For what can I use the WAH??

You don't know what you're going to use it for, and still you're out to buy one?

 

Well, you can use a wah effect whenever you want, really... if you're looking for specific instances in music where it is used so you can see how it is applied, I couldn't help you. I know a few local people that use them, but I'm drawing a blank for big time acts that you could download or whatever. I use a wah on one or two songs when the mood strikes me; I have one (not a very good one, which I why I don't usually is it ) in my mulieffects.

 

Was it important enough to post the same thing 3 times? Not on my watch, buddy

 

I have a dunlop crybaby bass wah, I use it just randomly, but not really that much, i probably should have just borrowed one for a while instead of buying it

 

Whoops, sorry JR. Had to edit that one a few times, I probably hit reply instead. Brain fart.

 

I have a Dunlop Bass Wah also and I use it on funk type jams and to pump up my solo(s). It has a variable Q and a volume boost on it, but of course the genius that designed it put those controls on the bottom(!) not the side like on the guitar version. You can get a nice filter effect if you sweep the pedal slowly or hold it in one position. It's switchless so you can't just "set it and forget it". For fun, I will occaisionally stomp on it as I play the last note of a song. It produces a nice "whummp" sound that kind of explodes out of your amp.

 

A real badass example of bass wah is Flea's solo on "Coffee Shop" off the "One Hot Minute" album.

I wish I could rip like that.

 

A wah is used on Metallica's Anesthesia.

 

is there a website for the cry baby stuff. last night I tried a friend of mines guitar wah with my bass. it was excellent... but it was a guitar wah pedal and not a bass.. it was a cry baby.. it was really neat.

 

Use it for anything you want. There are no guidelines. Your imagination is your limiting factor.

 

I haven't found a song in my band's set to use it for yet but I really dig the sound of a bass wah in line after a fuzz pedal. The wah and the fuzz work together well.

 

Check out Get On Top on Californication by RHCP (on earlier albums Flea uses envelope filters, not wahs); Calm Like A Bomb on Battle of Los Angeles by RATM; last track on Reinventing The Steel by Pantera - all cool uses of bass wahs.

If you want to be funky then you'd probably be better off with an envelope filter. With practice you can just about cop the envelope filter type sound with a bass wah but it ain't easy especially on quick stuff.

However bass wahs are well suited to emulating slow filter sweeps like in various dance songs (Higher State Of Consciousness) although they don't have the range of te resonant filters on an analogue synth, but their piece de resistance is when teamed up with some distortion as on the RATM and Pantera tracks, for howling wailing but deep vocal noises. Glorious!

I use a Dunlop 105Q Bass Crybaby which is pretty good but not flawless - I think designing a top-notch bass wah is something that one of the boutique makers needs to do - but its a very workable, decent sounding and sturdy pedal.

Alex

P.S. Don't go down the digital multi-FX route unless you can stand seeing your pedals dropping in value as the months go by. Go with tried and tested analogue stuff so that if you get sick of it you can sell it for a decent price (and it'll sound better)

 

Go download Morpheus. It works a lot better than mp3.com for major acts. (I hope that doesn't piss anyone on mp3.com off too much )

 

envelope filter is a lot funkier... its hard to explain what it is and sounds like... most of what sounds like "wah" on bass is actually an envelope filter

 

How about some sound samples then?

The EBS BassIQ: http://www.ebs.bass.se/2001/sound_iq.htm