Dunlop 105q wah - better (non-true bypass) bypass mods?

surfingbird1 · #1 01-02-2011, 10:46 AM

Is there a way to make the bypass better on this wah, like a burr brown upgrade etc

I am not interested in making it bypass, and I am not a tone-suck snob, but it really is the worse I have ever heard on a pedal, maybe it was the circumstances, but I loved the way it sounded but hated the bypass sound

let me know if you guys have heard anything

surfingbird1 · #2 01-02-2011, 08:38 PM

Nothing?

Headless Llama · #3 01-02-2011, 08:40 PM

I love mine...

lobey · #4 01-02-2011, 08:43 PM

There was a thread here about doing such a thing a while back. I lost track of the thread and don't remember how they made it true bypass.

Is it possible to true bypass a Dunlop 105Q?

surfingbird1 · #5 01-02-2011, 11:17 PM

No, I want a better buffered bypass

Sorry for the confusion

Travis_Bass · #6 01-02-2011, 11:25 PM

What do you mean by a bypass? like after the pedal is turned off? because if you mean you cannot hear the strings clear while the wah is engaged, I'd like to know how to make the strings clearer. I can barely hear string noise through the wah, but Im not complaining; I love the sound of my 105q, just curious if its possible.

Fab Savage · #7 01-02-2011, 11:40 PM

Colour me interested

Im with surfingbird, the 105q is a great sounding wah but the bypass is poor, I noticed it last night when I took it off the board at practice. Sundenly my tone became so much clearer!

Id prefer an fairly easy DIY internal mod than having to stick a buffer at the start of the chain.

pity all the good wahs that are touch activated are so expensive!

**SamanthaCay** · #8 01-02-2011, 11:57 PM

What I did is, first I removed the little rubber pad that hits the switch that turns the wah on and off so that my wah is now permanently on.
Then I made a true bypass looper pedal with a passive volume on the side that runs the wah.
Because the wah is louder then the dry signal this allows me to buffer the level of my wet/wahed signal with my dry signal.
It works great and it was simple and easy to build.
Give me a bit and I’ll see if I can come up with a link to a how to on this.

**SamanthaCay** · #9 01-03-2011, 12:11 AM

Here’s a good place to start.
http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages...cker/index.htm

Floyd Eye · #10 01-03-2011, 06:04 AM

Hmm. My signal sounds the same whether my Q105 is in the chain or not.

Maybe you got a bad one?

**SamanthaCay** · #11 01-03-2011, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Floyd Eye

Hmm. My signal sounds the same whether my Q105 is in the chain or not.

Maybe you got a bad one?

Are you sure?
If so, I gotta say that is quite interesting, as this is a pretty common complaint about these things.
The only thing I can think of is that maybe you got a newer one that has been upgraded by Dunlop so that it doesn’t do that.
If so let me know as I might just have to order a new one if that’s the case.
Are better yet give us some a/b’d sound clips if possible.

Caca de Kick · #12 01-03-2011, 02:31 PM

I'm with Floyd here, and don't hear a difference either, in or removed from the chain.

My current 105q I bought three months ago brand new and it's my 2nd one. I still have my old 105q that I bough back around 2003 stored in the garage. But that old pedal seems so worn out, the sweep isn't really good anymore and it doesn't like to switch off anymore either, and was planning on sending it in to Dunlop for a refurb.
It was a night and day difference when I plugged the new one in.

**SamanthaCay** · #13 01-03-2011, 03:11 PM

My god you guys are right!
I just stuck a little screw down there so that it would sit in the disengaged mode and then I switched back and forth from that and a true bypassed mode with my looper and there was no discernable difference!
So now I’m thinking that Floyd was right and that there is something wrong with my wah. That being that the switch never was working right in the first place.
In fact now that I think of it I do seem to remember it giving me problems right before I did what I did. Some time’s it would disengage and others not.
I also remember that the way it worked was that there was a little rubber pad that would hit the button to disengage it and that it had warn out over time and was causing the problems I was having.
Now I’m just wondering where it was that I got the idea that it was sucking the life out of my tone in the disengaged mode.

So I guess with all this now discovered it would be safe to say that if it’s sucking tone to just replace that little rubber bumper.

Floyd Eye · #14 01-03-2011, 04:23 PM

Mine is several years old.

vic_6 · #15 01-03-2011, 04:42 PM

FTIW, i had the same problem with mine which i bought back in 2005. it's gone now and i'm planning to buy a new one. i guess i'll just have to look for one that doesn't suck when in bypass.

blastjv · #16 01-04-2011, 08:08 AM

the 105Q is a pretty well established tone-sucker, however, my hypothesis on the varying opinions of tone-suckers is that they don't suck ALL tone, just certain frequencies depending on the design of each pedal. One player will say "that pedal totally sucked the life out of my tone" and another will say "I could not hear a difference at all". There are probably two possible reasons for this:

1 - The second player is just not that sensitive to tone changes.

2 - (this is the one I think comes into play most often) The pedal DOES 'suck' tone, but it sucks tone which is not a fundamental part of YOUR sound. An extreme example, is if you use a pedal that just kills the high frequencies and you like a Chris Squire type of sound you will likely HATE that pedal, but if you like a Dub type sound you probably wouldn't even notice and you might love that pedal.

I hated the 105q because of the tone suck and I just didn't like the sweep, tone or big honk I got at the start of the sweep. Just didn't work for me. There are a TON of people who love this pedal, and they're right, too!!!

-JV

Caca de Kick · #17 01-04-2011, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buchananbass

So now I’m thinking that Floyd was right and that there is something wrong with my wah. That being that the switch never was working right in the first place.
..............

So I guess with all this now discovered it would be safe to say that if it’s sucking tone to just replace that little rubber bumper.

It could be the bumper or the off switch. My first 105q had a switch go haywire after the warrantly expired. I called Dunlop and got a quote for a repair, but never sent it in because my drummer gave me a trashed Dunlop guitar wah that had a good switch, so I replaced it myself. I think there was a height adjustment that can be made for the switch too.

TheXym · #18 01-04-2011, 01:20 PM

The music store rep delivered mine today. I don't have my full rig here at the school where I teach, so I just ran it through an aux in on my digital piano. I don't know if this is the same issue you guys have dealt with, but when it releases once I move the pedal to the off position, it almost seems as if it retriggers the "clean" note a hair after I move it to the off position. I'm going to check it on my full rig but is this an issue of just the volume not being dialed in on it with the rest of the pedal chain or is it a quirk in the pedal?

If this helps the diagnosis, my pedal chain is a Messdrive Hybrid Plus -> MXR Bass Envelope Filter -> Submarine Designer -> Dunlop Bass Wah. Thanks in advance. Also, if you have any recommendations in changing the pedal order I'm open to suggestions. I have the Messdrive first because of the transformer in it.