wah woes..

thomasw88

I have a CAE 404 wah which I really like.  However, have noticed it seems to cut out when wiggling it up and down in songs.  Mostly happens when pressing it quite far down.

ideas for fixing it would be great!

matt1973

That's almost certainly a switch which is on it's last legs. If you drop the height a little, it could help.

LastMantra

Yes^. I just changed mine for the same reason.

d8m

dodgy pot?

thomasw88

So when you say drop the switch a little. What does that mean in idiot speak?

ICBM

Undo the switch nuts and lower it slightly relative to the pedal body, so it's harder to press it with the pedal. This will make it harder to turn on and off though.

Better solution - replace the switch.

Best solution - replace the wah with one that doesn't use a mechanical true bypass switch.

thomasw88

ok thanks. whats a good switch to get for it?

ICBM

Depends what the one in there now is like - PCB mounted DPDT by the look of it from an online pic... can you remove the PCB and connect the wires direct to a Carling or other better quality switch? If not you'll have to use whatever fits the PCB.

thomasw88

Mmm I'll be getting someone to drop it off at strung out guitars soon methinks!

ICBM

Wish I hadn't opened my mouth now .

I'll check they have (or can get) a Carling switch, I'm out of DPDT ones.

Unless you want it de-true-bypassed of course .

thomasw88

Which Is better, and longer lasting?

ICBM

Good question!

Theoretically non true bypass is more reliable - because the signal only has to pass through one switch contact not two, so there's half as much chance of failure. But in practice it doesn't make much difference - in the last two weeks I've replaced or repaired the switches on two standard Cry Babies as well. (Non true bypass with Carling SPDT switches.) You can do better by using a DPDT with the poles wired in parallel though - that means you need a failure of both contacts at the same time to break the signal path.

But do you really want non-true bypass? Unless you're running the wah after a buffer, it will probably suck tone... a standard wah circuit does, even to the point it would probably bother me! And I don't normally mind that much.

To be honest you're probably as well to first try adjusting and/or cleaning the original switch - chances are it's just set wrong so a slight touch from the pedal half-presses the switch and lifts the contacts without fully switching it. If that fails, replace with a new DPDT.

Mechanical signal switching is a fundamental problem, it's never going to be 100% reliable. It's one of the major reasons why standard true bypass is a bad method.

That's partly why I like the Dunlop 535 so much - it uses buffered switching with a simple SPST switch, so it doesn't have this problem.