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Help a brother fix a wah (It should be easy)...

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:53 pm
by the raytownian
Long story short: I've had this wah pedal that used to work, and it hasn't worked right for a long time. Now it just cuts/filters the sound, but there's very little "WAH" happening...

IMAGE:
WAH.jpg


I can only guess it's that diode, or what looks like a diode, or that inductor... All the other components seem like stable ones... nothing is burned or exploded... I don't know anything about inductors or if they "go bad", but if I had to guess, I'd say I burned out the diode.

The thing is, I've got no clue how to rate diodes (I didn't even really find anything googling).

Thanks for any help! (And might you have any recommendations on parts to switch out from seeing the photo?)

Re: Help a brother fix a wah (It should be easy)...

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:08 pm
by 23F
diode could be acting as a reverse voltage blocker, if its out should stop everything (right?) Im thinking thats what'll happen, see if any voltage is going through if not replace it.......... as for the inductor if its bad it should effect the "wah" and not the passed sound through the circuit resulting in little to no wah but still a filtered sound???


DO I got this right or not? Someone else?

Re: Help a brother fix a wah (It should be easy)...

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:21 pm
by the raytownian
Hey, thanks for your input... If the diode being damanged would in fact kill the whole thing (as far as passing signal is concerned), then it may very well be the inductor... I do get a filtered sound, but it's really weak (low output volume) and barely changes, regardless of treadle position... I've since been using it with no power as a "mute" switch on occasion, haha.

I think what killed it was trying to use it in a feedback loop... Because a lot of times it'd get like this afterwards (even thought this is literally the only pedal I've had issues with from being used in a loop)..... But even then, it'd usually "fix itself" if I left it alone for a while... But I haven't used the thing in ages before I tested it last, and it's still messed up.