Wah advice needed...

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Mike_J

Mike_J

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I'm in need of a good wah pedal. I've read a shitload of reviews and none really stand out. A lot of reviews on the Dunlop pedals seem to get a hiding on quality and reliability. I need something with bypass.
Even suggestions on what to keep away from would be handy.
Thanks in advance.
 
I have a typical Dunlop. OK, but nothing to write home about. Also have a Budda BudWah - much nicer. You really need to go to a good guitar shop and try out a bunch of different wahs to find the one that works for you.
 
I am actually happy with my modern Dunlap. I only wish there was a way to limit the max/min. wah effect- even a mechanical block would work. And I recently aquired a Thomas Organ Wah- not a whole lot of difference between the two (The TO needs a new pot, it's noisy.)
 
Dunlop came out with a wah that doesn't have the button to turn it on and off. It works like a Morley, but sounds like a cry baby.
 
Mike_J said:
I'm in need of a good wah pedal. I've read a shitload of reviews and none really stand out. A lot of reviews on the Dunlop pedals seem to get a hiding on quality and reliability. I need something with bypass.
Even suggestions on what to keep away from would be handy.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Go and try some out. Otherwise just get a normal Cry Baby. From that you can decide what you need and don't need, and once you have it, you are a few dollars in parts from having almost any style of the past and present wah that you decide you would rather have.
 
I have the morley bad horsie and i always liked it.I don't use it much anymore but when i was in a band i liked the simplicity of just stepping on it and going.No on/off switch as it was built into the pedal and turned on as soon as you stepped on it.Only drawback is it always starts the wah effect sweeping down.It also has a small pot inside that adjusts the time the wah effect shuts off.

You can set it up to shut off as soon as you take your foot off the pedal or up to a second later.I have a volume/wah pedal on my digitech gnx2 that allows a lot of set-up options but i like the sound of the morley better.I have lot more control with the digitech and can choose the type of wah from a cry baby to something with a broader sweep like my morley.

I can set it up several ways and can assign 3 effects to the pedal like delay,volume boost and modulation effects.It has a small button under the pedal that activates the wah that's sensitive adjustable by how hard you press down to activate the wah.Plenty of choices out there for you
 
I own several wahs, including my first, which I've had since 1982.(!)

In brief: The old one is a pre-Dunlop Crybaby. Very bright top end, but the tone is best described as wet and skanky. Leave it at that boys, but it brings the sleaze every time.

A four or five year old Vox, clean and crisp, pretty close to the newer Crybabys that I've played. Good all-arounder if you don't wah-it-up much.

A mid 70's Morley, no power boost. Huge sweep to the pedal and the top end has a different harshness than does the Crybaby. Hard to describe, but it's a less than pleasant tone on the top high end, but almost a whomp pedal, versus wah.

A five or six year old Morley, about the same sounding as the other, but without much character. I use it as a volume pedal occasionally.

Budda Bud-wah. My favorite of the bunch. Clean and crisp, with a very vocal sound, vowel-like. Costs 100+ dollars, but if you use wah a lot, worth it.

That's it. All of them take a good beating. I know people rave about the Teese models, but I've never tried one. Lot of cash for one of those, as well.
 
Years ago someone gave me an old metal encased morley.It still had an unattachable power cord with no battery compartment.It had an on/off switch and a wah control pot.I have no idea what year it was but it was real noisey on the gain channel.I gave it to my bass player and it actually sounded good through his rig.He had a little fun with it then it died.
 
I have had a regular Dunlop Crybaby for 12 years now and it is going strong. The Vox wah sounds very similar to it but a little less (slightly less) treble. I tried a Crybaby Classic the other day and I liked it very much. Almost every review says it is noisy but the one I tried was not. If it is, a simple pot replacement from Small Bear Electronics for $16 or so will fix it.

Personally I prefer a simple wah with not many extra switches so I steer clear of most of the signature Dunlops; plus they cost significantly more. Also, I think the Morley's sound like garbage; just a personal opinion.
 
Search Geoffrey Teese. I think there are 5 or 6 flavors to choose from.

You won't be disappointed.
 
I liked the Budda Wah too. Just FYI IIRC designed by Budda, manufactured for them by Dunlop.
 
stevieb said:
I am actually happy with my modern Dunlap. I only wish there was a way to limit the max/min. wah effect- even a mechanical block would work. And I recently aquired a Thomas Organ Wah- not a whole lot of difference between the two (The TO needs a new pot, it's noisy.)
Click to expand...

If you're into modding at all, it'd be pretty easy to swap the pot with a different value pot. To lessen or tighten the range of the sweep.


My .02, most different brands are a completely different animal. I'd start by listening to some of your favorite instances of a wah pedal being used and find out what they were using. Second would be to go to a decent shop, with a decent selection of decent pedals and give them all a whirl. In the name of decency, you'd probably find a decent pedal at a decent price that way in a reasonably decent amount of time. :cool:
 
Farview said:
Dunlop came out with a wah that doesn't have the button to turn it on and off. It works like a Morley, but sounds like a cry baby.
Click to expand...

Thats pretty cool. I liked the function and sound characteristics of the bad horsie wah but the thing that I hated was the noticeable amount of tone loss in the bypass circuit.
 
I've had a Cry Baby laying around for a lot longer than I like to think. It was fine at first, but it doesn't get used any more because it's noisy. I could replace the pot, but I don't like it enough to mess with it. I got tired of it eating batteries, so I got a Dunlop power supply, which hissed...so it ended up on the shelf next to the pedal.

I liked the sound of it, and recorded with it one time, and it was perfect for that track.

Eventually I got into performing on guitar again after a long stint as a bass player, and as we worked up original material, I kept hearing a wah on one of the songs. I searched around and settled on a Line 6 Floor Pod Plus, which includes a wah among its other effects (which I also use from time to time during a set). It's convenient not to have to hook up two or three pedals on the chance I might want to use one of them (I play a 335 into a Blues Jr or a Jazzmaster Ultralight, usually).

It has a good range of sounds, but it dies if when you back it off all the way to the bass (heel) end of its travel. Still, there are no batteries to replace, and it appears robust. I've had it for about a year now, and I'm happy with it.

There may be better sounding wahs, but at this point in my life I prefer easy setup to ultimate tone -- at least, playing live, where it all blows past your ears into eternity anyway.
 
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. After trialling a whole lot I ended up with the Budda Budwah.
Again, thanks for taking the time to post your recomendations.
Mike.
 
I bought a crybaby 18 years ago and it just sliced my tone into nothingness. Of course, I realize that it's a bandpass filter, but it was just silly sounding to me. Later I saw a local band who's guitarist had a really fat wah sound and so I spoke with him about it. He'd had the same experience I had and suggested a Vox. I bought the Vox and I found it much nicer and fatter. I don't know if it's got a wider peak, a lower sweeping range, more makeup gain, or what. I noticed that my experience doesn't jive with a couple of the previous posts, however, so definitely don't take my word for it - try out a handful at a guitar store in addition to talking to people on forums (which is also a great research method).

(Update: After posting I realized that you've already bought the pedal. Still, this could be a useful thread for someone else later so I'll leave my response.)
 
I like the Dunlop Cry Baby best, mines bog standard but had the nicest tone from all the other models I tried. The only way to really get the right one for you is to go to a guitar store and A/B a whole load of models.



Edit: Ooops, just realised you got the Budda!
 
jmcelroy said:
I bought a crybaby 18 years ago and it just sliced my tone into nothingness. Of course, I realize that it's a bandpass filter, but it was just silly sounding to me. Later I saw a local band who's guitarist had a really fat wah sound and so I spoke with him about it. He'd had the same experience I had and suggested a Vox. I bought the Vox and I found it much nicer and fatter. I don't know if it's got a wider peak, a lower sweeping range, more makeup gain, or what. I noticed that my experience doesn't jive with a couple of the previous posts, however, so definitely don't take my word for it - try out a handful at a guitar store in addition to talking to people on forums (which is also a great research method).

(Update: After posting I realized that you've already bought the pedal. Still, this could be a useful thread for someone else later so I'll leave my response.)
Click to expand...

Vox 847? Isn't that the same circuit as a Crybaby? There a minor difference...new Vox's have surface mounted components for the buffer.

I think the biggest reason people find a Vox or Dunlop to better than the other is that the pinion gear on the pot might have been installed at a slightly different rotation on the rack gear from the factory. Its a simple fix.
 
I've had a Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Cry baby for about 20 years. About three years ago I bought a Morley.
Within three weeks I sold the Morely.
To me the Dunlop sounds like a Wha is supposed to sound & the Morely sounded like something else altogether - it had greater tweakability etc but didn't sound good by any stretch of the wah imagination.
 
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