Wah distorting my clean tone? Help!

[Nicholasim]

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a wah pedal (dunlop 535Q, it has true bypass mod). When i tested it at home at low volumes, it sounded really good. However, when I tested it out with bigger amps at higher volumes, the wah actually distorts my clean tone quite badly. It happens when the pedal is pushed more towards the "higher voiced wah".

Is there any reason for this happening? I cant get a nice wah sound with this "distortion"

 

[J.custom]

This is my wah right? Try disengaging the clean boost, its the Red button at the right bottom. This is pushing the front end of the amp, causing it to breakup

 

[Nicholasim]

Hi j.custom, yup it's the one I got from you. I've already tried with the boos on and off but both produced the same results. When the boost is on, it's just louder.

 

[skipper53]

Nic, what "big" amp where u running this through?

Like Ian's saying here, the boost is pushing the amp's front end causing it to break up.

Is there otherwise an OD pedal in the chain you are running?

 

[Nicholasim]

Nic, what "big" amp where u running this through?

Like Ian's saying here, the boost is pushing the amp's front end causing it to break up.

Is there otherwise an OD pedal in the chain you are running?

Hey! I've tried running it through a Peavy JSX head & cab, a line 6 spider head & cab and a Peavy XXX combo amp. All has the break up in the clean setting. I have an OD in the chain as but but it isnt turned on. The boost on the wah which you've mentioned was turned off as well.

It cant be because its too loud that it caused the distorted sound right? I've tried other wahs on those amps before and it didnt have this problem.

Thanks! Appreciate the help

 

[mightyboy88]

Hey! I've tried running it through a Peavy JSX head & cab, a line 6 spider head & cab and a Peavy XXX combo amp. All has the break up in the clean setting. I have an OD in the chain as but but it isnt turned on. The boost on the wah which you've mentioned was turned off as well.

It cant be because its too loud that it caused the distorted sound right? I've tried other wahs on those amps before and it didnt have this problem.

Thanks! Appreciate the help

I have the 535q too, and I think its just how the wah behaves at the higher sweep. it probably has a little treble boost thing goin on that cause the output to increase as you wah-in

perhaps you can try to adjust the q-factor or turn down the volume knob on your guitar a little to reduce the harshness of the wah

one thing that may lead to high amounts of distortion in live applications could be the presence of poor methods of powering your pedals. This includes the use of daisy chains to a unregulated wall power supplies such as the godlyke or onespot power adaptors. When playing in loud scenarios, the white noise/hiss etc gets amplified into distortion or even feedback

 

[Nicholasim]

Thanks mightyboy!

Hmm, I just find it weird how in the past, my old stock 535q did not give any of these problems but this one which I just purchased did.

I'm just wondering if it could be the led mod or true bypass mod that caused this problem?

I'm not good at these electronics stuff and I cannot understand what's going on when I open up the pedal.

 

[mightyboy88]

Thanks mightyboy!

Hmm, I just find it weird how in the past, my old stock 535q did not give any of these problems but this one which I just purchased did.

I'm just wondering if it could be the led mod or true bypass mod that caused this problem?

I'm not good at these electronics stuff and I cannot understand what's going on when I open up the pedal.

from what i understand, the 535q is already sort of true bypassed stock.

there are a couple of small resistors in front and at the back of the signal chain, apparently there to reduce the 'pop' sounds when engaging or disengaging the wah.

however, the stock 535q does not have a 3dpt switch so you cant have led + true bypass at the same time(i may be wrong, im not sure)

i believe that your mod to the pedal should involve a swap of switch to the 3dpt one(i.e. 9 lugs instead of 6 lugs). The led mod or true bypass mod should not contribute towards the distortion.

I guess you could bring it to a pedal tech to get the wiring looked out

 

[tyzjames]

Nicholasim, maybe you could upload a gutshot of the pedal?

 

[Nicholasim]

Oh! Didn't know the stock version was already bypassed and not buffered. Yeah i think you're right mightyboy, I remember seeing a 9 lug bypass switch in there when I opened it up the last time.

Alright, I will upload the picture of it when I get home tonight.

Thanks for the replies & help, deeply appreciated

 

[zesn]

It could be the frequencies the wah is sweeping making the clean tone sound like it's actually distorted when it's not.

Think of it like this picture

I didn't make this. But when the wah accentuates a huge load of the high mids frequencies while the other frequencies remain as they are, it may sound like it's distorting, at higher volumes of course

 

[Nicholasim]

Hmm, I understand what you mean. I could adjust it with the sweep knob to prevent this but the wah wont sound like I want it to then.

As mentioned earlier, the main reason which got me confused is that I had the same wah in the past, but stock without mods, which I set to the same settings and played with the same guitar and amp and did not have this problem.

Maybe it could be something wrong with the insides. I'll get a pic up when I can

 

[Nicholasim]

Finally got a chance to upload the pictures! Here they are:

Pic 1 shows the NEW 9-pin bypass switch that was installed
Pic 2 shows the LED light that was installed
Pic 3 shows some weird glue? thing that is connected from the LED light. Its not goo-ey, its feels hard, like dried up saliva (haha)
Pic 4 shows the main board of the 535Q wah

 

[tyzjames]

Doesnt look like anything is out of the ordinary. The dried saliva thing is probably epoxy... or maybe UHU? Have not come across a inductor like this in a 535 before.. cool

Have you managed to troubleshoot/figure out the problem?

 

[Nicholasim]

Doesnt look like anything is out of the ordinary. The dried saliva thing is probably epoxy... or maybe UHU? Have not come across a inductor like this in a 535 before.. cool

Have you managed to troubleshoot/figure out the problem?

I thought no one will reply already haha. Thanks for the reply & expertees. Hmm, I havent really got the chance to try toubleshoot. I will definately try to once i have the time and update here on the outcome as i think this is quite a rare case and we can all benefit and learn from whats going on here....






If we managed to trouble shoot the problem. Haha