The Wah Files

[fuzzking]

Okay here's the story:

I get a brand new Colorsound Wah, works fine, give it to friend, 2 days later it's dead. Dead. Nothing.
I get a RI Vox Wah, works fine, give it to a friend , ...

The wahs had not been dropped or abused (as I tend to believe my friends), what is it then?
Some kind of spell? It's just driving me insane. No loose cables or parts visible. Both people
claim they just plugged them in an they didn't work (as opposed to when I gave them away).

What would be the 1st thing to look for if a wah makes No-Sound-At-All ?
A scratchy pot would be easy to identify, but this is just giving me headaches (well, mostly
the circumstances).

And this is the worst about it:
I bought the RI Stuff just to spare my vintage Vox and Jen. They've been doing it for +30yrs. now,
and then I buy the new stuff and it's just unreliable, out-of-the-box. It's almost the same as with the
new Apple-Computers.

Any wah advice (at least I'd like to spot what's wrong w/the things
before I give them to a repairman) ?


Cheers, Michael

[i love sharin foo]

Are they passing signal when off? What about when on? I'm guessing there aren't LEDs to show if they're powering up. Take a look at the jacks and their soldered connections inside.

Justin

[fuzzking]

Nah the connections look okay, and they pass signal when of. I guess I'll have to buy a multimeter.

[Jay]

This is probably way obvious but did you make sure the cable weren't plugged in backwards?  I've done that a few times with pedals that weren't the typical right side in, left side out and been frustrated all to hell before I realized I was just an idiot.

[eyesadrift]

This is probably way obvious but did you make sure the cable weren't plugged in backwards?  I've done that a few times with pedals that weren't the typical right side in, left side out and been frustrated all to hell before I realized I was just an idiot.

yah i did that alot with my russian big muff
thats probably why i dont use it anymore

[fuzzking]

This is probably way obvious but did you make sure the cable weren't plugged in backwards? 

That was the 1st thing I asked both of them.
I'll have to go for the multimeter & dig into the electronic abyss. Wrah...

[pullover]

I have had my Wah seamingly not work, and it turned out to be the 9v DC plug. It just wasn't pushed in all the way. I would go to switch on the wah and nothing. Off, it passed the signal through but when on nothing came through. First thing I always check when there is no signal is the power supply.