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morley tel ray power wah fuzz / volume problem

bovine mind

bovine mind

Jun 17, 2008
928
6
San Francisco
#1
scored a chrome tel ray era power wah fuzz PWF. really into the huge sweep of the wah and gorgeous vintage looks, but disappointed by the weak character of the fuzz. i'm thinking the power wah boost may be better for cutting through a band mix. i've read that the pedal should function as a volume pedal when the fuzz and wah footswitches are disengaged. i'm not getting any effect when i rock the pedal back and forth in this mode. my signal passes through untouched. any idea why this is and how i can fix this?
 
#6
i thought i'd be in for the same, but the fuzz sounds transparent, barely there, thin & trebly. this is leading me to believe something is wrong with the pedal. then again, it is sitting right after my depth charge in the chain, so perhaps it's just not the kind of overpowering effect i dig and thought i'd be getting. with both the fuzz and wah engaged it sounds pretty intense, but with just the fuzz on it's pretty tame.

this manual: Invalid Link Removed
claims it can function as a volume pedal, but i'm getting no effect when the fuzz and wah are bypassed.
 
#7
niftydog said:
I have a feeling there's two LDR's in those things - one for wah and one for volume. Open it up and check out the mechanics, they're often out of place and doing weird things.

Schematics available at Morley's website.
Click to expand...

i'm looking at the schematic right now and am feeling overwhelmed on what i'd need to change. i haven't opened the pedal up, but i'll take a look when i get back to my studio. any ideas on exactly what might be out of place?
 
#8
There's 1 or 2 little thing-o's called Light Dependent Resistors (LDR's or photoresistors) that 'detect' the light from the bulb and vary the circuit - in the PWF schematic they're labelled 'LDR-1' and 'LDR-2'.

They will be sitting under a cowling near the bulb. The light from the bulb is shaded by a flap of fabric attached to the treadle. When the treadle is heel-down the fabric is supposed to cover the LDR's and seal against the cowling plunging the LDR's into complete darkness - vice versa when the treadle is toe-down.

Make sure the cowling and fabric flap are working properly, that the bulb is working, that the LDR's are both facing into the light and that they are both securely soldered in place. Worry about the obvious stuff before you worry about deciphering the schematic.
 
#10
I made a youtube video sort of along these lines awhile ago. my name on youtube is almix12. if you don't want to open it up right away look at mine. It's a PWO but generally the same idea. You can find the schematics for it two, look and see if there are in fact two LDRs. If so, open yours and possibly replace the volume one. I havn't read the manual lately but I don't remember it supposing to function as a volume pedal as well... isn't there a PWV for that?
 
#11
I just bought a 70s morley power wah fuzz and I'm having some problems along the same lines...

first off..I play a 70 Rickenbacker bass with emg humbucker pickups... thru a sv pro 4 amp with 2x 810 cabs stacked on the side...

I got this pedal thinking I would somehow reincarnate Cliff Burton... but to my surprise its a little weak so I'm wondering if there might be some bad caps/resistors in it. The Fuzz sounds pretty good and loud when the wah is on but Fuzz by itself tends to be weak...and when I hit a note I can hear the fuzz flucuate (sp) a little like hit the note..its weak and a second later hear a little surge in volume.. also the the wah itself is not as expressive as I thought it should be... having trouble gettin those tiger growls and the the sweeps... and the phase sound.... and it is definitely cutting my signal down...

So I figured since this thing was so loved.. there might be a some technical problems... read some other forums and have opened it up and bent the LDR's to face the light bulb some more and made sure that while engaged the sensors where pretty well blacked out from light...

any help would be greatly appreciated... I believe this pedal has more to it and want to retore it to its glory...

p.s. regarding some of the replies to this thread... my pedal does work as volume pedal when the other buttons are disengaged.
 

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