VINTAGE VOX & CRYBABY INFO & APPRECIATION

[Doc Holliday]

electric prune!

Is it a gooped Halo?

[Doc Holliday]

Same as a brown Halo? Which presumably came after the sticker wah halos but before the barcode foil trash can

Serial 23459?

[Doc Holliday]

Spoke to Steve at Venus Witch FX tonight and he has provided me with these

He said the epoxied one more than likely is a trash can without the can and could be wound differently to the Halo with thicker wiring and less turns to reach the 500mH requirement.
Steve said “I haven’t broken up a prune or trash can before so I am guessing it’s thicker wire, it’s the only logical explanation as to why they hit 500mH at only 15 ohms, The other halos are usually 30 odd ohms or 80 ohms”.

“This is the other transitional inductor format, basically a non-gooped prune, and un canned trashcan, vintage ones are 15 ohms too, this is a new one that I’m making so this is wound to 525mH and 33 ohms so it’s basically a strong large hole halo with no halo ring”.

Steve’s pictures

[Doc Holliday]

I also asked Steve if the Script wah large hole halos were the same as the post Clyde Sticker wahs?
Steve said “The ferrites are a different composition.
FX3229 and LA1386, the FX is non potted (early Clyde). The LA is potted (transitional) both sound different”.

So essentially post clydes aren’t necessarily Clyde guts without the script base plate.

I asked Steve “So this ( clover ) came between the Halo and Can? And sometimes we’re gooped?
Hmm... to stop microphonics? Or to hide the design?
Either way they got through a lot of parts in such a small space of time”!

Steve replied...
“Yeah between the halo and the can, they started putting a sealing varnish of sorts probably to stabilise them from microphonics and noise, then the goop ( prune ) and then trash can were the evolution of that. My small hole halo is on a later script and it’s got a black varnish sealing the halo.The second large hole halo has a sealer on it too but the early halo I have is totally un potted/sealed”.

[Doc Holliday]

I think it’s becoming more obvious that although there is a timeline of parts variations over time, a lot of the time parts were either picked at random or using up old stock.
Hence when Steve said he’s got a small hole halo ( which we associate with picture Clydes and early scripts ) in a later serial numbered script Clyde.
I thought Well maybe then there’s a chance these boards were already assembled and just picked randomly from a box going into whatever enclosure at the time?
But from what Steve says, at a certain point in the time line they started varnishing these pots maybe to prevent micro phonics and white noise. ( like his small hole in a later enclosure).
Which then leads me to think they were using up old stock?! Or as inventory came in these new inductors as the capacitors used were just shoved into half full boxes of similar parts to get picked and assembled at random, then adding the latest requirement of sealing a old stock small hole halo inductor with varnish.

[Doc Holliday]

Steve has also sent me some pics and a little history on his small wah collection.

“Early Script, Notice the un sealed / lacquered halo, the Icar was shot so I put in a white gear replacement Icar from my stash, early paper serial number sticker, SGS button transistors (slightly hissy) all original apart from the replaced Icar“

[Doc Holliday]

Above:
Large hole halo, still has the wafer switch and later tropical fish caps.
Although Jen Italy used a early no logo case for it??
Below:
Now this paper sticker wah appeared in my old JMI wah too. Serial mid 7000’s.
So as a guess this wah Steve has is more than likely from the same period although mine was potted/ covered in epoxy.
Here is a picture of my old JMI wah.
And pictured with a contemporary script potted Clyde.

[Doc Holliday]

Pics taken by myself when in my possession :
Vox logo on front.

[Doc Holliday]

Another one from Steve:

“Later Script ( 11124 ) notice the black sealing lacquer on the halo coil (inside) I think partway through the scripts they decided to seal the halos, sometimes a red gunk was used as there’s pictures of large hole halos with red splooge on them. I bought this and it had a changed pot, rack tension clip and foot switch, I was able to put another Icar in it and a slightly later arrow foot switch”

[Doc Holliday]

Now, this is a later Script Steve says ( above ).
This has the Vox logo on the front, the black seal on halo & a serial number in the 11,***.
As Steve mentioned they started putting lacquer or small amounts of goop on the inductor.
If you look a few pics above at the JMI it is red.
If you look at the guts In this one directly above to a more trained eye you’ll see that they are also very similar to the early picture Clydes.
This was my early early picture wah. ( below )
No Vox logo on the front. Small hole halo. Blue capacitors.
Serial : 00419
As Steve mentioned he replaced the switch. A much later Arrow switch. Usually found in transitional and trash can wahs.
More this likely it may have originally had a wafer switch like this early serial picture wah!