What Wah for this?

Kebabkid

For many years now, I've been looking for 'The Perfect Wah' and by that, I mean one that can do both the clean, quacky but not harsh, funky stuff with a clean sound, like Shaft, Jamiroquai etc and then work well on an overdriven sound for Jimi, Slash but mainly the fantastic vocal wah sounds of Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham (Live & Dangerous era). Were they Coloursounds?

Does such a wah with a decent, smooth sweep and travel exist and preferably, true bypass and not a tone sucker? If I find a wah that can do one aspect of the above, it doesn't do the other and I don't want 2 wahs.

On Cleans, the intro on this


On Overdrive, at 52 secs here


To date, I've had an early Budda (purple one), Fulltone Clyde Deluxe, an RMC (can't remember the model), CAE, Boss and didn't own but borrowed for a while an Xotic Wah. Ironically, the ones that have worked well for me have been on multi-fx units.

Any other suggestions?

mgaw

BBE Wah is very good I have a rebadged  one for sale here for very little...its well worth checking out

bingefeller

Dunlop Jerry Cantrell wah was made to get the vocal sounds like you hear in the intro to Man In the Box. 

gibsongretschfan

The Buddy Guy wah has the sweetest sound of any clean wah I've ever heard. It also has a secondary mode for more overdriven sounds. I would definitely give this a try

Or... just go get an Rmc Picture Wah, forget about trying to emulate different sounds and just revel in the greatest production wah ever made by a man

ICBM

Dunlop 535 - not 535Q. It has four sweep ranges and a boost, and sounds great both clean and overdriven.

It’s fully buffered, not true bypass - so no tone suck.

Long discontinued and fairly rare though.

Kebabkid

Thanks for the suggestions so far and there are a couple there I've not tried - cheers.

I've added some reference clips in my original post as I found some wahs sound phaser-ish and don't posses that nice vowely, quacky quality that graced so many classic rock tracks. How come we struggle to find those tones now??

clarkefan

Dunlop CM95 Clyde McCoy, no extra controls and not cheap, built specifically for old - school wah, brilliant thing.

UnclePsychosis

mgaw said:

BBE Wah is very good I have a rebadged  one for sale here for very little...its well worth checking out

-this was going to be my suggestion.

The BBE / Vertex wah really is excellent. 

Slimbert

The Weeping Demon does it all but it's big and buffered. That said, the buffer is very good and tgeres so much scope to change the sweep and the EQ. It really is tweekable.

I stopped searching for wahs once I properly set up my Weeping Demon. Never once thought about changing it!

bbill335

I think the best and most pragmatic thing to do is to pick up one of the older crybaby/v847 (NOT v847a) and change the component values to suit you.

These PCBs have big solder pads and are pretty easy to work on:



That said, favourite all-rounder wah at the mo is a white FASEL Jen from the 70s. Servisol in the pot and it's as good as one could hope for. Much lighter enclosure than newer ones, too!

merlin

Sonuus Wahoo. Get any wah sound you like via the buttons or via a desktop app and has lots of presets, so pretty much does everything and a whole lot more. 

Cookiemonster

I just came here to suggest the sonnus

stonevibe

bbill335 said:

I think the best and most pragmatic thing to do is to pick up one of the older crybaby/v847 (NOT v847a) and change the component values to suit you.

These PCBs have big solder pads and are pretty easy to work on:



That said, favourite all-rounder wah at the mo is a white FASEL Jen from the 70s. Servisol in the pot and it's as good as one could hope for. Much lighter enclosure than newer ones, too!

Ditto on the White Fasel 70s wah. I have one just for this very reason!

tekbow

Nerd out warning. Prob TLDR.

Pretty sure Thin Lizzy was a Colorsound (that wah tone on Rosalie has got to be).

Shaft was a Maestro Boomerang on the recording for the movie and a vox/crybaby for the Soundtrack album. YT them. You can  hear the difference.

The problem is you'll never get them to sound like each other.

Because the majority of wahs on the market today are based on the V/CB circuit, people don't realise that wahs used to perform as differently as say a TS, a RAT and an MXR or 3 drive pedals of your choice with different circuits.

Most of us know the vox character. The CS has a massive throw on the treadle and as a result a massive range. It also has a really synthy transition point.

The boomerang has an extended transition point over the midrange which makes it super vocal. It's also problematic because the original pots weren't very hard wearing, had an odd taper and were 25k.

Theres a guy in the states called Joe Gagan who does drop in kits to convert standard wah shells into boomers, or Colorsounds. He had the boomer pots custom made an reverse tapered because boomer pots were mounted the opposite side from crybaby type pedals and most standard enclosures are crybaby style.

I like wah.

tekbow

The colorsound

And my fav example if a boomer in action

p90fool

Don't dismiss the Dan-O-Wah because of its silly looks, it does fairly convincing 60s and 70s style wahs and has a crazy octave fuzz for you to accidentally hit at inappropriate moments too!

57Deluxe

TBH - it is the player that is making both those sounds so engaging. Wah technique is a practiced art as much as any other guitar playing technique. Work with what you have and you will also be asked what Wah you using.

Kebabkid

57Deluxe said:

TBH - it is the player that is making both those sounds so engaging. Wah technique is a practiced art as much as any other guitar playing technique. Work with what you have and you will also be asked what Wah you using.

It's a fair point and someone once said something similar (without hearing me use one) or 'Maybe wah isn't for you' but rest assured, I know how to work one
It's the tones I'm after, even a half-way point, which I think the Xotic gets to but I'll try some of the other ones suggested here.

stonevibe

I've currently got 9 wah pedals (plus a Helix) and yes I need help...

Kebabkid

stonevibe said:

I've currently got 9 wah pedals (plus a Helix) and yes I need help...

WOW! Do you use them for different situations and do you have a 'Go To' wah?

stonevibe

Think I just collect them, but my favourite 'go to' ones are an old Budda, the 70s Jen with white Fasel and a Roger Mayer 9090A modded one in an old Crybaby shell.

I have an AMT for when I want a small setup and that is decent. Plus a few optical ones including a Morley, Gig-FX Mega Wah  and a George Dennis for when I need ultra quiet no hiss for recording etc

Then there is a Carlsbro wah that sounds great, but I find a bit clunky to use and also a Snarling dogs bass wah which I only use for its built-in fuzz as I like how it sounds with some of my guitars.