what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

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Pacafeliz
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what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by Pacafeliz » Fri Feb 02, 2018 9:55 am

i've amassed a quite decent amount of old wah pedals, i got sorta addicted... they all sound so different! but i always come back to my dad's old early 70s JEN Mr. CryBaby Super wah/vol pedal. But maybe i'm more trained/accustomed to the "classic" sound?

now i have that one and:
- 70s G.B. (Colorsound) Wah Swell
- various WaFuzz (etc. = Ibanez/Aria/Maxon/no brand) - some are "reversed", some not
- various Shin-Ei/Companion Fuzz Wahs - also, some "reverse wah" ones
- a weirdo "SoundCraft - Talker" pedal, seems to be made in Poland in the 70s/80s and is more of an A-E-I-O-U effect
- EKO MultiTone, the wah part is called "Strepitoso" (man i love that word so much!!!)
...and maybe more

Geez i need to make demos again. It used to give me some cash, even. :wtf:

So, what is YOUR personal fav old wah? and, am i the only dumbo with that kind "fetish"?! :ph34r:

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i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by fuzzjunkie » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:13 am

I have an older Vox wah and had a Cry Baby. Kept the Vox since I liked the tone and the chrome better.

I have never tried a Teese or Castledine, the modern takes on vintage circuits. I do like the Colorsound Wah a lot. I almost went hunting for one a few years ago, but I'm not that big of a wah user in the classic or funk wah sense. The Japanese wahs always seemed more noise machines than anything to me. Jesus and Marychain in a box.

I kicked standard wah off my board when I got a Fairfield Circuitry Four Eyes. I use it as a cocked wah distortion box and team it with a Source Audio expression pedal. It can be set for forward or reverse wah and also sends LFO signal which gives me a nice "Diamond Sea" phased auto-wah type of sound. The shape of the ramp up and down can be changed or even made random. A lot of non-classic filter and wah sounds that suit me better than a standard wah. With a flip of a switch it also becomes a Fuzz Wah, or I can keep it clean and run it through another dirt box on my board. I can have my Jesus and Marychain and eat it too.

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by Embenny » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:23 am

Does the Ibanez WH10 count as "vintage" yet?

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by FightingPlankton » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:27 am

i actually have a distaste for wah's... not to say i hate them, but i am picky about the one i use.
I tried most of the major brands, threw them out, kept 2 very different sounding units.
the one that is the most "traditional" is my budda wah...not vintage, but it sounds killer
the second is kind of an oddball and i hate that it's plastic. its a Bespeco weeper. Its only 2 components away from a coloursound wah, but stock as is, i feel its got a darker tone that i quite like. also not vintage.
What is acoustic? Oh, you means a grandpa's guitars? A grandpa's guitars? That's for pussies and grandpas. I think you know it.

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by MechaBulletBill » Fri Feb 02, 2018 3:34 pm

I had an old crybaby w/ red fasel which sounded nice but was way too scratchy so I sent it back (I could probably fix it now but it wasn't worth what I paid to fix it). My current fav wah is a reissue vox v847 (with chassis mounted jacks so from the 80s?) that I've modded. It now has a big ol' volume boost when you kick it on and a really nice throaty sweep.

I LOVE the sound of old Morley wahs in the big old chrome boxes. The only one I've tried is the one that's just wah, no boost but I'd love to have one of the wah/fuzzes. They're impractically big and the mechanism is preposterous but they sound fuckin fantastic.

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by budda12ax7 » Sat Feb 03, 2018 7:43 pm

Love the old Morley Chrome wah's. The cliff burton reissue comes close.

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by electric12 » Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:15 am

I'm a fan of the old JEN wahs. I have a 70's one which knocks my Vox and Dunlops out of the park.

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by Kent » Tue Feb 06, 2018 4:38 am

This:
Electro-Harmonix Queen Triggered Wah
Image

and this:

Foxx
Image

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by Kinx » Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:10 am

early 70s Colorsound - love the extended range.
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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by Pacafeliz » Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:18 am

Kinx wrote:
Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:10 am
early 70s Colorsound - love the extended range.
Yes, but I wish mine got a bit more trebly in the all the way front. Is there a trimpot or something I can do, like, easy DIY?
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by Mike S » Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:03 am

I like the Shin-Ei pedals best-listening to, not playing. I've decided I'm too lazy and not coordinated enough to use anything other than a Boss AW-2 or maybe an EHX Worm.

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by loudwizard » Fri Feb 09, 2018 2:56 pm

electric12 wrote:
Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:15 am
I'm a fan of the old JEN wahs. I have a 70's one which knocks my Vox and Dunlops out of the park.
that Mick Ronson cocked JEN sound, oh YES.

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by Pacafeliz » Fri Feb 09, 2018 11:26 pm

loudwizard wrote:
Fri Feb 09, 2018 2:56 pm
electric12 wrote:
Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:15 am
I'm a fan of the old JEN wahs. I have a 70's one which knocks my Vox and Dunlops out of the park.
that Mick Ronson cocked JEN sound, oh YES.
Yep it's really the one I use the most!
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by HorseyBoy » Sat Feb 10, 2018 12:47 am

øøøøøøø wrote:
Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:40 am
I have a '67 Vox/CryBaby, a vintage Colorsound... but lately I've been pretty all-in on the Maestro Boomerang.
Wah addict here, and I agree that the Boomerang is really something special. I've got a Boomerang 2, a Boomer 2 (an earlier version of the Boomerang 2 with the same white inductor as the original BG-1) and a DeArmond 1800, which is essentially a Boomerang 2 in a different enclosure. The DeArmond enclosure has a slightly longer throw than the Boomer and is a killer wah all round. For some reason or other (possibly to do with the input jack), mine chews through batteries even when it's unplugged and not in use. Have to fix that one day…
The thing about Boomers a lot of people don't like is that they're also volume pedals. Only the original Boomerang, the BG-1, which will cost you two arms and two legs, was a straight-up wah. But the BG-2 ain't true bypass and will always colour your sound. Kind of like a mid-boost. The enclosures are fantastically designed and allow for way more subtlety than a Vox/Dunlop wah. If you're playing clean, they're also way more musical than a Cry Baby.
Colorsounds are also great wahs with a lovely range and sweep if you're running clean. They have the added benefit of being true bypass. The enclosures can be flimsy and painful to open, but they sound fucking great. I also prefer the feel of a Colorsound, although because of the way the pot connects to the treadle (with a little bit of plastic), it's virtually impossible to "park" a Colorsound wah. I've also got a Musonic wah on its way - it's basically a Colorsound wah in a super-tough enclosure that looks like it was made for a yeti's foot:

Image

I've got a couple of old Cry Baby/Vox wahs, including a 70s Jen. The standout by far is my Castledine Standard, which I put in an old Vox 847 enclosure. The Vox enclosure is nice, but I'm not a fan of the Dunlop/Jen enclosure. The throw is too short, the gear can be hard to adjust and they're hell on pots and switches. If you like the Cry Baby/Vox sound, the Castledine is the best example of its kind I've ever played or heard. Mine has an output buffer, too, so it'll play nice with pretty much any old fuzz you throw behind it.
With any wah, it pays to learn how it actually works - what connects to what and what each bit does inside. The pots and inductors will have the most bearing on the sound; the rack and gear and the enclosure will have the most bearing on the function and feel. They're all relatively easy to adjust once you know how. A quick trip to Google should sort most issues out.
Anyway, what was the question again? What's my favourite vintage wah? Pretty much all of them. :fp: ;)

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Re: what's yer fav vintage wah? - they're not all equal!

Post by øøøøøøø » Sat Feb 10, 2018 7:54 am

my vox/crybaby has the film can inductor, which is my favorite of the inductors of that era. They really can sound radically different depending on which coil is in there.

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