Wah for distortion (talk box segue...)

People are asking me what's the best wah pedal to match a distortion unit. My advice for them is usually to consider the brand names which include a distortion option in their wah (eg: MORLEY PDW-2) as the manufacturer had considered a dual application in their products which imply optimal combination. If you still don't like what you hear or the tones aren't what you'd hoped for, then it's a personal liking.

In its fundamentals, a wah unit is a tone manipulator; it fluctuates bass/treble extremes at the user's authority. If you have quick hands, turning your guitar's tone control up/down would give this basic effect (but why indulge in such sado-masochism when a wah pedal is readily available out there?). If you have lots of distortion going in your set-up, try turning up/down the tone control; chances are, the outcome would be minimal/insignificant- same goes for a wah application. Friends are telling me, despite sending their wah for various mods & having gem capacitors/ pots in there, things are still sour when wah & distortion are in synchronized application. Well, it's proven then that wah & distortion don't mix too well, maybe this is the reason why we enjoy Hendrix's clean wah tone instead...

Moving on, if you still insist on pairing distortion with wah, then my best offer to you stubborn tone mongers out there would be to consider the talk box (pictured above: Rocktron's Banshee talk box) instead. It's not a direct replacement but it achieves a parallel outcome. Rather than a pedal-type rocker manipulation, the talk box has a hose which leads up to the user's mouth- that's how it's used. The human voice is processed in the unit in tandem with the instrument's signal (usually guitar/ synth) to give a very wah-like output. Do listen to Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer to hear how Sambora used the talk box to maximum effect (the unit used was a Heil, not a Rocktron). Jennifer Batten also had some talk box going in her As Above, So Below release.