Variable Foot Control Things

[robbiemcm]

How do you make your own pedal like this:



With foot pedal that can actually vary the sound. Can you buy these things somewhere, make your own or do you just not do it?

Thanks for all help,
Robbie

[zachary vex]

at one point i had the very same question, and looked at my bank account, and invented the probe series as an alternative to investing in a mold.  8^)  if i had it to do over again and was starting where i am now ("captain, that is illogical!"), i'd use housings purchased in bulk from dunlop or some other wah maker.  it's hard to say how to get ahold of small quantities of wah enclosures... does smallbearelec.com offer them?

[robbiemcm]

Hey Mr. Z Vex!

I'm a fan of your products in a way. I've never had the chance to use them, but I've spent a reasonable amount of time looking at your stuff and the videos you've made of them. They seem awesome.

I was wondering how you made that probe circuit, it looks really cool... is that something that you're happy to reveal or is it one of your secrets? Also I was hoping to make a clone of your Fuzz Factory for personal use *ducks for cover* but couldn't find a schematic for it. I supppose you'd rather people bought them from you, lol.

Thanks for the info,
Robbie

P.S. I think Matt Bellamy from Muse uses the Fuzz Factory doesn't he? If so you should feel proud

[NaBo]

it's hard to say how to get ahold of small quantities of wah enclosures... does smallbearelec.com offer them?

Unfortunately, no...     someday maybe... and that day shall be a glorious day of much rejoicing!!!  

Anyways Robbie, what a lot of people do is find cheap wah or volume pedals to use for the enclosure.  There was a carvin pedal a while back selling for just 30 bucks (!!!)... looked pretty neat too.  But i think they've sold out and are out of production.  The new behringer pedals are kinda cheap though, so that might be a possibility.

You can call around town at consignment places and used instrument dealers too, to see if they have any they'd be willing to let go of cheap.

That's for a "conventional" wah with a pot being used as the control.  You'll probably need a pre-fabricated wah shell.

For the (hopefully) cheaper, more diy, down-n-dirty approach, a pedal that uses an LED/LDR combo is, I think, more manageable...  You could build a rocker pedal out of wood or something and mount it on top of a metal enclosure.  A little piece of something opaque is attached to the bottom of the rocker pedal that intercepts the LED & LDR.  The shape of the edge of this piece will influence the "taper" of the control.  It's a lot more mechanically involved than most builds, and would need a bit of experimentation to get a good reliable unit, but it's definitely possible, and would probably be a really rewarding project.

I plan on making one like this someday, but in the meantime I'm working with Tim Escobedo's idiot wah and photon filter circuits using LDR controls.  Very cool stuff...  Simple circuit, sounds great, can be mounted in a normal enclosure, and cmon, proximity controls rule.    Only downside is consistency under different light conditions.  I'm gonna try putting a pot in series or parallel with the LDR as a sort of sensitivity control, and I'm gonna end up using a little lamp-type thing with a dimmer switch shining from about a foot above the LDR.

The zvex probes are a really really cool/elegant solution to the wah conundrum, a lot more stable than a simple LDR control.  Transmogrifox layed out the theory behind that type of proximity control, but its quite a bit more complicated.  So it went right over my head a few months ago.  We'll see where I am after a few months of an Electronics Technician distance ed. program...  

Anyway, hope some of this helps.  Good luck!

[robbiemcm]

Bah... sounds like I'm getting way to far out of my depth, need to try and get the Obsidian Overdrive working. I still think I must've just don't something stupid with the transistor, but I'm not really sure...

And Mr Zachary Vex, I just read that you've actually met with Matt Bellamy from Muse to discuss an idea for an effect to build in to his guitar. You're now up there on my list of heroes. You're situated below Matt, but still up there :wink:

[petemoore]

Bah... sounds like I'm getting way to far out of my depth, need to try and get the Obsidian Overdrive working. I still think I must've just don't something stupid with the transistor, but I'm not really sure...

And Mr Zachary Vex, I just read that you've actually met with Matt Bellamy from Muse to discuss an idea for an effect to build in to his guitar. You're now up there on my list of heroes. You're situated below Matt, but still up there :wink:

When the scarecrow met OZ...what did he ask for ?

[Mark Hammer]

These days, it seems like you can buy "racing pedal" assemblies for car-racing games that plug into joystick ports for next to nothing.  My experience (after buying two different ones) is that they always come with a pair of spring-return footpedals that have a rack and pinion system and a medium-resistance pot (e.g., 50k) in each pedal.

If plastic shells scare you, Antique Radio Supply has a surprisingly large assortment of parts for pedal repair, INCLUDING rack and pinion systems which you can use in conjunction with your own homemade pedals.  Imagine a beautifully stained and shaped wah, fabricated out of your choice of hardwoods.  Or hell, fashion something truly demonic from auto body compounds or whatever polymer you like to work with.  Make yourself a wah that looks like an alligator head and talks when you wah!

[David]

These days, it seems like you can buy "racing pedal" assemblies for car-racing games that plug into joystick ports for next to nothing.  My experience (after buying two different ones) is that they always come with a pair of spring-return footpedals that have a rack and pinion system and a medium-resistance pot (e.g., 50k) in each pedal.

If plastic shells scare you, Antique Radio Supply has a surprisingly large assortment of parts for pedal repair, INCLUDING rack and pinion systems which you can use in conjunction with your own homemade pedals.  Imagine a beautifully stained and shaped wah, fabricated out of your choice of hardwoods.  Or hell, fashion something truly demonic from auto body compounds or whatever polymer you like to work with.  Make yourself a wah that looks like an alligator head and talks when you wah!

Pssst...  I think there's another way...

[margin]

Can you whisper the "other way" to me?

[puretube]

again: one of those threads that remind me of one of the saddest days of my life...

[David]

Can you whisper the "other way" to me?

Not quite yet.  It's only a concept -- one of those things I THINK will work.  I haven't built a model yet.

[aremesnik]

I tried to use an old race controller i got from Goodwill as a wah pedal, I will never recommend this route. It takes quite a bit of engineering to get the pedal at a useable angle, you also have to remove the spring. These pedals are not designed for toe up and toe down use,  the hinge is at the bottom of the pedal, so you have to further design some kind of extention to the pedal to allow you to press down with your heel. and after all this the pots tend to be poor quality, and it looks like hell.

I recall reading some where about about sewing machine control pedals. If some one knows where this article/post is I'd like to read it again.

adam

[Pedro Freitas]

For the hardcore DIYs...

http://www.geocities.com/stompboxworktop/


Pedro

[puretube]

those mechanical construction problems also were the reason for me,
to invent the (Tube-) Envelope-FolloWah back in `71/`72...