Vox - V847A Wah - the new one

Greg · Post by **Greg** » 26 May 2008, 08:15

Vox Wahs suddenly took a price tumble in Australia, and I decided to buy 3 of them to modify for myself and friends.
I'm probably the only one here who didn't realise that the price reduction came as a consequence of the fact that Vox now have the V847(A) made in China... different design, and mainly SMD components.

Firstly to quality control. Of the 3 I bought, one had the name label attached upside down, one didn't function at all, and one was OK... not a very good start.

Sound wise, they're not too bad. A little thin on the treble side, but fairly vocal, and definitely an acceptable Wah, esp. for the price. My old Jen still sounds a lot better IMO. The jacks are just plain nasty.
Unfortunately to mod them I'll have to make a whole new board now. I'm not sure whether the pots are good enough to use, but I guess I'll try them against a known variety for comparison.

Anyway, if you're as out of touch as me and thinking of getting a new Vox, be warned that they're a different animal now.
Here's some gut shots :-

Can you spot the problem here ?

BeAR · Post by **BeAR** » 27 May 2008, 10:23

Can I ask what they are worth? Did you source them here or OS? Im in Melbourne myself.
Depending on price, and judging from the fact that they have to be gutted, it might not be worth the hassle.

bajaman · Post by **bajaman** » 27 May 2008, 10:29

Hey - that must be the one for the russian market (middle picture)

bajaman

Greg · Post by **Greg** » 27 May 2008, 10:59

bajaman wrote:Hey - that must be the one for the russian market (middle picture)
bajaman

beAR - I paid $110 each for them in Perth. I've seen them advertised on the East Coast for $99.
Do a search and you'll find them.
There are still some stores selling them at the old price - ripoff.

Fuzzer · Post by **Fuzzer** » 27 May 2008, 16:17

bajaman wrote:Hey - that must be the one for the russian market (middle picture)
bajaman

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Great sense of humor!!

BeAR · Post by **BeAR** » 28 May 2008, 09:29

hmmm, cant find anywhere in Melbourne that will do them for this price.
Made half a dozen phonecalls today and the best offer I got was a Cry Baby for $120.

Greg · Post by **Greg** » 28 May 2008, 09:48

BeAR wrote:hmmm, cant find anywhere in Melbourne that will do them for this price.
Made half a dozen phonecalls today and the best offer I got was a Cry Baby for $120.

30 seconds on google :-
http://rmcmusic.com.au/index.php?main_p ... 6a0699eca6

BeAR · Post by **BeAR** » 28 May 2008, 10:39

Smart arse...................

Let me rephrase that..................I couldnt find one within an hours drive of where I live.

Gila_Crisis · Post by **Gila_Crisis** » 28 May 2008, 10:46

those vox are a shame!!!!

rocklander · Post by **rocklander** » 28 May 2008, 10:53

BeAR wrote:Smart arse...................
Let me rephrase that..................I couldnt find one within an hours drive of where I live.

don't Aussie shops do a price challenge? throw this web page at the ones near your house, no?

Post by **modman** » 24 Jul 2008, 18:11

Greg_G wrote:Vox Wahs suddenly took a price tumble in Australia, and I decided to buy 3 of them to modify for myself and friends.
I'm probably the only one here who didn't realise that the price reduction came as a consequence of the fact that Vox now have the V847(A) made in China... different design, and mainly SMD components.

Firstly to quality control. Of the 3 I bought, one had the name label attached upside down, one didn't function at all, and one was OK... not a very good start.

Sound wise, they're not too bad. A little thin on the treble side, but fairly vocal, and definitely an acceptable Wah, esp. for the price. My old Jen still sounds a lot better IMO. The jacks are just plain nasty.
Unfortunately to mod them I'll have to make a whole new board now. I'm not sure whether the pots are good enough to use, but I guess I'll try them against a known variety for comparison.

Anyway, if you're as out of touch as me and thinking of getting a new Vox, be warned that they're a different animal now.
Here's some gut shots :-

Can you spot the problem here ?

You can always save the inductor and just toss away the whole pcb and use these files
http://michaelhanney.com/blog/jen-vox-v ... ect-files/
to build a decent Vox wah from the original layout.

Check elsewhere for hints onhow to rebuild.

Bside2234 · Post by **Bside2234** » 24 Jul 2008, 20:21

I would look at this as an opportunity to learn to solder SMD! What's the worst that could happen? You mess up the boards and have to throw them away and make new ones? It's what I would do before just tossing the boards.

Greg · Post by **Greg** » 24 Jul 2008, 23:16

Bside2234 wrote:I would look at this as an opportunity to learn to solder SMD! What's the worst that could happen? You mess up the boards and have to throw them away and make new ones? It's what I would do before just tossing the boards.

I'm not put off by the fact that they're SMD - it's the fact that this isn't the original Wah circuit that I'm familiar with and prefer the sound of.

Bside2234 · Post by **Bside2234** » 25 Jul 2008, 18:40

Ahh! I see. I am willing to be the basics of the original V847 are still there and could still be modded (i.e. the 33k in parallel with the inductor, the sweep cap, etc.). Ok, you peaked my interest. I may have to pick up a new one now.

soulsonic · Post by **soulsonic** » 25 Jul 2008, 20:35

You can get a new Crybaby for $69USD; that's only about $72AUD. Why waste your time with these junky Voxes if you're only going to have to mod them to get them to sound good? At least a Crybaby is a less expensive platform to use as a basis for modding.

And soldering surface mount resistors isn't hard at all. Anyone can do it with a little practice. I have a friend who works in assembly and hand-solders surface mount resistors all the time, and he started as a total n00b a couple years ago. Just takes a steady hand and a toothpick or something to hold it in place while you're doing the soldering; removing them is very easy - usually, just heating the joints is enough to get them to come off (and stick to your iron tip!).

At any rate, at least the caps are all through-hole; that's where most of the good tone mojo tends to be in wahs anyway. I'd start with some fancy caps and go from there.

Nikifena · Post by **Nikifena** » 25 Jul 2008, 21:14

bajaman wrote:Hey - that must be the one for the russian market (middle picture)
bajaman

ХОЛ in bulgarian means something like hall and living room

cool.

soulsonic · Post by **soulsonic** » 25 Jul 2008, 21:26

Nikifena wrote:
bajaman wrote:Hey - that must be the one for the russian market (middle picture)
bajaman
ХОЛ in bulgarian means something like hall and living room

cool.

I understand.
So, they intend the Khol wah for when you have guests visiting and you want to entertain them.
То хорошая информация.

Greg · Post by **Greg** » 25 Jul 2008, 23:55

soulsonic wrote:You can get a new Crybaby for $69USD; that's only about $72AUD. Why waste your time with these junky Voxes if you're only going to have to mod them to get them to sound good? At least a Crybaby is a less expensive platform to use as a basis for modding.

Do you mean like the one listed here in Australia for $269.00 (plus freight = $285.00)?

http://www.melmusic.com.au/shop/index.p ... ctID=10091

If only an item sold in the US was available to us for just the dollar conversion rate...

soulsonic · Post by **soulsonic** » 26 Jul 2008, 00:10

Greg_G wrote:
soulsonic wrote:You can get a new Crybaby for $69USD; that's only about $72AUD. Why waste your time with these junky Voxes if you're only going to have to mod them to get them to sound good? At least a Crybaby is a less expensive platform to use as a basis for modding.

Do you mean like the one listed here in Australia for $269.00 (plus freight = $285.00)?

http://www.melmusic.com.au/shop/index.p ... ctID=10091

If only an item sold in the US was available to us for just the dollar conversion rate...

Why they do that? How hard would it be to order one from an American seller and have it shipped? Do you guys have ridiculous import duties or something?

bajaman · Post by **bajaman** » 26 Jul 2008, 00:33

Why they do that? How hard would it be to order one from an American seller and have it shipped? Do you guys have ridiculous import duties or something?

Hey - you think you Aussies have it tough - at least your dollar is nearly the same (98%) of the American dollar. Here in GodZone our dollar is only worth .75c American!!!
What kills things for me (and I order a LOT of parts and bits and pieces from America - probaly more than locally), is the freight variance - some US companies will charge me US$47.00 freight when they ship by US Post a US$34.00 parts order.

This means that I have to pay NZ$108.00 for the parts. And everyone nows that the NZ dollar is worth sweet fuck all - our wages are some of the lowest in the developed World, thanks to a previous Tory National government's success in all but destroying the organized labour or Union movement. And in November the media is telling us we are about to elect a National Govenment again (after 9 years of a socialist Labour government that has done many things to help the working people of NZ), so looks like we are in for another dose of their awful medicine - they think our dollar is too high - our exporters keep bleating. In the meantime we are slipping further and further behind our progressive Aussie neighbours, who have a fucking lot more fighting spirit than the average docile Kiwi

bajaman