Dunlop Fasel Inductor

Not difficult at all to fit - if you have any experience working on a PCB. Otherwise get someone who has to do it for you...

I happened to have 2 crybaby GCB 95 pedals and I modified one. To be balanced about this, before the mods the two pedals already sounded slightly different but - after the mod the fasel pedal became the firm favourite. More vocal, deeper wah effect.

I did measure the inductor values before swapping and the fasel happens to be 580mH vs 550mH for the Dunlop black one which may account for some of the difference in filter shape. Anyway whatever the reason, I like the pedal better now. A-B tests with my stock GCB95 are quite clear. Not that the stock pedal is bad, but the fasel one is deeper, more pronounced wah.

By the way I have now also modifed the pot sweep to stop both pedals going past what I consider to be the useful range. A stock GCB95 sweeps though vowels something like OOAAEE and the EE bit is probably useful for some overdriven metal styles but I prefer the more musical WAH range. This mod is easy to do and only needs a screwdriver.

I have tried a lot of wah pedals including a couple of fancy expensive models e.g. Bud Wah - but the GCB95 with RED Fasel (which makse it the same as the Wah Classic pedal I believe) is the best I have tried.

Has only 2 terminals unlike the standard black inductor which has four but once fitted, I see no reason why it should not be very reliable.

In my experience, well worth the upgrade.

It won't change your world, but it made my wah pedal sound a bit better.

it took me less than 10 minutes to replace the black inductor for the red fasel, and I am not an expert at soldering.

This is very subjective and I think that it depends on the equipment that you use. I have a fender stratocaster with single coils through a zoom power drive to a new fender champion 600 (no eq here).
I must say that I had made the mods at www.diyguitarist.com/DIYStompboxes/WahMod.htm to my GCB-95 crybaby, and the improvement was huge, but I wanted more.
The red fasel definitely sounds to me warmer than the black inductor and maybe the sound variation is smoother now. I have tried a humbucker guitar also with the same amp and the effect is the same.
I prefer that warm sound (I can't say vintage because I never heard a vintage wah), but I understand that someone with a humbucker and a bassy amp may prefer the black inductor to have more highs.

if you want to improve your GCB-95 crybaby to have a better clean sound with it with very little money: first, do the mods at the web I have mentioned , and second change the inductor.
If you play with lots of distortion the difference is not so huge, yet it is still warmer, but you may want your wah to increase your highs

If you know how to unscrew the wah bottome, remove the pcb, desolder the original inductor and install the new one it is childs play. If not a tech would do it for you probably while you wait for no more than 15 minutes of labour charge.

Hmmm, sound quality is very subjective and depends on where you use this component. For example the Morely Bad Horsie's have inductors you could slip this one into. SO does Vox, DUnlop and other clones. I found I have the same amount of noise before and after so sound quality is the same. Is that a 5 therefore?

I hope it never dies. Never seen many inductors fail so going to put very dependable 10.

unsure, they would probably answer an email but I never tried. Or did I? I belive I revently asked something about something and never heard from them. I rate low.

Did Steve mention that the ???Stock??? Dunlop Wah he was using for the tests was the GCB95F !?! (The Fasel Model) LOL Don???t take what he says about Red/yellow/stock as gospel. Dunlop may have used a variety of different inductors over the years. The black one may sound similar to the red one on his guitar & amp and to his ears.

The question is what were the physical and electronic specs of those used in the original wahs. Which original wah would that be? Ok specifically what was in the wah that Jimi used at Woodstock? Was it closer to Red or Yellow? I think the answer is yellow as that is being sold as the vintage sounding one.

The YELLOW one I have used in my wah makes a huge difference to the sound. It is smoother, thicker and has more range from bottom to top.

My wah is a Digitune brand. I believe they were made in China and sold in Australia by Melbourne Music Centre for a short time. I got it off eBay for not much money in new condition off some guy. Some guy sells heaps of stuff lol. It is a copy of a Dunlop, same shape, cast metal etc but it ends there. The pcb is differently laid out, although the schematic and all component values and are the same.

Anyway, I looked in it as it was hissing a lot. I noticed an electrolytic cap around the wrong way. I desoldered it and put it round the right way and had myself a wah pedal. Then I thought hmmm, coming from a Morley, I am not sure I like the way it does X Y or Z. SO I researched these Dunlop thingymajigs. I have made the Q PHATter. Most people swap a 33K for 68K to give it a sharper Q. Well I didn???t like that sound and I made it 12K which makes it sweep more frequencies (a bigger chunk) at once. I also then increased the gain/bass response to counteract this phatness as it kind of drops in the mix. I experimented with cap values to do ???the Hendrix mod??? but changed it back.

Incidentally these made in China pedals has the input/output jacks connected by wires, they are true bypass using a dpdt switch and the circuit is that same component by component to the post 95 Crybaby, i.e. it has an input buffer so as to not load down the guitar pickups. That will knock off a hell of a lot of top end, or stop it being knocked off and if you hear Hendrix those strat pickups don???t sound too trebly do they? I wonder why (wink wink).

SO my wah kicks Dunlop???s backside, it is already true bypass and so to add a 3pdt switch to put in an LED is simply a matter of changing the switch and adding the LED. With a Cry Baby having a SPDT it is not true bypass and so the input buffer is a good thing but it does make it sound more full ranged. This is why people like to disconnect or bypass the input buffer to make it like the days of old. Just because it???s old don???t make it better! Because you then load up your pickups when the wah is on. Whatever, if that floats your boat then fine.

I am loving my wah sound. It has true bypass, an led, and a fasel. Woohoo it is what I want in a wah, and I like it a lot.

The original inductor was much larger and had a metal case that was earthed. The Yellow fasel is done in a plastic case which cannot be earthed. It has about 17ohms of resistance in the coil (old one 15ohm). Whatever the specs both physical and electronic it has greatly improved my wah.

It is not as high trebly, it goes farther from lower to higher changing the sound all the wah all along the pedal sweep whereas the top end (toe down) used to not change as much after a certain point. Now it is a beautifully vocal wwaaaahhhh sound from start to finish.

I think it sound vintage, which to me means much more like my Jimi Hendrix CD???s and DVD???s (many many Jimi things, no need to list). That is what I wanted to achieve and I didn???t realise that was what I wanted to achieve until after I did the change and thought this sounds so different. It is almost like ???a vintage wah???, it sounds a lot more ???like Jimi???s wah???. SO putting those thoughts

I purchased a red and yellow Fasel and modded a stock Crybaby with a 3 position rotory switch (with chickenhead knob) to select any of the three inductors...yellow, red and stock black Dunlop.

I put the ability to select from the yellow, red and black inductors, to demonstrate the differences in tone from one to the other.

I've tried the pedal with a variety of amps and guitars, including a Telecaster, Les Paul Standard, and other guitars with mostly Duncan humbuckers of different types. I tried the pedal into everything from a modded Roland Micro Cube, to several Fender amps. I tried a few different distortion pedals before and after the wah pedal.

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

The YELLOW FASEL is the thinnest of the three. It sounds like the sweep has less of the mid peak that's swept, and acts a little more like a bass to treble control, with a little of the vocal mid in it. It was fairly disappointing, but I can hear applications where it would be useful. It seemed like the tuning cap was changed for a smaller one, raising the response of the whole pedal.

The RED FASEL clearly is fuller with a deeper vocal quality. The high end is smooth, the low end thick. It had that "puking" tone quality the yellow doesn't. It was the best of the three in tone, fullness and smoothness.

But the RED FASEL sounded nearly identical to the stock, black Dunlop inductor. They measure slightly differently, but sonically, you'd be hardpressed to hear the difference. With the ability to change inductors at the touch of a switch, it is easy to compare the tones of all three inductors.

Unless the quality control for the stock, black inductor is poor, and I may have a particularily good one, it is virtually identical to the red Fasel. Save your pennies. I've been around music equipment as a player, repair tech, and build guitars, amps and effects going back to the late 60's. I can recommend one resistor change that will give you more of a kick than replacing the black inductor with a Red or Yellow Fasel.

As with so much in this area, if you are convinced there will be a sonic improvement, then that's what you will hear. But blindfolded, if you were playing my particular Crybaby, you'd clearly hear the thinner yellow Fasel, but you'd be hard pressed to hear any difference between MY stock Dunlop and the Red Fasel.

It's just an inductor...I don't need backup...I have two others on board.

I haven't spoken to anyone at Dunlop, and I doubt if I need to.

I play anything and work on equipment from any type of musician you could find. I love using wah sparingly. I have been modding wah pedals for many, many years. My standard mods usually include adding a 6 position frequency switch, a second inductor with a switch to select one or the other or both in series, a resistor change to increase the resonant peak, and an internal trimpot to help match the wah volume with the bypassed volume. I also can mod a crybaby so it will access the full rotation of the pedal.

The Red Fasel MIGHT be a worthwhile move to improve a Wah, but don't expect miracles. The yellow might be good for some applications, maybe with detuned guitars or thick muddy humbuckers. I can't see using it though, with the red or stock inductor available.

With the Crybaby in question, I put everything back to stock, save for the switch and two extra inductors.

(FWIW, I bought the inductors wholesale. The pair would be somewhat higher on the retail market.")

Is easy. You solder it in, then you play. No manual or instructions comes with it though, but at least a late '80s Dunlop GCB-95 and a rev. G model both had pre-drilled holes for a Fasel.

I modded two wahs, a late '80s crybaby and a rev G one with Fasels, red and yellow respectively. Other mods include a Fulltone pot and a DPDT switch for true bypass.

On both wahs, the curve was similar. First, with the installation of the new switch, the tone leeching stopped. Then, with the Fulltone pot the wah became more "vocal", "musical" and "alive" - YMMV with those terms. With the Fasel, the sound got even better, broader, smoother. These mods definitely made the wahs sound larger, in lack of a better term. A huge improvement compared to the stock stuff.

I guess it's as good as your soldering skills.

Never contacted Dunlop.

It definitely worth the extra effort to mod a wah. Get a 2nd hand Crybaby, they can be found cheap, and mod the heck out of them. It's easy, and makes a huge difference. You might end up pretty close to the price of a new standard crybaby, but YOUR wah will sound a lot better.

I added the red Fasel to my original crybaby. I de-soldered the stock inductor (wire-wrapped core thingy with 4 pins) and soldered the red Fasel in its place. The Fasels have only two pins; it goes in sideways with the pins aligned with the long axis of the pedal and the Fasel facing one of the phone jacks. The pins on the Fasel don't fit in the exact holes from the old inductor but the board has additional holes pre-drilled that fit the Fasel perfectly. I popped it in, flipped it over and played a 30 minute wah solo! Yea baby.

My 'original crybaby' retro-fitted with the red Fasel sounds great. It turned my wah from wimpy to wailing. Greater range/ more vocal sounding. It sounds just like Jimi/Stevie, even with humbuckers. I'm driving a Fender Twin/Marshall JTM in stereo with the wah out front. I use the amps for distortion and add a little delay and compression between the wah and amps. I play a variety of guitars; Strat, Paul, 335, archtops, etc; the wah compliments all of them. After many years I broke down and bought a new 535Q to get 'that' sound (came with the red Fasel stock) and after modifying the 'original' crybaby I've used for years, I can't decide which one sounds better.

So far, so good.

Don't know about support since my old crybaby never broke and I haven't had the new one long enough for it to break. However, I had trouble finding out how to install the new Fasel in the old pedal (they don't come with instructions). So, I opened the 535Q up and looked at how the Fasel was installed in that one and just put the new Fasel in the 'original crybaby' same way.

This thing [red Fasel] completely changed the character of my crybaby; it went from shades of grey to full color! Sounds great...inspiring! An absolute must do upgrade if you're serious about making 'er cry. For 20 bucks and a bit of solder you can have the vintage wah sounds of old.

If you know how to solder-you're in. Once it's in-that's it, just play it like a wah. I was able to drop it in my Vox V847 no problem-they have all kinds of differently spaced pads for different sized inductors. I think Crybabys also have this feature. I used the yellow cup core model and it really smoothed out the sweep. It gave several more sweet spots to the pedal's travel. It really does sound like a more classic wah sound. I give it a 10 for my experience, but would probably give it less if I had to pay to have it installed.

I am using this in a Vox V847 with several other mods to tweak resonance and "Honk" up a bit. My chain is Gibson SG Standard>Vox V847>Ernie Ball Volume>Runoff Groove Supreaux>Nine Volt Nirvana Skyripper Clone>Boss PH-3 Phaser>Korg Multi Effects unit>Ampeg VL-1002. It augmented that Vox's already modified sound very nicely. I usually like the sound of a wah better running clean than fuzzy, but will do both. Now I am able to get some really nice fusion-era Miles Davis (Think "Dark Magus") sounds out of the guitar that I wasn't previously. Very much a Hendrix-Clapton-Page-Trower type of sound, too. I'd like to disclaim that this is not the only thing that has made my wah sound better than stock, as I have modified other components in there. This component did make big positive differences in the sound, however. Check out the "Technology of the Wah" articles on Geofex.com for more info on wah modification.

I'm not sure-I've just been playing with it for just a few hours.

Never have-If the winding breaks, I'd probably get another.

I play Surf/Punk/Jazz/Metal/Funk/Classic Rock/Prog etc... Sorry for being vague. I've been playing for twelve years. I'd be impressed (but pissed) if somebody yanked this out of my wah while I wasn't looking. My favorite thing about it is the smoothing out of the sweep-no jumps in frequency sweep like the stock inductor. It does seem as if the sweep goes a bit higher, too. I hope it makes me grow that big afro I always wanted. I'd say it was inspiring-I was having a lot of fun playing with a new wah sound and before I knew it, several hours had gone by. Though I have never heard an original, I'd say it really improved my Wah's sound. It's pretty cool that they are issuing these again and we don't have to deal with the collector mojo pricing to obtain one.

If you don't know how to solder have a pro do it. There are two models, the red torrodial model and the yellow cup-core model. I don't know what that means. I got the red one. The one they use in the Crybaby Classic and Dimebags signature wah.

sounds great. I am using it in my Crybaby 535Q and it has a smoother sweep and can get a little more high end sound without being harsh. the low end is rounder sounding. maybe more vintage sounding? I think it sounds much better than stock. all the bad boys are now using this Kirk Hammett, Dimebag, Slash.

Should be fine just don't drop it or use it as a hammer. put it in yesterday. Works so far.

dunlop has excellent customer service.

I think it sounds great no matter what style. I have the 535Q, it has the gain boost and q-control so its pretty versatile when used in that pedal. that is probably the best pedal to use it with. This is the real deal, not some copy. I love it! it costs $20 but, whatever, it's worth it.