Now that was a long post. Yep, did you ever hear Howard Dumble give people his speil about his amps? He likes to tell them stuff like, "Ya gotta be careful, that amp can really get away from ya, its not for amateurs." So of course everybody wants to play one after being challenged like that.

John, if you think $650 for an old wah pedal is bad, there was some guy once selling "maple" volume knobs for hi-fi stereo units at $400 a pop. He said the maple knob would give them a better tone. No kidding, I read it in an issue of Skeptic Magazine just a few months ago. People are funny.

Hey what a great thread....

Quite a few years ago I remember getting very serious about wah pedals and seeking the best option because I've had enough of them to hear a lot of variation between them. What's always very relevant for example is when Joe says Hendrix's sound is brittle but he would be happy with the auto wah sample. To my ears there is no way I could cope with the auto wah sound as it's sound is brittle to my ears. It's all relative in the end. I hear noticeable differences in all the samples but Joe likes them all, no one is right and no one is wrong.... thankfully.

If I can dig it up, there was a lot of web posted research done by a guy with no commercial bias about wah pedals and the results of his Vox tests were fairly convincing. There were visible difference on a CRO (as one point) which was interesting fodder. Gets you thinking.. for a little while, and then the Cream reunion DVD comes out and who the heck cares about inductors anyway????

One other thing that's interesting is when you talk to guys who actually havevery discerning ears and the things they can pick up. Has anyone ever read what Eric Johnson has to say about tone, cables and batteries etc? Very interesting...

Another thing, if that eBay guys gets $650USD for that Vox, then mine's for sale too!!!

Cheers!

Hey, I meant to point out that I picked the very best example of Hendrix's wah sound I could find. That was from the last "real" album he ever recorded and I think his guitar sound in general is better on that live record than anything else he ever laid down. If you listen to his first record the wah is much harsher sounding, but then his guitar was pretty harsh souning altogther on that record. Plus he was simply a much better lead player by the time Gypys came out. He used to really stand on that wah early on putting the treble through the roof.

And my own crybaby went through a V-Amp2 set to a Mesa Boogie Mark2c setting, which is a great sound on its own but I don't think the wah sounds that terrific through it. The type of amplification you go through has a bigger effect on the wah tone than probably anything else.

ORIGINAL: Mully
Has anyone ever read what Eric Johnson has to say about tone, cables and batteries etc? Very interesting...

I actually kind of thought about Eric in regards to this discussion, myself. He's a great example of smeone for whom this little bitty detail stuff really does matter. For Zakk Wilde, on the other hand, he's probably too drunk to ever know the difference.

ORIGINAL: DarrylCoy

I need a wah pedal. Which is the best? Thank you, Darryl

I'm currently using a Cry Baby, but I would like to get rid of it and buy a Vox.

Rick

Hey Joe (pardon the pun )...

yeah it's one of his better wah recorded sounds for sure. I think a lot of the early recorded Hendrix gear suffers as much from the recording process as anything... maybe he'd lost enough HF in his hearing to not hear the amount of treble he played with BUT, that can be mused over. I still really dig his wah chops on All Along the Watchtower.... very nice.

I'm not sure about him being a better lead player by the Gypsies era either. He was playing with a load more soul with a couple of brothers who were on the same page and his head space was totally different especially if you consider the amount of touring he'd done by that point. The early couple of years is full of brash enthusiasm as much as anything.

As for the amps.. you are very right. I can remember having a couple of Mesa Boogie IIC amps for quite a few years and never really liking the wah tone through them... never quite sounded round enough to my ears. Through the current HotRod DeVille though the Dunlop wah can scream and talk like anything. One thing I've also noticed with every Dunlop I've used is that you need to set the pot ratchet to the optimum setting that you like.

Cheers!

I actually kind of thought about Eric in regards to this discussion, myself. He's a great example of smeone for whom this little bitty detail stuff really does matter. For Zakk Wilde, on the other hand, he's probably too drunk to ever know the difference.

Yeah he's a mind blower on the search for tone alright.... AMAZING live too! Yowza.

You cracked up with Zakk comment.... classic...

Cheers!

Has anyone ever read what Eric Johnson has to say about tone, cables and batteries etc? Very interesting...

I've never understood this crap about Eric Johnson being able to discern the difference in battery types and stuff like that. Why is that relevant? It's cool to care about your tone. I know I am very particular about it. I also realize though that no one else cares but me and that I'm just being self-indulgent.
Eric Johnson is an exceptional guitar player and if it was anyone else, I would have written them off as having their priorities out of whack. Of course, concerning Eric, this is not the case.

Come to think of it though, I recently played the "Cliffs of Dover" setting on the PODxt live and was suprised at how close it was to Eric's recorded tone. What suprised me even more was the fact that it was the first time that I realized how crappy that tone actually was!

Don't worry Monkey, there'll always be people who will agree with you.

You have to consider that those with "perfect pitch" as I understand EJ has, will always suffer from some obsessiveness about things like this. Personally I'm real glad that he goes on with this "crap" search for tone because he gets some amazing sounds from his playing and after all, it's a lot of this obsession that has helped make a living from playing a guitar... so he's a lot better and smarter than a lot of us maybe?

Cheers!

Get yourself a Vox 847 and install a Dpdt switch. A company called Pedaldoc is selling kits to do this yourself and apparently the instructions are very clear the components of very good quality and they ship the items very quickly:

www.pedaldoc.com