Dunlop - Cry Baby GCB-95: how to improve it for cheap

A forum devoted to mod, tips and suggestions for upgrading and rehousing your VERY CHEAP commercial stompbox to near boutique excellence.
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zeppe
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Post by zeppe »

Yeah, I replaced both. I read that article too by RG Keen too, maybe I should have left in the stock Q2 but
it sounds great as it is..
Be aware thats it a little more awkward to do it because the 2N5172 is ECB and the MPSA18 is EBC
and you have to cross the legs.

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rallygsc
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Post by rallygsc »

Hello Everyone:

I just got back into guitars recently and I came across this site while doing a search and it is very informative and helpful :applause:

I have a small question in regards to the Crybaby GCB-95 mods.

while searching on the internet, I noticed a couple of places online selling a 5 way mod for the crybaby wah, you can change the tone by using the selector just like some of the higher priced wah's.

does anyone have any information and what parts are needed?.

I just got a used crybaby cheap and I want to redo it, I am going to due a true bypass to it, but I want to have some fun and tweak it some more.

going to change a lot of capacitors and add a whipple inductor also, but I want to check out the 5 way mod, any info is appreciated

take care
and thanks
George :D

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CHEEZOR
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Post by CHEEZOR »

I'm not 100% sure because I dont know what mods you were looking at, but my guess is that its a 6 way selector with different capacitors for the "sweep" capacitor.
Go here for an example of which cap I'm talking about: http://www.wah-wah.co.uk/diy.html

This is the sort of thing that is on the Crybaby 535Q. You can get the switches from smallbear, but there might be cheaper out there if you want to look elsewhere. They aren't too expensive though. If you need further explanation or pics then I can do that.

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schemripper
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Post by schemripper »

rallygsc wrote: while searching on the internet, I noticed a couple of places online selling a 5 way mod for the crybaby wah, you can change the tone by using the selector just like some of the higher priced wah's.

does anyone have any information and what parts are needed?.
Pop on over to General Guitar Gadgets and have a look at their mod-able Wah project. That will have all the information you need- and more.

As well, DIY Italia has one that might be less confusing. If you can't read Italian, don't worry- component values are universal. I think that one is here too, maybe earlier in this thread. I did a search on "Meritil" without joy.

Also, read this thread from the beginning. Baja's thread is a wealth of info.

They should be enough to get your head going in the right direction.

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schemripper
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Post by schemripper »

schemripper wrote: Pop on over to General Guitar Gadgets and have a look at their mod-able Wah project. That will have all the information you need- and more.

As well, DIY Italia has one that might be less confusing. If you can't read Italian, don't worry- component values are universal. I think that one is here too, maybe earlier in this thread. I did a search on "Meritil" without joy.

Also, read this thread from the beginning. Baja's thread is a wealth of info.

They should be enough to get your head going in the right direction.
And I forgot Geofex. Mandatory reading if you want to get into the guts of it, including switching caps.

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zeppe
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Post by zeppe »

Here's a sound sample of a modded Crybaby Rev H I recently sold.

http://www.myspace.com/songservices

Mods were as follows.
True bypass switch.
New Arteffect pot(not much difference from the original Dunlop IMO)
2 2N5172 transistors
Capacitors changed to Xicon greenies( a la Bajaman's suggestion)
Input resistor changed to 47K(more volume)
470ohm at emitter of Q1 to 510 ohm
47K changed to 68K for more vocal sound.
Its amazing how some small cheap tweaks can really transform this pedal :D

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glenn.b
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Post by glenn.b »

Hello all! I have been a member & lurking here for a bit, this is my first posting here. This forum is great, and I have learned a great deal just by reading through it! I've had Dunlop Crybabys' twice in my life up to now; once in my late teens just before joining the army, and again in my mid 20's. Long story short, for the last year and a half , I have been building pedals from kit/ or by scratch (on perfboard ). The ugly,time -thief/ / keep ya up all night hobby has bit me :lol: . Not long ago, I decided I needed one of these wonderful wah wahs back in my life. Sadly, the area of the south-midwest that I live in (AR!) does not have a bunch of music stores where one can obtain a used one suitable for modding, so of course, off to Ebay I went. A week and $26.50 later, the day came. The seller did a good job, his description right up front was that it "might need repairs", as well as I knew what I was getting from the pics- it was beat. As soon as I got it, I plugged it in, and of course, it sounded awful with scratchiness . So out came the contact cleaner & electrical lube. After a few healthy doses, but no improvement, I did what I will rarely do: I pried open the pot-it was nothing but a corroded mess in there. No matter where the wiper moved made no difference, it was totally worn out....Since then, here's a list of "upgrades" I've done:
true bypass w/ Led
vocal mod--swapped the 33k for a 51k ( didn't want to go all the way 68k on it)
mis boost--changed the stock 1.5k resistor for 2.1k between Q2 and inductor
gain--reduced the 470 ohm resitor to 270 ohms at Q1
volume--Reduced the 68k input resistor to 47
the Bajaman cap mod--changed out the"crappy blue" ones for a mixture of the "green meanies" and panasonic brown caps...( this wah is one of these Jimi Hendricks/original Thomas Organ Design ones, I'm guessing that is why it already had a .022uF sweep cap ...??
Oh, and I had to try something different for that pot, so I ended up order one of those McCon-O-pot'...

Bottom Line??I love this thing! huge bang for buck! Better than what I played on when I was younger....
However, I do have one small question: While I visited small bear to get the McCon-o-pot, I also purchased the diy inductor kit and wire. I want to use the stock inductor, and the one that I will wind myself. I do not not want to run them in series, rather to switch one to the other using a DPDT switch. My question , is there a way , using a switch to keep both the inductors on the pcb? or am I better off taking both of them off the pcb, bring my two wires to the switch, and hookup the two inductors offboard? I have seen how to do this via the GGG mod-wah, just not sure the best way to do this. Thoughts and suggestions much appreciated . Thanks in advance!

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glenn.b
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Post by glenn.b »

Hello all! this is just an amendment or a post script to my last post here. After having trouble with my homebuilt inductor / pickup winder, and then chasing down error free ohm reading from the semi-full inductor, insult added to injury when I attempted to remove the spool from the 3M tape (that secured it to the winder). I broke one end of the little black spool. Thus, after being triple Shanghai'd :evil: and feeling very weary, I grabbed my debit card and went off to Smallbears' cave again. I did not get a Fasel, but a Sabbadius Soul halo inductor. I installed in the pedal with a switch that allows me switch 'tween the Sabbadius and the original. It is without a doubt different than the stock- I like the sound of both the inductors, but to my ears the 'Sabb provides a bit more upper-end toe down sound. The "tone" of the high end just seems a bit more, in contrast to the stock inductor which has a bit more bottom depth....be advised 'tho, these are from the ears of a guy who has spent the last 24 years doing lots of rifle ranges and playing with lots of loud things that go"boom", and radios that banter on through the night. So if my ears where eyes, I don't figure they'd be 20'/20...lol I did not see anything here on the Sabbadius, so I thought I would throw my own "tech review on the pile".

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Post by stardust13 »

boxnix wrote:Is asking for a fat clean wah like asking for a horny faithful wife?

Actually I asked and had two wives such as that at least the horny part the faithful not so much :oops:

But as being new to posting (reading the Mods I have been doing a long time) I wanted to thank everyone for the many posts.

The one thing I have discovered is there is no "Magic Bullet" for any one Wah as each Crybaby takes on a life of its own at birth and each Mod is also different.

What the many posts here have helped me understand is experimentation is the answer and each of us have to be willing to use the info here only as a frame of reference and we each have to find what it is we are searching for individually and do as I mentioned, use the posts here for a reference and guide to the next step.

Thanks guys for the work and helping me gather the courage needed to continue that search, perhaps one day I will find that Holly Grail of Wahs I seek

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Post by bajaman »

check this out :secret:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10270
cheers
bajaman
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clamup1
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Post by clamup1 »

hey i replaced the wrong resistors on a series E board and i cant figure out which ones go where. any chance someone can post a gut shot of a original gcb 95.

http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/mods/dunlop.htm

the rev E board is what mine looks like. the pics too far away to see the color codes.

or if you know what they are post them for me please

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Post by ChristoMephisto »

I'm building a Wizard Wah clone with a V846 clone pcb and a dark red fasel, tropical fish caps and a few mods,
other than why the input cap and resistor are reversed on the old Vox V846 to modern wahs...
The Wizard wah has an input cap of 0.015 and the mids resistor 1k6, this got me thinking of the common wah mod to increase the 1k5 res to 2k2 to help with the mids and such.
Looking at it, I see a high band pass and you wah with whats below it
Stock of 1k5/.01 its 10.6k Hz, generally a brilliant sound, with 2k2/.01 it's 7.2k Hz slightly less brilliant, not to trashy.
The Wizard uses the 1k6/.015 getting 6.6k Hz, more clear and vocal sounding, still pretty close to the 2k2/.01 combo
So this got me thinking, instead of increasing the mids resistor, increase the input cap to 0.015uf, this would still give you the 7k frequency, but would let in more bass (and fatness says geofex) and possibly help with sweep caps that are bigger than 0.01uf
Also less resistance in the tone path is always good, right?,

Instead of the Wizard's 1k6/.015, i'm planning on the 1k5/0.015

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Post by diggum12 »

bajaman wrote:Forget about Teese wahs and all the bullshit about specially manufactured parts etc., here is how to make any standard cry baby wah sound much better. :wink:
First - replace all those shitty little blue capacitors with some better quality ones - I used those little grey MKT film types, but you could use xicon film for still better results. (They are 10n x 2, and 220n x 2).
Second - find the 4.7uf electrolytic capacitor and it's 82k ohm bypass resistor - replace them with a 3.3uf BP paralleled with a 680n film type (for close to 4uf) and a 100k metal film resistor (or metal oxide).
Third - replace the 390 ohm resistor with a 510 ohm ( or parallel 2 x 1k ohm)
That is it :wink: - just plug in your guitar and enjoy wah wah sounds ( not woh woh as in the stock GCB95)

No need for special taper pots, fasel inductors or any of the other bullshit stuff - just good quality capacitors and the correct value resistors is all you need
Cheers
bajaman
Okay so I've been with you all on this thread for... ever... so I went all the way back to first post and totally missed the 4uF/100k in the second point. This controls the "Q" more than increasing the 33k in parallel with the inductor? I tried this and basically was even less impressed with it. I'm missing something. Of
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Post by ChristoMephisto »

iirc the 82k-100k resistor helps bias Q1, along with the 330-510 ohm resistor, but that helps with the gain.
go with the suggested 100k/4uf combo and tweek the 33k in parallel for the sweet spot

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Post by diggum12 »

ChristoMephisto wrote:iirc the 82k-100k resistor helps bias Q1, along with the 330-510 ohm resistor, but that helps with the gain.
go with the suggested 100k/4uf combo and tweek the 33k in parallel for the sweet spot
Yeah I had thought about that after I posted: I've already done some other mods that would make the effect of this harder to spot, so to speak.
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Post by marmaliser »

So I modded my 1980's Rev C to True bybass and changed the resistor values and all was well. Decided whilst I was in there to add a 2.1mm DC jack and now all i get is HUM... I wired it Black to Negative Tip, Orange to + and Red from thr battery to the switched + . Do I need some filtering or soemthing? It works fine on Battery
I feel like such a noob :oops:

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Post by bajaman »

it could be a power supply problem - are you using a regulated 9v supply?
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Post by marmaliser »

^
I was just using a crappy soundlab adpater but I just tried it on my Burkey SIX and it was doing the same.

Does it need grounding ? The outer negative sleeve would have been grounding on the case with the original jack?. I have used an insulated jack so the ,now outer positive does not ground.

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Post by marmaliser »

Of course it was a grouding issue - All sorted now thanks

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Post by bajaman »

:)
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