In a previous post (BOSS FW-3 Mods) I told how I did some basic mods to a BOSS FW-3 Wah pedal, which is basically a Cry Baby design with a potentiometer for varying the Q.
For the capacitor that controls the sweep range (C12), I chose a value of 0,022uF, to give the effect a very personal lower sweep range. I found it problematic in some situations, because the effectiveness of the variable band pass filter as a musical device is very dependent on the color of the signal that it encounters at its input. For instance, if I am using the brigde pickup in an already bright sounding guitar (tele or strat), playing high pitch notes, a low frequency sweep will let the sound almost without volume at the low end of the range. The same happens in the opposite situation – high sweep range with dark sounding pickups, or lower notes.
So, in order to have an all terrain wah effect, I have put a switch for alternating between three different values:
- 5nF – higher frequencies sweep range
- 10nF – the original one
- 20nF – lower frequencies sweep range
Given the behavior of a DPDT on-on-on switch, you can get those three values and their corresponding sweep range values (see https://www.electrosmash.com/crybaby-gcb-95) using three 10nF capacitors, this way:
Other values can be chosen, of course, to obtain more radical or subtle changes. For instance, with 10nF in the center, 56nF at right and 4.7nF on top you get:
- 3.2nF – very high range, good for a very bright guitar and higher notes
- 10nF – original sweep range
- 66nF – very low sweep, suitable for a bass guitar
The real life device, as built for this project:
As I mentioned in the previous post (BOSS FW-3 Mods), this pedal, apart from being a tank, has space enough inside for storing all the money I have. In this picture you can see how the DPDT switch fits inside the case:
In the main PCB, the cables from the switch are soldered instead of the original capacitor:
And the final result from the outside (the scratches and dents were already there, they are natural relic as this pedal has more than 20 years):
If you have any advice about the execution of the project, or simply have tried it, or in case you had any problem, please let me know in the comments below.
PD: si hacéis ese mod, ponedlo en los comentarios abajo. Me gustaría saber si la gente disfruta (o no) de mis mods.
electric-safari 