V847 - Classic Wah Pedal

Good wah pedal!

Many years ago my dad took me to a guitar shop for my birthday. I bought a Korg recording desk and I wanted a Vox wah. They didn't have one so I left with a Cry Baby standard. Now I've gigged and played that pedal for well over a decade and it's been great, but there were a couple of things I didn't like about it. It sucked a bit of tone, not a lot, and it always seemed to add a few decibels of gain. Once you turn it off it seemed like your dry signal was super quiet. The Vox solves those two things. It's got a little less gain in it and it has a smoother sweep with a little more low end. These details are very subtle however. It's not night and day when I a-b them. The look, the construction quality and the feel of the pedal is excellent. Mine was a bit creaky from new but I moved the grease around a bit and it's settled down.

Purists will say this Chinese copy of the original Clyde McCoy (as used by Hendrix) is cheap and nasty and not a patch on the 'Made in USA' wah wah. Well, I'm not a purist - a realist, yes - so I recognise that instruments and kit made in China can be at least as good as US stuff (much made by immigrant labour anyway) and that there is nothing magical about American soil... though many Yanks think there is. My pedal arrived today - one day earlier than forecast which I thought was pretty good. My first impulse was to unscrew the back to have a look at the components. The PCB looked ok and the moving parts seemed adequate - perhaps not as meaty as a vintage pedal but certainly up to the job. So what does it sound like? Before I comment - I would like to say I have seen a simple mod on Youtube to darken the tone of this pedal if it is too bright. Well, it is extremely bright - you might even say brittle. I will make the adjustment tomorrow which simply involves loosening the nut that holds the pot in place and rotating the pot slightly towards the front of the pedal. There is another mod to replace 2 or 3 bits of the circuit but I don't want to take the soldering iron to it if I can help it. So I give it 5 stars on the strength of this mod doing the trick and because I like the look and feel of it - it is a sturdy piece of kit.

Nice wah pedal very sharp and there in tone but mine stopped working the button isnt engaging and ive only had it since june

Been using this for a while, and its held up well, it is easy to use, and works really well. It's not too big, and has a great sound for the price. Overall, a great alternative to a Cry Baby.

Looks and feels the business. Top notch quality

It's an interesting question: what is more important, authenticity or sound? The issue raises its head here: I won't question this device's authenticity, but is it worth this device being authentic, if it does not offer true bypass? Well the true test is when you try it: for me, I can hear a noticible cut in some frequencies resulting in a thinning of the sound. Maybe with your set up, you might not notice the difference, but in my rig (62 reissue Strat/Duncan SSL-1 pickups/EH clean boost/Ibanez TS-9/Fender Hot Rod), it undoes all my work optimising my tone....most ironically, when I'm not using it! It is possible to hack a bypass at the cost of a new footswitch, a foot of cable, some soldering and and hour of your time, but this should not be necessary. So what to do? Build a wah that's not authentic? It is a quandry for Vox. And to be fair, that is probably why they charge half for this than The Other One. In other respects, it works well and seems robust enough for life in the road, so the real question is, what should you do? Perhaps instead we could ask: what would Jimi do? Well he had access to plenty of creative guitar techs who'd do custom wiring jobs, like rewinding his pickups (which is how a young Seymour Duncan got his start, I understand). So yes, if you're handy with a soldering iron (like me), then knock yourself out. You could also invest in some A/B switches and rig up some form of physical bypass. But I think were Jimi alive today, he'd just buy a better wah. But hey, it's your call. I just think you shouldn't have to compromise, and that Vox missed a trick here.

it is the wah of the wahs, the classic wah sound of ever from the 60s