True-Bypassing a Maestro Boomerang Wah Thanks to my buddy Matt at D-Rocks music, I scored this incredibly great sounding Maestro Boomerang Wah. It's big, it's ugly (in a beautiful way), and it even has the cabling reversed from just about every other wah and effects pedal on the planet! In this article on Wahs, Geoffrey Teese (an expert on Wahs) was quoted as saying the original Maestro Boomerang wah was one of the best wahs he'd ever heard. That's quite an endorsement! I was using a Budda Wah, which was very cool but it never quite did it for me. This new wah is fantastic! The only issue with this particular model - the Boomer 2 - is that it doubles as a volume pedal when the wah is off. Interestingly, most old pedals will give you a drop in volume, but when this pedal is off (i.e. in volume mode) it actually boosts the signal! For a tone freak like me - this is no good. I didn't want to use the volume part of the wah, so I decided to true-bypass it. The first thing I did was open it up and scope out the innards. As you can see below, there isn't much to it! Notice the switch, which is just above the board on the right side. After staring at this for awhile, I decided the best approach was to leave the original switch hooked up (it toggles between volume and wah mode) and just add another switch to control the bypass function. In the image below, you can see that I've wired up new switch. All I had to do was hijack the wires coming from the input and output jacks - pretty standard stuff. I didn't have to use an expensive 3PDT switch because there is no LED. The original switch was left fully soldered up. I wrapped it in packing material so it wouldn't bounce around and cause a short. The only real trick was finding a switch with a long enough post so that the pedal would make contact and flip the switch. Below, you can see the plunger and post. It took a few tweaks to get the height right, but then I was in business! The pot was scratchy so I sprayed some pot cleaner in it and then sealed it up, plugged it in, and played. Of course, I had the original switch in the wrong state so the pedal was in volume mode :) I opened it up and toggled the stock switch to put it in wah mode. Viola! The wah worked beautifully! Now I have a great vintage wah sound with the tone advantages of true bypass. I am thinking of adding some felt disks to the underside of the pedal where it makes contact with the switch. My Budda is done this way, and I think it might make for smoother switching and perhaps increase the life of the switch. If you get a chance to try one of these - don't pass it up; they are wonderful wahs! Additional Resources: Technical Data Original Boomerang Schematic Boomerang 2 (Boomer 2) Schematic