Wah Wah pedal build

Fatfingers

I decided to build myself a wah pedal and have settled on the MoWah circuit from the USA. I looked at the BYOC stuff but the prices are ludicrous. Miscoding.de sell a kit for the MoWah circuit, including a nicely made PCB, and the circuit has trim pots to adjust the wah sound, the gain of the circuit, plus switches to add bass and switch between two different wah sounds. The bits to build it cost around 30 quid.There's also a long list of mods you can do to tailor the sound so I'm hoping it should be easy enough to get the sound I want – basically standard rock 'n' roll wah.  Think Brian Robertson on Live and Dangerous.

I bought this knackered Dunlop Crybaby for 23 quid on eBay to use as the basis for the kit.

And I've drilled a couple of holes and fitted the two mini toggle switches that select bass boost and wah sound. I didn't use the ones that came in the kit as they were standard mini toggles – these have stubby shafts and came from Fuzz Dog Pedal Parts. I didn't want them sticking out too much.

This is the kit, which I'm now off to start building.

paulnb57

Interesting, I'd appreciate further updates as I have an empty wah, same as yours........interested to know how difficult it is to build and the quality of the destructions......tried to find the suppliers website, no joy, do you have a link please?

Edit, foind the kit Mowah is one word, bloody fussy Google!

Fatfingers

I found the original circuit at guitarPCB.com but the site isn't easy to navigate. Here it is at Musikding.de

http://www.musikding.de/MoWah-kit-Basic

As you can see, it's only €11. On top of that you need an inductor (I bough the Fasel red) which is another ten quid or so, and a wah pot for the pedal, although if you already have an old case then you'll have one already.

paulnb57

Thanks for the link, look forward to updates...

Fatfingers

Well I've built the board. Small and fiddly but straightforward enough.

paulnb57

Cool! 

Are there any distructions and if so easy enough to follow? Or is it all down to you and experience?

Fatfingers

There are instructions here.

http://www.guitarpcb.com/PDF Files/MoWah v3.pdf

They're not as detailed as for, say, one of Ampmaker's amp kits, but basically you just fit everything on to to the PCB, following the drawing and parts list, then wire it up as shown in the diagram.

I stuck a piece of plastic (part of the top of a tub of fresh soup) into the Crybaby case. The circuit board will go here so this will stop it shorting on the case.

Fatfingers

Then, with everything soldered on to the PCB, I used double sided sticky pads to mount it in the case.

Fatfingers

Bit of wiring to do now.

Fatfingers

Got it all finished over the weekend. The sharp-eyed amongst you will notice I've forgotten to wire the PP3 battery clip through the stereo input jack so it will be connected all the time if I used it. As I won't, I can't be arsed to change it.

There are two trim pots (the little blue and white square things on the PCB). One just adjusts the gain with the wah wah on. But the other affects the sound quite radically, and I need to have a good fiddle to get it right, although I'm pretty confident it will be possible. The docs that go along with the MoWah also cite several capacitor changes you can make to change the sound.

The two mini toggles are handy. One picks between two different sounds - one much darker than the other. The other is a bass boost switch. One position gives you the standard Crybaby sound, the other one has more bass.

All in all, including buying the knackered Crybaby, it cost me about 50 quid to build, so it's excellent value too.

paulnb57

Fab effort! Thanks for sharing, I may just give it a go.....

Fatfingers

For what it costs I don't really think you can go wrong. And it's straightforward to build.