Pedal Modifications

nedZeppelin

Anyone in or know anyone in the business of modding pedals? I have a vox wah that i need to true bypass. Thinking of doing it myself but i think you need extra parts or something. Any suggestions?

Paladin

Are you sure you need to? Vox pedals should be pretty good quality. And 'True Bypass' gets this tag of being better without any real thought as to why. Initially it was because of poor circuitry. These days it should be fine.
If you use multiple pedals than true bypass can in fact **** up your signal, as it will degrade without some sort of buffering.

Anyway, if you want to puch ahead and do a true bypass mod then its not especially hard (though Ive not fiddled with a wah-pedal, just OD's). If you have a bit of know-how about you its easy enough. Google for instructions I would suggest. A Wah might be awkward simply because of its physical construction.

jcoote

vox wahs are the best of the affordable bunch but i have heard complaints about tue bypass and volume drop before.i have to say mine is fine but try this on for size

Eoin Madsen

All you should need to add true bypass to a Vox Wah is a TPDT (triple-pole double-throw) latching foot-switch. Getting hold of one of those in Ireland could be a little tricky though.

nedZeppelin

yeh has to be done, i like the vox but i bought this savage analogman fuzz pedal that is true bypass and my vox wont work correctly with it. ill have a look at that keeley website i hear good things about keely but i was hoping for something a bit more local. thanks lads

steveland?

Can someone explain what true bypass actually means?

Saw a tutorial for adding True Bypass to a Russian Big Muff pedal which I have here but one of the first steps is rewiring it and adding a mains socket on it (it runs on batter only at the moment).

The idea of adding a plug socket on it appeals to me, even if I don't add true bypass to it...

david

True bypass means that when you bypass the pedal, the signal isn't passing through a buffered circuit, its routed straight from the input to the output therefore eliminating any signal degradation/loss. Its very simple to do with a dpdt (double pole double throw) switch.

nedZeppelin

i think i might sell my wah now and buy one of those keeley vox wahs wit all the mods. its 3 times as expensive but ive got a taste for quality pedals now. sometimes i feel like the vox just doesnt have enough wah for me.

Eoin Madsen

You should modify your own. Financial incentive aside, it's pretty satifying.


The Vox wah I looked at recently already has a DPDT, it uses the second pole to cut the power circuit. So I'd say you'd ideally want to use a TPDT in this scenario. But it would actually be possible to wire it for true bypass without ever changing the switch, if you don't mind the battery drain.

I don't get where the whole "yeah well true bypass isn't necessarily that good because..." thing comes from. Changing your pedals to true bypass has no ill effect vs the alternative. (Circuitry is still piss poor in pedals - myself and Tony Fitz did an AB with a Boss TU-2 and found an audible loss of clarity just with the pedal in the circuit, turned off.) Granted, there are problems that true bypass fails to solve. But it most certainly doesn't add to your problems unless you bypass a buffered pedal that you're relying on. Every TB pedal in a chain adds less than 10cm of cable length to your chain. It will add up to less than the difference between using a 4 metre guitar lead vc a 6 metre guitar lead. There's no good reason that I can see not to TB all of your pedals bar the first one. And there's definitely no reason to have more than one buffer in your chain.

Even then, you want to think about whether you want a buffer or not. It will change your tone. Maybe for the better - but over a short enough distance (when you're not losing tons of top end along your lead), the advantages are clearly going to be subjective. And I most certainly wouldn't trust the "buffer" built into some pedal anyway. If you're going down that route, buy a buffer.

That turned into a bit of a rant. I had no idea I still cared so much.

Ancient1

Local crowd - http://www.bredhead.com/

nedZeppelin

i think im gonna just leave this one to the experts this time, i dont have the time or energy to mod this pedal myself, but i agree with what you said. maybe ill try my hand at modding sometime in the future. The guys at bredhed seem to know what theyre talking about and it will work out cheaper than keeley mods.

ill get back to this post when i get the pedal modded.

Paladin

Eoin Madsen wrote:

You should modify your own. Financial incentive aside, it's pretty satifying.


The Vox wah I looked at recently already has a DPDT, it uses the second pole to cut the power circuit. So I'd say you'd ideally want to use a TPDT in this scenario. But it would actually be possible to wire it for true bypass without ever changing the switch, if you don't mind the battery drain.

I don't get where the whole "yeah well true bypass isn't necessarily that good because..." thing comes from. Changing your pedals to true bypass has no ill effect vs the alternative. (Circuitry is still piss poor in pedals - myself and Tony Fitz did an AB with a Boss TU-2 and found an audible loss of clarity just with the pedal in the circuit, turned off.) Granted, there are problems that true bypass fails to solve. But it most certainly doesn't add to your problems unless you bypass a buffered pedal that you're relying on. Every TB pedal in a chain adds less than 10cm of cable length to your chain. It will add up to less than the difference between using a 4 metre guitar lead vc a 6 metre guitar lead. There's no good reason that I can see not to TB all of your pedals bar the first one. And there's definitely no reason to have more than one buffer in your chain.

Even then, you want to think about whether you want a buffer or not. It will change your tone. Maybe for the better - but over a short enough distance (when you're not losing tons of top end along your lead), the advantages are clearly going to be subjective. And I most certainly wouldn't trust the "buffer" built into some pedal anyway. If you're going down that route, buy a buffer.

That turned into a bit of a rant. I had no idea I still cared so much.

I agree with everything there. There are pedals that use buffering that are perfect though. I have come across both. Its easy to check it out

punchdrunk

maplin do double pole switches for about a tenner,you should only need triple pole if it's got an l.e.d i think?

wah's are well known as tone suckers so i'd say you've nothing to lose by doing this

also consider adding a true bypass looper system if your using loads of pedals,makes life much easier!

nedZeppelin

so it turns out that my problem using the vox wah with my fuzzface clone was not because of true bypass at all. Certain wah pedals are renowned for not functioning properly with vintage fuzz pedals with germanium transisitors.

There is an answer to this problem but it requires installation of a foxrox wah retrofit.

I'm not sure if could be bothered. I might just sell my vox and look for something new that works well and has true bypass. Any recommendations?

Ancient1

nedZeppelin wrote:

Any recommendations?

I'm telling you man, contact bredhead.com - they'll do the job for you for €30.

Paladin

You using the way before the fuzz? Its not a rule as such but its recommended to use eq effects before distortion/overdrive.

I havent heard about this problem with wah and germanium transistors before. Interesting. I dont suppose you have a link?

nedZeppelin

yeh im gonna get back in contact with bredhed and see if they have a solution to the wah/fuzz problem too.

http://www.foxroxelectronics.com/Wah%20retrofit%201.html

The link above is for foxrox who sell the wah retrofit. I hear there are other solutions but this one seems to be the easiest.

I cant find the website that explains exactly why this problem occurs but theres lots of small references if you look up "wah fuzz face problem". The sweep of the wah is almost completely eliminated when the wah goes before the fuzz. If i put it after the fuzz its grand but wahs should be the first in the queue.

Ancient1

Sounds to me like it's a Jimi Thing!

Eoin Madsen

punchdrunk wrote:

maplin do double pole switches for about a tenner,you should only need triple pole if it's got an l.e.d i think?

No, the normal non-bypass Vox wah uses a DPDT switch. To preserve the existing circuit and add true bypass you need a TPDT (not available in Maplin ). I think there's a work around, but it basically involves the wah battery being on all the time. I'm not sure if the Vox wah uses a switching jack for cutting the power when you unplug - but even if it does, the time your wah is going to be on will still multiply hugely. For the average Wah user, I'd say you're talking about dividing the battery life by a factor of 10.

-=al=-

i tihnk i need to to this with my wah sometimes it goes weird, and only lets the signal thru when its in a certain position, happened to anyone before or what!?

david

Eoin Madsen wrote:

No, the normal non-bypass Vox wah uses a DPDT switch. To preserve the existing circuit and add true bypass you need a TPDT (not available in Maplin ). I think there's a work around, but it basically involves the wah battery being on all the time. I'm not sure if the Vox wah uses a switching jack for cutting the power when you unplug - but even if it does, the time your wah is going to be on will still multiply hugely. For the average Wah user, I'd say you're talking about dividing the battery life by a factor of 10.

If you mod a pedal to cut out the battery with true bypass it will pop and click when you knock it on and off.