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Wah pedal that includes distortion

jcburn

jcburn

Oct 11, 2003
2,628
1,674
53
Tasmania, Australia.
everburn.com.au
#1
Hello folks. I used to play in a Metallica tribute band a few years ago, but didn't really have much in the way of effects back then.
To cut a long story short we are gonna start doing this again semi regularly. Is there a wah pedal that includes adding distortion to a signal built in to get that high gain Cliff Burton tone? My standard tone will have moderate overdrive already applied, but we will no doubt at least play Bell Tolls.
My reasoning is I'd like one pedal to do both the wah and distortion, plus I guess have some sort of output volume or boost function.
Does such a wah pedal exist or will I have to use a combo of wah and distortion? This will cause a bit of tap dancing and extra money but if that's the case cest la vie.
How do you other Cliff lovers do it? I know this must have been covered in other post but feel free to throw a comment in here.
Cheers,
Jake.
 
#3
Well I currently use a ashdown overdrive plus pedal along with a morley PBA-2 dual bass wah that has two functions. funk and normal think it calls it. I actually find the funk one is better for a bit of wah on the intro to bell tolls.

However morley also do a distortion wah the old one is a Morley PDW Pro Series. But they have released a Pro Series II. Cannot comment on how the distortion is however as i was beaten to the winning bid by somebody when i got my pedals hence why i got the two instead of one. And kind of feeling it was actually good i did so i can use one or the other. Not sure if the distortion can be used not while using the wah part. if that made sense
 
#4
Rather than looking for a 2 in 1 pedal (fuzz+wah) just used a fuzz in front of your wah.
You will get better sonic results and more flexibility.

For a budget rig, I would look at the Dunlop Bass Wah and the EH Bass Muff PI. Done.
 
#5
Yeah - I sorta started this thread trying to grapple with the idea of a 2 pedal set up or 1, then though for the amount I will use it maybe a 2 in 1 would be the way to go.

Now I'm thinking that a cheap Wah and cheap fuzz might be the way to go. Doesn't really have to maintain bottom end so much as it's going to be solo type use, it just has to be loud and cut through.

Funny how I started this thread and now my mind is changed! but I guess that due to Talkbass feedback so thanks for the info so far folks.
 
#7
The wahs I've tried/seen with built-in fuzz generally have seperate footswitches for each, so you can't engage them simultaneously anyway. As mentioned, you will find much more flexibilty and probably a better overall tone if you just buy seperate units. I highly recommend trying to find an old Morley Power Wah/Boost pedal for the wah- this is what Cliff used and it is easily my favorite wah ever. Not great for the funky wah tones that are most associated with wah, but absolutely peerless for really aggressive and powerful dirty filter sweeps like he used. I was never a big Metallica fan personally, and only realized the Cliff/Morley connection after picking up my old Morley PWB. Curiosity led me to go back and pay more attention to old Metallica bass lines, which I now totally appreciate!
 
#8
sunbeast said:
The wahs I've tried/seen with built-in fuzz generally have seperate footswitches for each, so you can't engage them simultaneously anyway. As mentioned, you will find much more flexibilty and probably a better overall tone if you just buy seperate units. I highly recommend trying to find an old Morley Power Wah/Boost pedal for the wah- this is what Cliff used and it is easily my favorite wah ever. Not great for the funky wah tones that are most associated with wah, but absolutely peerless for really aggressive and powerful dirty filter sweeps like he used. I was never a big Metallica fan personally, and only realized the Cliff/Morley connection after picking up my old Morley PWB. Curiosity led me to go back and pay more attention to old Metallica bass lines, which I now totally appreciate!
Click to expand...

Point taken mate. It's really interesting to hear his lines without the guitar. He wasn't a very "tight" player, but thoughtful and played what was needed. It's quite obvious in his own way he could wail and play fast, but if you listen to the "Battery" or "Fight Fire With Fire" bass tracks you can hear that he didn't copy the exact guitar line - maybe because they are so fast. Rather he played within his means and got the job done.
I learnt those songs years ago and copied the guitar lines, which actrually makes them harder to play because of the speed, but his lines still sound great. Just interesting.

And thanks for the opinion too. I think it will definitely be 2 seperate pedals. Looking keenly on the Bad Horsie due to the pedal engaging when the pedal is pushed down. Then just adding maybe a EHX Bass Muff.
 
#9
I used to play through a Snarling Dogs Bootzilla wah. Its super crazy clipping definitely falls into the nasty fuzz catagory rather than distortion, but you might check out some youtube clips to see if it does what you're interested in.

It was an incredibly bass-friendly fuzz wah (as you'd imagine being the Bootsy model) and always came through like a champ in the mix.
 
#13
I have an older Morley wah/distortion/volume unit, red letter, black casing model with buttons for distortion and wah. They work seperately or together, however the distortion is after the wah, so the two together aren't that impressive. I do run a green Big Muff in front of the wah. The distortion is ok, its not a raging fuzz by any means, more of an overdrive, but at high volumes it sounds ok. It is adjustable in tone and volume. It's an ok pedal, but takes up a lot of real estate on a pedalboard.
Best picture of the wah on my board.
IMG_20121015_121917.jpg
 
#15
sunbeast said:
The wahs I've tried/seen with built-in fuzz generally have seperate footswitches for each, so you can't engage them simultaneously anyway.
Click to expand...

Try to find an old Electro-Harmonix Talking Pedal. Very weird idiosyncratic wah-wah pedal (extremely hi-Q filter) with a user-definable amount of Fuzz...but a single footswitch kicks in both effects simultaneously.
 
#16
Boss V-Wah will do exactly what you want. It has about 6 Wah models and six distortion models, one each I believe are based on the Morley and a big muff respectively.

All programmable into 3 patches with manual over ride. This means you can kick both wah and distortion in simultaneously.

Programming it is a little fiddly, but will do the job nicely.
 

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