The greatest and worst exponents of the wah pedal ?

Sassafras

70s porn flicks featured fairly 'generous' use of the wah.
Or so I'm told.

Telejester

Sassafras said:

70s porn flicks featured fairly 'generous' use of the wah.
Or so I'm told.

Erm yeah.....some bloke told me that too (cough)

frank1985

Best: Eddie Hazel (funkadelic), Hendrix
Worst: Hammett. 

Teetonetal

Sir psycho sexy was the first song where I thought wah sounded cool. Worst? Too many to choose from.

BintyTwanger77

Away from the obvious great wah users already mentioned, like Hendrix, I like Ride's use of wah, great for squalls of shoegazey white noise, loads of it on Nowhere and Going Blank Again.

In terms of the worst, another vote for Kirk Hammett, and this doesn't just apply to wah.

clarkefan

Hammett's not that bad, he may certainly be guilty of overusing it, fair enough, but I like his solo on Enter Sandman and it's difficult to imagine it without wah.  Same with Slash on Sweet Child.

UnclePsychosis

I don't think anyone will ever top this in my opinion:

UnclePsychosis

Also, how much fun is the guitarist having here? I don't think I've ever seen someone look quite this happy on stage before 

builttospill

80's Grange Hill theme tune

builttospill

The Edge On The Fly Solo and Mysterious Ways

builttospill

J Mascis 

BintyTwanger77

UnclePsychosis said:

Also, how much fun is the guitarist having here? I don't think I've ever seen someone look quite this happy on stage before 

Oh this is so bloody good. Love Isaac Hayes playing bandleader conducting the intro.

mike_l

octatonic said:

Worst- well it is the obvious choice but Kirk Hammett.

I like Kirk's playing, but he is guilty of using the wah as a crutch. Like, when he's struggling to come up with a lead part he'll jump on the wah.

clarkefan

UnclePsychosis said:

Also, how much fun is the guitarist having here? I don't think I've ever seen someone look quite this happy on stage before 

That's Skip Pitts who recorded the two original versions, the one in the film and the one on the soundtrack which is the version we're all familiar with.  He claimed he used a Maestro wah on the film version and a Cry Baby on the soundtrack version, which was recorded separately later.  He played Strats in his later years but a Les Paul Custom at the time of the original recordings.

57Deluxe

Been WAH-ring since 1973 and is intuitive. But by far the best use of the Wah was Mick ronson's half cocked open-on tone and only ever so slightly attenuated during chords and solos so that if you were unitiated you wouldn't know... But I did/do!

lukedlb

57Deluxe said:

Been WAH-ring since 1973 and is intuitive. But by far the best use of the Wah was Mick ronson's half cocked open-on tone and only ever so slightly attenuated during chords and solos so that if you were unitiated you wouldn't know... But I did/do!

Mark knopfler the same on money for nothing 

ICBM

lukedlb said:

Mark knopfler the same on money for nothing 

That's not a wah, at least on the recording - it was a badly mic'ed amp with some sort of phase issue that proved impossible to duplicate again. He did use a wah to play it live though.

JD50

Portishead, under rated guitarist

professorben

Satriani, absolute genius of the Wah, using it to emphasise single notes or build intensity as a filter sweeping through the range as he plays a fast pattern. 

Rubinas Blue Sky Happiness. 
Crying
Surfing
Big Bad Moon
Summer Song

All brilliant. 

Fez

The thing about Wah Wah is that everyone's feel for it is different and as a result most players have their own Wah signature. I can't actually think of any Wah user that I detest or any particularly bad examples. Maybe there are some people who overuse their Wah pedal but I disagree that Clapton is one of them. Deavid Allen mentioned earlier had a very interesting sound when he combined a Wah Wah pedal with his glissando technique.