Rackmount Wah

  • Thread starter Thread starter Metaddict
  • Start date Start date

Do you prefer a regular Wah Pedal or would you use a Rackmount Wah?

  • Rackmount

    Votes: 7 41.2%

  • Regular

    Votes: 10 58.8%
  • Total voters
    17
  • Poll closed .
M

Metaddict

Member
I am curious!
Love both(i have the Dime from Hell and the DCR1SR) but like the idea of having the Rackmount because of the short signalpath
 
Time for me to show my ignorance. Does the signal not go from the rack out to the wah and back? Or does the rack wah pedal just send a value to the rack unit? Are you wireless to the rack? Seems if you have a cable to the rack, then come out of the rack back out front for the wah and back, that would be a longer signal path than just guitar/wah/rack.
 
Both, though the cost for the rackmount ones are usually higher than I'd spend on a wah. If the cost wasnt much different, I would move it to the rack
 
I prefer my DCR-1SR over the GCB95 with red fasel and my line 6 m5 (which I control via midi in the rack). I semi stumbled upon my rack wah and got an incredible deal (Price was in line with many boutique wahs), which saved me a headache as I was about to start building a rack mounted wah.

Yes, the signal never leaves the rack with a rack wah. The rack part sends a voltage to the control pedal, and the pedal sends back a control voltage which modulates the wah effect.
 
I loved the idea of a rack wah but I so rarely used it that when space in my rack became a concern the wah went away before the tuner did.
 
I just built myself a new rack rig and finally bought a DCR-2SR for it and am loving it. I'm a wah junkie, I've owned over 30 of them and have modded and built a bunch more for myself and others and I couldn't be happier with the rack wah and all it's tone shaping controls. I made myself 3 different controllers for it with different pots in them and each one sounds very different controlling the rack wah. The gold one has the standard Hot Potz II and it's the darkest. The chartreuse one uses an EVH pot and it's a bit brighter with more of a mid focus, cuts through real well for lead work. The EB Jr took a whole lot of cutting, drilling and modding to work but it was very well worth the effort since it has a huge sweep and uses a Bourns wah pot.

rack_wahs.jpg
 
That looks sweet.
The only thing that i don´t like about the DCR1SR and the DCR2SR is the 20V AC.
But the variety of sounds you can get out of these two is just amazing.

@XXSIVE: What did you do to power yours and can you show us pics?
 
Metaddict":dx0bsvxu said:
That looks sweet.
The only thing that i don´t like about the DCR1SR and the DCR2SR is the 20V AC.
But the variety of sounds you can get out of these two is just amazing.

@XXSIVE: What did you do to power yours and can you show us pics?
Click to expand...


Power the rack wah itself or the pedals? The pedals are passive aside from the gold one that has the circuit board from the factory rack wah controller in it, I just moved the LEDs to the front like the EVH wah has. The other two just have a switch, jack and pot in them, that's all it takes to control a rack wah.

The DCR-2SR itself runs off the stupid wall wart in my rack. I think I could power it with a voodoo pedal power AC using two of the 12v, was just looking into that the other day. I think the DCR1SR uses a different power supply however with a midi style power cable and I don't know if voodoo makes a cable for that like they do their GCX. If it can be powered by a PPAC I may add one to my rack to power my DCR2SR and Voodoo GCX and get rid of two of the 3 wall warts in my rack.
 
I don't have any pics of the back of my rack but what I did for the 3 wall warts I had to deal with was use short 1' and 1.5' extension cords so they sit away from the Furman power supply and are either on the bottom floor of the rack or zip tied to the rear rack rails. I'm still in the process of neatening things up really as I keep changing things. That's how I did all the power in my rack, put the Furman in the middle(ish) of the rack and replaced all the IEC power cables from every rack unit with short ones so my power runs are either 1' or 1.5' for the most part with the longest being 3' from the Furman up to my amp head that sits on top of the rack. I know some people like to do long runs of power cables across, up and down the rack with the power supply at the top but I figured a short 1' cord was an even easier method and a shorter power run of course.
 
Well, right now i would like to run everything like this:
6HE Rack
Furman
1SR
GCX
MXR MC 403
Pedalshelf(Chrous,Flanger,TC HOF, 2xTC FB, ISP, 2x6 Band EQ)
 
Yes, you can power the DCR1SR rack wah with a VL PPAC. I´ve got a cable from http://www.soundofsilence.se. Putting the rack wah under a Furman is not recommended. I did it and got a lot of noise. Here´s my rack:
4FF7E19A-BF4F-4BF2-804C-B28C8BD55219_zpsiasdzmtd.jpg
 
I liked the 1SR a lot, but I like to have some OD pedals too and didn't want to build a giant rig to deal with the pedals from a rack set up. So I use a CAE wah now.
 
@ Monk
That looks relay cool.Do you have more pics?Especially from behind?
Thanks for your advice.
Did you built the rack by yourself?
I know this company. If i am not mistaking they built a rack system for Björn Gelotte from In Flames.
 
I did the rack myself but Göran at Soundofsilence made the cables for the rack panel on the bottom of the rack and the power cables for the wah and effect gizmo. Some other special cables and connections to make it easier to use live.
He´s the best rig builder in Sweden.
 
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