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473 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  mhammer, 
T
New to me pedal day
I just picked up a well used Morley Wah/Volume. Great way to kill two birds stoned. Its big, but it seems to sound pretty good both low and high gain. Im liking the boost feature too. Also, you don't get that dunlop high end spike that is ridiculous .I wouldn't have picked up another wah, but I modded mine to be more of a filter pedal ala frank zappa.

In my limited experience, its better than the run of the mill dunlop also better than the budda wah.

Any love or hate for these out there?
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M
Although it is possible to bugger it up real good, note that the Morley uses a photocell/shutter arrangement, which means that it is possible to modify the taper of the sweep by altering the physical properties of the shutter.

My own experience is that sometimes the bulb, photocell, and shutter can get jostled, and small nudges of the photocell, in particular, can detract from the sweep. Where Vactrols seal the light source and photocell inside a common chassis, the Morley arrangement physically separates them to make room for the shutter.
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M
It's not a LOT of work to do it, really. The real work would lie in taking notes and/or pics so you can go back to what you had before.

Do a google image search for "morley wah shutter", and you'll see lots of gutshots of the arrangement. You'll be able to see that the leads for the LED or bulb (depending on age of the pedal), and the photocell, can sometimes be bent a little off. Straightening the leads with needlenose pliers, so the light source and photocell face each other properly (head on, rather than at some angle) is not an especially risky or invasive procedure (be gentle!), and thankfully does not involve removing or replacing any parts. Just make sure you leave enough room for the shutter.

As for modifying the shutter properties, that would be more involved. There, I think the really hard work would lie in taking extensive notes about the current taper and visual properties of the shutter.

I'd start with verifying the two halves of the optical circuit are looking each other straight in the eye.
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