New Wah Pedal

[Trouble]

My old heavily modified Dunlop GCB-95 wah has developed yet another short, and this time it seems to only happen when there is a lot of humidity in the air.

 

I have changed a lot of caps, resistors and finally changed the inductor and was very happy with the sound overall, but even when it is working fine there are 2 shortcomings, the modifications improved the sound drastically, but added a slight gain bump that tends too not react well with od pedals, and the bass response is still weak, which means part of the sweep is unusable.

 

I've demo 'ed a couple of the MXR/CAE wah pedals and it is the best sounding wah I've ever played, although I haven't tried Area 51, Wilson, or Teese wahs.

 

BUT, the MXR/CAE wah is still just a mass produced PCB pedal and I was very worried about reliability. I just can't afford it to fail during gigs. While I know problems do happen at gigs, I try to avoid them at all costs, I carry spares when I can, use high quality gear if I can, and try to take the best care of my stuff I can.

 

That said, I decided to go with the Wilson Rippah Q-Wah, I think it will be more than adequate soundwise and hopefully last for a long long time.

 

When it comes in I'll try to give an update.

 

http://www.wilsoneffects.com/RippahQ-wah.html

[DetroitBlues]

Cool! If you're going to pitch the old one, let me know. Might be a fun project to work on....

[Trouble]

Cool! If you're going to pitch the old one, let me know. Might be a fun project to work on....

I'm going to fix it eventually, I may use an Area 51 drop in circuit board or send it to Keeley, or maybe a BYOC circuit and just use the housing.

[koula901]

Looks like it's built like a mac truck! Let us know how you like it.

[Trouble]

Okay, got the new wah and got to play it for awhile today. First of all controls. I ordered the 6 position Rippah Q wah with vintage spec wiring, there is a Q control, that is supposed to adjust the sweet spot or quack, a 6 position sweep selector, and a bass/gain knob. It took me about 5 minutes to find exactly what I wanted as for as sound, I turned the sweep knob to the second lowest setting, (low as in bass end of the sweep) turned the q control almost all the way down, and the bass gain almost all the way up. Set like this it is a very smooth sweep with nearly uniform volume across the sweep, and slightly dark sounding, which suits me just fine.

 

The 70's porn sound is in there too, along with about anything else you can think up I guess. at also has a tension adjustable rocker.

 

It might not have quite as pretty a paint job as some of the other high end wahs on the market, but it sounds great, feels great and seems really solid.

 

I checked out the circuit board and pots when I took the feet off the bottom to put on the board, very neat handmade board well laid out and looks like solid components throughout, also I had a question so I sent Kevin Wilson an email, got an answer back in about 15 minutes, how's that for service?!

[bolero]

that's cool, never heard of them but excellent features for sure

 

is the guy Australian? I can just hear an Aussie surfer accent...."it's a real rippah!!"

[TalismanRich]

Looks like an interesting wah. I listened to some of the demos. There's one by SheetsOfSound that showed some of the stuff it does.

[Trouble]

Here's a link

 

http://wilsoneffects.com/

 

Small builder, mainly wah pedals but also some cool fuzzes and overdrives. He will also do the lefty mod for free, and mine has a super bright blue led to indicate the effect is on.

 

The thing that helped me decide to go with Wilson was reports that he absolutely stands behind his products, and is easy to reach. He is also on facebook.

 

That said, being in a hurry I ordered mine from prymaxe vintage because there is a wait time when ordering something custom direct from him, and I couldn't think of anything that I wanted the Rippah Q didn't have.

 

I still haven't played an Area 51 or a Teese, but I can't imagine anything they would have that would make me choose one of those over this one, other than a paint job. Once you have the sound you want then what else do you really need?

[Trouble]

Another little update, the Wilson wah is great in a band setting, not just by myself. After playing Man in the Box and Play that Funky Music my bass player looked at me and said " I don't know what it cost but that was money well spent".

 

Really digging it.