Why don't 'they' make...

[petemoore]

A strap gear thingy set:
 A plastic gear sleeve, and a cogged strap to match.
 Like the belt drive system better motorcycle final drives use, a notched belt and a cogged pulley.
 This would make 'treadle-ing any standard potshaft in a wah a snap.
 From the pedal all the way up, to the pedal on the case, there's probably almost enough travel to excersize most if not all of the pots travel [in this case, a SS phaze shifter, the last 1/4 of the pot travel takes the sweep from very very slow to just a tiny bit slower, a sacrifice in that area of pot travel would be almost completely unnoticable].
 A geared sleeve to fit on the pot, and a matching [teeth per inch etc]plastic or nylon belted rubber strap would make a wah treadle conversion very easy...without it it is quite impossible if not a labor intensive chore to try.

[puretube]

a good idea, but you gotta take into account, that the distance from paddle to pot varies quite a bit;
(the ernieball vol-pedal as well as all the old tube-radio displays would wind a wire around the shaft, so lenght doesn`t matter...)

[petemoore]

You could use larger pot with tapering resistors.
 For a gain knob you could use a little bit large one, and taper it with resistors for the sweep taper you want.
 For the SS, the teensy bit of range from super slow to super duper slow, would be a nominal or acceptable loss, I never use super duper slow anyway, and it's hard to really tell if the pot's doing anything in that part of it's range.
 The rest of the mod job to standard pot was easy for me to do in about a half hour.
 Other than driving the pot, which I'm waiting for the superglue to dry on the two wraps of tuner string that are around the shaft right now...should work...for a while...
 Maybe there's something out there, IMO sure would be nice, I think people might start using them if they were built, tested, and documented for a couple different effects.
 I could whip together a wider travel teeter totter pedal, bolt a couple RACo's together...the VOX case is just so nice tho.

[David]

Pete:

One thing I was thinking about was to find a bushing (I think that's what they called it.  It looks like a metal doughnut with a set screw in the side)  big enough to slide on to the pot shaft.  Replace the set screw with a longer screw of the same diameter.  Now you can attach something (coat hanger wire, metal lever, whatever) to the pot shaft reliably and know that when your actuator moves, your pot shaft will move, too.  I found the bushing at the hardware store.

[zachary vex]

A strap gear thingy set:
 A plastic gear sleeve, and a cogged strap to match.
 Like the belt drive system better motorcycle final drives use, a notched belt and a cogged pulley.
 This would make 'treadle-ing any standard potshaft in a wah a snap.
 From the pedal all the way up, to the pedal on the case, there's probably almost enough travel to excersize most if not all of the pots travel [in this case, a SS phaze shifter, the last 1/4 of the pot travel takes the sweep from very very slow to just a tiny bit slower, a sacrifice in that area of pot travel would be almost completely unnoticable].
 A geared sleeve to fit on the pot, and a matching [teeth per inch etc]plastic or nylon belted rubber strap would make a wah treadle conversion very easy...without it it is quite impossible if not a labor intensive chore to try.

i have seen small notched belt/cogged pulley setups, and i'm trying to remember exactly where.  i believe it was for a film projector motor drive, for an external sync motor.  so i know they exist.  and it fit on a shaft not too much bigger than a pot.  maybe look at

http://www.mcmaster.com/

[petemoore]

I found many items roughly fitting what I'm looking for ! ! !
 I'll have to do more sorting...and visualizing...
 Probably could get a matched pair and just drill shaft size and JB Weld the sprocket on the pot.
 Thanks for the link, I 'Favoritized' it, so I can sort through it later.

[Gus]

google berg.  they have all kind of neat stuff

[R.G.]

Why don't 'they' make...

A strap gear thingy set:

The answer is easy, but you won't like it.

It's because those things would be essentially free in high volume, requiring only a splurch of plastic into a mold to make, but 'they' would have to pay maybe $100K to make that mold. If 'they' then can't sell enough to make their $100K many times over after advertising, overhead, shipping insurance, payola, celebrity endorsements, trips to NAMM, benefits, taxes, and so on, 'they' ain't gonna make a mold. All that extra stuff means that they have to sell literally zillions of a simple plastic part to make money.

I realize that everyone on this forum would buy at least one, maybe ten. That would not even pay for the advertising.

This is one consequence of what I call MBA Disease - the tyranny of economics and a quick profit over getting useful gadgets cheap.

[petemoore]

I'm beginning to re-think [the superglued string didn't hold] this after getting it to work little bit.
 With a knob on it, the speed control pot isn't hard to control, with the treadle on it, it goes from quickly noticable sweeping speed to 'so fast it sound ring moddy almoas...hard to control the sweep speed usably.
 So...Davids idea next...thank you David, IIUC...
 Running a shaft through the potshaft, to 'anchor' the string from slipping, wrap the string around the pin sticking out the side of the potshaft...and...
 putting a concentric taper knob...like a camshaft shape...so at the last of the speed knob range, the treadle moves the pot shaft less...tapered ratio...probably by just building up the shaft on one side with something and some good  'ol JB Weld.

[puretube]

you wouldn`t need advertising to sell`em to the folks right here in the forum...

(and I still don`t see how petemoore is going to implement the thing into a working pedal...)

and you`d still need a chassis ("shell"), consisting of the base enclosure, and the moving "rocker" top.

Hell-I been to the foundry!!!

[yano]

what about reverse travel? You'd need to put a spring on the pot to make it inclined to go back up once you release your foot, or just stay put, but making the gear reverse direction seems tough, unless the mechanism i'm envisioning is not the same as what you are thinking.

[puretube]

you can`t leave it at the "sweet spot", when taking your foot away....

[petemoore]

Got it PDGood, sounds and works great.
 I just did David's suggestion, and drilled a hole in the shaft like a tuning head, looped the string through it x2. That took care of any slip slop problems.
 Put a ziptie through the pedals hole and doubled it back so with the pedal down the loop is near the potshaft, that way with the pedal up I could twangle the string through and tie it with the wraps on the shaft, shaft all the way up...toe down all the way up N/P.
 Then I just tightened the VCR belt I used as spring tensioner [A real spring, yes would be better], so it would pull/turn the pot all the way up.
 The way it's sprung, and the pot shaft resistance, I got it set for a 'normal' sweep speed by taking my foot off, push the toe down and it goes to very fast [super fast is like too fast, I could get it EZ nuff...just pull on the pedals ziptie...] and goes "rediculously slow if not as slow as it goes. I could tell right away...
 I can always tighten/loosen the pedal ziptie for fine tuning the top speed stop, together with adding a simple cone to the string [coming off the pedal] to have a higher pedal to pot range ratio to make fine tuning the fast speed ranges! ! !
 SO there it is, belt drive would look kool in there though.

[RDV]

How's about you mount a pot in one of those old 'Sit & Spins' and stand on it and do the twist fer yer wah-wah!! WWHHOOUU'SS YER DADDY!!!

Uh...I'm going to bed now. Goodnight.

RDV

[BD13UK]

I recall a Wah that was made in the late 60's that operated on a spinning disc that was held in place by an Allen Screw, I also seem to remember that they were notorious for becoming loose and had to be constantly tightened at the most inopertune moments, though I havent seen one for years I think it was called a Rotosound Growler combined Fuzz Wah, anyone else remember them ??

[David]

Got it PDGood, sounds and works great.
 I just did David's suggestion, and drilled a hole in the shaft like a tuning head, looped the string through it x2. That took care of any slip slop problems.

Yay for me, man!  Thanks, Pete!  Glad I could finally contribute something.  Also glad the concept actually works!

[casey]

A strap gear thingy set:
 A plastic gear sleeve, and a cogged strap to match.
 Like the belt drive system better motorcycle final drives use, a notched belt and a cogged pulley.
 This would make 'treadle-ing any standard potshaft in a wah a snap.
 From the pedal all the way up, to the pedal on the case, there's probably almost enough travel to excersize most if not all of the pots travel [in this case, a SS phaze shifter, the last 1/4 of the pot travel takes the sweep from very very slow to just a tiny bit slower, a sacrifice in that area of pot travel would be almost completely unnoticable].
 A geared sleeve to fit on the pot, and a matching [teeth per inch etc]plastic or nylon belted rubber strap would make a wah treadle conversion very easy...without it it is quite impossible if not a labor intensive chore to try.

i dont know, but i thought this was a cool diy wah pedal...

http://manuelguillen.tripod.com/electron/wah6.jpg

http://manuelguillen.tripod.com/electron/wah5.jpg

copy - paste...