Colorsound wah: substitute for 2n5089?

[speedknob]

Hi.

I've been considering about building a Colorsound wah clone. Unfortunately I haven't found 2n5089's anywhere nearby. Would 2n3904's or 2n2222A's work instead? As far as I know they both have lower gain than the 59's and more noise. How does this affect the sound?

[JimRayden]

2N5088 would be an excellent replacement. More available too.

If I'm not mistaken, lower gain transistor would result in a less dramatic wah-effect. You'll lose a bit of range. Propably not too much to make the circuit unusable. I guess you'll be ok.

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Jimbo

[Nasse]

BC549C

[John Lyons]

Just use a transitor socket and try a few different ones. The 2N5089 is what I used but it will work with MPAS18 or 2N5088 or others

[Dave_B]

Does anyone have any good samples/examples of this pedal?  I've heard Brian May used it on Good Company (A Night at The Opera - 1975), but I'm not sure that was confirmable.  Whatever he used there, I want one.   

[mac]

BC550C.

mac

[JimRayden]

Or if your low-gain 3904's leave to be desired and you have nothing else at hand, use them in the following configuration:



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Jimbo

[TheBishop]

In Canada, our Radio Shacks have a variety blister pack of transistors. It always includes 6*2n5088, plus some other random goodies including sometimes the 2n5089, 2n4001 and those MPAS18.

link

[speedknob]

Thanks alot from your help!

[John Lyons]

I have a couple samples of the colorsound wah here. Manual wah...no rocker, but I did some sweeps...
http://mrdwab.com/john/Pedals.html  just scroll down to the wah pedal...

[Dave_B]

I have a couple samples of the colorsound wah here.

That's a cool sound.  So, did you start with this circuit then add the resonance control, or am I looking at the wrong schematic?  Thanks.

[Toney]

Where are you?
I'll send you a couple if your in the Australia/Pacific region.

[John Lyons]

The schematic I used is the inductorless one here:


The cool thing is that you don't need the $15 inductor...

Replace the 33K to ground and you have a variable resonance control that will really get crazy near oscillation. You can make it a free running oscillator if you crank it. Foot theremin!

There is a PCB layout at DIY guitarist.com in his wah pages...Just add the resonance control.

[Dave_B]

Excellent, thank you, Basicaudio. 

[cerelac kid]

I'VE BUILD THE DROP-IN WAH VOX 847, WHEN I TRIED TO TEST IT, THERE IS NO CHANGES IN SOUND OUTPUT.IT'S ALL JUST A CLEAN TONE.WHEN I SWITCH IT'S ALL THE SAME.COULD ANYONE HELP ME?....PLS....

[mac]

Basicaudio,
I built my own wah with a similar circuit but instead of the variable resistor I used a LDR. Basically because I was tired of replacing the pot.
Replace the 470 + 100K pot with a LDR. Use a fixed bulb or LED to drop light over the LDR. The trick is to use a foot controlled device to change the amount of light over the LDR, and so changing its resistance.
I used a broken variable pot. It is easy to build some screen to fit between the LDR and the light source.

mac