[mcfate]

Hi All,

Are guitar pedals OT?  My apologies if so - please delete.  If not...

I finally found one of these puppies on evilbay - sort of a poorman's leslie/ classic morley wah in one handy gigantic pedal.  I found the "vibrating" effect to be quite nifty as a tracking/ mixing reamp kinda thingy.  

Anyway - both the wah and the vibrating effect on my particular unit work KIND OF.  I would like them to work REALLY A LOT.  

So I open the thing up and right away notice some leaking electrolytics to replace, which is one of the few things I am qualified to notice/ do.  THEN - I observe that the wah mechanism is not the pot I was expecting to see, but in fact some very far-out photocell or something like that?  Is that right?  Then I notice faded reflective shiny stuff surrounding it, and that the action of the pedal seems to change the position of a light-blocking black material.  

Can anyone illuminate (get it?) further on what the deal is with this thing?  Apart from replacing caps, is there a light source or something I should check out or replace?  

Also - the vibrating motor has a mechanical tensioning lever (marked "variation") which is missing a belt or rubber band or whatever used to connect the two.  Anyone know the principle behind the vibrating effect?  I get that there is something mechanical that spins in an eccentric way - but how does it create audio pitch oscillation and delay?

Please help me restore this weirdo gem to its former boss-ness - any help would be greatly appreciated!

[SSLtech]

I don't think that it does create a pitch variation; rather amplitude or filter conrer F. shift...

Anyhow, Yes Morley used photocells and folded black cloth, as a way to get round the "scratchy pot" issues that everyone else had.

Photos would help... but no pots in a Morley... How is the black cloth 'fold' in terms of condition?

Keith

[mcfate]

While taking these pics, I noticed some bare twisted wires from the input jack tip possibly shorting onto the circuit board, so I will clean that up and check it out.  What do you make of the black cloth?  Thanks for responding Keith!  



cloth folded back for photcell view:



The missing linkage:

[mad.ax]

Your "black clothe" looks fine. You may experiment a bit with the LDRs position in order to "tune" the effect to taste...

If think this the right schematic for your Morley:
http://www.morleypedals.com/rwves.pdf

As for the vibrato effect, looks like it is a Tel-Ray oil can device... I never had one in my hands so I'm no specialist,  but I think you should have a look to this website:
http://www.geocities.com/tel_ray/

There are a lot of pics, tips, and even a forum dedicated to this particular piece of electro mechanical soundgear...

Axel

[Gus]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/

Is another place to ask.

I see carbon comp resistors.   A good thing to do is to check them for value they can drift.   Went in circuit they can measure lower than marked.

[SSLtech]

One of the optos looks like it may be 'mispointed'... and also -as observed previously- your cloth looks like it's in fine shape, but do try not to tempt fate by 'over-handling' it... it's usually easier to make things worse rather than better! :wink:

Keith

[walter]

I have a morley wah, but haven't use it in years. when I first got it, it was weak. The curtain wasn't making complete contact with the reflector, so I use some masking tape to change the angle of the reflector edge. I know I changed the lamp, I may have put a brighter bulb in. That lamp kept going bad, I wanted to put in an LED, but still haven't got to it. I'm curious about the motor mechanism, more so about the can that vibrates. Years ago I saw a vibrato pedal that had a glass jar. The fluid had dried, but Dish detergent has the proper viscosity to slop around on that transducer. Those can vibratos contain PCB oil- nasty stuff, toxic.

[mcfate]

You guys are awesome - thanks for all the info and links.  I'm looking over the Tel Ray forum right now, there's a lot of good info about oil can overhauling.  I will recap, relamp, possibly re-oil and report back.

Thanks again,

Gideon

[Denyle Guitars]

I tried led's in mine. The lamp always sounded best to me. I think I've only had one lamp burn out since I owned it (bought it new) so it's little point in using led's for me.

I saw a guy rockin one of those pedals years ago in the old 9:30 club and it sounded fantastic.

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