Wah Wah pedal

[Coffee]

I'm looking at buying a wah wah pedal this weekend out of town (where they have things like music stores etc.) Any suggestions as to what to look for and what to avoid? Do you have one? DO you like it? What kind of money am I looking at (I figure $100 to 150 U.S. range).

[ESP_Viper]

I have the Morley Steve Vai Bad Horsie Wah. In my opinion it is superior to the Dunlop Cry Baby. The Bad Horsie is switchless, so you push down on it and it turns on, let off of it and the spring allows the pedal to go back to the bypass position (so push down its on, let off it's off). The bad horsie also has a much wider and smoother range. The pedal itself will move more than the crybaby (which makes a wider range).

The Cry Baby, I find, is a pain to use. You have to pretty much slam the pedal down to get it to turn on, and then slam it back down to turn it off. It takes a lot more to turn it on and off which can be a hassle.

I got my bad horsie for 90 bucks at sam ash. I love it and would get another if this one broke. Try different wah pedals and compare them. Get the one that you like. You may prefer the cry baby over the 'horsie.

[Coffee]

Thanks for the heads up Viper.

Read your post just minutes before I went shopping and that was a good call. The only pedal I could find was a Crybaby. Good tone but it was extremely awkward to switch, I left it on the shelf. Sad, I had so little time to look.

I think I'll try ebay or maybe order something online.

I had buying effects by mail, "you never know what you're gonna git!"

[Coffee]

Hey ESP

As I told you before, I live half way up a goat trail and don't have a lot of options for what's available to me. About 12 hours travel by car to a good guitar store. Anyway on YOUR recommendation, I ordered a Bad Horsie.

I've only got one thing to say. INCREDIBLE. :D I can't believe it's depth of variation or the ability to wah clean or heavily distorted sound. Thanks for the recommend.

Now that Moose season is over (I got skunked), I'm getting ready to play around with it. What would you recommend I do and/or listen to in order to get my technique down with it.

Thanks again

[ESP_Viper]

Heheh... well I am not the gear moderator for nothing! The bad horsie is one badass pedal!

Well, I don't know how well you know how to use a wah pedal. But I will go through the basics. People at first move the pedal to the tempo of what they're playing or to their picking... This creates weak wah sounds. The key is to pick the note then wah it. So make it very slighty after your picking. This is tough at first because it can mess with your tempo. But if you work on it then it's easy. My favorite method of getting wah sounds is to have the pedal barely pushed down (so it is on at the lowest) and pick the note then push the pedal to the floor slightly after you pick the note as I described before. This makes a really thick wah'd sound. Don't be a kirk hammett or joe satriani and do all your leads with the pedal. It's cool some of the times, but not EVERY solo like they do. It gets old and it's just a cover-up for mistakes.

Some cool things for different styles of wah are funk. Like the shaft theme. That stuff was all about wah guitar. Jimi hendrix is another good one to listen to. He was one of the first guys to start experimenting with the wah pedal and get some cool sounds. I forget what song it is... but I think it voodoo chile where he has some really cool wah. I'll double check on that one. Kirk hammett has some cool wah sounds with his leads, but he over uses it. But it's not bad to learn his style.

Most people use the wah pedal with distortion only. It can create great sounds clean as well. When you push the pedal all the way down it may make some sharp highs that hurt the ears. To prevent this or just cut back on it roll back your tone knob slightly.

Most of all... just play it extensively with songs you play or write, you may make your own sounds and techniques never used before!

[Levinson Blade]

Ahh Yes Hendrix and Voodoo Chille the best ever use of Wah