Electric Guitar Trends

There are several companies making wah-wah pedals. I suppose the market leaders have always been the Cry Babys, Morleys, and Vox pedals. Nowadays, there are also pricier boutique makers, such as Budda Wah, Fulltone, and Teese.  I find all this rather strange, considering how simple the original wahs that Jimi Hendrix played were.

I mean, what are we are we talking here?  An inductor (aka coil) and a potentiometer that is rolled by rocking a pedal with your foot. Oh yeah, a footswitch and a case.

The more expensive wah-wah pedals typically claim to have a ”more authentic” inductor.  Apparently the first Cry Babys were manufactured in the mid 1960’s using an inductor made by Faisel, Italy.  Faisel went out of business a long time ago, so who makes the most authentic sounding wah-wah pedal is up to the marketing people now.

I like the Cry Baby wah-wah pedal for it’s long sweep.  That what I was looking for when I bought mine.  The Cry Baby Q95 has no LED to tell me when it’s on, and that bites.  The Q95 does have l-o-n-g battery life too.

The early Morley pedals plugged directly into the wall.  Yikes!  Nowadays, they have more traditional battery/wall wart power options. Morleys are pretty affordable in their blister packs and all.  They really don’t have the sweep range of the Cry baby pedals. One really nice feature of Morley pedals, is that the wah-wah activates when you rest your foot on the pedal, and turns off when you lift your foot off the pedal.  Good idea!.  Has a status LED - I don’t know why.

Vox has been making wah-wah pedals since the beginning.  I think they have fallen behind a bit in market share, but I see that they now offer a Joe Satriani Big Bad Dual Wah.  It’s kinda pricey, but it looks interesting.

Aside from this, a pedal with a transparant sound is always good.  On some settings, you can hear the electronics working on my Cry Baby wah-wah, and the more transparent the better.

My ideal wah-wah pedal would have the sweep of a Cry Baby (or more) a Morley activation switch, and a very transparent sound.  Oh yeah, I want long battery life too.