1990 first series dunlop JH1 ( hendrix wah) trivia

[joegagan]

found one of these locally.

will shoot some pics pretty soon.

there has been a lot of chatter and speculation, like many wahs, dunlop seems to have changed this one a lot over the years. but i think this late '90 was the intro.

it has the first 'jacks on board' non-buffer pcb, but not brown like the  circa '90 gcb95 Rev E boards, this one is transparent green. old style 1/8" power jack.

just like the factory schematic shows, there is a tantalum .01 paralleling the inductor, which is the morley six pin huge thing  - which dunlop had been using for a few years prior on the earlier crybabies.
most other values are standard CB fare, except 2n3904s for trans.
the pot is NOT a 470k , just a standard 100k hotpotz1 dated late 48th week of 90. it also has a 220 pf cap from wiper to ground, i assume to scrub some highs off to make it sound more '68-like'

the serial # is in the 'AA' series with a 00XXXX, so i also think this was pretty ealry in this numbering system. i have seen many later dunlops with AA0XXXXX.

sounds pretty good , except someone swapped in a .02 film sweep cap , so i don;'t know what the original voicing sounds like. i will replace it with a stock .01 and let you know.

[joegagan]

there was very poor soldering from the factory on the board. possibly outsourced? i had to reflow 15 or so connections that were barely soldered or loose.

[italianguy63]

Joe-- The ZW wah uses the .022 sweep cap.  And I read somewhere once long before, that the Hendrix wah did too..   But, I have seen where the JH wah didn't as well.

MC

[zombiwoof]

I agree, I remember that one version of the Hendrix wah had a different cap value for one of the .01uf's.  Also, one version DID have the Hot Potz 4 (?) 470k pot, as you said there were many different versions over the years, supposedly the component changes were an attempt to lower the frequency of the tonal range.  I don't know why they thought this had anything to do with Hendrix's wahs, I know that Roger Mayer was always experimenting with his pedals, changing components and such, but who knows what changes Mayer made?.  I did recently read in an interview that Mayer did use buffer pedals between the wah and FF in the studio, to fix the problem of oscillation that you get when using a wah in front of a Fuzz Face, but I've never seen him using a buffer on stage.
I am also tired of Dunlop continually claiming that Hendrix used Cry Baby's, I have only seen him using Vox wahs in the pics of him onstage.  Although they are similar (and some Italian Cry Baby's were pretty much the same as the Vox wahs of some periods), AFAIK he used Vox wahs exclusively.  Many Cry Baby's of that time had different component values to the Vox wahs, and so a different response and tonality.

Al

[joegagan]

interesting stuff- i was hoping you would join in on this, alan, because i know you have experience ( pun intended)

it is very possible the .022 sweep cap was factory, although if so, it is the only component on the board that looks like a *teeny* bit different in the color of the soldering. it is quite possible that dunlop made a change after the board was initially stuffed & soldered. it looks like it was done either at the factory or by a very good tech.

i also gave the pot heavy scrutiny to ascertain whether i thought it was original. my experience with hundreds upon hundreds of crybabies thru here tells me this is factory.

[joegagan]

ditto on the dunlop revisionist history stuff. in the 2+ years since the crybaby documentary came out, a few items have bugged me a little.

the whole part where they got skip pitts to tell how the  '2nd studio' where the ' 2nd recording" of the shaft theme was in possession of a crybaby, so one of the recordings of shaft had a CB were bizarre, since in the prior 40 years he never said that until dunlop got him in a movie(?)---- of course folklore going back to 71 said that the shaft theme used a maestro boomerang. richard mintz of all test devices, maker of the boomerangs for gibson said that when the 'shaft' movie came out they literally couldn't make the boomers fast enough.

they also feature  wah wah watson in the movie -- an avowed boomerang user for over 40 years ( i have been told he loves the ergonomics of the heel resting near the floor as well as the sound of a boomer) suspicious to me at the time of the movie's release, and to this day - there is clearly a dunlop shaped wah with the words 'wah wah watson' on the front plate - but the rear of treadle has been modified to RESEMBLE a BOOMERANG!!!! did they tell him they were going to make a signature model for him just to get him in the movie? in the years since, no wah wah watson model has ever come out.

in the big picture of a world in turmoil i know this is trivial, but i think it is interesting to note how some companies use their influence to try and re-write history in their favor.

i really don't have an issue with them claiming hendrix used a crybaby , since the CB at that time was essentially the same pedal as the vox , but trying to hitch their wagon to a couple of wah icons- skip pitts (RIP) and wah wah watson is a little much. i wonder if they reached out to tony joe white and jj cale as well?

[pinkjimiphoton]

joe, is it one of the purple ones?

if it is, i have one, i can open it up and look at values for you.

[joegagan]

Purple? Jh1? Never heard of it.

[pinkjimiphoton]

i have a purple "jimi hendrix" "collectors edition" jh-1 i believe, it looks kinda like this one:



http://www.ebay.com/itm/Limited-Edition-Jimi-Hendrix-Purple-Haze-Dunlop-Cry-Baby-GCB95-Wah-Guitar-Pedal-/271389092523?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item3f300ceaab&nma=true&si=RKK7OvnjMjFgyEMDe5BbR7hDttM%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

but has a picture of hendrix on the bottom plate... it's on my board in the trunk of my car. never even looked inside it, was a gift from my drummer so i started using it.

[joegagan]

wow, never heard of it. looks like a late model, between 2000 and 05 would be a guess. they changed them a lot over the years. yes, it would be interesting to see when that one was made and what it has inside.

[pinkjimiphoton]

when gineen gets home with my car, i'll yank it off my board real quick and snap a couple pics. it's an nice wah, i never tweaked it cuz it just sounded good for a change. must have been a friday job.   they forgot the "suck" circuit.

gimme a little bit bro