The Binge Thread

Happy new kill switch day! I got this little sucker to wire into the battery lead of my wah pedal. I figure I will be able to leave the cables plugged in if I can just kill the battery connection from an external switch when I am not using the pedalboard.

Also, this pile of patch cables from Mammoth Electronics seem to be excellent quality for $2 each.

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Cheese Grits said:
Happy new kill switch day! I got this little sucker to wire into the battery lead of my wah pedal. I figure I will be able to leave the cables plugged in if I can just kill the battery connection from an external switch when I am not using the pedalboard.

Also, this pile of patch cables from Mammoth Electronics seem to be excellent quality for $2 each.

d928a48caf1d81e638d423886a080ee2.jpg


ffd8ecbc9247760d347fbdf8f3f6dcc3.jpg
Click to expand...
$2 each for those cables is a great price.
 
I wired the kill switch into my wah, and it seems to be working well. I still have solder skills, which is cool. I’m also thrilled not to have to unplug the pedal anymore.
 
Let me understand...
You wired this into your wah instead of just buying a power supply?
Just curious, is there a reason you use a battery instead?
 
gtrjunior said:
Let me understand...
You wired this into your wah instead of just buying a power supply?
Just curious, is there a reason you use a battery instead?
Click to expand...

His wah doesn't accept a power supply. Instead of wiring a power jack into it, he wired a kill switch so the battery would stop drawing power.

He could have used a power supply with a battery clip, but many times, that arrangement adds a significant amount of noise. One way to get around this is to copy the wiring of a Z-Vex Power Plate, but the killswitch is a much easier solution. Wahs use next to no power and any battery should last years in one with this setup.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
His wah doesn't accept a power supply. Instead of wiring a power jack into it, he wired a kill switch so the battery would stop drawing power.

He could have used a power supply with a battery clip, but many times, that arrangement adds a significant amount of noise. One way to get around this is to copy the wiring of a Z-Vex Power Plate, but the killswitch is a much easier solution. Wahs use next to no power and any battery should last years in one with this setup.
Click to expand...
Ahhh! Gotcha.
What wah is this? The Vox? Strange that it doesn’t accept external power.
 
gtrjunior said:
Ahhh! Gotcha.
What wah is this? The Vox? Strange that it doesn’t accept external power.
Click to expand...

Many old pedals needed modification to accept power supplies. They were only designed to run on batteries. All of this power standardization is a direct result of the ubiquitousness of BOSS, and the boutique pedal industry latching onto the BOSS power connection as the default 25 years ago. Now every major manufacturer uses them, where they may have used something different in the 90s (see DOD, ProCo, Dunlop, etc).
 
gtrjunior said:
Ahhh! Gotcha.
What wah is this? The Vox? Strange that it doesn’t accept external power.
Click to expand...
It’s an older Vox 847. It’s quiet with the battery, and the mod was super cheap and simple. I’m using a power supply for everything else.

Only issue was that I drilled the casing over my wife’s purse, so she may have some metal shards in there. :embarrassed:
 
Cheese Grits said:
It’s an older Vox 847. It’s quiet with the battery, and the mod was super cheap and simple. I’m using a power supply for everything else.

Only issue was that I drilled the casing over my wife’s purse, so she may have some metal shards in there. :embarrassed:
Click to expand...

When I get home I’m going to look at my old wah pedal. The very first wah I ever bought was a Dunlop wah...I always thought it was an early-mid 90’s wah. It’s beat to shit with scratchy pots and it makes a high pitched squeal. I kept it because I thought it would be a cool little project to rebuild someday.
But I know it has a power jack input but iirc the jack is different in that it needed an adapter to be compatible with my power supply. I think it has a 1/8 jack instead of the boss barrel type. I need to check it out now.
 
Good luck! Mine’s in pretty good shape, and I think I got it on the cheap b/c it was missing the rubber feet and the prior owner had failed to find the correct length screws to hold the bottom plate secure, so it was always loose. For about $3, I’ve made it a great wah. It sure looks like there are lots of potential places of failure inside the case, but mine is good, and battery power is generally quiet.
 
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