CAE Wah question for owners

samzadgan

I took delivery of my CAE wah pedal today...and it sounds a bit different to what I remember from my last one that I had. 

I took a look inside at the trim pots and they looked like they have been adjusted. 

If you have this Wah, and haven't changed the trim pots, can you please put up gut shot so I can compare to mine?

Also, If you have adjusted the trim pots and found a great setting, can you also put up a gut shot to show the settings?

FelineGuitars

I'll fish mine out - can't recall if I changed anything though......

Dave_Mc

I changed mine.

I'm not certain, but I might have marked what I changed them from (hi-tech expedient of a marker). I have to sign off for the night now but bump this tomorrow to remind me and I'll take a look. Worst case scenario I can show you the setting I use which (I think ) ) sounds decent. Though I kind of got a bit sick of fiddling and settled for "close enough", I wouldn't guarantee it's the best setting ever (and always seems to sound better with the boost on, too). EDIT: FWIW from what I can remember the stock setting was terrible ) Assuming mine was set the way they all are (I got it online from a shop). It seemed to be set up to accentuate the differences between the modes, and also seemed to be set pretty quiet (presumably to exaggerate how useful the boost is). Basically seemed to be set to sell it in the shop (like modelling amp presets), rather than to be actually useful in practical situations.

smudge_lad

I've had this wah for years and had no idea it had trim pots..........

SquireJapan

Glad this was asked ... I'd bought a CAE assuming it to be the "be-all end all" wah. Didn't like it, but assumed the pots had been played with - it just sounded a bit "wrong" (and I do mean -ve) compared to how my old crybaby used to sound.

I'm not really a wah fan, just use it on the songs that need it (which for me, is pretty much Voodoo Chile, Enter Sandman and an incomplete version of Summer Song). I'd just got a good price and was lacking a wah (having sold all my gear a couple of times, a wah wasn't a priority).

Can't wait to see what comes back ... would of course be keen to see what other people have found works for them too.

samzadgan

Thanks @FelineGuitars and @Dave_Mc

Dave_Mc

I'm going on memory here (I did this months ago), I think what I did was I put the marker mark at where 12 o'clock would have been with the stock setting. So I moved the top trim pot (Q of yellow inductor, according to the manual) to ~1 o'clock, the middle trim pot (Q of red inductor) to ~12:30pm and the bottom trim pot (gain/volume) to 11'o'clock. (Just in case you can't see the ink mark, was a bit low on light and had to use the flash.)

I think that's what I did. Assuming I'm remembering correctly. And assuming they were set to the stock factory setting when I got it. If I remember correctly I didn't want just as big a difference between the two inductor tones, and also the gain was set a bit low.

Now that I think of that, that doesn't make sense. I thought I turned the gain up and that sounds like I turned it down. )

samzadgan

Thanks mate...that helps a lot.

Dave_Mc

No problem. I was a bit worried when I opened it and saw it since I wasn't entirely sure what I'd done (as you can see from my above post) and it was my pedal ) I also would wonder if they necessarily put every trimpot in at the exact same orientation. Probably doesn't matter if they set the trims at the stock point by using a multimeter or something like that, I suppose.

samzadgan

looking at yours i'm thinking this one is stock, and the last one I had was adjusted. 

I played a lot more with it today and it's good. I might slightly amend the red fusel as its really really dark sounding...and the yellow is a bit too bright, which it should be. But the red needs a bit more high end and then it would be perfect.

I also leave the boost on the whole time, but the with the knob dialled all the way off...i like to think it adds a bit of something...but more so it adds a blue light to my board!  

Drew_TNBD

I use wah a *lot* - usually just as a standing filter. I don't do the funk thing.

Can't help with the question though Sam! I've got the Dunlop 535Q recently and I'm really enjoying it.

Dave_Mc

samzadgan said:

looking at yours i'm thinking this one is stock, and the last one I had was adjusted. 

I played a lot more with it today and it's good. I might slightly amend the red fusel as its really really dark sounding...and the yellow is a bit too bright, which it should be. But the red needs a bit more high end and then it would be perfect.

I also leave the boost on the whole time, but the with the knob dialled all the way off...i like to think it adds a bit of something...but more so it adds a blue light to my board!  

LOL

That's a good idea about the boost. Yeah I was wondering if, since I prefer the tone with the boost on, I should just turn the boost down to unity gain (or near enough) and use it like that. Might be worth a try.

And yeah, as I said, in stock form the red inductor was very dark and the yellow very bright. IIRC I brightened up the red and darkened the yellow slightly (still sounds more or less crybaby, just slightly sweeter), and they sound a lot better. Still sound very different, but now it's two different but very useful tones, as opposed to almost different for the sake of it to try to sell the pedal as "super-versatile". )