Hi guys, I was wondering what your experiences are with the internal wah pedals and if you have any tips for setting them up.
I see multiple pedalboard setups where external wah pedals are used on the one hand, and on the other internal usage with an expression pedal, this seems evenly matched. I saw an interview with Joey Landreth on that pedal show recently mentioning he was using the internal wah models which makes me revisit this topic.
In my experience, I use a mini crybaby externally as opposed to the models with the hotone ampero press II. When I try the models I find that the sweep is not nice to my ears. Even though the pedal is calibrated correctly I hear a rather rough transition from “ooo” to “wah”. Rather hard to explain haha. Basically around 45 on the qc control I hear a steep change. Mind I am using the simple crybaby model on the qc as well.
I am nowhere near an expert with wah but I would like to be able to remove the mini pedal from my board for the odd solo (pretending to be Kirk). Do you have any tips for changes in settings or do I need a better expression pedal. Or, just as realistic, is it my lacking skill?
Gotcha @Bouke , very clear what you mean. Thanx for bringing it up. No expert either. Haven’t given it much thought but I have the same feeling that an XP pedal on QC wah is not the same as a real wah by default. Maybe it depends on the XP feel? Been ages since I’ve played a real wah but found it more fun than the QC wah blocks.
Have the Boss EV-30 dual XP. The run on a real wah seems physically shorter, maybe it’s just me who remember wrong? Haven’t tried the mini wah though, although should I have a real one it seems the right one for me. Use more aggressive footwork, less long, softer sweeps.
However the QC wah’s can be fine tuned/narrowed in (in percentages) to one’s own preferences, beyond the physical limits of real world wah’s, so maybe it’s just a matter of trial and error? And a finer foot feeling? Can’t promise I can find time this weekend to test it, but I’ll look into it after.
tried a bunch of expression pedals and all the sweeps were weird to me until i tried the Dunlop DVP Volume (X) 8 and the DVP4 Volume (X) Mini. The sweep on those expression pedals feel like a nice wah with the QC wahs.
I use the Dunlop DVP Volume(X)8 and agree that the travel feels a bit weird at first compared to a real CryBaby (I’ve been using a 95Q forever), definitely takes some getting used to.
My favorite expression pedal for wah use unsurprisingly is a broken CryBaby I modded into an expression pedal (pot swap, inverting the tension plate to make it auto-return, and jack socket replacement), so I guess a Mission one would be just as fine. But convertly, the Dunlop is better as a volume/general expression pedal, so there is that…
Tone-wise, ever since they added the CFH model a few patches back, I’ve been 100% happy and have entirely retired my old 95Q, the model honestly is bang on compared to the real thing.
Oki dokey, played around with it a little and in case I’m not mistaking it depends mostly on the traveling range of one’s XP pedal. One can minimize the run by reducing the ”Min. Range” when assigning one’s XP pedal, but it seems to me mostly up to training using the foot itself. A physical skill rather than a pedal function, depending on the less/more travel on one’s specific XP pedal.
Tho when using an XP pedal as wah to control the QC block in longer slower sweeps, it works superior to a real wah pedal IMHO, due to the longer travel, lesser fine tuning of the footwork itself.
After messing about with it for a week and trying the options mentioned I settled on the “Crying Wah From Hell” model. Weirdly with leaving all the parameters at the standard settings it sounds very different to the other “Crying Wah” model to my ears. I assumed (wrongly) that it would sound the same at the standard setting and that it just had additional option to tweak the sound. Instead it seems this model has a way smoother transition sound in my opinion.
This will be good enough to use although I must say I am still getting used to the feel of the hotone expression pedal, I’ll practise a bit more and maybe in the future see if I can try the mentioned Dunlop or a Lehle pedal somewhere to compare them.
Hello, I am interested to know more about how you modded the original crybaby to make it a controller (I have four or five lying in my cellar and I’d like to try that).
What pot value did you use ( I assume 10/20/100K lin or 250k Log ?) and could you elaborate on the reversing the spring plate bit. Thanks !
Hello, I am interested to know more about how you modded the original crybaby to make it a controller (I have four or five lying in my cellar and I’d like to try that).
What pot value did you use ( I assume 10/20/100K lin or 250k Log ?) and could you elaborate on the reversing the spring plate bit. Thanks !
I guess that question was aimed at me, so there it is:
I disassembled then sanded the pedal, then re-assembled it that way:
The tension bar circled in red on the pic originally is reversed, assembling it that way makes the pedal go back to heel position as soon as you release it. It takes some patience assembling it (as you have to squeeze the bar between the main thread and the top of the pedal and then tighten it in place).
The pot is a Dunlop 10k linear, exact same one they use in their expression pedals. The I wired it as follow:
Feels just like my trusty analog 95Q CryBaby, and since they added the CryBaby From Hell, it sounds like the original too. Super happy with it.
As mentioned above I’m currently using the Dunlop Volume(X) 8 as it fits on a Pedaltrain Metro 20, but I’m thinking of moving to a slightly bigger board so I can use this expression pedal just for wah and whammy (and keep the DVP for expression/volume).
