Guitarists Hardware wah

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All these years I never really got into wah much because it's always noisy as hell, but I saw this today thumbing through a catalog and wonder if anyone has tried it?
Boss PW10 V-Wah The Worlds First Modeling Wah
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http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i-BOS-PW10.html
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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I had a Vox wah that got a bit crackly, so I trialled one of these because it has a 'Vox' setting. My impression is that the pedal has a very limited mechanical opening range, which I dislike because it's hard to have any real control over the wah. Sort of On/Off. Maybe it's internally adjustable - I didn't get that far. The digital modeling sound just isn't anything like the resonant sound of a Vox. At the time I had a Roland GP100 which could use an Expression pedal for a wah. I didn't see any advantage over that. My Podxt can do wah, but I need to buy a special pedal so I won't bother. I would just use a good VST wah and automate it. Depends on your style - if you just rock it up& down with the rythmn, then auto wahs can be good. If you want to make your guitar talk, consider a talk box - otherwise, I would buy a Vox pedal again.

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greendoor wrote:I had a Vox wah that got a bit crackly, so I trialled one of these because it has a 'Vox' setting. My impression is that the pedal has a very limited mechanical opening range, which I dislike because it's hard to have any real control over the wah. Sort of On/Off. Maybe it's internally adjustable - I didn't get that far. The digital modeling sound just isn't anything like the resonant sound of a Vox. At the time I had a Roland GP100 which could use an Expression pedal for a wah. I didn't see any advantage over that. My Podxt can do wah, but I need to buy a special pedal so I won't bother. I would just use a good VST wah and automate it. Depends on your style - if you just rock it up& down with the rythmn, then auto wahs can be good. If you want to make your guitar talk, consider a talk box - otherwise, I would buy a Vox pedal again.
cool thanx, the truth is it isn't worth it for a vox either for me, I just never got into it...I did have a morley power wah back in the 70's but I only liked the fuzz on it (that was ages ago :hihi: )...I do have two cool auto wahs in my hard disc recorder...I'll stick with that if that mood ever strikes me...;)
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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I'm still not quite clear on what is so special about a wah pedal. Isn't it just a bandpass filter with fixed resonance? Couldn't I get the same effect with a lot more options by running a CV Pedal into a filter on my modular?
Incomplete list of my gear: 1/8" audio input jack.

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Yeah - it's basically a variable bandpass filter. I'm sure most modular VCF's would be better. But the guitar hero's of the '60's & '70's got a lot of mileage out of Crybabys and Voxes. They sounded good on Wurlies too.

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I've tried a Crybaby before and was pretty underwhelmed by it. Might not have been functioning properly though... Just seemed really weak on the resonance.
Incomplete list of my gear: 1/8" audio input jack.

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If you didn't already know, www.harmony-central.com
has millions of user reviews of this and just about any other piece of gear you can think of.I was thinking at one point of buying this wah,and I think the gist of the opinions was that it is pretty good,but is annoying to program,and the distortion fx tacked on are not that useful.

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Aural Chaos wrote:If you didn't already know, www.harmony-central.com
has millions of user reviews of this and just about any other piece of gear you can think of.I was thinking at one point of buying this wah,and I think the gist of the opinions was that it is pretty good,but is annoying to program,and the distortion fx tacked on are not that useful.
That's interesting AC, thanx..I should go there more often...see I was struck right away by the fact that it had the overdrive, in fact it suppose to have my overdrive, boss turbo. But my pedal is half a pedal, the foot piece is gone but it still works. That is al I use in my live rig. Though my Marshall pre-amp (9000)has an insane lead channel, it's way overkill for me. I like a straight tube amp hit with an overdrive to excite the pre-amp tubes too make them clip...I have much more control. So I use the minimal channels on my pre with my turbo in front of it...maybe I should just search ebay for a crapped out boss pedal (doesn't matter what type as long as it has the foot piece)...but I also rely more on my pre-amps in my guitars... :)
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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I love wah- for a few years, it was the only effect in my guitar rig.

Morleys have a wider range than CryBabys do. The CryBaby with multiple settings (I forget its model name) is really flexible for a hardware wah. I also like their Hendrix model (my hardware wah of the moment)- the whole filter frequency response is shifted down compared to a normal CryBaby.

That being said, my favorite wah of the moment is the one in Guitar Rig. You can set frequency, resonance AND volume for minimum, middle and maximum values of the pedal you're using to control it with. Use it with a midboost/sweep preamp (I have preamps in most of my guitars), and you'll run into positions with the pedal where everything is harmonics :wink: Hit a harmonic and you'll hear some harmonics you've NEVER heard before...

ew
A spectral heretic...

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Hink wrote:All these years I never really got into wah much because it's always noisy as hell, but I saw this today thumbing through a catalog and wonder if anyone has tried it?
Boss PW10 V-Wah The Worlds First Modeling Wah
Image

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i-BOS-PW10.html
It's using the same wah COSM models as the GT-PRO & GT-8 and sounds great. The GT-Pro and GT-8 have deeper editing of the models though. My Dunlop wah has now become a useful doorstop.
:wink:
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an autumn leaf
on the open lotus ~
pond turns brighter ~

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I have one and love it to bits. Ok it doesn't sound exactly like the thing it is emulating, but that doesn't matter it is a nice wah.

Personally I dislike the drive setting on it, so never use that.

Rollasoc
PS on my site try Greenspring 182. A little KVR monthly competition piece that I used the wah on the solo. If you wanna hear what it sounds like. (ignoring the dodgy song \ singing and production)
http://www.hairthieves.com/mus/songs/g182.htm

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ew and lunarhalo.

ew...

I trust your opinion regarding guitar rig, maybe I'll have to pick it up. I practically worship the wah and am not satisfied with any software (be that hardware or actual software)

lunarhalo...

thanks for you opinion as well, I'll try this one out.

I still think I'm going to lean towards a crybaby though.

dw

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ew wrote:I love wah- for a few years, it was the only effect in my guitar rig.

Morleys have a wider range than CryBabys do. The CryBaby with multiple settings (I forget its model name) is really flexible for a hardware wah. I also like their Hendrix model (my hardware wah of the moment)- the whole filter frequency response is shifted down compared to a normal CryBaby.

That being said, my favorite wah of the moment is the one in Guitar Rig. You can set frequency, resonance AND volume for minimum, middle and maximum values of the pedal you're using to control it with. Use it with a midboost/sweep preamp (I have preamps in most of my guitars), and you'll run into positions with the pedal where everything is harmonics :wink: Hit a harmonic and you'll hear some harmonics you've NEVER heard before...

ew
what pre's do you use in your guitars? I PA2s (EMG) in all my guitars as well as using EMG 81 (x3) an 89 and an 85... :)
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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deastman wrote:I'm still not quite clear on what is so special about a wah pedal.
A good one will withstand generations of 16 stone guitar players stepping on it 300 nights a year.

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i have the v-wah. the distortion is useful to give a little boost in a wah solo, but it's so annoying to program that i never use it. the best part of this wah is its dependability. that's why i got it. i used to have a tech 21 wah that sounded better, but it broke after a couple weeks. the univibe on the v-wah sounds pretty good to me, too. it's cool being able to control that with a wah pedal without having to cough up $300 for the real thing.

on what's so special about a wah pedal - once you get used to it, it's a lot of fun playing a filter with your foot while playing guitar at the same time. it can add a lot to your playing, especially if you play it subtly. it's good for people like me who suck but still want to make their guitar sound like it has emotions.
Last edited by rockstarfx on Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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