Midnight Howler – MoWah, Afterblaster & RotoTone super-wah

[Chris]

This was a really fun build.  I have always loved my wahs to have a boost built in, and it has become somewhat of a requirement for me, so when I started on this project I knew that I wanted to add one.  I had previously used the afterblaster and the ability to mount it directly to the footswitch was exactly what I need to keep this build clean.  After reading through the mods that could be done, I added the Q control and Volume control as external pots, and decided to add the bass boost switch (SW1) to the build but then decided to take it a step further with SW2, and add the RotoTone to C8a and C9a to “step up” the cap value to give 8 possible frequency ranges (4 on the C8a side and 4 on the C9a side). The 1st position of both is empty so you get the set C8&9 values alone, then each position steps up by approx 2n to fine tune the frequency range.

I stripped the head off of the first mounting screw I tried, so I had to push the build way to the heel but I think it makes the build look that much cleaner. Super happy with the wiring, all the power and grounds go down the power jack side of the build while almost everything else runns down the other.  I’m still working on the mechanical sweep, trying more or less cushion at the heel/toe and adjusting the height of the footswitch.

In the first picture, the controls are the following (front to back):
Left side – Boost Switch, Boost Volume
Right side – Frequency Sweep bank 1/2 (SW2), Wah Master Volume, Frequency sweep selector (tied to Freq Sweep – 4 options per bank), Q adjustment knob, Bass Boost Switch

What footswitch do you all like for expression enclosures?  Thanks for checking out my super-wah, the Midnight Howler!  Happy building!

[Chris]

Got around to making a “name plate” for this so I thought I’d share.

[Billy]

Nice clean looking build Chris that’s some excellent work with some great mod ideas

[Chuck]

That’s nice.  Afterblaster is a wah is interesting.  Small Bear sells an Alpha 3PDT Long Bushing stomp (SF17020F-0302-24R-L)that I’ve used in a couple of wahs.  It’s a little better than adding extra bumpers on a standard 3PDT.

Chuck

[Chris]

Thanks Chuck!  I will look into that switch for sure, thanks for the tip!

[Author]

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