NPD - cept it doesn't work - CryBaby Wah

[Glacies]

I bought a crybaby wah from a college student off of craigslist earlier. The dude goes to one of the religious colleges around here so I trusted him when he said it works well. I mean how are you going to test a pedal off of craigslist?

Anyway, this is a Dunlop Crybaby, model GCB-95.

If I plug it all up: guitar - wah - amph = it passes the signal fine but doesn't do anything else. I can rock the pedal all day and I get no change. There is a little button in the front under the pedal that I can access. Hitting this button kills it - no sound/no signal whatsoever, so I guess I need to keep this in the "on" position.

The guy I bought it from told me he put a fresh battery in it, so I thought I'd replace the battery with one I know is fresh - same thing.

Now again, I don't know the dude, but I"m inclined to trust him. He said he was working off a pedal board, so I'm guessing he was using the AC adapter. Possibly the battery jack doesn't work at all. I tried plugging in my AC cable, but it does the same thing, however the jack isn't long enough to work on some of my other pedals so I really have no reason to believe it would work here.

Any suggestions before I open this thing up and start metering it out?

*Update = it will pass the signal without any power supplied to it as well. So currently, powered at least from the battery alone operates the same as no power.

*Update 2 = figured it out - first battery must have been dead and that button up front must have been some type of bypass. Clicking it to where it went dead was actually clicking the wah circuit on. On a dead battery you get nothing.

 

[markb]

The switch under the pedal is the bypass switch. Toe down for wah on/off. Standard procedure for Crybaby/Vox wahs.

 

[Glacies]

Is it supposed to be able to be actuated by the pedal itself? I have to reach under the thing with my fingers to click it.

 

[Spudman]

Push down on the toe of the pedal and it will switch it on and off.

 

[Glacies]

Push down on the toe of the pedal and it will switch it on and off.

That makes total sense, but a bumper might be missing or something because I can't do that.

 

[Eric]

That makes total sense, but a bumper might be missing or something because I can't do that.

Not sure what you mean about the bumper, but you usually have to give it a bit of pressure on the toe before the switch will click -- I imagine it's designed that way to avoid accidentally switching it off while using the pedal. Try it when standing up, with the pedal on a hard surface.

 

[duhvoodooman]

You generally have to push down pretty hard with your toe to actuate that bypass switch. If that doesn't work, the footswitch may have a loose mounting nut, allowing it to drop down in the casing a bit, so that there's not enough travel for the switch button to engage.

 

[Glacies]

Will try it when I get home. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Spudman]

There should also be a rubber pad on the bottom side of the pedal where it contacts the push button switch. Also, as Voodoo says, the switch may be adjusted too low for it to come in contact with the bottom of the pedal, henceforth, the button wont 'click'.

 

[duhvoodooman]

Pedal trivia for ya--the "pedal" part of a wah, i.e. the thing you put your foot on and pivot up and down, is called a treadle.

 

[Glacies]

Thanks man. The terminology definitely escapes me.

I'mma be treadlin all over the place!