Effects Bay

@mojosarmy sent me a tweet letting me know he posted a video where he modified his Dunlop GCB-95 Cry Baby to be true bypass. This is a great 2 part modification that I did to my wah a couple of years ago (I also changed the inductor, changed the pot to an ICAR taper pot and added a LED).

For those of you interested in tweaking pedals, this is a great project that covers a lot of the fundamentals and something that will definitely get your hands dirty. The first part of the modification is to replace the footswitch with a 3PDT footswitch. That will get your switching ready for the true bypass, but you must follow that up with the PCB mod. Changing the footswitch alone will NOT make this true bypass. That is because the signal is buffered in the circuit after the input signal. The goal is to route the input signal to the footswitch then back to the circuit. That is the second mod. The second modification involves cutting a trace on the board and hard wiring a lead from the board to the footswitch.

Mojo did a great job showing all the steps as well as explaining what all needs to be done. For further information, especially if you’re PCB board in the wah doesn’t look like Mojo’s, check out this GREAT page – True bypass for the Dunlop GCB-95 Crybaby That pages shows the trace cut on various revisions of the board (Rev F, G, H & I). Thanks Mojo for letting me know about your vid!

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A few days ago I posted about the Line 6 M5 Stompbox modeler. On Facebook, there was one mention of how the footswitches were really not that great. Basically spring switches making direct contact to switch pad on the circuit board. Seems like problems could crop up with this, and could be an explanation as to why my Line 6 DL4 has been acting up.

After that comment, another user mentioned that he swapped out his footswitches and his pedals are working fine now. He provided a great link to a video where Juffage breaks down a Line 6 DL4 and shows step by step how to replace these spring switches with momentary switches. This would apply to other Line 6 boxes like the M5… but please… proceed at your own risk.. and know your limitations and capabilities before attempting.

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Last week I talked about Fasel Inductors in Wahs, and also featured a few that have the Fasel out of the box. For those of you that are looking to change up your Wah tone, and you have the Original Dunlop CryBaby (GCB-95) here is a quick easy tutorial video on how to replace the stock inductor and add a Fasel Inductor.

This is a really easy modification to do, I would say the hardest point is the de-soldering, but this video uses a good technique on getting the old inductor out.

For those that are interested there a couple of Fasel inductors to choose from the Red and Yellow. The Yellow is for a more “vintage” sound, Red is for a more “clean” sound.  I did this mod (plus a few others) to my wah, and it sounds WAY better than the stock GCB-95. I went with the red in mine, but you could also combine them… or switch between them as well.

If you’re looking to buy one, I would recommend PedalPartsPlus.com to pick one up. They’re great.
Dunlop Red Fasel Inductor
Dunlop Yellow Fasel Inductor

Here is the video by Cappi666:

Other simple mods to consider – True Bypass, ICAR Tapered Wah Pot, LED, Tonal/voice mods.

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The following is a guest post by Matt Cheezem (@CheeseBlocks). If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Velcro seems to be the standard, unchallenged way to mount pedals. With the exception of custom made/mounted boards (that can often carry quite a price tag, or involve a LOT of time for you DIY’ers) there hasn’t really been a more effective method around to do it. I’ll admit, Velcro is convenient, fast, easy, and in most cases, get the job done OK… but if you’re around pedals a lot, you’ve probably experienced at least one case of a pedal that just won’t stick, one that lost grip when you stepped on it, or a precious vintage pedal that had its age identifying label or serial number ripped off by the overzealous sticky side.  Then there are always the pedalboard bandits, that are barely slowed down by velcro!

I offer, for your consideration… an alternative. If you’re still reading, and you’re with me so far, here’s what you’ll need:

Materials:

-Pedal Board (I’ll be using my new “Trailer Trash” brand board)
-Pedal (I’ll be using a Ernie Ball VP Jr. Volume Pedal)
-Screwdriver
-Electric drill
-5/32 drill bit (or metric equivalent)
-Chain cracker
-Small length of extra bike chain (I used #40 size)
-4 nut/bolt/washer combos (6-32 X 1″ used here) OR
-4 wood screws or self tapping machine screws

Step One:

Grab the chain cracker and bike chain and…. Get crackin!

What you’re looking to end up with are the flat links that look like this:

I like to use 4 per pedal (one on each corner) but 2 will do the trick. It will be less secure though.

Step Two:

Remove the 4 screws from the bottom of your pedal, and rubber feet if applicable:

Run the screws through one of the eyelets on your bike chain links, and replace them. You may need to use a couple of washers if your pedal has rubber feet, as the screws may be too long

Step Three:

Since I’ll be using the nut/bolt/washer combos, I’ll be drilling all the way through the board (I don’t recommend doing this on your carpet OR hardwood floors)

If your board sits flush to the ground, you may want to use a short wood screw or self tapping machine head screw. Either way, I would drill a small pilot hole first to prevent splitting/cracking

Step Four:

With all of your holes drilled, insert the hardware through the top of the board, place a washer on each bolt underneath the board, and tighten the nut. If you’re particularly worried about security, you can use a larger fender washer.

That’s It!

Easy as that! Mind you, if you are a player that constantly buys, sells, trades, and moves pedals, this may not be the method for you. Even if you are though, if you have a few key pedals that never move (in my case, the volume pedal will ALWAYS be right where it is here) then maybe a mix of bike chain and velcro is right for you.  Either way, with the right tools, it won’t take more than a minute or two to remove a pedal, and with the small holes drilled, damage is minimal (and will probably be covered up with whatever pedal you replace it with, right?)

If you love the idea, but don’t want to go to the trouble of buying/borrowing a chain cracker, finding a length of chain, rounding up the hardware, etc., I have pedal kits available. Each kit contains 4 chain tabs, and 4 each of either the nut/bolt/washer combo, or self tapping screws (you specify based on your needs!)

Kits are $1.50 each, plus $2.50 shipping per order, and you will need one kit per pedal that you wish to mount. To order, email me at cheeseblockseffectsmecom

Keep on rockin’ in the free world!

Matt
www.cheeseblockseffects.com

About the author:
Matt Cheezem is the owner of CheeseBlocks Effects, who are makers of fine stomp boxes including the CheeseBlocks sCream Cheese overdrive! CheeseBlocks also do pedal mods and custom pedal designs. Please visit them at their website or follow them on Twitter (@CheeseBlocks)

Remember, if you like reading about pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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I think I just found my early x-mas present this year. I like to work on electronics. I very rarely ever get anything work and I’m down right horrible with a soldering iron, but damn it, I’m trying! I have a feeling if I keep at it, I can be one of those electronic wizards that can create custom pedals, etc. Not sure why I want to be this so bad, but it’s true.

Anyway, I found the book titled “Electronic Projects for Musicians“, and it seems to be exactly what I’m looking for. With this, I can start to build something from scratch and learn while I’m doing it. I feel this is different than buying a kit at BYOC, this hopefully will allow me to learn what the hell I’m doing (specifically the math and rules of what resistors or capacitance I need, etc). Hmm, maybe I need a electronics for dummies book too?

Here is the official book description:

How to build pre-amps, tone controls, ring modulators, mixers, and many other inexpensive electronic accessories. Written in simple language, with hundreds of clear illustrations and step-by-step instructions.

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