Best Wah Pedals of 2024

 

 

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Ladies and gentlemen of the jury of Tone we are here we are here on our journey making our way a little closer to Tone Town day by day and I have a good feeling today that we're we're gonna. We're going to really get over some major hurdles in tone because today we're going to be talking about a pedal.

I don't even know that we've ever talked about this pedal this this genre of pedals on the podcast before correct me if I'm wrong but today was my first pedal I ever bought.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): I have to say

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): and I would say that that would be true of many of us because there is such a distinctive sound that is characteristic of this particular device.

If you haven't already guessed what it is. It is the wah wah now I'm holding if I know some people can see it. I'm just going to get it where it's not  has any sort of glare. I'm holding the Maxon blubber wah which we're going to talk about more. A lot of people don't know about this. I was introduced to this by the the great  your countrymen.

In fact Grant Philip Sayce  we're going to talk about some was today. And we're we're also going to be referencing an article which you'll be able to see on screen. With us if you're watching on YouTube and if you're listening on wherever you find your podcast we'll do our best to describe what it is that we're seeing but there's been an article written about the best wah pedals in 2024.

Now going along with your feedback when we've done these sorts of articles and we've dissected them some people have complained. that we do a lot of let's say  constructive criticism of the article writers.  but we don't do a lot of  naming of what we would actually be putting on our own list.

So we will make sure that we leave time and space to describe what we think are our preferred wah pedals that exist out there. And and there'll be a mixture at least from where I'm coming from Of new products that you could go and get off the shelf right at this moment. And also maybe some some secondhand options that maybe aren't made anymore but are still affordable.

And you're going to get to hear about some sleeper was too just like the blubber wall that I spoke about. Earlier which is a fantastic wah wah that not a lot of people know about. And if you want that vintage wah sound and you want that short throw of an old wah it's a it's a really great one. And  in the casting on it I'm just going to say this real quick.

I know we're not there yet but the casting on this is really lightweight. comparatively to a modern day wah. So I would say where where a regular wah is certainly over two pounds this is probably in the you know just over one pound  range even though it's a full size no normal sort of wah enclosure.

So just food for thought there when you're considering every every pound can matter when you're dealing with the fly rig. So. Let's get into their list very quickly if you don't mind. Maybe before we start though let's just say  where we are with WAAS. Where where do you sit on the spectrum of pedals?

Where does WAAS fit in for you? What are your experiences good or bad?  Grant what do you have to say for yourself in regards to Wahs?

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Not a whole lot. I'm going to start there and hopefully improve as the episode goes on. Wah was like I mentioned Wah was the first effect I bought. It was a I don't even know the model Number.

I got it at Long McQuaid up here in Canada. And it was a standard black as simple bare bones as you could get Crybaby. And that was it. That's it. Input output power jack no extra knobs dials nothing. And when when I got it I literally bought it because the guy at the store said you if you're playing electric guitar this is an effect you need.

So I bought it. I had no sweet clue how to use that thing not a clue. So I would turn it on. I would literally rock it back and forth a little bit. I'd turn it off again and then I just play guitar. That was it. And so that's where I'm coming from on my initial first impressions of Wah. Since then though I would say I would put myself in the category of  Wah curious.

I know it is a very relevant effect to the history of guitar and I need advice and I need  some encouragement on how I can use it properly in my rig.  it doesn't mean I am not without opinions on it which we'll get to later but I would I would say as far as when I'm building a pedal board for myself it doesn't get much further down the list as of right now than Wah.

It's a very bottom of the barrel. I just don't put it on my board

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Ryan.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I guess I guess you could say okay besides testing was on builds. I have never had a wall on my personal board ever. I don't think I've ever even thought about it. So I guess you could call me a a wall version of of that since in a way because I don't think I've ever like I've had expression pedals on my board but I it's locked.

It was like who liked the  vertex like for your boost  and  to the  quad cortex but yeah no laws. I've I've never even thought about a law.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Wow. I just well we're going to have a go fund me. That's going to be linked in the show notes and in the description which is  let's break Brian's wah virginity.

And  we can maybe we can maybe we can get him the a crybaby or or you know  some of the other options that we might talk about today.  so anyway it'll it'll be there for those that want to contribute and and you know maybe you know Brian will finally see Tone Jesus in in a while. Now I'll say that that I also I don't know if it was the first effect I bought but it was definitely one of the earliest effects that I bought.

Cause I remember. You know being into slash and like wanting like you know to get like the  you know sweet child of mine like kind of like the the like outro solo you know type thing that he had going on. And so I remember like wanting to have a. but I feel like I feel like the first cry baby I got was like the five 35 Q or something like that.

But it was Chrome because I feel like there was some sort of like discount at the guitar center that was nearest me on the Chrome one.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): is this polished Chrome?

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Yeah. It's like super polished. Shiny. Yeah. Yeah. And and and so it you know it it wasn't you know it didn't I think I think I could have done better but you know I think as as an impressionable young guitar player when

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): you

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): know the guy at guitar center says this is the one.

You don't really have anything else you know my I couldn't like say to my dad like well what do you think dad? Like he didn't know anything about guitar pedals. So anyway. And

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): you aren't really thinking about at that age you aren't thinking about like I wonder what. His commissions are when he sells me this pedal that no one else wants.

Like what what incentives does he get when he sells this to me? Yeah. Every pedal I went

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): in wanting they were like man you really need this pedal. And I was like man this is amazing. I didn't know he had so much stock. Why is it so dusty? Some reason I had nine tuners on one board. I don't know. They said I needed it.

Yeah. One for

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): the input one for the output.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Right. Well let's let's get into what the picks are here. So so on the article today and this is written by Alex Linham  Best Wahs of 2024. First choice Number one the Jim Dunlop Crybaby Mini 535Q. Now I think that this is I mentioned I think I said 535Q. 535Q.

I had the full size Chrome one. Now here's a question that I have for for everybody. This this this this is going to you know be this is going to break. What is it? The third wall the fourth wall whatever wall it is we're going to break it. Fourth wall.  do do do people like you know I've put these on pedal boards before.

I'm sure we all have. There's obviously this this thing where we want to consolidate big pedals and make them more pedal board friendly but there's there's always a limitation to like how small You can realistically make a pedal in it where it's like still functional as the pedal. These to me look like play school toys when I see them on pedal boards.

Yeah. I also feel like we still have a finite size of of foot. Like what's the average shoe size? Like a nine or a 10 for a man and I don't know like a six or seven for a woman. I don't know.  these are these are like I wear a 12. US size like these to me just seem like you can't really manipulate them properly in this form factor.

Now I understand it fits on pedal boards and there's going to be come at me in the comments on this one.  I don't get it. Like like if it I just keep the wah off the board. They draw so little current you know like if you can't just leave it to the side. You use it on battery it'll last a long time.

Where are you guys where are you guys sitting on the political discussion of mini wah pedals?

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Firstly  little intimidated by your shoe size. Being an eleven and a half over here.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): But let's just say this Grant is like six inches taller than me. Is how tall are you Grant? And I have

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): smaller feet. And he has smaller feet.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): So you're saying things aren't proportional. Aha!

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): We're breaking all sorts of walls today. Yeah no I'm 6'3 I think I'm about 11 and a half. Okay so not as tall as they say. As they say.

But

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): no I think. When you I think we talked about this briefly in the last episode I brought up the DVP 4 expression vole thing.

I was like yeah it fits on a board but man they're frustrating to use and it takes the joy out of using them.

And

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): I would I was thinking as you're saying that Mason 100 percent just run it off the side of your board chuck it in your backpack get a full size wah. Don't have that awkward you know twisting your ankle am I actually moving it back and forth feeling  while you're trying to use these little tiny wah pedals  I would give this as a gift to my five year old son and he'd probably grow out of it after two years you know?

I just I don't think it's gonna happen. Those are my thoughts.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah I I've put this on a couple boards and the the thing is this is like if you depending on where you put it if it's not on the end say some people you know they put it in between two pedals sometimes step in on that. You're gonna step you're gonna hit knobs on the on the either side because it's it's so small.

Like it's like I have a six year old and I think it's small for my six year old. So I mean great. If he wants to watch sure. But what I'm saying is is like for the foot size like if you're wearing boots or you're wearing I would never encourage Crocs or flip flops. That's true. I've

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): done this. Yeah. I used to have the DVP4 and I would wear boots with a little bit of a heel on it.

But it's so small that the heel kind of has to almost go behind the front lip of the treetle. And it was oh man that was so frustrating to use. So I like whenever I played guitar I had to purposefully not wear my boots horrible for the Boots and Boards hashtag. My my engagement there went downhill.

Like it affected a lot of areas of my life. They kicked

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Grant out of the group on Facebook. If you don't post you can't stay.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Yeah. And so I had to decide boots and boards or DVP4. And ultimately I chose correctly. I'll leave that  I'll leave that as it is.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio):  yeah yeah. I I it's like and especially like the width you know like of the boot and stuff.

Sometimes it's so wide. So you have to allow for clearance because you know how carried away people can get on like pedal playground or pedal train sites or any of these sites that you can do like a digital mock up is that they squeeze everything together. They like jacked a jack and I'm like I'm glad that someone invented those wireless

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): jacks wireless patch cables and all that.

Yep. Bluetooth. Yeah. They love

it. Yeah.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Everything's powered by by  magnetics. No but like that kind of stuff like and I have people like Oh man that sucks. You know I didn't think about that. And it's like yeah that's you know it's not even tall enough. So it's still a great wah. I think it's a really cool little mini mini wah.

for someone that doesn't use one but it definitely is very like you just have to be careful about where you place it. And Mason also made a great point. Let's keep it off the board. There's been plenty of times that  like I've went I go over the Andy Timmons style somewhere. Like we'll do some like the.

Tweaks and stuff and his was off on the side of the board. He just carries it in his backpack. He's sweating because he's a normal person.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): He's a normal person a well adjusted normal person. It's not getting into these miniature perversions. They're not doing foot binding you know to make their pedal board work.

It's yeah that would be a funny well and

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): he would sell this mini wall with a foot binding kit that goes with it. Gosh

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I've I feel like I've seen it where it's like a plate that you can attach to the side. It's like I'm like. No at that point just leave it off. And he uses that  he might have something else now but for the first couple of years I was at the guitar sanctuary.

He had the purple Buddha Buddha. Yeah yeah that that

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): is I'm going to show you right now. Check this thing out. That's probably my favorite one. It's fortuitous that you say this because look what I'm holding. Look at that. Oh look at this. People that know people that know they know. The old Buddha wah this thing is insanely good.

Now these were manufactured a lot of people don't know this these were manufactured by Dunlop but on behalf of Buddha.  because they just you know they have the wah infrastructure already set up. I think that's pretty well established at this point. But these are amazing wahs. If you can find a Buddha it's called the Buddha.

You can find one of these. These are used by a lot of great players including session guys like Michael Thompson Paul Jackson Jr. Andy Timmons among them. These are fantastic. Fantastic was and I I feel like you can get them for less than 200 bucks  on on reverb maybe even maybe even less than that but yeah great choice.

The

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): condition the condition of yours is great. Cause his did not have a bottom on it. Oh well that's that's easy. That's easy to fix. That was yeah that was and it's always one of those plexiglass bottom but. You know but it's a great I would say of all the walls I've actually tested on boards. That's probably one of my favorite ones.

I've

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): in keeping it off the board. I think you can keep it more ergonomic you know cause you see that there's like some people. On pedal boards just because of how things have to fit they have to put it you know like kind of straight in line but a lot of guys that really want to kind of be a more ergonomic feel I'll I'll tilt it the right way for the camera.

They'll kind of tilt it off to the side. And so you can do that when you have it sitting off the board you can tilt it so that like the pitch of your foot feels more natural. Like you're not you're not at risk of an ACL tear because of the way that you're trying to orient your foot. Your foot in relationship to the wall.

So  yeah I don't have any objection to the the 535Q. It's a very versatile wall. You have acute control and I think there's like a booster like a vole or something on it. These are Dunlop still makes fantastic wah pedals. There's nothing wrong with them at all.  I just my only objection is just that that that there is this psychology of small pedals that really just shouldn't be small you know?

Yeah.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): They should be a regular size pedal. Let's see what else they have here. Number two is a Vox V847A original. Now  I don't know which one of these this is the V840. I don't know if one of you guys can look it up. Which is this is this the Clyde McCoy or is this like their  Let me look. Their like standard V847A.

I know they also have like a hand wired box that's out there. They

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): mention the Clyde McCoy in this article. Right but I don't know

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): if that's what it is. I think the V8 46 is the stand I guess like kind of like the classic one that that you know if you had a vintage one it'd be worth you know a lot of money.

Yeah this just says

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): on Sweetwater the 1960s style wah.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Okay. Classic. So it's not the hand wired one then? No

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I don't

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): think

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): so. I can't even see inside.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Well I still think that these are actually pretty good for like again a production line one even if it's not the one I'm thinking of. If it is the McCoy one that's nice.

They also have a hand wired one. That's pretty nice. I know that that the guys and we'll talk about them a little later who are like real wah guys that are like just making vintage style wahs they'll have some objections to this. But I think reasonably like the Vox Wah sound. Classic sound. I think it's I don't have any objections to this.

What's the price point on that on Sweetwater?

The V847A?

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): $149.99

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): $149.99!?

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): And you can. Free shipping in stock. Just letting you guys know  from Tone Brothers Music in Montreal Canada you can buy an all original. 1967 Clyde McCoy signature Wah1995 U. S. As in 1 995.  h. That's  That's a deal.

That's a pricey Wah. I don't think I've ever seen a Wah go up that high before. Not that I'm searching WA's as you guys know but Oh yeah pocket change. The originals the

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): originals are pricey. We'll get some we'll get some dough. Yeah. This says best budget. I don't know. I mean me. It. Best budget. That's not a bad price.

1 49 though is the budget. Price is that's for but for the V 8 47 A is is one 50 that just seems higher than what they normally do for their budget pick?

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I mean yeah maybe they're saying yeah maybe because it's yeah I don't know. I mean I've never the next one would be more budget I think for me 'cause but okay so Number is the boss.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Number three is the boss PW three. It's just like the yeah I don't know. They they call it best modern now when I think of modern was I still think morally. 'cause that's kind of like the next generation Bad horsey. Yeah the bad horsey. And and you know obviously it's got some pedigree of some great players.

Like Santana's a bad horsey guy. You wanna know about a Santana like bad horsey thing. Like like think of the intro to to smooth that has a bad horsey on it. That's like. Doubled and harmonized. What's funny is

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): on this list it's that's Number seven as best law for shredders.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): For shredders

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): shredders the bad horsey too.

So I agree with you about the morally for sure.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Yeah. I feel like the morally is is the modern law in my opinion but the boss stuff I'll say this about the boss the enclosures on these indestructible. I think it's a really good enclosure. Yeah. It's a

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): standard boss move one 61 99. Basically 162 bucks on Sweetwater for this one.

Is it

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): plastic? Is it plastic? No it's metal. It's metal. Oh is it really? Okay. Cause those FV ones. No it's not like the FV. Yeah.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): This is this is a this is a die cast. Interesting. Yeah. And it's it's it's a totally fine sounding and looking and feeling thing. I just for modern picks I feel like it's Morley all day.

Who are we kidding? Let's go to the next one.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Was that does it have a toe click in the boss? Is there like a switch inside?

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Yeah I'm I'm sure that it does or it might be like a optical sensor. I'm not sure you know but  it's one of those. And then the next one best wall overall they're still saying is the mini you.

No.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Number four is the GCB nine five. Yeah.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): So this is the one that I think most of us have got. Number four is the GCB 95. This is what everybody uses. And these are also like really popular for sending in for mods especially when I first got into making pedals in kind of the early two thousands. This is what everybody was sending to Robert Keeley to add in you know all sorts of different trickery and stuff like that you know and and and  you know adding you know switches and all sorts of cool stuff to them.

But this is kind of this is a

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): budget. Wow. Yeah. It seems

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): like this would be the one. Cause how much are these going for? The the GCD. Yeah. This is why isn't this the budget one? I think that this is right here. If you're

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): listening

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): we would

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): love to know.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Yeah if you have an insight as to why the Vox is chosen as the budget one even though it's 50 more we'll never know.

but you know I think these are fine. I think these are fine. I think I think if you put this on a board you're going to have a wah.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I put these on Your EQ will change. You will sweep your EQ. I I I mean I put these on many boards and they're they're sturdy. I mean you know I don't know I don't think they're the ones that like have like like mounting like you obviously have to use dual lock or  but yeah no I mean I've put these on dozens of boards and they're great.

I mean this one we should talk about that Brian. Yeah. Yeah. You should tell us. Tell us about your

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): mounting technique. A wah a rat anything with giant screws on the bottom. How what's your what are your secrets Brian? So is is this crybaby one

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): does it have giant screws? It has feet. It has rubber feet. Okay.

Yep. Yep. So so there's two different routes you can go with this. You can either lay on the bottom. Some of these are threaded enough to where you can remove the feet and it'll tighten all the way down.  some of them some sometimes they don't most are not. I would have to say. Yeah most of them are not.

Most are not. So typically what I do is I will either get shorter thread screws. So they tighten or I if you know if I don't have any extra screws sometimes I will take like a  a wash or a couple washers on the inside. Build it up build it up on the inside more so the bottom side is still flat. And then do dual a lock.

but are you worried

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): about the air gap that's in there then if you're building it up with washers

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio):

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): from like dirt and stuff getting into the rack and pinion?

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah. Yeah. I have well I haven't had to do in a while cause I I switched to doing the screws or just getting ordering the exact size screws I need cause they're just shorter.

It's cause you're trying to compensate for that foot difference. So sometimes it's just one washer. So I mean I have. I sat on the inside. No I usually put the washer on the outside. So there's still a little bit of like a wet nub.  the one there's one mission does this like plexiglass bottom they've done in the past which is works well for those ones.

But for like these ones it doesn't.  but yeah I typically do either the shorter screw or I add a washer to compensate for that foot. And then I just do dual lock.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): No Brian do you have any wire strippers handy that are near you? I do. Can you just grab one for me? Yeah. Do you have any of the kind that are like you know that have like the you know the teeth that are on?

Yeah. So if I don't know if if it does on that one you see like there's some holes that are like on the lower part there beneath where the teeth are. See those holes?

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): On a lot of them on a lot of these you can put a screw into there and you can and you can cut it shorter. And that's the other thing you can do if you don't have the the  the ability to do.

So you just take your screw. You screw it in you can clip it shorten it down and then that way you don't have to use the washer. You can just you know go all the way tighten it all the way.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I did not know that on those so that's good to know. Thank you so much. Yeah that's that would be really cool to know.

It should have a

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): threading option that's listed on it there too. On those wire strippers.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah I mean I only use these for very rare occasions. I usually use the blue mechanical ones but this really Catapults Yeah those

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): suckers are That's  I you have forever changed my life when I got those catapult wire strippers man.

He cuts his kid's hair with it. They are so good. Everything man. I cook dinner with those things.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Well it's it's like those hairstyle video hairstylist videos where you hear them where they're like flicking the  the scissors when they're cutting. It's just. Like that's that's how I feel because when we were all together at Mason's and like we were starting and I'm like do you have any of the mechanical ones?

Cause I didn't think about bringing tools. So I had to learn how to use those. Well and you're like Oh I use a razor blade. I'm like are you psycho? You razor blades? Like I use razor blades for tolexing but yeah no those mechanical ones are a lifesaver and hand saver.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): So you go cut the screws cut them down

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): that is if you don't have you know the screws ready to go you could just cut it down to whatever size you need.

And then and then  you can you can be self contained.  let's see what they got for their next one.   best law for options. The Number five is the electro harmonics cock fight.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): now this doesn't look like a wall. I'm going to state the obvious here as you'll see on screen if you're watching the video this is a guitar pedal.

And

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): the and the the description says this wah delivers a smorgasbord of options. And I'm just I want to just congratulate  the author here of figuring out how to pair smorgasbord with wahs in the context of guitar pedals.  so this I think what this is essentially is is an envelope filter that has an expression jack that you can connect.

something to in there and full tone makes a similar one I think called a waffle and you can essentially do the same thing or or get kind of that you know like cocked wah sound. Like if you think of like the opening riff for like money for nothing it's kind of like that sound where like it's kind of filtered.

Yeah. I I can't say that I've ever played this pedal  on the name alone I felt like it was sort of a disqualifier for me but there may be some people that are into the the you know animal cruelty that or or the innuendo you know  thereof. So  you know and if you are God bless no judgment  but  I feel like they kind of painted themselves into to the corner.

I don't I don't think you're gonna see too many of these on worship rigs. However I will say. When have you heard wah on  on any sort of  worship? It's

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): been a while. Early 2000s I think has really been the last time. You know maybe

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): like Lincoln Brewster might be a guy who had the balls to use a wah   on on a you know praise and worship service or on an alb.

I think maybe he he I think I'm trying to think of a song in particular that I can think of but I think Stoogey is

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): another one that wears that uses a wah. He would've. He would've yeah.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): For sure he would've yep. Because

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): I think it's kind of the guys that are coming more from like the rock you know. Oh yeah.

You know coming to they they they definitely had wah there. Okay so Cockfight. Next one the the more the water mini

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): This is even mini er than the mini from earlier. The mini er. I

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): have no experience with this. I don't know what to say. I want to see what I

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): got to look on Amazon. This sucker is like Well and I

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): think what they've what they've tried to do here let's give them the benefit of the doubt here.

Before we get into it what they've tried to do is they have a very mini footprint. If you're listening very small footprint. And then what you can do is flip out two little U shaped brackets that extends the toe and the heel. So it's a longer platform. So then when you pack it up you can flip them back in and it takes up less space I guess you know maybe you could flip it out.

So it goes beyond the edge of your pedal board. And then when you're ready to pack up you obviously can't have that. So you have to put them back in. So as far as the design I mean it's a it's a clever idea. I think it's only really practical. Let's say that let's say the platform was big enough when these U ring things were flipped out or these brackets were flipped out.

it's only really practical on the heel because on the toe you're going to have another pedal right in front of the the the wah because it's a mini wah. So you're trying to save space. So presumably your board is packed. So the toe one I don't think is going to be very practical.  the heel one I mean  kudos to them on a innovative idea.

I probably would still just want it on the side of my board though  at the end of the day. But I again I've no  I have no insight on to how this one sounds.  nor do I really I'm not that bothered by it. Not being a super huge wah guy. I'm hoping this episode changes my mind but  Yeah I would probably just go with a trusted name for a wah pedal if I was to ever put one on my board if I'm being totally transparent.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Brian tell us how much you love this one. Don't hold back. He's nodding his head.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): He's gathering. He's looking skeptical. He's finding the words. Is that a thesaurus you have in front

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): of you? He's opening up the dictionary. I've I've said all I could say. I've said all I could say.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): And we appreciate Brian that you have enough self respect.

I was watching Predator the other night and this looks like something that's like off that suit.  yeah it looks

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): like it looks like a bear trap. Let's be honest. It looks like a mini bear trap and there's nothing against it. If it's great I let's make ugly gear great again. Nothing nothing against bear traps.

And there's no offense to people that have been saved by bears whatever. And we're not going to talk about that. But what I'm saying is yeah looking at this it's very small. So unless you're sitting in on the corner or you're honestly very desperate that's and you have no self

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): respect.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah. I mean but also the price on it for Amazon

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): how much is it on Amazon?

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): You can't even buy it on Amazon right now. You can't even buy it. It's so

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): inexpensive you can't even buy it on Amazon. It's I guess

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): it's Or it's so popular it's sold out. Or it's

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): yeah maybe it's just priceless.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): We just don't know.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Well it says it is 79. So for 21 for 21 you could get a different law and it'd be bigger.

Yeah.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Yeah.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah. So it's very interesting concept but yeah no just just not for me. I will

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): say though playing devil's advocate yet again I have played a few more pedals over the years. And I have actually enjoyed quite a few of them like they they absolutely have the ability to put out some great sounding pedals.

They are on the lower end of the the budget spectrum. This one looks visually saying this one looks like it is ruggedly built. I don't know if it actually is but it looks like it is and more can put out some great pedals as far as tone is concerned. I would not be surprised if this sounded good but I just don't know because I've never played it.

Would you be willing to

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): introduce this pedal to your friends?

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Oh I probably I probably would not  personally if that's the criteria that we're going with here. Yeah. Okay. I wouldn't be bringing this pedal up at a dinner party.  you know you wouldn't take this home

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): to meet your parents. You wouldn't take this.

No

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): not yet. No no definitely not. Maybe the next one.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): All right. Let's see what the next one is. Best wah for shredders. The bad horsey too. Man you know I I don't I don't love like it's not my favorite wah but I like I still love this wah. Tonally? Are you talking tonally? I think tonally it's fine. Like it's got a thing like there there's there's nothing that does this.

Like this. You get it? I kind of get it. Yeah I think that they're cool. Like you know like obviously if you're talking about you know Steve Y Vi Steve Vi Steve Vi mixed with a W for a Y Steve Vi I mean this is the Steve Vi model. Anyway and Santana those guys you know I think were both huge. And still are huge bad horsey people but even like studio guys like I get these magazines periodically.

I know that sounds a little unusual. I get these old guitar player magazines like from the eighties I'll just like buy like a lot of them on on on eBay. And I keep our our bathrooms like full of like older magazines. And it's funny to see like what was popular in whatever 82 to 85. And there's tons of like.

Celebrity guitar player endorsements of like all things Morley like vole pedals was like even guys like Lee Ritenour who are like more. Smooth jazz kind of players were using Morley products. Like they were pretty ubiquitous in the eighties  whether you were a shred guy or not. And so it kind of gives you a little bit of a or at least for me it gives me a reset of like maybe somehow some of these brands became more typecast to a certain type of player now.

But when they first came out they were kind of like an every man like anybody could use them. They crossed a lot of genres. I love the sound of the bad horsey. I think that they're they're very cool. It's not the wah sound that I go for but like I like the sound of it. I think it sounds cool. And other people use it in a way that I think is very pleasing and musical.

So I have no objection to this  at all.  I don't know if you guys have had any experience with Bad Horsey this one's optical. Sometimes they can some of the versions that I've played can kind of screw up the tone a little bit.  because it has some of them have like a sensor and the bypass can be a little funny.

But  I don't know if that's across the board but I've just I've noticed that in the past. But

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): My biggest issue with it is just strictly its size. Yeah. It like trying to fit this thing on a setup. If it needs to be on a board It's almost twice the size as a standard wah. Well they have smaller versions too

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): now though don't they?

Isn't there like a mini mini bad horsey something like that? A colt. Y.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Or a mini bad horse.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): The pony. The bad pony.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Little Sebastian.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Any Morley

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Sprint?

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I have very little experience with this one. I I've definitely have done some morally wah or I think it was a wah or something and I did some stuff with Doyle from the Misfits.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Is he a bad horsey guy?

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I think he is. I think he has a signature one like it's all painted. I think it is.

I think it's Morley. I can't remember. It looks very the the enclosure and everything looks very similar. It's been a couple of years since I've  done stuff on this board.  but from what I can remember yeah I think it is. I say that was the most like the durability is really good. You know the tension it's very basic.

I mean it's. It was very lightweight. It was easy to mount.  it's just another one of those things that if it fits your style and that's the type of thing. I mean like I said I have only so much I can speak into when it comes to the law side of things but for yeah I mean I've seen I want to say the morally is like you know the the the coolest kid in the school type of thing.

Like it's it's definitely not on every single board but I think for certain people if you have the space cause it's very large it's a wide pedal.  it's like what almost double the width of a normal law. So it just kind of depends on if you have you know the real estate really nowadays people want you know every inch of space on their board to put more stuff where this is like you're taking up four pedals standard pedals worth of space sometimes so yeah

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): awesome let's see what else what else do we got  i'm glad i'm so glad they put this on here so the the Ibanez WH10 v3 wahThis is like John Frusciante all day.

Who's got a great wall tone. I know that this doesn't look like a traditional wall but these sound really cool.  another guy who I don't have one of his was but Wilson makes a really cool like much more reliable version of this in like a more of a standard one closure. I don't know exactly what he calls it but they're fantastic.

If you want this sound and you want like a little more reliable than you know The Ibanez one cause it's a little flimsy feeling even though they sound amazing.  I don't know how the newest reissue they've done a few reissues of these over over time but  just throwing that out there. If you are a Frusciante fan and you like that kind of wah sound  these are these are really really cool.

I don't know how much they go for now with the you know the the V3 but man are they cool. They're cool sounding. Like I I I actually I don't have one. I should have one. Are they plastic? Yeah. Okay. Alright. So you know you just gotta keep that in mind. But man it is a classic sounding one. 160 not bad. Not bad.

Not bad. I like these. On Sweetwater. I really like these. This one is switchable between True Bypass or Buffered Bypass.  I would say yeah just keep it keep it in True Bypass. No reason to no reason to add that color. Because remember once it's on all that buffer's in there. Yeah is that is that all the choices there?

Is that the final one? That's it. Alright that's it. So So given that  now I know that you you guys mentioned that  you're not Wah owners. I don't know if you have any  I'm a Wah owner. I'm not a Wah user. Okay. You're

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I'm not an owner.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): You don't own it. I have the Vox Wahthe  the first one up on our list.

As you can tell I never look at it or use it  but it's on my shelf. So it makes me look a little bit more credible. I have the 847. Okay.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Well I would say  in in Brian you don't you don't own a wah don't even believe that they exist. Well there's one just kind of speaking of commercial was that I was sort of surprised they didn't mention which is from exotic.

I think exotic's wah is is a very nice wah. I think it's reasonably about the smallest that you could get. In in a Wah format  that that is like reasonable for a foot size that you know we would all I think we could all agree that like most of us will be able to make that work. It's smaller than a regular size but it is more compact than you know what you're used to seeing.

It's not as small as as a foot. There's a little mini pedals and they sound great. They have lots of controls on the side. You know it's got a good pedigree of players that use it including John Mayer among among them.  I want to get into some of these other Wahs that I have here that I like to that I like people to know about and recommend.

But before we do I want to break for our very first ad read of the day. I'm going to pass it over to Grant to tell us about them.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): All right. So let me tell you guys about two of our sponsors here. First one is the Guitar Sanctuary over in McKinney Texas. There's a lot of guitar players in Texas by the way.

I don't know if you guys knew that. Quite a few. And  this is their  one of their favorite guitar stores here the Guitar Sanctuary. They carry everything from what we've been chatting about today Wah Pedals a whole range of guitar effects accessories boards guitars amps. It's a guitar centric store so you need to check it out either online if you're nowhere near Texas and McKinney.

Or if you're anywhere in the area make sure you stop in and tell them the chairman sent you. TheGuitarSanctuary. com is where you want to go to check them out. I also want to tell you guys about Neural DSP and their recent Release which is the Nano Cortex a mini all in one amp profiling effects machine.

It's probably would you guys say roughly a quarter the size of the Quad Cortex. It's a lot smaller than the Quad Cortex. And  it it doesn't have all the features of the the full size Quad Cortex but it has a lot of the essentials if you are into. Amp profiling and sims and all that my favorite thing about it.

I have to say I'll keep chatting about this thing if I don't stop myself is you don't need any external hardware to profile your amp or pedal. It's all included in the one unit which I absolutely love and so you guys need to check out the nano cortex. Also if you guys are into Neural's plugins which are incredible.

You can use the code Chairman C H A I R M E N to get 30 percent off any plug in that is older than 90 days. Okay. So use the code Chairman on any plug in older than 90 days and you will get 30 percent off. And I mean with that 30 percent savings you could probably go and buy a wah pedal. I don't know. I don't think we  you could go to the Guitar Sanctuary.

Buy a wah and that's two birds with one stone as they say. So check out NeuralDSP. com. Chairman is the code for the plugins 90 days or older and you will be very happy. That you check them out. Mason I'm going to throw it back to you.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): All right. So let's talk about some some other walls. So we we mentioned that the exotic wasn't on there.

I was a little surprised about that. I think that that's that's a pretty excellent wall. I think you know reliable compact compared to a normal wall. And I think I don't know what the price point is. Maybe one of you guys could look it up but I think it's in the 20 to 20. So I think that that's a pretty fair price for what it is that you're getting.

And again you have lots of different  Options to control they have little mini trim pots that are on the side. I think you can control some of the EQs. I think you can control the cue. That's really good. Another one that I think is really great in a new format is the Robert Bradshaw custom audio electronics  wall which is really cool in that you have a switchable inductor so you can you can choose between two different inductors which is kind of cool to have some interesting sounds.

And then I think you also have a boost that's that's on sort of like a a push push switch. It's on the bottom of the wall. So I think the intent there is that if you're using the wall either off the board on the far right hand side of the board assing that you're a right handed player or right footed player the you can kick that on you know kind of on the side of the wall and get a gain boost  to kind of saturate things a little bit more as and get some some tones out of the wall that way.

So I think that's a really excellent wall. I think another one that that is still made that nobody really talks about that I have here is the full tone. Clyde law. Now I would say one of the challenges with any new law is reliability. There's just inherent issues with the design of was the rack and pinion.

There's just issues with pots. There's issues with things getting dirty getting scratchy the mechanics of it just falling apart. And I will tell you one wah pedal that that's not happening with is the Fulltone Kly. Now I ha