What Wha?

Q

Hey there, Steve –

Don’t know as I’ve ever crossed paths with any recordings of you using a wah – if you have, do you have a weapon of choice?

I think my favorite voicing is the Colorsound wah Jerry was using in ’72: helping to enunciate passages (“Greatest Story Ever Told”) and a ticket stub to Apeshitville (deep weirdness on some of those “Playing In The Band” jams). The Colorsound is also what Clapton was using on the Dominos’ “Live At The Fillmore” album, as well, I believe. Something about that 4-pack-a-day low end rasp and top end that has some teeth, but not too bad of a bite.

Thank you for so many good vibes and contributions to the soundtrack of life.

Brian, ME

3 Thoughts on What Wha?
    25 Feb 2021
    3:29am
    Comment:

    Colorsound was a popular pedal back in the day, I was probably 17 when I got my first one, I still have two.
    I was playing a Les Paul and a Marshall back then, and the Colorsound did a better job of cutting thru the potential mud of that combination and was easier to park/notch than the Crybaby.

    These days I rotate thru a few different wah’s depending on the situation.

    I still have the Colorsounds, rarely use them, they’re mostly for personal nostalgia.
    I use a Dunlop Bass Wah (the white one) for synth type sounds, fun pedal.
    A couple shades of Vox; stock modern version for Rhodes, and either my Tom Cerletti mod or an Oxbow Studios Clyde McCoy for guitar and lap steel.
    And misc other cool stuff in the repair pile. . DeArmond, “Vertex” lol

    Anyway, seems like I’ve been scratching the wah wah itch with the Mutron III mostly, Moogerfooger, Z-Vex SeekWah, or just tone control or switch manipulation on the guitar.
    The thing about the wah for me is I they’re all at least a little different in range, resonance, EQ, gain, etc. so they all pair with different guitars, amps, and other pedals to achieve different results.
    I went years only using the wah with fuzz for one particular horn type effect on steel or fretless, never used it for regular fretted guitar.

    Relative to the Colorsound, all the above mentioned stuff is dark.
    That was part of the cool low end rasp of the Colorsound; they just didn’t go deep.
    Any mitigation of the razor-sharp treble was the responsibility of the player, but those were normal adjustments; tone control on the guitar, back off a tooth on the pedal etc.
    The easy low-mid parking possibly related to the relatively long throw was my fave thing about those pedals.
    Worst of it was cheesy build quality.

    ok cool!

      28 Feb 2021
      8:33pm
      Comment:

      Wicked – thanks for the insight, Steve. Hope we’re all able to rock this ol’ world back onto its axis and get back to live tunes soon … take care!

    greysoul@tidewater.net
    1 Mar 2021
    8:44pm
    Comment:

    Wicked – thanks for the insight, Steve. I neglected to mention: the BMF Effects wah (the stock board – he makes a number of different voicings with swappable boards) is a nice all-around mix of low end that doesn’t wallow out and high end with a sweet bite. Plenty of nice parking spots along the way.

    Take care out there. Hopefully, we can all lean in the same direction, get this ol’ world back on its axis soon, and fire the live music back up!

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