Converting guitar wah to bass wah...

[3fingerdemon]

I have an old Jimi Hendrix signature wah that I still have from when I played guitar, and I was wondering if there was any way to convert so that it sounds better on a bass.

 

[Silent Fly]

I don't think it can be done easily. Guitar wah use a variable BP (band-pass) filter. Bass wah use LP (low-pass) filter.

 

[sonicvi]

There's a .01uF cap connected to the emitter or the last transistor. Increase it to about .068uF to convert to bass wah.
Here's a schematic:
http://www.geocities.com/j4_student/jh1wah.gif

 

[Toasted]

There's ways you can make it more bass-friendly, but really you need a bass-specific wah to get a bass wah sound. IMO.

 

[Silent Fly]

There's ways you can make it more bass-friendly, but really you need a bass-specific wah to get a bass wah sound. IMO.

+1

 

[Toasted]

If you were looking for a bass wah then the 105q by Dunlop really should get more love than it does.

 

[probert]

There's a .01uF cap connected to the emitter or the last transistor. Increase it to about .068uF to convert to bass wah.
Here's a schematic:
http://www.geocities.com/j4_student/jh1wah.gif

do you know if this works for cry baby as well? I have some wah left, which I never use and thought I could give it a try..

 

[sonicvi]

do you know if this works for cry baby as well? I have some wah left, which I never use and thought I could give it a try..

Yes, it does.
The old Dunlop Hendrix wah is just a Cry Baby with a few minor mods.
This one cap is the only difference between the original Dunlop guitar and bass Cry-Baby wahs.

http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/schematics/crybaby.gif
http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/schematics/basscrybaby.gif

 

[3fingerdemon]

Maybe I'll just sell the JH-1 and buy an actual 105q. Seems like the safest route.

hehe.

 

[gnasher1993]

Yes, it does.
The old Dunlop Hendrix wah is just a Cry Baby with a few minor mods.
This one cap is the only difference between the original Dunlop guitar and bass Cry-Baby wahs.

http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/schematics/crybaby.gif
http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/schematics/basscrybaby.gif

Is that really the only difference? There's a £30 difference between the two over here. That is one expensive capacitor...

 

[Hookus]

It is an easy mod. I have owned a 105Q, and prefer a GCB-95, FWIW. Just open the back, and look at the revision printed on the board, and do a google search for modding it. Took me about 10 minutes. Nice thing, is that you can tweak different components to really customize you sound. There are several web pages describing this.