5. Now “tin” the twisted wires (as shown
below). For help on this, refer to the
previously mentioned You Tube solder
primers. (Note: You’ll need to tin every
wire you solder in these projects.)
6. Bend the tinned wires into a hooked
shape like the one shown below.
7. Thread the hooked black wires
through the sleeve tag of the new jack
(see below).
8. Solder the two black wires to the
sleeve tag.
9. Thread the white wire through the
new jack’s tip tag (the only socket
tag remaining).
10. Ace. Your new jack should look
a lot like this.
Now let’s move on to the input socket,
which has an additional wire—the battery-switch wire. If you’ve ever wondered how
your pedal’s battery is turned on when you
plug in, this little wire is the key. When the
1/4" cable is inserted, it shorts a connection
between the sleeve tag and the ring tag of
the socket. The sleeve tag is connected to
the circuit’s ground terminal. The green wire
connects to the negative terminal of your
battery. A circuit is made once the negative
terminal of the battery is connected with the
ground (or negative) terminal of the circuit.
Voilà—it’s alive! Very clever, eh?
Have a look at the next photo—it’s the
original input jack.
The black wire is the ground wire, which
goes to the sleeve tag of the new Switchcraft
socket. The green and brown wires carry
the audio signal and are connected to the
tip tag of the new jack. The purple wire is
the battery switch that connects to the ring
tag of the socket.
To remove the old input jack and install
the new input jack:
1. Remove the wires in the same manner
you did with the output jack.
2. Strip and tin each wire.
3. Unscrew and remove the old
input socket.
4. Solder the brown and green wires
to the tip tag.
5. Locate the sleeve tag—which attaches
to the center portion of the socket—
and solder the black wire to it.
6. Solder the purple wire to the
remaining tag.
7. Brilliant! Your second mod is complete
—take a bow! The wiring should look
something like the photos below.
Adding a Fasel
Inductor to a Wah
Mod Type: Tonal
Difficulty Level: Easy
What You Need:
•;Soldering;iron
• Solder
•;Solder;sucker
•;Fasel;inductor
Mod 3 is a wah-specific affair. We’re going to swap out the existing
inductor and replace it with a Fasel
inductor. Technically, a wah is a band-pass filter—a boosted bump of frequencies, all of which are slid up and down
by depressing the expression pedal. The
heart of this effect in many wah pedals
is the inductor, so replacing it can result
in a different sound. “Different” does
not necessarily mean “better,” though.
If you Google this issue, you’ll see a lot
of talk about how great a Fasel inductor sounds, but there are various flavors
of Fasels available—including a classic
’60s-style inductor (à la Hendrix) or
a ’70s disco-/porn-style affair. Choose
wisely, young Jedi.
To install the new inductor:
1. Remove the wah’s main circuit
board by unplugging the white
plug with five wires attached to
it, and then gently pulling the
board out of the pedal’s housing.
See the black thing with the Vox
logo and “L1A” written on it?
That’s the inductor.
2. Turn the circuit board over, identify
the solder pads that connect to the
inductor, and desolder them.
