Best/worst Wah

JoeyBones · 2008-05-30T12:26:44+00:00

I've been through 3 wah pedals and am still not satisfied. My first was an old Cry Baby which was a bit noisy and didn't have enough of a sweep action for m...

Best/worst Wah

JoeyBones

I might be able to get an old Cry Baby and a VOX wah. I should here from the guy tonight. If it works out the way I'm hoping I'll get them pretty cheap.

Mr-M

Norio wrote: Maybe something's wrong with my wah coz, in the beginning, it actually had a decent sound but, now, it's almost got no "wah" left in it ?

I'd say it faulty by what you're saying.

JoeyBones wrote: I watched some demo's of the Zvex Wah Probe and its sounding like the one for me. I just need to come up with the R2K+ to buy it ☹

The only problem with those is you can end up looking rather odd to the average person, waving your foot around in the air over the pedal!

JoeyBones

Mr M wrote:
JoeyBones wrote: I watched some demo's of the Zvex Wah Probe and its sounding like the one for me. I just need to come up with the R2K+ to buy it ☹
The only problem with those is you can end up looking rather odd to the average person, waving your foot around in the air over the pedal!

Not many people get to see my feet while I'm playing, so it doesn't bother me. Plus the size is a definite plus. The price tag is the only thing that's stopping me from getting it right now. The nice thing is it doesn't seem to alter your tone when you engage it since it works with the proximity plate and your clean to wah transition is a lot smoother, provided you've worked out where the proximity plates range starts and stops.

Mr-M

Yeah the ZVEX Probes are awesome. I've wanted a Fuzz Probe for a long, long time, but spending that amount of money on a pedal seems pretty crazy, especially considering how much the Rand is going south at the moment. That's just me, but it if you got the $, take the plunge.

JoeyBones

I just a bit worried that it won't live up to my expectations. I jumped head first into buying the Box of rock and the Cooltron is at least 20% better. Don't get me wrong the Box Of Rock does it's job well, but I should have tested the Big Ben first.

With the Fuzz Factory I knew what I was getting into and it's turned out to be way more usable than I originally anticipated.

I guess you win some and you lose some.

Mr-M

JoeyBones wrote: I just a bit worried that it won't live up to my expectations. I jumped head first into buying the Box of rock and the Cooltron is at least 20% better. Don't get me wrong the Box Of Rock does it's job well, but I should have tested the Big Ben first.
With the Fuzz Factory I knew what I was getting into and it's turned out to be way more usable than I originally anticipated.
I guess you win some and you lose some.

Too true, especially buying stuff without testing first. I've also had this experience buying stuff off ebay, so wherever possible I try to test it first. But it aint always possible.
BTW glad you like the Cooltron. I love mine!

JoeyBones

I would look so cool to have the Bulldog and Big Ben side by side. Only thing is I'd have to sell my Box Of Rock and it's just so pretty ?

BTW you should checkout the Empress superdelay and the Eventide timefactor. I'm liking the timefactor.

Mr-M

JoeyBones wrote: I would look so cool to have the Bulldog and Big Ben side by side. Only thing is I'd have to sell my Box Of Rock and it's just so pretty ?
BTW you should checkout the Empress superdelay and the Eventide timefactor. I'm liking the timefactor.

Yeah I had a Bulldog, Brit Boost & Big Ben acrss 2 boards up till a year and a half ago. Looks awesome. Always got nervous looks from other guitarists at gigs when I took the board out, probably 'cos of the expanse of chrome & all the LEDS!

Now just the BritBoost on my gigging board. The Big Ben sees alot of use at church. I just wish I had space on my board (I downsized), because it really is my favourite OD.

JoeyBones

I found a guy who is selling his digitech whammy XP 100 for R450. Is that worth it. I like the versatility of those pedals.

JoeyBones

It's sold ...

Mr-M

JoeyBones wrote: I found a guy who is selling his digitech whammy XP 100 for R450. Is that worth it. I like the versatility of those pedals.

Aargh! That sucks.
Great for doing some sonic explorations AKA annoying your bandmates. Seriously though, a cool piece of kit.
Those usually need to be in a TB loop though, because those are known for serious tone-sucking when off.

Mr-M

Sorry, wrong quote. You get what I mean though, I hope.

JoeyBones

I think Jack White uses one and I like some of his solos. Weird and a bit too dark music over all, but I like the weird sounds he gets.

ralley

Joey et al,
An alternative to the boutique wah pedals is to get something like a standard cry baby and modify it yourself. There are lots of notes floating around on the net for how to do this. The biggest changes seem to come from changing values of a couple of components. If you look around you can find notes on changing the Q factor, vocalness, changing to true bypass, adding indicator LED's etc. If you want you can also look at changing out the inductor.

An often overlooked change is just rotating the pot - these things have about 300 degrees of rotation, the wah only uses 180-200 I think. Rotating the pot can make your sound more trebley or bassy.

One of these days I'll get round to trying some of this on mine... Still the biggest probelm with the sound of mine is the operator!

Rob.

JoeyBones

I might try that if the deal goes through for the 2 wahs. I'll see which one is closest to what I'm looking for.

Mr-M

RE:Whammy
Yeah, he does. Used it on a lower octave setting with a hollowbody guitar to do what sounded like a bass guitar on Seven Nation Army.

Also used by Matt Bellamy-Muse, Tom Morello-Rage Against the Machine/ Audioslave, Satch, Johhny Greenwood-radiohead and a bunch of others.

Mr-M

JoeyBones wrote: I might try that if the deal goes through for the 2 wahs. I'll see which one is closest to what I'm looking for.

Hey Joey, did you get those Wahs? Check out this cool auto-on/ off mod for a Crybaby if you did:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Foot-on-pedal-True-Bypass-crybaby-wah-mod/
Along with changing the sweep of the pot, it might make a standard Crybaby into what you're after.

Wessel

How does the Wah on a combo pedal like for instance an Boss GT 8 compare to a stand alone wah pedal like a cry baby ? I have never tried either of the 2. But if it is a close comparison would it not be beter to buy a Boss Gt8 with all the other extras that come with it?

Mr-M

Wessel wrote: How does the Wah on a combo pedal like for instance an Boss GT 8 compare to a stand alone wah pedal like a cry baby ? I have never tried either of the 2. But if it is a close comparison would it not be beter to buy a Boss Gt8 with all the other extras that come with it?

Generally I've found the wah on most digital modellers to be harsher and with less of a vocal quality than the real deal. Can't say I've played a GT-8 in the last year so I can't rightly remember that exact wah sound, but with any modeller I'd suggest a seperate wah, either in front of it or in it's effects loop (so you can assign it to specific presets). Reason being that a modeller only has one expression pedal; I find that more useful for adjusting other effects parameters and for volume so I like to have the wah seperate and also I prefer the tone of the real thing.

JoeyBones

Mr M wrote:
JoeyBones wrote: I might try that if the deal goes through for the 2 wahs. I'll see which one is closest to what I'm looking for.
Hey Joey, did you get those Wahs?

No. I've put it off for now. Have more urgent things to attend to and I'm trying to get my extra gear sold off before I buy anything else. I've got my heart set on the Wah Probe but it's gonna take some saving to get it. I've added the ISP decimator and a keeley compressor to my wish list.