Twin Peaks

New wah pedal by Ibanez - TWP10 aka Twin Peaks. How is this any different from the others? This one offers a blending option; you can dial in both the low & high frequencies into your wah tone. Whatever it is, it moves you away from Kirk Hammett territory which is always a good thing. Good news - it's now available at Swee Lee (List: $199). Here's a good demo of how it's like in use:

Pic: Ibanez

Wah

One of the new entries into the Ibanez camp this 2020 is this wah pedal. There used to be a wah pedal in the catalogs but that was a good two decades ago. This new VH10V3 retains the original vibes but has updated features.

As seen here, you get to choose the bypass type & the instrument you are pairing it with; either a guitar or bass. Might just check this out when it gets here considering I've not bought any other wah unit since a Vox V847 & a short stint Artec Power Wah. For those of us with high gain set ups, the wah is not a useful thing to have since it does almost nothing to playing fast. Hendrix is perhaps one of the true proponents of the wah unit but he doesn't shred & his wah supplemented his clean tones more than anything else. When we think Sambora nailed the high gain wah tone in Living on A Prayer, we were informed that it's a vocoder, not a wah. 

PICs: Ibanez

Wah-versary

Morley is offering this chrome version of their wah to mark its 50th anniversary.

Presented nicely in this box. So for all you wah fans, this should generate some excitement.

I don't wah. 😎

Wah... so small

Smaller wah, that's right. The one you see here is Mooer's Wahter.

That's how big/ small it is in context.

Actually, folks, those flaps there are foldable so the real Wahter size is really small, it'll sit comfortably on your palm without issues. This is a practical consideration should you need a utility level wah for inclusion's sake. It's optic based so purists out there will tell you it's not gonna be as warm-sounding as a pot-based version.

Cock fighting

A little cheesy but absolutely usable- the new EHX Cock Fight pedal. I've you've experimented with a half-cocked wah pedal & embraces the benefits of that 'in-between' tone so to speak, this one will save you some trouble in trying to maintain a consistent response. There's also fuzz in there so it's an interesting pedal. 

Wah... Boss!

Hot on Morley's heels, Boss now has a space-saving wah in their line up, the new PW-3. There's a voicing option to toggle between a more vintage vibe & everything contemporary in an analog format. An interesting release, should be on my to-check list.

Wah @ City Music sale

If you are considering a worthy wah pedal, now's a good time to check out those Vox-es. I've tried countless wahs from the traditional to the potless but I always return to my V847. I think it's the only one I'd retain & I'm not that enthusiastic when it comes to wahs but hearing some clean single coils with the wah in action is rather essential for inspiration at times. To me, the Vox is the standard to beat when it comes to the traditional wah approach. Back in my early playing days, $60 for a quality wah was non-existent.

The crying is in (store)

EHX's Crying Tone next-gen wah pedal is here- no, not at my residence- but at Davis GMC. Please call the store for a price quote. I won't be ble to try this one till the weekend, gonna be busy (doing things I don' enjoy)...

Crying without moving

 

Many years ago when Electro Harmonix designed the Crying Tone wah pedal, this was how it looked like; it's nothing too different from the rest of the wah designs out there- bulky & typically pot-maneuvered. This was in the 1960s...

This is how the Crying Tone looks like today- a complete re-design and please don't go looking for any moving parts because there are none. I'm definitely checking this out when it's finally released this summer (so please don't ask if it's here yet *duh*) in the mean time, watch it in action:

Inside

What you see here are the innards of a volume pedal which had its base plate removed & tilted sideways. If yours becomes dysfunctional, the chief culprits are labeled above:

• A: Rack gear. This contraption looks like a saw blade, it's attached/ connected to B. The rack gear moves up & down as you rock your treadle. The rack gear might snap under intense use.
• B: Pinion gear: The pinion gear you see here is rather large, in many wah units, the pinion gear is attached to the pot's shaft as standard issue. This contraption might break under intense use as well. The manufacturer usually applies lubricant between these gears to prolong their good lives. We know that moving parts which are in contact with each other wear out over time.
• C: Pot. Over time, the pots in the volume & wah units wear out or they disintegrate internally & you'll hear scratchy responses instead of smooth volume swells/ wah voicings.

2 Wahs

If one owns a single coil equipped guitar, the lure of the wah is a haunting one. The best wah sound comes from a clean single coil tone; that's how I hear it. The wah & distortion aren't ready compliments. Anyway, I currently own 2 wah pedals:

1. Artec Standard Power Wah: Optic based wah unit
2. Vox V847: The traditional wah unit & the standard to beat

Artec's APW-3 isn't a costly pedal, I bought it because it sounds good with dirt, not only clean tones. There's added dynamics here due to the presence of a tone pot. The VOX V847 is equally affordable, it's the wah tone to return to should you be sick of other offerings out there so it's a good pedal to keep. There's an ongoing debate as to which wah manifestation is the more desirable option since the optic based unit does not have the upper hand in tone generation because it's pot-free. I believe it's whichever pedal that works because there's no established superiority when it comes to tone. If you can't live with a certain presentation, simply put, there are other options out there.

Ibanez wah: Reissue

If you've been around for quite some time in the guitar scene, you'd recall the above Ibanez VH10V2 Wah pedal made available in the late '80s/ early '90s (when Swee Lee was still located @ Plaza S'pura, Kramer guitars in the display window- those were the days). The thought of getting one did cross my mind but it featured a plastic housing. The current reissue version sports a metal structure & would address the durability issue, so once it debuts here, I might give it a try...

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.

Voodoo Lab: Wahzoo

This is a neat idea by Voodoo Lab; a wah pedal that offers:

• a traditional wah
• an auto wah
• a programmable wah sweep

...if only it's available here (at least for trying).

My other wah

My other wah pedal is the no-nonsense VOX V847. I bought it because it runs on a pot & offers an alternative, in terms of tone, to my Artec wah. Yes, there are other immaculate sounding wah units out there but the V847 offers a fundamental tone which isn't inclined to an artist's specification; it does not contain any enhancements to appease a certain liking- it's something neutral to work with.

The V847 does better with cleans but it's not a dud with overdrive/ distortion; one needs to set the latter at the lower reaches to hear what this pedal is all about. As you can see from the pic above, the bag is supplementary to purchase so if you bought one without it, do ask the seller to account for its absence.

PS: The folks at City Music were very patient with me when I tried this pedal- from one guitar to another, from one amp to another- to brother Dhalif & co.- thanks for the great customer service!!