CAE Wah, how do you guys have the internal POTS set?

[Kapo_Polenton]

Picked one of these up locally yesterday and have been on a WAH hunt for past few months. I have a solidGold FX modded crybaby (awesome but not true bypass), a cry baby mini, a xotic WAH, and now the CAE. For non tone sucking in bypass and wah tones, I sort of prefer the mini right now though I don't like the small footprint. The xotic is fantastic but is def more defined and quacky and I favour a more even EQ like the crybaby.

With the CAE wah, the red is too dark in the lows for me. The heel down is is muddy and almost just rings dully out. Sounds like that intro sound I hear at the beginning of Sound Garden's Rusty Cage. It is just a frequency or resonance point that sounds like shit through my rig. The yellow fasel is a tad too quacky. Would love to brighten the red a bit and dial back the yellow a bit. Is this the wrong WAH to do this with or can the internal trim pots help with this? There is also a gain that controls both the RED/Yellow settings and I am wondering how this affects that low end? I mainly live in the mids and do that slow Schenker thing vs waka waka but would be great to dial this thing in how I like. The built in boost on the wah is slammin though.

 

[shredhead7]

Without cracking mine open, I spent about an hour with the back off, turning the pots and playing it. I think I landed on using the yellow primarily, as the red was centered on the low mids too much.

 

[GOHOINC]

The yellow side of the pedal is meant for vintage quack wah stuff, The red side focuses on the low mids and is meant for more of "vocal" wah thing. That being said the internal trim pots control the resonant peak, Q, for each inductor. This will not change the frequency that is being boosted or shift the EQ/tone of the pedal. Lowering the q will flatten/widen curve around the same frequency (more subtle wah), raising the q will increase/narrow the curve around the frequency (more quack/intense wah). If you don't like the tone of either inductor I think you just have the wrong wah.

I went through the same pains with a CAE wah myself, thinking I could adjust it to sound like what I wanted, but found that wasnt the case. I wound up with the JC-95 crybaby. It has a filter knob which actually changes the center frequency in toe down position so you can move from brighter to darker if you like. Some folks find it to still be too dark in the heel down position though so it all depends what you like.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I think you might be right .. might just not be the wah for me then. If the xotic could get a little less trebly, it would be perfect. I might just stick with the mini wah and my modded cry baby on a loop switch. If you can't gel with the base tone it probably is best to move it on. Anyone still make a tredle extension kit I could stick on the mini?? Maybe rehouse it with the voicing switch on the outside.

 

[cardinal]

Have you looked into one of the rack wahs? I had one years ago and thought it was great and had lots of flexibility.