PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL ADJUSTMENTS
PHYSICAL FEEL OF THE ROCKER
Since 2006, RMC cases have
featured easily adjustable rocker tension. Underneath the rear of the
rocker you will find a hex bolt. A matching hex wrench is supplied
with all wahs. Insert the hex wrench into the head of the hex bolt
and turn clockwise to tighten the tension. Turn counter-clockwise to
loosen the tension.
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS FOR OLDER RMC WAH CASES
If the feel of your
RMC wah is too soft/loose, you can tighten it up by tightening the small
hex nuts on the inside of the pedal. One is near the battery area. You
should be able to tighten that one enough to firm up the feel, without
even getting to the other nut located under the pc board.
If you feel the action is too tight/stiff, you can loosen the same nut.
If you adjust the nut under the pc board, make sure the screw shaft does
not contact the underside of the pcb.
NOTE: Before you start tightening the nuts, take a look under the rocker
and judge just how much room, if any, you have to work with. If you don't,
you
could over tighten the screw and pop the head off. The screw is a common
3/4 inch 6x32 screw. It doesn't really matter if it is a Phillips head
or flat
head.
It is also possible to add tension by tightening the screw which holds the cable clamp/rack gear tensioner in place (against the pot gear). You can push the clamp/tensioner against the gear firmly as you tighten the screw and be assured you've done what you can with this method. This isn't really very good for the potentiometer and may cause early failure. However, in a pinch this might work.
As something of
a last ditch effort, the case can be fully dismantled, the flat spring
turned around 180 degrees (so the built-in angle falls in a different
place), and then all reassembled. (The "flat spring" is the
metal "strap" that runs over the axle which attaches the
rocker to the base. The flat spring is what exerts added pressure as
you tighten the nuts mentioned at the beginning of this section.)
ON/OFF SWITCH ADJUSTMENT
CARLINGSWITCH,
SMALL DPDT, and large ITALIAN switch ADJUSTMENT
If the on/off switch needs adjustment, get a 9/16 open ended wrench and loosen
the hex nut on the top of the switch. Once the nut is loose enough, adjust
the inner round/hex nut on the switch on the inside of the pedal. Turn the
round/hex nut in 1/4 to 1/2 turns ONLY. A little goes a long way. Raise the
switch action by lowering (closer to the switch body) the round nut. Finger
tighten the top hex nut and try it out. Repeat until you get it perfect for
what
you want.
BLUE TPDT ADJUSTMENT
Look inside the wah, at the switch. You'll see a white plastic washer
being used as the height adjuster. Now, look at the top, where the switch
is secured to the base. You'll see 2 nuts and an inner-toothed metal
washer. Remove the 2 nuts and metal washer. Drop the switch down. Remove
the white plastic washer. Put the metal washer there instead. Now
push the switch back up and only use ONE of the nuts to tighten it. Make
it snug, DO NOT torque it down hard or you'll rip apart the switch. The
metal washer and 2nd nut are there only for use as height adjusters. By
putting the thinner metal washer in, you've raised the height of the switch. The
white washer is 2x the thickness of the metal washer, and the nut is the same
thickness as the white washer AND metal washer together. Personally,
I use one of the nuts as my height adjuster. That way I get full sweep,
as little mechanical noise as possible, and when I want to activate/deactivate
the wah, I just put some serious weight on the switch. Some people prefer
the height afforded by the metal washer. For me, that makes it too easy
to switch on/off/null by accident. I like to have to WORK to operate
the switch.
So, how do you know if your switch is bad or just needs height adjustment? Here's an easy test. Use your thumb to repeatedly cycle the switch while there is a signal passing through the wah. If the switch funtions properly 100% of the time in this test then the switch is operationaly sound. If the switch does not function properly 100% of the time in this test then the switch should be replaced.
If your switch tests perfectly but does not function 100% of the time in "real world" usage then you will need to address either the switch height or the ft/lb of pressure you use to activate the switch as you would have already verified the functionality of the switch and therefore negated the possibility of the problem being one of switch failure.
I've had a number of people ask me why I don't use the Carlingswitch DPDT. Simple - the switch tooling is worn out (according to Carling engineers) and their failure rate is dismal. I used them for 10 years and dropped them in early 2002. Rumour had it that the tooling had been replaced so I bought 10 in order to try out their latest, greatest, RoHS compliant product. Well, 7 of 10 worked when installed in wahs and 2 of those 7 have since been replaced because of failure. No matter how you juggle the numbers, that's still an unacceptable 50% failure rate, and at $20 per switch that is a load of crap. The current Italian switch I'm using is quieter and longer lasting than the EH Blue 3PDT I used from 2002-2006.
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