# Tearjerker Wah!



## Jovi Bon Kenobi (Oct 25, 2020)

My very first wah pedal! Still setting up and fine tuning the dip-switches but it's all put together. It sounds awesome but I've never played with a wah before so I have nothing to compare it to ?.

This was a raw Smallbear Expression Pedal Kit that I painted with Rust-Oleum Hammered rattle can then assembled. Color is Copper. If you go down that route, here's a forum post with painting tips and techniques. Every step of the way went smoothly albeit time consuming, especially aligning and crimping the molex fasteners, which was a first for me. The only hole in the enclosure I drilled was for the LED.

The pot is a Chasetone Tru Talk that I got from Smallbear and I used a red fasel inductor. Doing some forum research, I found a post by Chuck D. Bones saying that replacing the aluminum electrolytic in C4 with a tantalum of the same value "will produce an audible improvement" so I did it because he's smart.

If anyone has built one and has a preferred dip-switch setting please let me know! Thanks ?


----------



## Barry (Oct 25, 2020)

Looks great!


----------



## Jovi Bon Kenobi (Oct 25, 2020)

If anyone can shed some light on what parameters the dipswitches control or maybe like default settings for a Crybaby, McCoy, etc...please let me know. I'm totally clueless when it comes to wah's of the world. I mean, there's nothing wrong with blindly tuning it by ear, but knowledge is power! Also, I couldn't find any previous posts on this topic so I'm sure people would appreciate it. Muchas gracias.


----------



## cooder (Oct 25, 2020)

That looks badass awesome! Pleasure to see!


----------



## K Pedals (Oct 26, 2020)

That wiring is immaculate!!! Awesome job!!!
I’m gonna be making that same one very soon...


----------



## music6000 (Oct 26, 2020)

Awesome Build!


----------



## Jovi Bon Kenobi (Oct 26, 2020)

Thanks folks!


----------



## Robert (Oct 26, 2020)

These are the (approximate) settings for a standard Crybaby

VOL - 75%
LOW - 75%
MID - 25%
Q - 10%

DIPSWITCH 6 ON, all others off.


----------



## Jovi Bon Kenobi (Oct 26, 2020)

Robert said:


> These are the (approximate) settings for a standard Crybaby
> 
> VOL - 75%
> LOW - 75%
> ...


You're a saint. Thank you!


----------



## Robert (Oct 26, 2020)

VOL controls the input impedance of the input stage
LOW adjust the gain of the input stage
MID controls the amount of negative feedback
Q adjusts the resonance of the inductor
The dip switches adjust the center frequency of sweep, they're like a more flexible version of the rotary switch on a 535Q wah.

These were all derived from popular modifications that are done to the original Crybaby circuit.


Here's a little bit of info about each one (except the VOL control) from the ElectroSmash Crybaby analysis.  

*LOW*
8.4. More Bass and Gain Modification.
The emitter resistor R4 controls the gain level of the effected signal. Reducing it will result in a slight addition of gain and bass content. 

*MID*
8.5 More Mid Content Modification.
This mod subtle sets the midrange content. Increasing the value of the R2 resistor the heel-down position will sound slightly more strong and emphasized. Typical values for this mod are 2KΩ and 2.7KΩ (default R2 resistor is 1.5KΩ).

*Q*
8.2 Modifying the Wah-Wah Q factor or "Vocal Mod".
The Quality Factor is a parameter that characterizes how narrow or spread is the selected frequency band.
The 33KΩ resistor R7 adjusts this sharpness of the resonant peak. This modification is also known as “Vocal Mod”, some users replace the 33K for a bigger one like 39KΩ, 68KΩ or even 100KΩ to have more vocal sounding.

*DIPSWITCHES*
8.3. Modifying the Sweep Range or "Bass Players Mod".
The C2 cap determines the center frequency of the wah sweep. Changing C2 the whole wah sweep range moves up or down. In the images below the shift of the sweep range can be appreciated, using 0.1uF, 0.01uF (default) and 0.001uF.

You should definitely check out the ElectroSmash analysis page, there are graphs that illustrate the effect each of the controls have.





						ElectroSmash - Dunlop Crybaby GCB-95 Circuit Analysis.
					

The Wah-Wah Effect, Dunlop Crybaby GCB-95 Circuit, Frequency Response, gcb95 vs v847, GCB95 Layout, Circuit Bias, GCB-95 Components Part List / Bill of Materials, Input Buffer, Active Filter, Power Supply, Output Stage, GCB95 Input Impedance, Output imped




					www.electrosmash.com
				



https://www.electrosmash.com/images/tech/crybaby/dunlop-crybaby-gcb95-sweep-range-C201.png
https://www.electrosmash.com/images/tech/crybaby/dunlop-crybaby-gcb95-more-mid-mod.png


----------



## Jovi Bon Kenobi (Oct 26, 2020)

Robert said:


> VOL controls the input impedance of the input stage
> LOW adjust the gain of the input stage
> MID controls the amount of negative feedback
> Q adjusts the resonance of the inductor
> The dip switches adjust the center frequency of sweep, they're like a more flexible version of the rotary switch on a 535Q wah.


Perfect, that's the stuff!


----------



## Mcknib (Oct 26, 2020)

That's something else

Absolutely awesome

The dip switch I think alters the centre frequency sweep range you're doing exactly what you should do setting up by ear

Standard value is 10n the settings really depend on whether you like a more nasal treble sound / sweep or woofy bass tone

Hendrix wah I think was 22n

Half the fun's coming up with a name for your sound vocal, woofy, heavy, nasal, middy, muddy or sh*t like in my case


----------



## untamedfrontier (Oct 26, 2020)

That's so rad. Very cool build


----------



## Jovi Bon Kenobi (Oct 26, 2020)

Thanks! It's definitely versatile, that's for sure.


Mcknib said:


> Half the fun's coming up with a name for your sound vocal, woofy, heavy, nasal, middy, muddy or sh*t like in my case


Well, considering this is my first time playing a wah and I have no "sound" yet the first thing that comes to mind is "Moist"


----------



## Nostradoomus (Oct 26, 2020)

Damn dude, that is cleaner than an actual crybaby haha


----------



## dlazzarini (Oct 26, 2020)

Jovi Bon Kenobi said:


> My very first wah pedal! Still setting up and fine tuning the dip-switches but it's all put together. It sounds awesome but I've never played with a wah before so I have nothing to compare it to ?.
> 
> This was a raw Smallbear Expression Pedal Kit that I painted with Rust-Oleum Hammered rattle can then assembled. Color is Copper. If you go down that route, here's a forum post with painting tips and techniques. Every step of the way went smoothly albeit time consuming, especially aligning and crimping the molex fasteners, which was a first for me. The only hole in the enclosure I drilled was for the LED.
> 
> ...


That’s pretty sweet. I always dig your wiring jobs


----------



## Jovi Bon Kenobi (Oct 26, 2020)

Thanks guys! Did a few tweaks to the dipswitches, trimpots, added a cable tie down for the LED wires, and calibrated the pot sweep. Then I re-uploaded the wiring photo with said adjustments because I'm a nut and like shooting outside for the lighting. I also roughly dialed it into classic Crybaby specs per Mr. PedalPCB's suggestions and it sounds fantastic!


----------



## caiofilipini (Oct 26, 2020)

This looks awesome, @Jovi Bon Kenobi! What connectors are those you used? I'm planning to build a Tearjerker soon and would love to copy use your build as an inspiration. ?


----------



## Jovi Bon Kenobi (Oct 26, 2020)

caiofilipini said:


> This looks awesome, @Jovi Bon Kenobi! What connectors are those you used? I'm planning to build a Tearjerker soon and would love to copy use your build as an inspiration. ?


Thanks! They're Molex from Tayda. "Wafer Connector 2.54mm *right angle*" and "Housing Connector 2.54mm". You'll need the male *and* female of each pin amount: 2, 3, & 6 pin.

You'll also need the "crimp terminal connectors" and the SKU on those is A-837 but the picture looks different than what I have if that makes sense. They have Dupont and Molex so it might be smart to get both in case. _*edit* I looked at the datasheet and the drawing for A-837 looks correct for what I used. The photo is different than the datasheet._

A crimping tool would be helpful as well. Mine is too large for this project, but worked ok with fiddling.


----------



## caiofilipini (Oct 26, 2020)

Awesome, thanks so much!


----------



## Jovi Bon Kenobi (Oct 26, 2020)

caiofilipini said:


> Awesome, thanks so much!


edited the post for more accurate info on the Molex stuff


----------



## NickC (Aug 16, 2022)

a curiosity, is the 8 dipswitch capacitors summable? for example using the value of 2 or more capacitors, (ON  4+6)


----------



## Big Monk (Aug 16, 2022)

NickC said:


> a curiosity, is the 8 dipswitch capacitors summable? for example using the value of 2 or more capacitors, (ON  4+6)



Yes. They are all in parallel.

Series resistors and parallel capacitors sum.


----------



## NickC (Aug 16, 2022)

Big Monk said:


> Yes. They are all in parallel.
> 
> Series resistors and parallel capacitors sum.


perfect! thank you


----------



## chongmagic (Aug 16, 2022)

Never hear from Jon Bon Kenobi anymore, did some great builds!


----------

