to take a few hours to build it and work out any bugs.

I'm Mr. DIY, but sometimes it doesn't really make sense to build it yourself. This is one of those cases...

Lately if I touch my pickups (depending on which one is selected, of course) there will be a loud snapping sound, like a single crack. Doesn't always happen, but often. Singles and humbuckers. Yamaha pacifica, 5 way switch, 2 singles 1 humbucker. any ideas?

thanks

Is it possibly static electricity? I've had a problem with static on a Strats with a single ply pickguard. The problem went away when I replaced it with a 3-ply pickguard. I used to getting popping and crackling sounds because I anchor my right hand on the guitar, and there would be a static buildup that would be released whenever I touched the strings or something metal that was connected to ground.

Just a shot in the dark...

Delayed reply Paul, crazy week/weekend! I have that board, all the parts and the chassis just sitting around right now, but I also have everything except the OT for a larger 40W design I drew up for a friend. Once the three guitars I'm working on now are done, I'll get at least one of those done.

I am so slow on guitars. Amps are easier!

Todd

Cool, I think you'll really like the Firefly. I'm guessing that you're slow on guitars only because you probably don't wire them up every day.

Thanks Pierce, I'm a total n00b to pedal building, you guys have been of great help.

And yeah, I have a local supplier but I'll be ordering some parts off of Small Bear.

I have yet another couple of questions for you Paul, in the schematic you have a 48K Resistor, but neither Small Bear or Hutch & Sons (My local Electonics store) has a 48K Resistor, where would I find one? I'm also wondering where you got your pot, because SB nor my local store has a long-shafted 25K pot.

Once again, I cannot thank you guys enough for the huge amount of help you have given me, this is going to be one of the coolest 4-H projects that I've ever done.

-Stormy

Just use a 47K resistor, it won't change anything. For the pot, you can use a 100K Dunlop Hot Potz II. It's been reported to me that it still sounds good with a 100K pot instead of a nearly impossible to find 25K pot.

I can't find the schematics for those footswitches online. I guess it might be easier to buy the footswitch for the vox, its $35CAD, rather than trying to build my own.

Trust me, you wouldn't be able to build your own for any less than that.

Yeah, I know this thread is around 4 years old, but I had a question and I figured this was the correct place to ask it, so, here we go.

I was wondering what would sound better for a metal (As in the genre) Wah-Wah pedal, a yellow Fasel inductor, or a Red fasel inductor?

Any thoughts would be greatly apperciated.

-Stormy

If it were me, I would use the yellow Fasel. I honestly can't hear much of a difference between the red and yellow ones, though. Nothing strikingly different about them, anyway.

At that point I would just build a new pedal if you have to rewire.

Or just buy one. You'll probably spend just about as much in parts and shipping to make your own as you would just buying one already made for the amp. I do a lot of my own DIY stuff, but there are times when it just doesn't make sense economically to do some things...

not to be brand specific.....hehe

here are the footswitches corresponding to each amp. The 1 on the vox is overdrive on/off and the 2 is tremolo on/off. both are stereo 1/4 jacks.

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics.../0/1/251201.jpg

http://www.woodbrass.com/images//woodbrass/PEDL013.JPG

I would be wanting to use the Marshall footswitch with the Vox amp.

OK... so if you can find schematics for both units, then it can be determined beforehand if it's even possible to use the Marshall footswitch the way that you want to.

Maybe this could be adapted for use with a guitar?

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/automike/automike.htm

Here's the easiest way to build the firefly. But you can't mod it that way.

I have the board, but haven't build it up yet.

Todd

http://web.mac.com/calhoun/PCB/Firefly_PCB.html

Wow, cool. The Firefly is a very cool little amp. I had to sell mine the first time my hours cut at work. Now that they cut my hours again, I have nothing left to sell...

Okay, not specifically PG related, but I know you guys are more knowledgable than I am about this.

I have a Reverend Goblin, and it just started blowing fuses. When I turn it on, one of the two power tubes flashes brightly, and then the fuse blows. Am I going to need a new set of tubes? If so, do I need to find tubes with similar values to what is currently in the amp?

Thanks!

Yeah, it's a pretty good guess that that one power tube is bad. The power tubes should always be replaced with exactly is in the amp. And the power tube bias really ought to be checked, but it's not absolutely necessary. Only if if you want to get maximum tube life out of your power tubes...

I seriously doubt you can use that same footswitch for both amps. Amp footswitches are rarely interchangeable. The only way to find out is to give it a try, but don't be surprised if it doesn't do anything. That is if the connections at the amp/cords required aren't totally different from eachother...

Somehow I can't find the firefly on the ax84 site... Is the P1 the firefly perhaps?

Try here: http://www.ax84.com/index.php/oldprojects....ject_id=firefly

You can go to AX84.com and look at the schematics for the firefly. It's an easy build. Or just watch for a used practice amp, which is your best option for quiet.

I built a Firefly when Doug Hammond first designed it. It's a cool amp, and still pretty loud at only 1/2 watt. I also love the Octal Fatness, it has an awesome distortion tone and it's about 5 watts the way that I built it (using a 6V6 power tube).

There are plans out there to make a speaker load. Basically you make a cigar box type thing with a big resister and heat sink in it. You put in in parallel with your speakers and it simulates a seconds speaker cab.

You can do that. But the problem with those big wattage resistors in parallel with speakers is that they are a static load on your amp, not a dynamic load like a speaker is. Translation = it doesn't sound that good (in my opinion).

I like my Seymour Duncan Convertible amp, it has a variable wattage circuit (5-100 watts) in it that is perfect for for just about any venue. http://www.diyguitarist.com/GuitarAmps/Convert.htm

That's kind of weird how they did the grounds on your example. On my SpankenStrat project guitar, I have a ground wire that connects to the shielding inside the body cavities (which I did myself), kind of like what is shown on the wiring diagram you linked. Sounds like Fender is getting cheaper still and omitting the shielding altogether, or someone at the factory is lazy and isn't putting it in...

thanks, paul. I appreciate the centavos.

When you say losses, do you mean like loss of high-end? or dynamics? Or do you think it would it just screw up the EQ?

I noticed that the info on the naiant site (linked above) has updated their graphic with some more details about the wiring.

Looks like it could be cheaper and easier than new pickups. If I give up on the idea, I appreciate your suggestion for replacement pickups.

Yeah, losses in the high end due to loading on the pickups and the limitations of the audio transformer itself. Some active electronics would need to get involved to compensate for that. It may not be that bad - if you get a really good audio transformer.

I agree that shielding will do a lot to help, but my Strat is fully shielded and the pickups were still very noisy. That's just the nature of single coil pickups. And it doesn't help when you have an army of wall warts in your home studio...

EDIT: I looked at the schematic at the Naiant website. (http://www.naiant.com/images/Balanced_Guitar_Wiring.GIF) Conceptually, it's a great idea and should help a lot with ground loops, hum and stuff like that. But the fact remains that pickups are also to a degree inductors by nature, and they like to pick up any EMI around them. The audio transformer would eliminate a lot of that, but there still would be some losses to contend with. I do see that he suggests a 14:1 audio transformer, which I guess is intended to minimize the loading on the pickups. There's only one way to find out how well this would work... (and if you try it, please let us know how it works!)

Hi. I'm new on this list.

I have heard of a couple ways that a guitar can be rewired in much the same way that a microphone is wired.

As I understand it, it involves using the + & - from the coil for the balanced hot & cold and doing something

referred to as "floating the ground"

There is a more detailed description here.

I have a strat that I like, but it is pretty noisy. If I get a transformer/adapter (like the one they

sell at Naiant), to put on the amp side, well... will it work? Seems logical. I'm just not savvy enough

with the circuits to know if it would be easy, cheap or effective.

Thanks!!!

You'll have to do more than just put a transformer in. There will be losses involved with the transformer addition, and you might not be happy with the end result.

If it were me, I would get a set of Fender Noiseless pickups and put them in. They still sound like a single coil, but they are dead quiet. I have some Fender "Hot Noiseless" pickups in my Strat, which were apparently designed for Jeff Beck. I love them.

Just my 2 centavos...

However...I like the idea of a guitar like the parker that integrates the acoustic and electric elements. There is a particularly nice combination of piezo (giving a sharp percussive attack) and electric (smoother, rounder tone) that this kind of hybrid instrument can produce.

Yeah, I love my Parker Mojo Nitefly. It's really cool to be able to blend the magnetic and piezo pickups together and/or send them to two different amps/processing systems. I don't normally ever play thru two seperate amps, but I like that I have that capability if so desired.

I am in the process of upgrading an ibanez from the dodgy infinity pickups to a set of solid seymour duncans.

i hear a lot of folks upgrade the pots also. My guitar currently has 200k pots. would there be any benifit of upgrading the pots? i have no idea what a different resistance pot will do so i need your advice.

Thanks.

It depends on what pickups you want to use. Different types of pickups generally are used with different value pots. Humbuckers usually are paired with 500K pots and single coils with 250K pots. When you have both types together, there's several different philosophies on what to do in that scenario. And then there are active pickups which use different values of pots, like 10K or 25K.

What were you planning on putting in your guitar, specifically?