Morley Power Wah questions

[smallweef]

I just bought a '75 Morley Power Wah and am having some troubles with it. I play a Fender P bass through a gk 2000rb and an ampeg 6x10. I also use an old mxr distortion II pedal to add a little "growl" to my sound. Since Ive added the wah everytime I open it up all the way my speakers glow. I know it has something to do with the high end. Any thing I can do short of changing my sound around?

[niftydog]

The wah is just a filter which boosts a narrow band of frequencies. When you toe-down it boosts a band of high frequency. If this is causing your amp to have kittens, then I suggest you've got the top end strongly boosted already, and the wah is kicking it over the edge. Am I right?

I don't think there's anything wrong with your wah. Perhaps stay away from going fully toe-down? Or you could futz with the mechanicals to limit the amount of sweep into the high frequency territory. This involves playing around with the lamp, the light dependent resistor and the fabric flap to achieve the desired result.

[Mark Olson]

Is it the old chrome power wah? As I remember the sweep is reversed on those so toe up will accentuate the highs, toe down will accentuate the lows (I believe all the way down to 20 Hz on the chrome model).

[niftydog]

As designed the sweep is NOT REVERSED on the Tel-Ray wahs! This is a self-perpetuating myth - there is absolutely no truth in it.

PROOF:

Originally Posted by PWO Power Wah Owners Manual

As you press down on the pedal, the wah moves a peak in the response from the low range upwards to the high frequency range...

QED.

Myth busted.

Let us never hear of it again!

No offence, Mark, it's just one of my bugbears.


If a Tel-Ray wah is operating with a reversed sweep then there is something wrong with it. Often the fabric flap that controls the amount of light reaching the light dependent resistor becomes detached at one end, sometimes producing a reversed sweep, but this can be easily fixed by properly securing the fabric flap in it's rightful place.

These wahs are often dismissed by people because of this simple, yet undiagnosed mechanical fault - but when they are in good working order these are the best wahs on the planet, IMHO.

Just for the record, the frequency range is seven octaves - from 25hz to 4khz. This is part of what makes these wahs perfect for bass.

[Mark Olson]

I didn't say they designed it one way or the other, but my old Tel-Ray Morley did have a reversed sweep, I just thought that's the way they all were? I mean, not that I'm a big Metallica fan or anything, but from what I remember from seeing Cliff Burton on youtube, didn't his Morley have a reversed sweep too?

[Mark Olson]

I don't know, just in my limited experience with these pedals the reversed sweep comes pretty standard for a malfunction of the pedal. Not that I wouldn't disbelieve for a second Morley putting out a product that doesn't do what it says it does in the manual.

[niftydog]

Originally Posted by Mark Olson

...the reversed sweep comes pretty standard for a malfunction of the pedal.

That's because they mostly all malfunction in the same way, resulting in the same faulty condition. The flap becomes detached from where it is glued onto the chassis and causes, in effect, a reversal of the sweep. It also dramatically limits the frequency range of the sweep as the light dependent resistor is never subjected to complete darkness, nor is it ever directly exposed to the light from the bulb.

Again, I'm not getting agro with you or anything like that, it's just that this comes up a lot here and I'm 110% positive that it's all a big misunderstanding.

[Mark Olson]

No problem! Yeah, it is pretty crummy though that so many of the units would malfunction like that that players think they come with the reverse sweep standard. Doesn't say much for the pedal's reliability, even if it is an easy fix.

[niftydog]

Originally Posted by Mark Olson

Doesn't say much for the pedal's reliability, even if it is an easy fix.

Well, most of these would be 25 years old or older so I think I can let a glue failure slide!

The things are built like tanks otherwise.