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What wah are you using?

Most recently, the 'wah' I've been experiencing is people crying about the new TalkBass format.

But on bass, I use a standard CryBaby. It's great for a Wah sound. But it's also nice to engage if you have a bass section that needs to cut through, like a solo or something. Just click the pedal on but don't move it and it slices through the mix like butter. That's a trick I learned from Marcus Miller and it works great.
 
I'm still exploring all the wah's in the Helix. Plus you can layer some other sound-shaping or effects with the same foot pedal movement. I doubt the Helix multi-effect is what you had in mind here in the original question, but the controllability might be worth mention. I enjoy the setting where the pedal position can serve as the on/off without needing to click a toe-switch.
 
I love the white Crybaby, been using them about 20 years now. I love the switchless, ans I love the sweep. Holding wide open gets me a great face ripping tone option, and slapping with it is loads of fun too.

I wore my first one out back in 2010, and bought a replacement since it had major updates.
About two years ago that 2nd unit seemed a little out of spec, so I shipped out back to Dunlop and they repaired and dialed it in. Excellent.

I built a second (small) pedal board for use in my other band, and I put the Crybaby Mini on that, love it as well.
 
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I have no real experience with bass wah (despite my infatuation with Ralph Armstrong’s amazing work on Jean-Luc Ponty’s “Enigmatic Ocean” album). I own a standard Dunlop CryBaby Wah for my guitar noodling efforts.

However, the guitarist in one of my current bands plays through a Wahcko pedal from Jam Pedals. At least the guitar version of the Wahcko sounds AMAZING! I haven’t heard anything else like it. Turns out Jam Pedals make a bass version as well. Might be worth checking out.


NFI
 
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let's see--->I have wahs the bass crybaby(set it for zero delay inside or it's useless). My favorite is The Morley power wah boost is cliff burton lead sound in a box. The bootszilla snarling dog is fun. Bass Wowee wah is nice. I'm more of a filter guy I got- mutron clone(Da pimp shaft Funk I believe)- sea moon clone(w/Dub Switch also sly and family stone)-Dod Fx25(Bill's dub sound and Flea)-Digitech Guitar Synthesizer Wah(not Bass because of Doug Wimbish)-Ibanez Synthesizer Bass(muse in a box)
 
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Me too, same story

Yeah, the added fuzz is a bonus. Great fuzz at that. Much better bypass than my ol' 105q. I loved and used my 105q for years. Then one day I took it off my board and I couldn't believe how much better my tone was. The bypass on the old ones wasn't all that great.

I'll sacrifice the size of the JC wah any day.
 
Chicago Iron Parachute Wah. Pretty hard to find these days as I don't think they're being made anymore, last one I saw up for sale was $500. But the Wilson Freaker Wah is also a take on the old Tychobrahe Parapedal and is still available, though it doesn't quite have the trravel of the original design, which is a pretty big factor in how it functions. I still think it's the meanest wah out there, especially with some drive/distortion. Never loved the white Crybaby cause I really like using the heel positions on wahs and found it cut off, even when I adjusted the time of that in the pedal. The older GBC-100 had too much cut to it in the low end. I do kinda want to build one for myself though, a take on the 60s Grey or og Vox, with a buffer and modded for low end retention, as the standard wah/Crybaby has a very different sweep and sound to it than the Parachute wah.
 
I’ve been wah-crazy-fun for the last couple of years. Where to start.

For regular users most of these will work just fine. I'm not a wah expert so these are IMO, IME and YMMV.


Morley(s): Tried most of the 20/20 range. If someone asked me I'd recommend these. They are all very great, and the switchless rocker is something you really get used to have. Just choose the color/feature of your liking. I'd get the green one with distortion again.

Dunlop(s): Tried both white versions. I didn’t like them.
The Junior was better, maybe a bit thin sounding?

Xotic wah. Great features and size. Ended up selling it for no apparent reason (twice).

Shin’s Music wah. Boutique made in Japan. Great wah for guitar.

Wilson 12 position Q wah. I didn’t bond with this one, and half of the reason was the weight of the pedal, too heavy to carry it around if you are not a frequent wah user. I should have kept it a little longer.

BBE Ben: I didn’t like the frequency range.

Budda wah (older model). Loved it for guitar, moons ago. I don't remember why but it was sold the same week it arrived.

Ernie Ball 6185. This is a pretty great wah and not expensive at all. My major grip with wah's in general is how they kill the bass frequencies but, other than that, this wah is great.

Dunlop Cantrell wah. Meh.

Dunlop Morello wah. Meh.

Roger Mayer Vision wah. Another excellent wah. But very expensive these days.

EBS Stanley Clark. Terrible, terrible pedal. Avoid if possible. The weight, the short range, the shape... there was nothing I liked about it and all of the EBS gear I’ve tried seems to deteriorate very quickly.

Dunlop Chancellor wah. I wanted to like this one, but the fuzz didn’t do it for me, hence it went away. Quite bulky too.

Mission Engineering Rewah bass. Avoid.

Rocktron Orlando signature Wah. A good wah with some interesting features.

Ibanez Twin Peaks. It sounded great but the switch made audible pop noises and the rocker introduced some static noise. Returned.

Jam Pedals Wahcko. Terrible. It doesn't wah it band-passes. I was afraid it would blow the speakers.

Fender Tread Light. The enclosure felt clumsy and easy to break.

Hotone Soul Press II. Nice size and weight, but the wah developed static noise. It seems to be an issue with this series.


Currently Owned: Katana Sound Soul Baby. Japan made, point to point. Beautiful wah. The switch started to make some noise, I have to test it again this week.

Incoming: Dunlop Bad Ass Custom
 
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