I actually managed to come home from a trip abroad
without buying a new guitar on the way (having two excellent guitars on order obviously helped as well)... Mind you, I did try a few tasty instruments: I had my filthy hands on Suhrs, Andersons, PRS Hiland signature and a 513, a Parker Supreme and the very nice MusicMans (MusicMen?) Silhouette 20th and Lukather BFR - however, there were no
really nice 7s in New York this time around... Which made life a lot easier on my credit cards
So, I did the only sensible thing: I used the very decent S7320 (which luckily both Sam Ash, Manny's and Guitar Center had on the wall) to find myself the perfect wha for my 7-strings! I've never been a huge fan of '70's wha-driven disco-porn, but a player like John Petrucci really proved to me that a wha can be used with emotion and taste. I pretty much tried every wha I could get my hands on (using the standard Cry Baby as my reference point when going from shop to shop).
Surprisingly, for getting the cheap and nasty '70's slease-tone, nothing beat the cheapest Cry Baby - I guess it's so LoFi that it sort of has a charm of its own...
I found that I really couldn't stand any of the Morley whas (tremonti, Bad Horsie and the standard thingy) - though I pretty much had my heart set on the Bad Horsie from the begining. There was something about the midrange on Morley's pedals that simply didn't feel "organic" enough to me. Moreover, the original tone was gone completely when the whas were in use... They may work well for some one of the greatest players on the planet - but I sure didn't like them!
The Vox was a really nice vintage-y wha - handled cleans really well (without getting overly sleasy) and handled overdrive
really well - might just have been the best bluesy wha I tried. However, when going knee deep into 7-string metal distribution mode, the Vox simply didn't cut it - and let's face it: that's what all healthy boys and girls need!
I tried Ibanez Weeping Deamon, thinking that it might offer the low end suitable for 7-strings. Sadly, the pedal sounded more like a trainwreck than a demon - very synthetic and not at all what I had expected... But the option of choosing either spring loaded switching (like the Bad Horsie) or standard wha operation was way cool.
The best All-round wha I found, didn't have a lot of knobs and switches - it just handled everything I threw at it really well: The Fulltone Clyde. It sounded very Voxy - just a hair cleaner and transperant and with a greater sweep, which made it better for both slease and more heavily distorted sounds. A great wha, that I can easily recommend to any one... it just did it all.
This left me with a stack of Dunlops to work my way through. The Classic Cry Baby was a real slease machine... But somehow it sounded less sleasy than the Original - it sounded like a cross between the Vox and the Original. Strangely, that meant that I prefered both the Vox and the Original for their more original aproach.
Initially, I was really impressed by the 535Q: a lot of tonal options with the option of setting the wha to your liking and I tweaked my way to a really nice setting... but then it started to receive a local radio station and suddenly muted in bypass... which somehow didn't strike me as cool effects. Still, I just switched it on again at it was back in order. However, by then I'd lost interest!
The Hendrix Wha was
very Voxy - it was essentially a vox with a slightly lower pricetag - I liked it, but it didn't "WOW!!!" me.
The Dimebag might have been the most versatile wha I tried... but again, for all its options, the tone simply wasn't as nice as either the Hendrix, the Vox or (especially) the Clyde.
By now, I had pretty much talked myself into burning my hard earned cash on the Clyde - it simply sounded better
for what I wanted than the other wha's I'd tried... But then came Zakk Wylde to the rescue!!!
Quite frankly, I hadn't expected a lot from the ZW wha, but it just had a
lot more balls than all the other whas I tried. It had a sweep that actually let the low B in on the fun (something none of the other pedals did) and when toe-ing the pedal it didn't make my ears bleed. A very warm and fat wha, that gave a kick in all the right places. Moreover, it seemed to retain a lot more of the original tone when in use - even more so than the excellent Clyde wha. What I was looking for was a great expressive tool for solos - and here the ZW reigned supreme IMHO. However, because of it's fat sound it couldn't do "Shaft" to save its life!
So, I opted against versatility (the excellent $240 Clyde Wha) and bought a $120 wha with a truckload of personality and a lot of limitations... Hence, if I ever do a cameo (Word UP!) in a disco band, I'll probably get an Original Cry Baby as well, just for the LoFi porn sound... But for my metal needs the ZW Wha has my bases covered.
In closing, I highly recommend you guys give the ZW wha a try - I promise you: you'll either love it or hate it - life's just too short for middle of the road
Cheers
Eske