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1. Loose Jacks – Part Deux If your wah has the circuit board mounted type like you’ll find in just about every Dunlop wah – the nut being loose might help to cause an even worse failure. Those have 6 solder joints that are mechanically holding the jack to the board. Your guitar cable plugged into the input and output jacks creates a stress point if the plugs get accidentally stomped on. And on pedal boards where the cables are secured down – just the flex from the pedal being rocked can be enough to weaken those solder joints. I’ve seen many times where it actually breaks the solder pad loose from the board. I’ve also seen many broken jacks – they are plastic and pretty easily broken.

 

2. Dirty Jacks This is a really common problem found on just about anything. Much of the time when you have an intermittent problem that seems to resolve after you wiggle the connection, it’s just a dirty jack. Not 20 minutes ago I noticed that the sound system in my shop was missing the right channel. I have a little bluetooth receiver connected to it so I can play music from my phone. What seems like some highly technical problem was easily solved by putting a few drops of deoxit on the input plug and inserting it a few times. The same thing can happen to your wah (or other pedals...or amp….or) But sometimes – especially on vintage gear that doesn’t see constant use – you may have jacks that deoxit alone won’t fix. For this problem I like to use a special miniature wire bristle brush along with deoxit to put the clean on ‘em. They’re not a common tool so I’ve made them available on the website HERE.

 

3. Battery snap failure Again – very common with the old Thomas Organ Crybabies. They just get sprung over time (or corroded) and the best solution is to replace them. You can clip the wires, put shrink tubing on, then solder the wires for the new clip to them. Pretty easy job.

 

4. Missing bumpers Back in the day it was a really common practice to cut off the bumpers on the underside of the treadle (rocker) to gain just a wee bit more physical sweep out of the pedal. And in the case of the really old Italian Vox and Jen-made wahs – it kind of made sense. Those pedals had a more limited physical travel than the later wahs. So shorter bumpers on the front, and a very thin or no bumper on the back will work just fine. The Thomas Organ wahs had a little bit more travel – but still less than the Dunlop GCB-95 where they’d pretty much perfected it. Cutting the bumpers off those pedals will only net you a flat spot in the sweep at the heel end – a section of the sweep where nothing happens. So use bumpers – especially on the front. It will help to protect your switch.

 

5. Excessive Hiss All wahs have some level of hiss. But some have so much that it’s just a distraction. The most common hiss-meisters are the 70s and older wahs. The most common causes of hiss that I’ve found are the transistors, and the 22K resistor found on the board. The silicon transistors back then were just not as consistent as transistors made now and the same goes for the resistors. Now, people tend to freak out when you start talking about replacing transistors in a vintage piece. The secret here is to replace with a transistor that has a similar gain. I like them in the 350-400 hfe ballpark. It can be either transistor – and quite often it’s both that will be adding to the hiss. So it’s easiest to just replace both while you’re in there.

 

6. Pot adjustment This is an easy one. As I said before, the newer wahs have plenty of physical travel so you really DO get all of the range the pot has to offer. But maybe it’s just too trebly when all the way forward. You can adjust the pot just a little to improve that. Just know that if you go too far, you will have that area on the bass side that doesn’t really do anything. Now – on an older one, like from the early 80s on back, this can really help give the pedal a nicer response. It’s easy – just loosen the cable clamp that holds the rack gear against the pinion gear and swing it out of the way. Rotate the pot gear by one tooth clockwise and re-engage the gears. Tighten up the clamp and give it a try. Or if it’s too bassy already from someone’s previous adjustment – just rotate the gear counter clockwise by a tooth or 3.

 

7. Sloppy rocker If your treadle is too loose, you might be able to fix it. Most wahs have a piece of heavy gauge spring steel that goes up and over the axle shaft…you can see it if you look up under the treadle toward the rear. That spring tensioner is held on by a screw and nut on the inside of the pedal shell. On some pedals you’ll have to remove the board to get to them. You may be able to tighten those nuts a little bit and get enough added tension. If not – your problem may be that the axle shaft has worn away the inside of the holes on the treadle. In this case, the only fix is to replace the shaft with a thicker one or use a bolt and kep nut like you’ll see on the Fulltone Clyde wahs. Do NOT try to gain more tension by cramming the cable clamp up against the gears. This will give you more tension – that’s true. But it will also destroy your pot by putting way more lateral pressure on the shaft. That will cause the wiper to gouge into the carbon track on one side which will make the pot fail.

 

8. Jacks shorting out on the bottom plate I’ve seen this too many times to count. If your signal (wah on OR off) is cutting out when you go to engage/disengage the wah – pull the cover and see if either your output or input jack “hot” terminal is shorting out on the wah’s bottom plate. If so, the easiest solution is to just put a piece of gaffer’s tape or electrical tape (or hey – even a band-aid) on the inside of the plate where the jack is making contact.