This Fasel inductor s**t is a joke. For example Dunlop's so called Fasel inductors are nowadays toroidal inductors. So nothing common with original Fasel inductors which were NOT toroidal. I have an original early 70's Vox film can inductor which is NOT toroidal and it has nothing to do with those Dunlop Fasel inductors. Red or yellow, absolutely nothing to do with original 60-70's inductors. Those original inductors were all so called cup core inductors, NOT toroidal inductors. I must say that I have nothing against toroidal inductors. They are good because of their humbucking quality. But please, all marketing people, stop calling them exact and faithful replicas of legendary Fasel inductors. Because they are not.
Jim was at a private Holloween costume party my band was playing in Benecia Ca. and jammed with us! He was dressed in full Scotsman attire!Two weeks later, a package showed up with strings, picks, straps, all kinds of Dunlop stuff! What a cool dude!
That little loose diode is just only for protecting the input voltage polarity. It goes from the power supply to ground right at the input. So it wouldn't affect the working of the pedal when not connected.
Yes. The same thing with late 90's Dunlops which had no op amps. Just those 2 transistors ( like originals vintage ones) + one extra input buffer transistor.
But it may be the diode tail was being used to connect top and bottom copper tracks on the PCB. So it wasn't the disconnected diode but the disconnected tail that caused the problem.
Hi Brad - really enjoy your channel. That diode is part of the filtering for the DC power jack, so using battery power bypasses that diode. I suspect that the owner tried to use a DC adapter and it didn't work because that diode was not in the circuit. It obviously works now that you've soldered the diode and tested with a DC adapter. Just info for the future. Hope it helps. Keep up the great work here!!!
I can just hear that voodoo Chile riff in my head, you danced around it just enough to keep the Hendrix copyright Fairies at bay. Great video and channel. Best wishes.
R.I.P. Jim Dunlop .. Thanks Brad .... Good job on this repair . Surprising they missed that solider joint , but it might have passed a quick sound test , then was jarred lose .
@@goodun6081 Wow awesome comment .Thank you for the detail . I have had issues with those plate through rivets before getting solider to stick to them properly . It could be me or the temp , flux or type of solider . I have always managed to get it done but some 5 min jobs have taken up to an hour . Ha Ha . Some boards have a coating applied that may be causing problems whilst doing repairs and tests also .
The fasel inductor was imported from Italy up through the mid 2000s, then switched to Asia production approx 2009. Pure hype, as the toroid inside is identical to the black cylinder inductor it replaced.
Hey Brad, As a beginner pedal DYIer thanks for a pedal vid. As a matter of fact, that's how I found out about your channel was through a pedal repair and mod search about a year ago. Watched one of your pedal repair vids (I think it was a Black Russian Muff Pi) you were fixing. Fell down that rabbit hole and here we are! I love the fact that you do it all. Amp, guitar, and pedal repair all in one shot.
Well, admittedly, I'm no pedal guy. I'm probably as much of a noob as you are really. Never owned that many pedals and rarely used them, other than a Wah, delay, phaser, and occasional Chorus. And never got too particular about which ones I used. I know, blasphemy, right? :D
Nothing wrong with not using pedals. Hell look at all the heavy riffs and sounds Angus and Malcom Young made without pedals! My favorite is the Bon Scott era.
I believe that diode is a part of the circuit to eliminate noise coming from the DC input. It wouldn't have any effect on the pedal's operation but the effect would be particularly noisy if being powered by an non-isolated psu. Possible the owner plugged the leads in backwards accidentally. I see that with wah pedals all the time.
Diode is polarity protection on ac adaptors it's there if you plug reversed power supply it takes the hit so nothing else does it's not filtering the capacitor is for the filtering
Great work, as usual, Brad. While I really enjoy the tube amp repairs, any insights you can offer the rest of us headbangers for taking care of our gear are truly gifts...
Some magazine ( GW, I think) did an in-depth on Fasels, years ago. The batch that was first used were unevenly wound, and had varying number of turns. Debatable whether they're actually better, but it was their inconsistency that made them different.
Fantastic Video! The Inductor is the "heart" of the wah. All of the different inductors have different values and some sound very different from each other. Even the two different fasals (red/yellow) both sound very different (red has more gain). Thats why some of them (wahs) are very sought after (primarily the "stack of dimes", and the halo inductor(s)). And depending on the guitar that you use, even the same wah can sound very different.
Exactly. Inductor brings that mojo. Without inductors there won't be any real mojo. I have tried many fancy opamp circuits with no mojo. Those original Vox wahs had absolutely no less or more components that what was exactly needed to achieve THAT essential wah sound.
Brad, It's probably a two sided circuit board with through hole plating. It would only need to be soldered on one side to function. Having the solder flow through the hole to make a nice connection on the opposite side is better for mechanical strength but makes no difference electrically.
I do agree this model sounds lovely. Lots of nice control of overtones. Seems easy to hone in on a specific frequency. You can really tell it when I'm doing the low harmonics.
I have a really small channel Brad,just me playing guitar that's it. very boring channel just something for me to get my musical rocks off. Thank you for doing this video on the cry baby, I never play without one plugged in and turned on in some type of still position.no matter what I'm playing that's why my wah pedal is on 24/7 when I'm playing,even if I just put it in a certain spot and leave it there. I'm glad your cherry got busted you needed it. And don't let you tube bring you down man,there's so many of us out here who love your channel man and love what you do and love watching you fix amps and helps us to better what we're doing. If you end up bailing on RU-vid please let us know how we can watch you before you do it. I couldn't go through cold turkey guitologist channel. Give us some kind of crumbs to work with brother.,..,😁... We both and all of your other watchers also know that you and us are all susceptible to strikes. If you switch to some type of different platform besides RU-vid please let us know where you go so we can watch you,before you bounce. Cuz I don't care if I have to download the app ......No way in hell do I want to lose Brad the guitologist as a show that I can watch. Even if I had to pay a monthly fee to watch you I would do it..
While the hot glue probably won’t hurt anything, it’s really a band-aid on the problem; the little metal fingers in the plug have lost their springiness - they should form a firm, but not tight, friction fit with the pins. There’s not really any easy way to fix that, save to put a new connector on... or just solder the wires directly to the pins. Either will provide a better long-term solution. But then, maybe this pedal isn’t going to be used often; it may not matter about the connector. 🤔
90% of the pedals I have worked on the problem is in the power section. Usually idiots hooking up the wrong wallwart and obliterating the safety diode. I've seen them so bad that there are holes completely burned through the board. Imagine sitting in soundcheck with a smoking pedal? Ironically, it looks like the factory took out your safety diode before you even got started.
And just one last comment from me"I use the wah-wah pedal for everything from rhythms to guitar solos...it's the most natural versatile pedal for guitar that I can possibly think of other than the volume pedal.I love a wall and that's why I always have one turned on my pedal board,no matter what position it is in. You're playing is on point as always my friend.
An original jcm 2000! I had one for a while, babied it, It took pedals well, things I remember is the metal zone and the mxr metal pedal sounded great! Then down grading to something smaller it was horrible. Played an old plixi yesterday, took pedals well . I was absolutely suprised.
So disappointed that they have gone the way of SMT technology. Selling the darn things for a hefty price and making it for pennies...... Something about a hand wired wah pedal that makes you feel better about it.
Inductors can vary hugely in their performance, mostly depending upon the core material used. A the core for audio quality inductors is one with very low hysterisis. Hysterisis, in both inductors and capacitors, degrades the sound quality and obscures details in the sound. The core material in a guitar pickup (often in the form of a magnet) can hugely affect the tonal qualities of the pickup.
Very cool repair. I love CryBabys but never played anything historic. Did buy a '70s Cry Baby in '75 for $25.00 from a co-worker. I loved it but It went with everything in '80. Flash to '94 and i'm broke buying an ExCell knock off (metal) and GC 'Roadkill (plastic) Neither lasted more than a year. In ' 99 i have the money for a Real Cry Baby!!! Demo one, and i'm in love. Told, you don't buy that, you get a new one. I'm not happy. Sure enough. i drive the half hour or so home, fire up the new pedal and its literally falling apart!! Semi angry phone call, drive south and swapped for the same one i've used ever since. sure semi dormant the last few years but when i hit it a week or so ago, it worked fine.
My first & favorite pedal! From what I recall Fasel (FAY-zel, like 'hazel') inductors were used in the Vox, or English-built wahs for a short time in the late '60s & supposedly have a unique vocal quality. I've owned 3 in my 'career'- including one from this era (mid 2000s) The tone was creamy but the pot went to feces after a month. I put in a BBE & she sang like a siren until she got boosted.
I have an old Cry Baby from the '90s that's dead. Apparently I had left a battery in it for 15 years. The battery did leak/corrode but nothing got to the board. So idk. I'm not skilled enough to diagnose it so it's just a stylish doorstop.
All the inductor types use a different type of wire and the materials to make the complex of the inductors iron, etc is a mixture. Its like guitar strings have different mixtures of materials that each companies doesn't tell the specs on the guitar string materials for each of these set models.
Why is it so complicated? Around 25 years ago I bought an old pedalboard for $30 and it had a Cry Baby on it, I still have the pedal and it sounds great. The thing is the circuit board only measures about two inches square and along with the Fasel inductor holds two transistors, about twelve resistors and around ten capacitors.
The italy fasel for dunlop had the lay down pin configuration as seen here. The Asian fasels stand vertical. The specs on the Italian ones are little better ( higher q, lower mH), but the Asian ones also have very good specs, albeit often microphonic due to sloppy potting.
I got the Dunlop Crybaby Mini Hendrix flavor. It fits nicely on the board and sounds killer. There are something like a dozen mini wahs in the catalog and the Hendrix version sounded the best to my ears. It has an insane amount of throw and really digs in. There is an art to getting the timing right with your playing. RIP Jim. You kept the Crybaby going for years after it almost vanished from the shelves.
They have 2 Fasel Inductors used in Whas the Red one & Green one they are very different one is the 70's brighter one the Red one is thicker sound like Zakk Wylde's type vocal Wha both of these are far better than the cheapest "bog standard" inductor like on the $79 Wha's the Bass wha's have a Halo inductor. I tried em all till I got the CAE Wha designed by Bob Bradshaw that has both Red & Green inductors w/ a Q knob & a MXR Boost built in all can be tweaked from inside trim pots for each inductor & the boost.
Imagine Jensen speakers. Yeah, that’s exactly what this “Fasel” inductor is. Same name, looks and country of manufacture. Totally different than the original.
That is absolutely true. I have original Vox wah film can cup core inductor from early 70's, a 1999 Dunlop black inductor, a 2018 red Fasel among other inductors. That red Fasel has absolutely nothing to do with that early 70's original cup core film can inductor. Not physically, not electrically, not soundwise.
Maybe they wind it with silver instead of copper? Zakk Wylde at Guitar Center he did a clinic and autographs and he walked up and grabbed a Zakk Wylde Signature series Wah Pedal so it comes pre signed and he signed it again with his own hand and handed it to me. Meanwhile Guitar Center was looking at me funny for putting it in my bag plus I got his overdrive pedal also signed. I don't know the difference between that one and a plain one and I don't even want to touch it. As soon as he signed it, it became valuable.
I can almost guarantee that moving the diode wire as you did would've changed an possibly intermittent contact to a more solid one, even without soldering. Of course, banging it around in travel would loosen it again without that soldering iron kiss.
Shred Shred Shred, so much Shredin I was begging to hear something with a hook, reminded me of being in a music store with a bunch of teenieboppers.... if ya know what I mean? ...... all good though....... thumbs up outta respect!
HEY THE GUITOLOGIST! i did the full name this time see that!..ok there is a really cool video by brian wampler where he hooks up a bread board with the different types of inductor on it and he has it set up so he can quickly switch through them as he uses the wah and there is little to no differents. i do own this wah and i like it.
every Cry Baby Wah I have ever owned has stopped working within a year. Screw those things. EDIT: watch what you play demoing that thing! You almost had the estate of Jimi Hendrix comin' after you!
I've got two - both bought broken for small beer money. I bought a replacement PCB and that didn't work. That's when I realised both pedals had been modded and wired wrong. Two working pedals and one spare PCB. I added the LED light mod and on one switchable caps so bass can get involved - all good now :-)
I’ve had two and both have died out for some reason or another (either the inductor or the pot). Went to a Morley Bad Horsie wah and have been trouble free since.
wah = band pass filter fasel = bell shape, Q variation There are mods that can shape the Q etc on the “non fasel” versions that make it sound just as good/better (gtr players = subjective) if your wah dies after frequent use - try swapping out the pot (hotpot)
For others, the main board is about $40 six or eight years ago. If you have a "special" inductor, you can transplant it. The different inductors DO sound "different" and there are a few aftermarket models available. But NOT as much as where you set the "range" of the pot by adjusting the zero with the string on the drum. The pedal mechanism does not turn the pot the full 270 degree turn. So it can be "zeroed" a bit higher or lower which REALLY changes its sound. PS... it is not easy to shift the string in the drum.... there is just no room for your fingers. A hook or two made from bent coat hanger wire seemed to help thread the string and hook it to the spring. Maybe I'm just a klutz.
@@goodun6081 Thanks-a-lot. I'll look for those tools on line "next time". But.... I've only restrung 3 or 4 total in my life, a few times to replace the pot (that was beyond cleaning). What I clearly remember is using about every swear word I knew, each time I restrung one. Shifting the zero point is the worst, second worst is getting the string wrapped on the drum to run smoothly, without piling up. To stop that from happening, I have actually taken the dam things apart to drill and tap a new hole (slightly displace) for the string dead end. Usually, you want to zero it "toe down" and then there is near-zero room to work. The rack and pinion gear drives (Morely?) are a bit easier but they "pin" the gear on the pot. You can turn the pot a bit in the mount to change the range a little. The "higher" you can position the pot "toe down", the brighter the top end on both Dunlop and Morely. So.... not a job I look forward to. And, if you put a few IDENTICAL wahs out and play them, they will all sound a noticeably different.
@@goodun6081 I don't know, there is always a tension spring somewhere. Maybe the string stretches a little over time, the spring compresses a little and everything looses some of its grip. Anyway... I have to unstring a tuner tomorrow to pull a board/change a part. I plan to take several pictures even though I have a service manual. Back to a Dunlop Wah, an OEM re-string kit these days has a Kevlar reenforced string (and maybe a new spring) and is a bit pricey. It's such a PIA to install, I wouldn't use anything else. Again, maybe I'm just a klutz.
The original "vintage" Crybaby was made in Italy. The Fasel conductor is supposed to be a tone matched recreation of the original inductance of those old hand wound hand wires pedals... Im skeptical if it's even possible to tell a difference. Im sure someone will say they can notice the difference. The really good inductors (high level cork sniffing) are housed in a metal cap known by pedal Phreaks as a trash can inductor due to its resemblance to an old metal trash can.... These are said to be better because they shield noise and radio signals that can cause a hum... I think there is some reality to the benefits to noise reduction. Everything else In my opinion is a gimmick.
nice. looks funner than what i had to do this week. i had to degoober my peavy vyper 15 i think one of the kids got some cola in there somehow or something it had black crap on the board where the effects control and its lights are at. i had all kinds of ugly sounds going on but after cleaning all the nasty away it works fine. somtimes its right there stairing at ya
Ahhhhh !!! The Cry Baby BUZZZZZ !!!!!!! I have a 95 series that started doing this a few years ago. It ended up being moisture inside. After a heavy rain ,and I left it in a gig bag in the vehicle. Now I store it in a ziplock freezer bag inside the gig bag. No problems in two years. I talked extensively with the JD techs over the phone ,and even had a RA code. But after ten mins. with a blow dryer it was good. So I never sent it back. Personally I’ve never liked the F series pedals. Just to bitey.
"Legendary" = people got upset when it was discontinued, so the reissue gets a price hike. It definitely sounds different from a regular Dunlop wah in side-by-side comparison and I prefer it. Sounds even better if you roll back the sweep pot a couple notches to tame that toe down snarl and add some more heel down drool. But mine too soon developed a problem, the mexican toe-switch kept sticking inbetween positions and cutting out, so I had to replace that. Added a LED indicator while at it.
Hey Brad..Cool video. I actually own both the original, and the Fasel. I got the Fasel model as a hand me down from a friend who went with another brand. Side by side, the Fasel model has a little grittier midrangey warmer tone than the non- Fasel, when rolled back, and has a little less shrillness when opened up. How much is directly related to the specific inductor..I don't know. It is a noticeable difference for sure, but in my opinion, you can get a similar result just clocking the pot a 1/4 to half turn, and save a bit of money. 2 minute mod.
Nice Tele! Tip of the trowel,plug in the wah backwards to get bird & flute sounds like the sounds on the Experience album. Just be careful,use a volume pedal in between the wah & amp. Would that be copyrighted?
I have a few wah wah pedals and I have this one.I am not a tech but I fool around with circuits. I was very surprised to see this type of components in this wah. The added ICs are making me think. Wow That choke was poorly installed.Robotic Blunder I guess. I think I would have just soldered the wires to those pins because the idea of such a loose connection or maybe put some solder on the tips of the pins to allow the connector to fit a littler more snugger. Anywho. the pedal sounds better with your set up. Thanks for Sharing your repairs. c];-).
They use to promote the difference between the red and the yellow inductor. They say the Fasel red is "cleaner" meanwhile the yellow one is more "vintage".
Those words mean nothing to me really. I have watched GearnMannDude's excellent video comparing the two, and there is a definite difference. I do think I prefer the sound of the Classic.
@@TheGuitologist Yes, words are just words. Both Fasel red and yellow (classic) inductors used by Dunlop are toroidal inductors at this moment. ( If you do not believe me, ask for example from Electronic Technician Jon Fryman of Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc.) Those "holy grail" inductors of vintage wahs like Vox Clyde McCoy and were not toroidal.
I didn't go through all the comments, but yes, the only difference between a GCB-95 and a GCB-95F is the Fasel inductor. And I've always found Crybabys to be pretty reliable, if tone suckers. I have one I've owned since my (then future) wife bought it for me for Christmas 1985. I didn't use it unless I needed a wah on the gig for some reason, but a friend of mine in Louisville "true bypassed" it for me, which made it more gig friendly.
Yes. I bought one of six Cry Babies used by George Clinton's band in 1999 gig in year 2000. Serial number H8-017**. That GBC-95, which I still have after almost 20 years, features a standard black toroidal inductor which is quite good and nicely humbucking, but it not even near to those original early 70's Vox inductors.
I tried one of those a few years ago and was severely disappointed, the closed position is really muddy more so than a typical Wah. Does not sound like the older crybabies it tries to recreate!
I was guessing it would be one of the smt elco's it seems a lot of repairs find those to be an issue. I can see the issue with the connector they did not use a matching pair would be better design with a locking ramp or terminal strip or ust solder the wires to the pcb. The hot snot will hold though. I cant see what the heck the spacial inductor would do if the same value but audio is a funny area with component s;ection as is marketing...
I had an old original CryBaby back in the day and it was a tone sucking bitch. It was like your tone knob was on 0 when you switched on the wah. Nowadays I have a Custom Audio MXR MC404 dual inductor (red & yellow fasel). It is the best wah I've ever used!
I have the same wah....the pot is fucked in mine and was intermittently cutting out and giving DMM readings from 2M down to 2k in all/any positions. I’ll be replacing it with one of a higher quality. Something Military grade from Joe Gagan most likely.
