Q: can i make my crybaby wah true bypass

[the second eye]

is there any way i could make my crybaby true bypass

[caprile]

Yes...you can replace the switch with a DPDT one. However, usually those 'click' upon activating the pedal and/or induce volume changes with the effect on or off.

[frankfalbo]

The volume difference shouldn't be any different than it is currently, although without the buffered signal that the wah produces in the "off" mode, volume and treble drops from longer cable lengths would be noticeable. That would be my concern. If I were using 20+ft of cable post-wah, add that to the 20+ft pre-wah, and you have a seriously degraded signal in my opinion. Unless you have active pickups, or other pedals that you are NOT hard bypassing.

Popping noises can be generally eliminated with the use of very high value resistors jumped across the contacts. I don't know exactly the values you'd use but they have to be high enough that the signal itself is not bleeding through, but the presence of current is there. That way you aren't "shocking" the audio when you switch back and forth. Some switches make more noises than others because one part makes contact before the other disconnects, or vice versa, there's a time gap between contacts.

As a side note, my Crybaby is fine. It's an '89 I think, and sounds okay when off. Its my overdrive pedals that I want to hard bypass. They are older and seem to really suck tone when off. You may not need to do the Crybaby. I haven't done the OD's because it means making a special box and I don't have time.

I'm thinking of making a hard bypass box that would basically be a loop. Then any "tone sucker" pedals in the loop would be hard bypassed. You could still "unbypass" the loop and leave the pedals off, but for songs or sections you knew you didn't need pedals for, they would all be bypassed and you'd have your tone back. If you made a loop box you could use it with anything, not just the wah.

[the second eye]

thanks for the info guys i will see what i can do and get back to you

[caprile]

I'm not an electronics expert by any means, but lately I have been doing some research on pedals and the conclusion is true bypass is not as important as the signal loss induced by cable length. Apparently, adding a buffer (the VHT Valvulator has been recommended to me several times) will help a lot more than modding your pedals.

[frankfalbo]

That's half true. Most pedals have their own buffer in there, (as evidenced by the fact that no signal passes through them when there's no power) The problem is when you put multiple pedals together, even when they're all off you have multiple buffering preamps in a row. That usually sucks tone and dynamic impact to the front end of the amp. That's why we hard-bypass pedals.

The argument FOR buffering preamps is that you can drive longer cable lengths without signal loss. Again, they've changed the electonic makeup of your signal, but it now flows better across lengthy cable. So my ideal setup, for example would be either the VHT or another stomp box that has a GOOD buffering amp in it, and then ALL subsequent pedals would be hard bypassed. That's basically what I have, because I have an old "Uptown Technologies" Pedal Pusher. It's like the VHT but with 8 seperate, buffered outputs, a gain knob, and a "load" knob that applies the effect of signal loss across cable length. I'm sure it's just a low value cap to ground. I don't use it because I'm usually running about 18-25' of cable before it, and that's enough load for my tastes.

[Scott of Actual Time]

post somehow duplicated -- see below.

[Scott of Actual Time]

yes, you can modify your Crybaby to true bypass. i did this to mine ~10 years ago and i have instructions on my old home page -- see http://www.his.com/sha3u/gear/wah.html .

you will need a DPDT footswitch, a voltmeter to trace lines, and a soldering iron. you will have to hack into the circuit board, break a trace, and solder a new one onto the board. if any of that scares you, then don't try it yourself.

many of the higher models of Crybaby, like the 535Q, and lots of the boutique wahs available now already have DPDT true bypass. as far as i know, the base model [CGB-95, or something like that] still does not.

there will be no real volume difference, although the wah effect may boost the midrange and made the effected signal seem louder. there will be no more clicking than any latching footswitch. there may be some popping, but tie-down resistors can elminate that, as mentioned above.

Originally Posted by frankfalbo

The volume difference shouldn't be any different than it is currently, although without the buffered signal that the wah produces in the "off" mode.

the Crybaby and every other old wah design i'm familiar with [Vox, Budda, etc] have no buffering circuitry, so there is no buffered signal when off.

some customizers will add a buffer to solve the signal loss problem and not change the old 'non-true' bypass. either will work, but the buffer must be upstream of the pedal and it must be on all the time.

Originally Posted by frankfalbo

As a side note, my Crybaby is fine. It's an '89 I think, and sounds okay when off.

whether you can hear the tone loss or not depends a lot on what kind of signal you are running. i could easily hear a loss in high end on my 1990 Crybaby when running into a super high gain amp. the problem will still exist in that design unless they change to a DPDT switch.