Looking for high gain Wah pedal

[sehaime]

As the title says, looking for wah pedal reccomendations that works well with metal distortion.

Currently I have the vox big bad wah, love the growly thingy it has going on, but once i get to the higher frets (i.e above the 12th fret), the wah effect dissapears!

So I'm now loking for a replacement for my wah. Any reccomendations?

 

[jskadiang]

I'd think the Kirk Hammett Signature Crybaby would be able to handle high gain pretty well, although I'm not sure if it has hit our shores yet.

 

[Whitestrat]

Currently I have the vox big bad wah, love the growly thingy it has going on, but once i get to the higher frets (i.e above the 12th fret), the wah effect dissapears!

You want the Ernie Ball wah... Trust me...:twisted:

 

[sehaime]

Kirk hammet wah sounds tempting BUT never really liked the cry baby sounds, so I doubt that is going change my mind though.

Although anybody have any idea what is the problem though? Is it the sweep of the wah? or just literally too much gain? I use OD at half gain and metal distortion at 1/4 gain, which doesn't seem that much to me. Or course I use EMG's too.

Earnie Ball eh? Does it have the growly wah tone (Only way I can think of to describe it heh) like the Vox?

 

[ryancrl]

I believe its the characteristics of a wah wah pedal.

The wah effect tends to be more obvious on the lower frets.

Most wahs are like that. Correct me if i'm wrong though!

But for a suggestion, I have a Crybaby from Hell and it works great with high gain.

 

[hifi_killer]

perhaps you can run your drive pedals BEFORE the wah pedal. That'll give you somewhat better articulation and a rather fiery sound

 

[jolianyew]

try the Area 51 wah.

 

[sehaime]

perhaps you can run your drive pedals BEFORE the wah pedal. That'll give you somewhat better articulation and a rather fiery sound

I did it before with a Crybaby from hell (yes I had it before) and it turned me wayyyyy off. Sounded very synthetic to my ears.

Oh and if it helps, I run it before my Tonelab LE and it works all the way till say, the 20th fret. It's a pain in the ass though for gigs with small stages (and almost crashed into the drums when I accidentally kicked it), hence I'm bringing a smaller pedal board for such situations.

I guess either I change my stuff so that I wah on the lower registers, or try a cry baby or earnie ball. Anyone want to let me try out theirs? heheh

 

[sehaime]

try the Area 51 wah.

Would love to, but I'm unfortunately not exactly flowing with cash at the moment. Seems expensive, or am I remembering the wrong thing?

 

[gsonique]

keep em simple ....

 

[sehaime]

keep em simple ....

Mr Goose you can lah. I would probably would suffer migranes from looking at schematics and spoil the soldering iron without even turing it on.

 

[dudelove]

try the Area 51 wah.

the area 51 doesnt exactly do "high gain" very well..

it excels clean or with little gain

sorry for the shameless advertisement, but the crybaby i'm selling has pretty sweet high gain tones. not to mention the killer looks.

 

[metalhead92]

I believe its the characteristics of a wah wah pedal.

The wah effect tends to be more obvious on the lower frets.

Most wahs are like that. Correct me if i'm wrong though!

But for a suggestion, I have a Crybaby from Hell and it works great with high gain.

yea i got the wah from hell too and it is awesome

 

[MaCcA]

tried the tremonti wah?

 

[gsonique]

The gain structure is crucial to a versatile wah .... imo

The pic i posted is a recent mod with whipple inductor (ebay), hot potz 2, select NOS WIMA cap (red color) and Italian Jen spec NOS transistors that gives the best gain structure to drive either clean, fuzz or high gain pedals.

 

[Whitestrat]

Ernie Ball eh? Does it have the growly wah tone (Only way I can think of to describe it heh) like the Vox?

Check the Youtube clip with Blues Saraceno demo-ing the wah... that should answer your question.

I believe the growling tone you're after has a lot more to do with the placement of the wah, and what drive you're using.

 

[sehaime]

The gain structure is crucial to a versatile wah .... imo

The pic i posted is a recent mod with whipple inductor (ebay), hot potz 2, select NOS WIMA cap (red color) and Italian Jen spec NOS transistors that gives the best gain structure to drive either clean, fuzz or high gain pedals.

Aren't the Italian Jen spec NOS transistors rather hard to get?

One thing i might want to correct you though is that I'm using the wah primarily for mid to high gain territory, so versatility is not my main aim. Rather, finding a one trick pony that works well for my purposes.

Thanks for suggestions though. Had crybaby's before and not into tremonti or generally into the morely sound. More into the throathy sound of the VOX which for all intents and purposes, doesn't work well with my high gain (read metal) pedals on the higher frets.

 

[sehaime]

I believe the growling tone you're after has a lot more to do with the placement of the wah, and what drive you're using.

You're right, thats most probably it. And the Earnie ball does sound awesome.

 

[gsonique]

Good luck with your quest ...

 

[hifi_killer]

you can check out the ibanez WH 10. very growling , works really well clean or distorted,low or high notes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgy9eTs6fcY
Though some how it adds quite a bit of drive to your clean signal.

The reissue of WH10 isnt available just yet. But well, you can try out tenspot wah 1&2 clones from www.wilsoneffects.com