Even a quick glance at
'Show us your pedalboard' type threads will confirm that most of us have a wah wah pedal as part of our rig. I have one myself, an old but perfectly serviceable Cry Baby. Despite many efforts I have never quite come to terms with this pedal. In fact there seems to be very little recorded music that shows the creative or musical side of a pedal that goes weeeooowwww weeeoooowwww and so on.
Everyone knows that Mark Knopfler used a half cocked wah wah pedal on 'Money for nothing'. This can be discounted as it is a set and forget job. There is a few wah wah coloured notes in the intro of Thin Lizzies 'Jailbreak' and the Lizzie guitarists used it now and then in their other songs.
One song that I think ticks all the boxes is Mechanical Wonder by Ocean Colour Scene [album - Live One For The Road]. Slash used one in the solo of Sweet Child 'O Mine to good effect.
What songs do you think have benefited from the use of the wah wah?
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Comments
All Along The Watchtower for me is the greatest musical use of Wah. Everyone thinks of Voodoo Chile for Hendrix wah, but it is the subtlety with which he coaxes different tones and styles out in AATW that is stunning.
Zappa on Sexual Harassment In The Workplace is a very close second. At points the guitar sings almost vocally. No up and down wah-wah rocking. The wah is really at one with his fingers.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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Football is rubbish.
All the way
Slash, Civil War by G'n'R, Use your illusion 2 - same with pretty tied up on the same album, 2 great wah sounds.
Any Hendrix,
Bad love - Clapton.
How to not use a wah = Kirk Hammet.
+1 to Shaft, Sweet child o'mine, Voodoo Chile and how about some Santana (Moonflower album) and Thin Lizzy (The Rocker & this is an edit, various stuff off of Live & Dangerous).
John frusciante - sir psycho sexy. Pure porn funk.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
First Michael Schenker for any track where he shreds and riffs with the wah balanced around the sweet spot.
Miles Davis- 1975 live album Agharta. Plays his trumpet through a wah. He also has Pete Cosy in his backing band who knows a wah trick or two.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Mick Box's solo in Uriah Heep's Salisbury has great use of wah.