Wah-wah pedal suggestions?

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red cross
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Wah-wah pedal suggestions?

Post by red cross » Tue Jul 13, 2010 3:11 am

Lookin for a 70s rhythm guitar type of wah sound... any ideas? Not really a guitar player, sorry for the dumb question...

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Post by KennyLusk » Tue Jul 13, 2010 4:43 pm

For me it was always about the Vox wah and the V847 is a pretty cool pedal new. I had an original Vox wah from the late 60's for quite a while and the V847 sounds a lot like it IMO. Opinions will vary of course but to me the Vox stomps the Cry Baby stuff. And especially for rythm git.
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Post by Waltz Mastering » Tue Jul 13, 2010 8:05 pm

Vox, Cry baby or Morley

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Post by Jim Williams » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:28 am

I had the original Vox back in 1967. I now use a standard Cry Baby from Dunlop.

It required some rework to get that sound back. I replaced the transistors with low noise Hitachi 2SC2545, that lowered the noise below the stock pedals. The inductor was replaced with a red Fasel from Italy, the original part used in the Vox.
The .01 caps are now Wima polyprop FKP-2's. The 33k tuning resistor off the inductor was replaced with a 22k resistor and a 50k pot. I tuned it to around 68k ohms for my taste.

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Post by Ron's Brother » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:35 am

Waltz Mastering wrote:Vox, Cry baby or Morley
I've owned all three... VOx and cry baby are all just down to what one you like better....

Morley though... I've had two different ones and both broke often...
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Post by E-Rock » Wed Jul 14, 2010 2:17 pm

Vox or Crybaby, both good.
Morley's suck. :)

If you want to spend a little more, the Teese and Fuiltone wah's are excellent.

Also, a friend of mine has a Budda wah. Sounds great!

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Post by casey campbell » Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:03 pm

vox has always been great.

never liked a crybaby wah, although i used to modify them with a knob to control the sweep.

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Post by E.Bennett » Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:34 pm

mu-tron volume wa. tough to find, but well worth the effort

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Post by blungo2 » Wed Jul 14, 2010 5:17 pm

the only wah i've really loved is an old color sound. noisy as hell, picks up radio stations, but it really does the wah thing. that really newer ibanez wah isn't bad if you're looking for a buffered wah.

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Post by roscoenyc » Thu Jul 15, 2010 5:18 am

To me the new VOX's and Cry Babys are inconsistent and usually have a 'bump' in the sweep that annoys me.

I love the Fulltone Standard Clyde. Very smooth throw/sweep and it has
internal adjustment for the tone change (subtle to rabid). Worth the extra dough to me.

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Post by ??????? » Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:10 am

The Clyde is good. I agree with Roscoe that I would avoid the new Vox and Crybaby models. They sound poopy to me, compared to some other stuff.

"70s rhythm" can be a pretty broad thing, but if you're wanting that curtis mayfield type of vibe, I'd take a strong look at an old Colorsound.

The pedal has a really long throw, and I just really love those wah wahs for that certain kind of thing.

My personal colorsound is a re-brand called a "B&M Champions" wah. I also have a 1967 Vox/Crybaby (yes it has both names) that I use for more "general purpose" wah-ing. That thing is a motherfucker, but probably kinda hard to just go shopping for one. I found mine in a junk shop years ago.

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Post by Jim Williams » Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:09 am

Which ever version of Vox/Cry Baby you choose, it's the Fasel red inductor that creates the old magic. The modern inductors are precision and low Q, nice and smooth for other stuff. Get the Fasel red or yellow inductor from Electro Harmonix for about $7 each. Then change the 33k tuning resistor to 47k or 56k and you are there.

My "other" wah is a state variable 12 db/octave filter with a 5 octave sweep. It's fitted into an old Cry Baby pedal. It uses a dual 100k pot and has band pass, low and high pass switches and a Q control. The Q is adjustable up to 1/30th of an octave for radical "whistle" sweep sounds that can pull out individual notes. With some overdrive feedback I can sustain individual notes or pull second, third, octave and up harmonics out and sustain them as new notes. Use the high and low pass together and you get notch functions too.

That pedal gives me the talking guitar effect very well. I built a few of these pedals for artists over the years, maybe you've heard them on recordings.
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Post by Meriphew » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:59 am

Do a search on http://www.thegearpage.net/board/ and you'll find a wealth of info/opinions (perhaps too much info) on every wah under the sun.

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Post by GMR990 » Fri Jul 16, 2010 6:48 pm

For me it's got to be a Colorsound, big wide sweep and rock solid enclosure
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Post by vvv » Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:55 am

I don't care for the Vox or Morley s mch, love the Dunlop's, especially the Cry-Baby.

I also have a very cool Electro-Harmonix what has a 5-step tuneable range, a reverse switch, and can be used as a volume pedal. It's currently being used in my bass rig. If I could find another, I'd buy it.
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