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Wah Pedal Squealing Problem!

D

Darkstrike

Return Of The King!
Sep 14, 2007
18,679
408
#1
Here it is, I have a Snarling Dogs Bootzilla Wah, and on certain notes,during its sweep it gives a realy high pitch squeal, usually the highest notes. It effects more with low settings on the pedal. I've tried EQ'ing it out but no effect.
Any ideas?
 
#2
It's probably microphonic feedback from your pickups. What kind of pickups are you using? Besides using less microphonic pickups, you can also try standing farther away from your amp and not facing your amp.
 
#6
F0URwordLETTER said:
Hey just wanted to know is the b. collin wah good because i want to get a wah and that then one im looking at right now i know it has nothing to do with the question but i don't know what is a good wah for a bass
thanks
Click to expand...

Its the best wah I've found, other than the afforementioned problem(probably only mine, but try it out first!).
Its sweep is like double the crybabys and when you take your foot off it stays where ya leave it, instead of falling down to closed.
 
#9
Do you have any other pedals or preamps on at the same time as the bootzilla, specifically anything that might boost your signal? And what volume are you playing at? I've owned the Bootzilla Wah along with plenty of other wah pedals, and high pitch squeeling is common with wah pedals, but the only thing I've known to cause it is microphonic feedback which can occur with any pickups and which is worse at higher volumes and if you run anything in your chain that boosts your signal. It's rare to encounter the squeeling at low volumes without any boost/overdrive/preamp pedals.
 
#10
No preamp (its a combo amp), tried at high vols, low, on either amp or bass or both, with effects without any pedals.
At the lowest pitch of the sweep(open) on low mode it messes up the low notes, and closed it squeals the highest.
On the high setting on the high notes it squeals when open.
I'm beginning to think its the amp as its a pos, with an in built compressor that cuts sound out when the vol is above 4.
 
#12
The amp is GLX if ya heard of them, the do the dirt cheap BOSS clones(The amp is a clone of a Roland Cube). Tried it through a 15w Marshall(guitar) and the squealing is still thereThing is, I can't remember if the pedal done this when I got it first.
 
#13
Wah pedals can do that, it's just the nature of the beast, they accent a variable band of frequencies. I don't think the problem is because of a defect with your pedal. It's just uncommon for one to get squeeling as prevalently as you apparently do.

One other thing you could try is turning down the treble on your amp. An overly bright sound from the amp would cause more squeeling. At least see if that helps alleviate the problem at all.
 
#15
I've experienced this with a vox wah before, just random squealing, tonally unrelated to the input signal.

In my example the problem could be fixed by using a different cable in the input jack of the wah, or cleaning the contacts. Something about the poor contact of the cable was making an amp in the wah self-oscillate.
 
#16
What happened when you tried turning down the treble on your amp?

The pedal is just hitting and enhancing, as it's supposed to, a certain frequency that just so happens to be particularly resonant with your gear. This is normal with any gear, so like I said I don't think it's a defect with your pedal, all indications are that it's doing it's job well, but the rest of your gear just isn't playing nice for some reason.

Also try unplugging your guitar and seeing if just the wah pedal into the amp can cause it to feed back. That would be really weird
 

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