the hardest pedal I've ever built

[Marcos - Munky]

When you think about a hard build, usually comes to mind an stompbox with lots of parts and/or lots of off board wirings. This one have exactly 24 parts in total and no pots or switches besides the bypass one, so it's a simple and easy to build effect, right? No! And the reasons for this: it's something I've been planning on giving a try since I've started to build my pedals (and I think lots of people plan on giving a try too): a wah.

I went for the Colorsound Inductorless Wah using an ldr to control it. The circuit itself is simple. The main problem when building a wah is the enclosure. I don't have the tools neither the skill to work with them to make the enclosure. And, to make things worse, I had bought 10 1590A and had one left, so I've decided to build a 1590A wah.

So, I drew the layout on Eagle and build the board. It was easy, I've done some more complicated and bigger layouts that fits an 1590A.


I got the box and asked for a friend to paint it black, but asked him to don't do a clear coat layer. The reason is because I wanted a painting without that "shiny" look the clear coat have, and the scratchs on the painting that will happen (and had happened already) will give it an unique look.

So before the painting, I drilled the holes for the jacks and switch. I saw a few 1590A wahs with the dc jack at one side, and I've decided to put it like all my other 1590As, at the "frontal" side of the box. I got the painted box and did a fitting test.


Well... as you can see, I got two problems. Because of the position of the dc jack, I can't fit a common dpdt/3pdt switch. Easily solved using a small dpdt (which I had one) or using a smaller dc jack (which I don't have) or that dc jacks the nut stays out of the enclosure (which I found I have one after I finish all the solderings ). And the other problem: since I didn't made some measurements before drilling the box and doing the board, the board doesn't fit the enclosure! And I can't put it above the jacks (looking from the bottom of the box), because it won't have space enough to the travelling of the "light blocker thing". So I had to put it with a angle with the enclosure.

Time to solder the wires. This was easy. But later I found two things. One is that I've reversed the in and out wires, easily solved. I'll talk about the other later.


I did two little brackets to work as the rocket mechanism. I've borrowed some tools from another friend, and it was a hard work to do them, since I wanted to do all by myself, without asking for any help. I didn't used paper templates (yeah, I know it was a shameful fault), so the pieces didn't matched on size or holes drilling. I had to make a lot of them until I got a pair that matches, it took me half of a day. One was bolted to the the top of the enclosure. The other piece of metal you see is to cover the hole I've drilled for a 3pdt, which is way bigger than the hole for the small dpdt I've used. And that ugly hole was made to fix the light blocker thing on the rocker pedal .


The other problem I found after doing the soldering job is that I've super glued 2 pieces of toothpick to hold the board in it's place, but hole of the bolt that holds this bracket was underneath the box! So I had to carefully break the toothpick pieces to remove the board and fix the bolt.

I've used the bottom lid as the rocket pedal. The other bracket was bolted to it. I've planned the height of the brackets to match a 3pdt height, so I super glued 2 strips of cardboard to match the height of the switch I've used.


Now it's time to make the light blocker thing. I was thinking this will be easy, but it took me a lot of trials and errors. I had time to listen to a Keith Urban full concert and a Faith No More full concert while doing this (at least I've had some cool music as a "soundtrack" ). Here's a picture of the light blocker. I've used a bended paper clip as the axis, and a piece of business card glued with tape and a drop of super glue as the light blocker.


I had to make the exact shape of the light blocker and cut the paper clip excess with the light blocker mounted in the box. Here's a picture of the final result.


I've cut a piece of stainless steel to make the bottom plate.


Then, I've cut a piece of cardboard and glued it at the top of the rocket pedal.


And here is a picture of the fully completed wah.


It was an interesting experience, but I don't know if I can go thru all this hard work to make another one .

[deadastronaut]

phewww...

looks like a nightmare to do...got there in the end though, 

where did you get that lovely cardboard ?

[287m]

with hat off to you, request permission to bookmarked Sir!
GREAT JOB!
"wow, wow, really wow" - like Loris Capirossi when see Isle of Man TT


someday, i build like this to complete my mini family
but, no promise. heheh

[Kipper4]

Nice job.
If you want a piece of rubber for the treadle let me know I'm sure I have some suitable stuff.
Rich

[Marcos - Munky]

phewww...

looks like a nightmare to do...got there in the end though, 

where did you get that lovely cardboard ?

It was... The cardboard was cut from a box I have laying around

with hat off to you, request permission to bookmarked Sir!
GREAT JOB!
"wow, wow, really wow" - like Loris Capirossi when see Isle of Man TT


someday, i build like this to complete my mini family
but, no promise. heheh

Permission granted! It's a cool add to a mini family. But it's hard to control it. I don't know if I'll put it on my pedalboard, but it was something I had to build.

Nice job.
If you want a piece of rubber for the treadle let me know I'm sure I have some suitable stuff.
Rich

Thanks a lot! I can get a piece of rubber near my house. I just was lazy to get out of the house and walk a few hundreds of meters . Personally I liked the look of the cardboard, but it can't go wet and gets dirty easily, so I'm thinking about to get a piece of rubber this week and put on the treadle.

[Kipper4]

I'd love to hear a demo buddy.

[ElectricDruid]

I'd love to hear a demo buddy.

<crowd chanting>We want sounds! We want sounds!</crowd chanting>

Excellent work though. Sometimes it's a slog to get something finished, so well done for getting there.

Tom

[duck_arse]

.... it was something I had to build.

I just was lazy to get out of the house ....

exactly. nice job.

[Marcos - Munky]

I'd love to hear a demo buddy.

I'd love to hear a demo buddy.

<crowd chanting>We want sounds! We want sounds!</crowd chanting>

Excellent work though. Sometimes it's a slog to get something finished, so well done for getting there.

Tom

I'll try to record some clips tomorrow. Spoiler warning: there'll be some crappy guitar playing

exactly. nice job.

Thanks a lot, Stephen!

[Marcos - Munky]

Here are two soundclips. Sorry for the delay. I recorded them using my cellphone and a crappy guitar player (me ). I'm not really into wahs, so I decided to set the resonance a little bit high in this one.

First, a simple G chord.
https://soundcloud.com/marcao_cfh/g-1

And a classic riff, but badly done.
https://soundcloud.com/marcao_cfh/vdcl