Why do my Wahs always suck???

[mcasey1]

Much like Dominos recent admission that their pizzas have long been inferior products I am now admitting that I simply cannot make a Wah sound good.  They come out extremely honky, always with a bug bump at some point in the sweep that leads to a nasty sonic mess.  Usually also they have some ugly clipping sound when I dig in, most noticeable on the heel down positions.  So I figured I would try my best to get some outside opinions and suggestions so I recorded some clips of clean and dirty tests of my most recent disappointment (Crybaby with whipple built from the GGG Wah board - Stock values on all resistors and caps - fuzzcentral discrete output buffer added).  There is some very noticeable popping noises possibly from a dirty pot - I will clean soon.  Even when it did not produce the pot noise it had the same ugly sweep.  Wimpy, piercing, uninspiring poop is what it sounds like in my opinion, but by all means, let me know yours.

Clips:

http://www.mediafire.com/?3mmotmdm3wy
http://www.mediafire.com/?3mmotmdm3wy

Let me have it.

Matt

[John Lyons]

Just looking at it from another angle.
Have you played any commercial wahs that you like?

I hear some clipping in the clean signal before the wah kicks in
as well. The tone sounds decent other than the second clips
where it gets that gritty scratching stuff.

[Paul Marossy]

Much like Dominos recent admission that their pizzas have long been inferior products I am now admitting that I simply cannot make a Wah sound good.  They come out extremely honky, always with a bug bump at some point in the sweep that leads to a nasty sonic mess.  

The problem with my wah pedals is that they all sound really good when recording direct thru my multi-FX unit into my digital multi-track recorder like I usually do, but when I play thru an amp in a live setting, they usually sound way too harsh for my liking. There's something about the guitar speaker interaction with the wah pedal that I just don't like. It doesn't matter which one of my amps I use, they all have the same undesirable characteristics. 

[T1bbles]

In my experience of cab sims used for guitar recording you might wish to slap a gentle low-pass filter into your wah design; I've used three cab sims; a Korg AX1500G (multi-fx), a Kustom HV100 (amp with cab sim output), and a Behringer GI100 (DI box with cab sim feature). The Kustom is definately the most natural sounding one, but all of them knock off at least a little high-end (the behringer actually destroys it) so the result of your nice wah sound in a recording setup might be down to the high-end attenuation happening in your multi-fx unit.

Forgive me if this is a bit too obvious and you've already looked into it, it's just the first thing I thought of.

Martin.

[Eb7+9]

Much like Dominos recent admission that their pizzas have long been inferior products I am now admitting that I simply cannot make a Wah sound good.  They come out extremely honky, always with a bug bump at some point in the sweep that leads to a nasty sonic mess.  Usually also they have some ugly clipping sound when I dig in, most noticeable on the heel down positions. 

this is std behavior for the std circuit - I have the same issue with my '69 Cry-Baby ... my observation from watching the older players using those circuits: (i) they stay away from the heel position, and (ii) the pot is set so that the heel range is minimized and toe range maximized (a tech secret) ... also, notice guys like Jimi feathered the pick when playing their wah ...

here's a few things you should know about the circuit:

- the inductance specs of your PU's interacts with the feedback loop so your appreciation of your wah may change with different PU's
- the input transistor has very low (or none) degeneration at the input - almost looking into a (2.5k Zin AC) diode with very low headroom at that point in the circuit, so small-signal transistor specs will play a variational role here too
- the inductor has a very small core and is prone to saturating on the low "resonant" end of the sweep - this has NOTHING to do with the minute (base current) DC bias running through it
- when the heel position enters the realm of fundamentals you should expect the circuit to blow up in that range and either saturate the core of the inductor and/or saturate the input transistor

in other words, the std circuit was usually used in the toe region "mostly" and it's been known that you should go easy on your attack when using a wah pedal unless the distortion gets masked by what's coming after it ... again, all good "period" players were known to adapt to their gear ... going the other way and trying to make your wah fit your needs is the impetus behind coming up with an equivalent "high-headroom" opamp-based loop ...

just for the fun of it you may wanna try sticking a limiter (compressor) pedal AFTER your wah ... otherwise lay off your heel

[SISKO]

The problem with my wah pedals is that they all sound really good when recording direct thru my multi-FX unit into my digital multi-track recorder like I usually do, but when I play thru an amp in a live setting, they usually sound way too harsh for my liking. There's something about the guitar speaker interaction with the wah pedal that I just don't like. It doesn't matter which one of my amps I use, they all have the same undesirable characteristics. 

Does this happens also with your Boomerang Wah?

[Paul Marossy]

The problem with my wah pedals is that they all sound really good when recording direct thru my multi-FX unit into my digital multi-track recorder like I usually do, but when I play thru an amp in a live setting, they usually sound way too harsh for my liking. There's something about the guitar speaker interaction with the wah pedal that I just don't like. It doesn't matter which one of my amps I use, they all have the same undesirable characteristics.

Does this happens also with your Boomerang Wah?

Yes. But it's the best wah pedal for recording direct into my multi-track.

I should clarify that it's when I am using a distortion or OD pedal when I really dislike any wah pedal thru an amp, when playing chords. For cleanish sounds, if I have the right pickups switched on, that's acceptable most of the time. But I still don't like it much. It definitely seems to be the interaction between the resonant frequency of the wah and the guitar speaker. I bet if I had hi-fi speakers instread of guitar speakers I would be much happier with the wah pedal...