Wah-wah pedal

This article deals with the effect pedal, also known as a Wah. For Wah wah in other musical contexts, see Wah-wah; for the 1994 album by James, see Wah Wah

File:Vox wah-wah.jpg

A Vox wah-wah pedal.

A Wah-wah pedal (or just wah pedal) is a type of guitar effects pedal that alters the tone of the signal to create a distinctive effect, intended to mimic the human voice.

History

The earliest version, which sweeps the peak response of a filter up and down in frequency to create the sound, was first heard in 1945 on a pedal steel guitar created by Leo Fender and in the early 1960s on Vox amplifiers (under the name Wah-Wah) and Thomas electronic organs (as the Crybaby). B.J. Plunkett et al, applied for patent protection Feb. 24, 1967 and were granted US Patent 3,530,224 Sept. 22, 1970, just four days after the death of Jimi Hendrix who used the wah-wah pedal frequently in his music. The variation in the peak response frequency of the filter resembles the change in formant frequency in the human vocal tract when saying the word "wah", making the wah-wah pedal a crude form of speech synthesizer. As the wah wah pedal is rocked back and forth, bass is taken off the guitar's tone, and treble is put on, acting like a band-pass filter. The "wah wah" effect thus does not affect the guitar's volume.

There are two types of wah pedals: one that lets the player control the effect via a foot pedal, and one that adjusts the effect automatically according to the amplitude of the signal from the guitar (auto-wah, or envelope-followed filter).

Guitarists

The first recorded use of a wah-wah pedal was by Chet Atkins, who used a pedal that he had built himself on the 1961 recording "Boo Boo Stick Beat".

Session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan used a wah-wah pedal on the 1961 record "Sweet Little Sixteen" by Michael Cox. The first UK hit using a wah-wah pedal was on the 1964's "The Crying Game" by Dave Berry - again by Sullivan.

Frank Zappa extensively used a Wah-wah pedal but did not always use it in the conventional way of rocking it back and forth. Zappa often left it set in different positions to get different tones, using it as a filter or distortion device. In some recordings, he used the pedal in a conventional manner. Zappa is widely considered to be a master of and major innovator in the use of this effect. In his The Real Frank Zappa Book he asserts that he introduced Jimi Hendrix to the device when they first met in New York in 1966.

Jimi Hendrix did much to popularize the wah-wah in the late 1960s using his own modified effects pedal, as heard on his "Machine Gun" and the Electric Ladyland album. There is still a commercial wah-wah pedal named after him, as well as Digitech's device which includes effects from several of Hendrix's hits, and a built-in wah-wah pedal. A song "Little Miss Strange" introduced percussive wah-wah effect, made by muting guitar strings. This effect was later used by many funk and soul musicians throughout the 1970s, a notable instance occurring throughout Isaac Hayes' theme song for the 1971 film Shaft. In the beginning of the song "...Still Raining, Still Dreaming", Hendrix used wah-wah pedal in a manner that sounds as if a guitar was talking. The first Hendrix release to feature the wah-wah pedal was "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" single in 1967, that had another wah-wah song, "The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice", as a B-side. Hendrix also claimed that he tried to create the wah-wah effect on his debut album by changing the pickup selecter of his guitar quickly from neck to bridge (for example during a solo of "I Don't Live Today" and in the intro of "Love or Confusion?"). Hendrix also uses the wah-wah pedal extensively in the song "Voodoo Child".

Eric Clapton first played wah-wah with Cream on "Tales of Brave Ulysses" on the Disraeli Gears album and used it for both background riffs and an extended solo on "White Room". His "Presence of the Lord", made with his short-lived supergroup Blind Faith, also featured prominent wah-wah. Clapton often used the Clyde McCoy wah-wah from Vox.

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A wah-wah pedal being utilised by guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, as shown on the Led Zeppelin DVD

Jimmy Page used the wah-wah pedal in order to create a sharp guitar sound without producing the actual wah-wah effect. On some tracks of Led Zeppelin's second album he simply keeps the wah-wah pedal on its furthest position without rocking the pedal at all. This way Page got a sharper guitar sound than settings of his guitar or amplifier could give alone.

Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin played wah-wah on some notable singles by The Temptations in the early-'70s, as well as with Martha Reeves and the Pointer Sisters. Hendrix proclaimed blues guitarist Earl Hooker the "master of the wah-wah".

George Harrison was one of the first guitarists to use a wah-wah pedal. He introduced it in The Beatles' song "I Need You", from the album Help! in 1965. The wah-wah was added the day after the recording of the song. He also recorded a song named "Wah-Wah" in his album All Things Must Pass in which he used the pedal. The name of the song was a reference to the headaches Paul McCartney caused him by that time. He also used it regularly in his album Dark Horse as well as in the song "Stuck Inside A Cloud" from his album Brainwashed.

Guitarists of the pedal's early decades most commonly used the wah-wah on an already distorted sound, as the effect of wah-wah on a distorted sound is far more vivid than that of distortion on the output of a wah-wah. Often the two were combined into a fuzz-wah pedal.

Modern experimental guitarists Steve Vai and Joe Satriani are popular users of the effect. Vai is known to have used a modified Crybaby wah for many years, but now officially endorses his signature Bad Horsie and Bad Horsie II (named after one of his songs) wah-wah pedals, which are made by Morley.

A rather unorthodox use of a wah-wah pedal is heard on the studio recording of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing". The unique sound of the lead guitar on the song was created by plugging Mark Knopfler's reissue Gibson Les Paul, with pickups wired 'out-of-phase', through a wah-wah in a static position, lending the nasal sound to the guitar riff that is so recognisable. Another similarly unconventional usage of the pedal is heard on the Pink Floyd track "Echoes", specifically the gull-like sounds, which were created after an accident when David Gilmour connected his pedal back-to-front, creating distinctive feedback sounds.

Numerous guitar players have included wah pedals in their arsenal and it is among the most common effects used by modern musicians. A very famous type of wah pedal, the "Crybaby", is made by Dunlop. Other famous wahs include the Vox wah, the more modern Morley Bad Horsie Steve Vai signature wah, famous for it's switchless facility and modern sound, and the Fulltone Clyde, which is based upon the original Vox Clyde McCoy wah.

Prior to using the Scholz Rockman (amplifier), Tom Scholz and Barry Goudreau of the band Boston used a wah pedal in a stationary position along with other effects to create the guitar sound on their debut Boston and their follow up Don't Look Back.

The song "25 or 6 to 4" by rock band Chicago features an extended solo with a wah pedal by Chicago guitarist Terry Kath

Bass, keyboards, trumpets, violins and beyond

Some bassists have been common users of the wah-wah effect including: Bootsy Collins, Bill Laswell, Cliff Burton, Les Claypool,Justin Chancellor, Tim Commerford, Mike Dean, Geezer Butler, Cordell Crockett, and Flea.

Keyboardists such as Chick Corea, Kofi Burbridge of The Derek Trucks Band, Rick Wright of Pink Floyd, Ray Manzarek of The Doors, Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater and Page McConnell of Phish have also made use of the wah-wah effect both in the studio and during live performances.

On many albums, the wah-wah effect can be heard with other instruments such as the trumpet. Many jazz fusion records feature wind instruments with a wah-wah effect - Miles Davis' trumpet being a well-known example. Napoleon Murphy Brock played a saxophone amplified through a wah-wah pedal to great effect in the Frank Zappa movie The Dub Room Special, as well as on some of Zappa's albums.

The effect is also extensively used with the electric violin. Notable examples are Jean-Luc Ponty, Don "Sugarcane" Harris and Shankar, who all recorded with Frank Zappa and usually engaged in long wah-wah violin/guitar duels. Another remarkable example is Jerry Goodman's using the pedal on violin on the track 'The Dance of Maya' on the Mahavishnu Orchestra's classic fusion album The Inner Mounting Flame.

The song "Up on Cripple Creek" by The Band uses a clavinet patched into a wah-wah pedal, which is the first recorded instance of such.

Also, Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys has used a wah-wah effect on his turntables.

Alternative rock band Sonic Youth used a wah-wah pedal on the track "The Burning Spear". Lee Ranaldo stuck a contact mic on an electric drill and ran it through a wah-wah pedal.

External links

• Discussion, with sound samples, of guitar wah-wah technique
• Wah Wah World
• The Technology of Wah Pedals
• Human Voices and the Wah Pedal
• Ever wondered what a Kazoo sounds like through a wah-wah pedal?
• A Historical Look at Wah-wah at Sweetwater.com

See also

• Talk box
• fuzz
• Subtractive synthesis