Ernie Ball Bad Horsie Wah?

[jeffrey]

Okay, since I have 4 (yes 4) broken Bad Horsie 1 wah's (love the tone, love the switchlessness of it, hate the freakin' pedal) and an EB mono volume pedal I'm not using, I got the crazy idea to try and take the guts out of one of the Bad Horsie's and retrofit it to the EB volume pedal.

That way I'd get the sturdyness of the EB pedal (best built pedals in the world IMO) but the switchlessness that my lazy ass loves along with a wah tone I'm pretty happy with.

I haven't started taking anything apart yet but I was just curious if any of you have attempted anything similar and had any ideas.

 

[Rossie]

Kirk Hammett did this to his Crybaby. He used an Ernie Ball VP casing, but all the internals are Crybaby. This is the only thing I know concerning this, not much of a help to you, but at least it has been done before!

 

[jeffrey]

Well hey, that's a good start. Thanks Rossie.

 

[Rossie]

No problem! Please let me know if you've found any info on how to do this. Interested in modding my Crybaby into this too!

 

[jeffrey]

Honestly, I'm just going to disassemble the both of'em and figure out what's what.

The big thing is I want it switchless. I have just gotten so used to that, I'm spoiled!

Plus it gives you some interesting tonal abilities you can't do with a switched wah (like turning it on slowly and starting from the low end of the sweep and sweeping up instead of always being in the high end when you click it on).

Just stuff I've gotten used to and really like having.

 

[Beth]

Or, you could just wait for the EB Wah -- it's almost on the shelves!

 

[Rossie]

Possible to mod a typical switch wah into a switchless wah? Switchless system from the BH, the other circuits from a Crybaby/EB WAH? Something like a frankenstein wah?

 

[Rossie]

Or, you could just wait for the EB Wah -- it's almost on the shelves!

EB is switchless?

 

[jeffrey]

Or, you could just wait for the EB Wah -- it's almost on the shelves!

I'm getting one of those too, Bethy.

I love the sound of it but I'm SUCH a whore for switchless!

I may even try and convert that one to switchless as Rossie suggested.

 

[jeffrey]

EB is switchless?

Nope, it's clicky like a Dunlop. You can adjust how hard it is to click though by lowering or raising the barrell that has the button in it (which is very, very nice). You can make it very light to click.

I really liked the tone of it too. Honestly, it was very Bad Horsie 1-like, which is probably why I liked it so much. It had a lot of low/low-mid punch. Sounded great with the JP7 LTD I played it with at NAMM.

 

[Rossie]

Nope, it's clicky like a Dunlop. You can adjust how hard it is to click though by lowering or raising the barrell that has the button in it (which is very, very nice). You can make it very light to click.

I really liked the tone of it too. Honestly, it was very Bad Horsie 1-like, which is probably why I liked it so much. It had a lot of low/low-mid punch. Sounded great with the JP7 LTD I played it with at NAMM.

I love the idea of the adjustable barrel/button thingy! I glued a few coins under my wah pedal (the surface that comes in contact with the button) in order to get a better response.

You've got my BAS rising! And I've promised myself not to get any more gears before my JP arrives!

 

[jeffrey]

Sorry!

 

[4nkam]

It's possible to mod existing wahs into switchless and in fact, dunlop will mod any of their pedals like this too.

Rehousing wahs into EB volume pedals can be kinda tricky because you're dealing with two different mechanical designs. I know some folks have said they put the dunlop electronics in eb pedals and it worked fine. BTW, that's not what Kirk Hammett has done. His EB volume pedals are modded as expression units which controlled his rackmounted EMB Audio remote wahs. This is the same unit that Slash, Steve Vai, and Santana used in the 80s/90s.

The thing about the morley wahs is that they use an LED/LDR and that's what controls the wah effect you hear. Dunlops and similar styles use a pot which is rotated with the gears in the wah casing. So....it would probably be easier to put dunlop style circuitry into an EB pedal, otherwise you would have to figure out a way to mount the morley plastic cover/LED/LDR assembly in there.

 

[jeffrey]

Yeah, I'd thought of that.

I just don't like the sound of the Dunlops that much tone-wise.

 

[4nkam]

Well, you *could* replace the led/ldr design in the morley with a traditional pot setup Other than that, I'm not sure.

 

[jeffrey]

I would do my best to just move it all in tact.

I'm lazy like that.

 

[Rossie]

It's possible to mod existing wahs into switchless and in fact, dunlop will mod any of their pedals like this too.

Rehousing wahs into EB volume pedals can be kinda tricky because you're dealing with two different mechanical designs. I know some folks have said they put the dunlop electronics in eb pedals and it worked fine. BTW, that's not what Kirk Hammett has done. His EB volume pedals are modded as expression units which controlled his rackmounted EMB Audio remote wahs. This is the same unit that Slash, Steve Vai, and Santana used in the 80s/90s.

The thing about the morley wahs is that they use an LED/LDR and that's what controls the wah effect you hear. Dunlops and similar styles use a pot which is rotated with the gears in the wah casing. So....it would probably be easier to put dunlop style circuitry into an EB pedal, otherwise you would have to figure out a way to mount the morley plastic cover/LED/LDR assembly in there.

Ah! Thanks for clearing that up!

 

[Dizzy]

Okay, since I have 4 (yes 4) broken Bad Horsie 1 wah's (love the tone, love the switchlessness of it, hate the freakin' pedal) and an EB mono volume pedal I'm not using, I got the crazy idea to try and take the guts out of one of the Bad Horsie's and retrofit it to the EB volume pedal.

That way I'd get the sturdyness of the EB pedal (best built pedals in the world IMO) but the switchlessness that my lazy ass loves along with a wah tone I'm pretty happy with.

I haven't started taking anything apart yet but I was just curious if any of you have attempted anything similar and had any ideas.

Maybe you could just lose a few pounds ???

KIDDING !!!!!

 

[jeffrey]

I wish that's what it was!

The pedals just fall apart and (worst of all) start to go microphonic if you use them often. :|

 

[Dizzy]

I wish that's what it was!

The pedals just fall apart and (worst of all) start to go microphonic if you use them often. :|

Hehe,

Well maybe if you stepped on it and stopped singing into it ??

(Oh, somebody slap me )