I want you to talk True Bypass Wah Pedals to me please guys.

Telejester

There is a jaw dropping section in Jeff Healey's blue jean blues solo where the wah is literally screaming for all it's worth and I want that sound. I returned a vox 847a cos it sounds IMO orrible and when it's off I can hear it affect tone. I got a lend of a bad horsie and that didn't stay long either. It's that vocal quality I'm looking for and wide ranging sweep that will give intensity like Jeff Healey achieved but with true bypass......What pedal do you suggest I look at ?

Gassage

Telejester said:

There is a jaw dropping section in Jeff Healey's blue jean blues solo where the wah is literally screaming for all it's worth and I want that sound. I returned a vox 847a cos it sounds IMO orrible and when it's off I can hear it affect tone. I got a lend of a bad horsie and that didn't stay long either. It's that vocal quality I'm looking for and wide ranging sweep that will give intensity like Jeff Healey achieved but with true bypass......What pedal do you suggest I look at ?

If you are worried about tonal effect, the last thing you want is TB.

Get a buffered wah like a Clyde Deluxe.

Sporky

Gassage said:

If you are worried about tonal effect, the last thing you want is TB.

No.

The reason so many wahs make everything sound crap is that they have half-arsed bypass, where only the output is disconnected leaving the input impedance in parallel with the next stage.

True bypass is a massive, massive improvement on this.

As no-one else has said it, and it's traditional, I will suggest the Weeping Demon.

bbill335

BBE Ben wah!

TTBZ

Mini crybaby? Not sure if it feels the same as a big one mind. My mates standard unmodded crybaby had way better bypass and wah tone than my old vox.

Telejester

So far ones I've seen that sound great are crybaby 535q and cae mc404, any thoughts on those two ?

Alnico

I'll second the Weeping Demon.
Effortless, intuitive and if set right it will scream like it's namesake.

Zero tone loss on or off and the auto switching is adjustable for the 'Off' time when the pedal is released, from instant to around 1 second i think (Mine is set to just past instant).
With the option of manual switching and a manual, non-springy-return treadle, it's got everything and it's around £120 from Thomann.

The actual "Wah" sound itself can be shaped and altered quite a lot using the main controls and in auto it's always there waiting so even single note bends can be accentuated by a single sweep of the Wah as the note is bent up and then it's instantly out of the signal chain again as i release it.

It's big but worth it and it's really easy to find with your foot because of it.

Slimbert

After buying and trying well over a dozen different wahs, I stopped searching when I got my weeping demon....really great pedal.

Lebarque

Xotic, with CAE MC404 in second place

stickyfiddle

BYOC... 

thomasw88

I had a crybaby, a vox and now for the last few years only use a CAE which is awesome.

The vox was horrible, hated it.  Crybaby was very good but not as versatile as the CAE.

ICBM

It's very easy to mod a Vox or a standard Cry Baby to true bypass, you just need to replace the switch with a DPDT, cut a link on the circuit board and add one new wire.

noisepolluter

With all due apologies for the blatant spam, I'm selling an RMC-3 wah which is true bypass and bewilderingly adjustable. The amount of internal dip switches and trim pots is silly. 

fretfinder

Clyde Standard or Budwah for me. 

EricTheWeary

Apparently I have nothing better to do than look at stuff about wah pedals for half an hour...
From what I've read and seen Jeff changed pedals quite a lot although tended to use mostly Boss. He was a DOD endorser for a while and had an FX17 wah which apparently has quite a funky quack. Although I think he probably used a Vox more, Philip Sayce ( who played with Jeff) uses a vintage Vox McCoy wah which was what was reissued as the V848 - that seems to be true bypass and apparently also quite quacky/ funky. 
 Neither made any more but that 70s porn sound seems to be the starting point...

Telejester

I've been checking out lots of different wahs, best so far by quite a way is the cae mc404, sounds like a real gem on the red fasel setting, Josh wibaut does a stonking demo of the cae.

dindude

The cae is a fantastic wah

hotpickups

Exotic wah is amazing. Love mine 

MattBanshee

I didn't recommend the Weeping Demon purely because I didn't know whether it was true bypass or not. It's one of the few pedals I sold and later purchased again; the only wah that I've managed to get decent use out of.

ICBM

MattBanshee said:

I didn't recommend the Weeping Demon purely because I didn't know whether it was true bypass or not. It's one of the few pedals I sold and later purchased again; the only wah that I've managed to get decent use out of.

For what it's worth I would also - as usual! - recommend the old Dunlop 535 (not 535Q) which is not true bypass, but is better than that - it's fully buffered, does not suck tone, and is also a fantastic-sounding wah. In my opinion the best ever.

Marktigere1

Whilst the sound of a Wah varies a lot with pedals used, Amp, Guitar etc etc I modded my 1989 Crybaby GCB95 to True Bypass only as the switches were cheaper than the original.

I love the sound and have a TU3 after the Wah which seems to work best.

I also don't subscribe to 'True Bypass' being best but the mod for me was a good one.