Your Favourite Wah Wahs on Record

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  • hollywoodroxhollywoodrox Frets: 4085
    Anything Slash 
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  • HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9552
    edited April 2021
    White Room
    Also, Tales of Brave Ulysses and Badge which, like White Room, are Eric Clapton. He manages to get a more vocal feeling to his wah work than those who just rock the wah peadal in time to the beat. 

    I’d also add the wah bit from Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower for exactly the same reason.
    I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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  • ColsCols Frets: 6953
    HAL9000 said:
    White Room
    Also, Tales of Brave Ulysses and Badge which, like White Room, are Eric Clapton. He manages to get a more vocal feeling to his wah work than those who just rock the wah peadal in time to the beat. 

    I’d also add the wah bit from Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower for exactly the same reason.
    I could be wrong, but I don’t think Clapton used a wah on Badge.  The only effect I can hear is a Leslie cabinet on the arpeggio part.

    The solo to White Room is, indeed, an outstanding example of using the wah for vocal emphasis.  
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  • the_jaffathe_jaffa Frets: 1778
    Sheik by ZZ Top has done very cool and understated Wah usage. Such goodness
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  • tone1tone1 Frets: 5112
    Money for nothing Dire Straits
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  • NeillNeill Frets: 941
    By a country mile it's Big Jim Sullivan's playing on Dave Berry's version of "The Crying Game".  The solo break in this song is possibly my favourite solo, full stop, I never get tired of hearing it.

    It's often said that this is the first ever use of a wah pedal on record, I don't know if that's true.

    What I do know for a fact is that a young Jimmy Page is playing the rhythm guitar in the background.




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  • mrkbmrkb Frets: 6637
    edited April 2021
    Fly on by Burning Tree (Marc Ford on Guitar) great wah solo

    https://youtu.be/MGGUbZLjJLY
    Karma......
    Ebay mark7777_1
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  • bbill335bbill335 Frets: 1368
    2:20 here 



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  • danodano Frets: 1568
    Mike McCready of Pearl Jam is an awesome wah player. First few albums is littered with it. Special mention has to be the solo on Alive.
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  • dano said:
    Mike McCready of Pearl Jam is an awesome wah player. First few albums is littered with it. Special mention has to be the solo on Alive.
    Totally. McCready, Thayil and Cantrell, three superb wah players. 
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  • Moe_ZambeekMoe_Zambeek Frets: 3419
    mrkb said:
    Fly on by Burning Tree (Marc Ford on Guitar) great wah solo

    https://youtu.be/MGGUbZLjJLY
    Marc F makes great use of the wah whenever he switches it on. Some of his solo live stuff in particular.

    I love wah and Marc along with Clapton are probably the ones I would cite as (I hope) influences in the way I use one.

    Kotzen has some great wah tones as well. 
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  • Jimbro66Jimbro66 Frets: 2419
    edited April 2021
    See seven posts above yours @Neill. Big Jim didn't use a wah because they weren't available at that time. He used a combined volume/tone pedal that has passive electronics whereas a wah has active electronics. Those volume/tone pedals weren't the easiest thing to use as they needed a circular ankle action rather than the straight up and down of a wah pedal.
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  • Actually, i’ve always been fond of the Wah bit in Jimi’s Up from the Skies on Axis Bold as Love. A very nice juicy clean Wah tone.
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  • KevSKevS Frets: 468
    Steve Hillage on the Salmon Song..

    Hendrix Still Rainin Still Dreaming and Burning of the Midnight Lamp.
    Lots All Along the Watchtower..

    Sabbath Electric Funeral..

    Camel Snow Goose..

    Wishbone Ash Phoenix..

     Robin Trower Too Rollin Stoned

    Curtis Mayfield Freddies Dead

    Superstitious Jeff Beck..

    Dazed and Confused Zeppelin..

    The Wailers Stir it up,,Catch a fire quite a bit of Subtle Wah on that album I think..

    Funkadelic Maggot Brain..

    Wishing on a Star Rose Royce it's subtle but works well..

    Papa was a Rolling Stone,,Shaft..

    Schenker leaving it cocked with UFO..

    And many more..lol
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  • KevSKevS Frets: 468
    dogload said:
    Steve Hillage on this


    followed by:



    I love Hillage's Playing..I like Hawkwind too..

    Khan Space Shanty before Gong is ace too. if you haven't heard it..
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  • jdbwalesjdbwales Frets: 309
    The guitar-only ‘shred’ section at the end of Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy must be up there!
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  • KevSKevS Frets: 468
    Voxman said:
    Wishbone Ash - 'The King will come' - one of my favourite 'Ash' tracks and IMO 'Argus' was their best ever studio album.  And this is how a wah should be used!  

    Intro at 20 secs and main solo at 3:20 - great playing and wonderful tasteful use of the wah!




    And live at 40th Anniversary concert 



    In my Top 5 Albums has been since 1987..It came out when I was about four years old..lol
    I mentioned Phoenix for Wah...Don't know why I thought of that one first..
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  • NeillNeill Frets: 941
    Jimbro66 said:
    See seven posts above yours @Neill. Big Jim didn't use a wah because they weren't available at that time. He used a combined volume/tone pedal that has passive electronics whereas a wah has active electronics. Those volume/tone pedals weren't the easiest thing to use as they needed a circular ankle action rather than the straight up and down of a wah pedal.
    I do apologise @Jimbro66 I usually take great care to read through the posts as I get annoyed myself when someone repeats what I've said, but I missed your contribution.  I'm indebted for the clarification though.  The sound on The Crying Game is often referred to as a wah effect but I know when I attempted to copy that solo I couldn't get anywhere near it with a conventional wah pedal, I just assumed it was because I don't have a fraction of Big Jim's skill...  

    Now I know exactly how it was done I'm even more impressed.  He was a hell of a guitarist.
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  • Jimbro66Jimbro66 Frets: 2419
    edited April 2021
    Neill said:

     The sound on The Crying Game is often referred to as a wah effect but I know when I attempted to copy that solo I couldn't get anywhere near it with a conventional wah pedal, I just assumed it was because I don't have a fraction of Big Jim's skill...  
    @Neill a lot of players have tried unsuccessfully to recreate Big Jim's sound using a normal wah pedal. As a bit of trivia, the one he used was made by De'Armond for steel guitar players in the 1950s but Chet Atkins used it extensively for guitar on his Teensville album in 1959. You can find tracks on YouTube. Big Jim ordered one after hearing Chet's recordings.

    About fifteen years ago Fender released a pretty accurate repro of the De'Armond volume/tone pedal. It wasn't available for long. I managed to get one and can confirm that it's akin to patting head while rubbing tummy. Quite a knack. The wah pedals that appeared a couple of years after Big Jim's recordings were much easier to use.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    You could actually produce that sound by converting a passive volume pedal into a passive tone pedal, which would give you the same effect but with a simpler up/down action.

    I owned an original DeArmond at one time and I never could get the hang of the side-to-side tone sweep, even without trying to coordinate it with the up/down volume.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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