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Hi there, welcome to my blog - La Revolution Deux. It's an odd name - but I like it! Here you will find all the info on my various DIY Guitar effects builds, amplifiers and guitars. Everything from a humble Ibanez tubescreamer to the holiest KLON Overdrive.

You may also find a few effects builds that I am looking to move on - usually in exchange for other effects/gear/cash. You can always check my ebay account to see what I've got up for grabs.

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Wednesday 19 March 2008

Vsex Winkle Probe: Zvex Wah Probe



Zvex: Interesting FX... The "Probe" series that he runs has been a source of mystery for many moons - until now! Thanks to the Freestompboxes forum members (~arph and others!) who disemboweled their own probe controllers and donated them to the DIY world :-)

Here's a demo video if you've never seen one in action before:


Here is the schematic of the actual "Probe" controller, you can see that it is a series of inverters driving a simple LED driver - this LED driver is used to control an optocoupler (Also called a vactrol) which is basically a LED stuck to an LDR wrapped in black tubing. The LDR section is then used to control a parameter of an FX unit...


[Note - missing capacitor value at the base of the second transistor - 22nF]

Here is the schematic of the old Colorsound Wah pedal, inductorless as you can see. Zvex uses this circuit with a few mods in his Ohh-Wah, Seek-Wah and Wah-Probe FX.

All you need to do to build a Zvex Wah-Probe work-a-like would be to build up a Probe controller using the above schematic and connect it's control vactrol LDR in the position specified in the Wah schematic below!


There you have it, a proximity controlled wah-wah pedal - absolutely useless for that "cocked-wah" sound ;-)

14 comments:

  1. Hi.
    I want to know value of the cap at bass of 2nd transistor.
    Please? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry, I didn't realize I'd missed that! The missing value is 22nF :-) Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. thanks!!

    Change the number 8,9,10 to 13,11,12, vice-versa.


    The rest is Ok!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey there, first of all cool project.

    I was looking on the net for somewhere to get the '4093N' IC in the probe schematic, and couldn't find it. In fact, I couldn't find much information about it at all. All I found was an italian website that said it was a quad 2x input NAND schmitt trigger. I found the 74HC132 at http://www.jaycar.com.au and was wondering is this the same sort of device?
    Much appreciated!

    ReplyDelete
  5. oops, I am a silly lad, found it *shameface*.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi,

    Thanks for posting this! I built one and it's really awesome! I was wondering what values to change in the twin T filter to change the range of the wah. The current values make the wah most pronounced on lower notes on the neck. It sounds really fat, But I'm wondering if I can get a more traditional wah sounds out of this circuit. I did try replacing the 33k resistor with a pot, but this didn't cause a big enough change to get em into the range I was looking for.

    Tanks again!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Everyone!
    What does it means:Change the number 8,9,10 to 13,11,12, vice-versa.
    What the difference ?
    Did someone found values of parts for making sound closer to traditional wah?
    I did my circuit, with sound like i got now - i will not change my moded CryBaby for that Hard KuaK.

    ReplyDelete
  8. kinda late, but is there any reason why the circuit would get noisy as i get close to the antenna? it sounds almost like a ring modulator when close, and the noise cuts out if my hand touches it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi, what antenna have you used?

    ReplyDelete
  10. hi, is there a vero / stripboard layout of this schematic somewhere online?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I made a kind of messy layout for the proximity-control only. If you need the complete layout with the wah-circuit I can do it as well. Just let me know where you want me to send the layout-files.

      Delete
    2. Did you ever get this laid out? Having an issue where the led is only acting in an "on-Off" manner when I am very close to my antenna. Tried multiple antenna sizes and can't get it to act variably. Any help would be greatly appeciated!

      Delete
  11. They has come a very long way in just over bbva branch near me
    let's keep it growing and really make it the best uncensored.

    ReplyDelete

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