[The Trooper]

"Hello, my name is Jack, and I'm a wah whore..."

I've owned more wahs than I can count looking for my sound. Here's my rundown of some of the ones I've owned and my (brief) thoughts on them:

Dunlop Crybaby (Many models, including the newer fasel):

The "standard" wah by many peoples assessment. Heard on more recordings than you can shake a stick at. Pros: Nice high end, classic sound, etc. Cons: More than I can count. TONE SUCKER. If you buy one, drop a few bucks and convert it to true bypass, otherwise it will rape your tone faster than a fat kid on a Twinkie. It also has a lack of midrange, so it thins out the tone some. This isn't as evident on some of the better wahs like the 535, but it's still not up to par with what else is out there. Worst of all is the sweep range. It's modest at best, and with the pedal all the way in the bass position, they tend to weaken the signal some. Due to that, I found that (for my purposes) the wah was almost unusable in the heel down position, which pissed me off becsuse I like to start there a lot of times in my wah usage, and instead of having a usable "heel down" sound, I had to push the pedal forward a little to the point where the signal wasn't compromised. In stock form, I think there's much better options out there. If you like the Crybaby sound, the 535 was probably the best of the lot.

Dunlop Signature Wahs:

Just a quick note regarding the Dunlop Signature Wahs, like the Zakk Wylde and Slash models. The ZW model is OK at best, but I feel like you're mostly buying a name. I think the Dunlop Hendrix Wah is virtually just as good. The Slash model was surprisingly usable and had a good sound to it, though a few of the options weren't really usable. However, it's hefty price tag would rule it out for me. If you're going to drop that amount of cash on a wah, you may as well look at something more high end.

VOX Wahs:

These wahs are actually pretty nice in stock form. They have a throatier midrange than the Crybaby's and therefore a thicker sound, but do tend to lack some of the bite of the Dunlops. That's where some people have complaints. They want that thicker wah sound of old like Hendrix or Robin Trower and love the wah, then get disappointed when they push the sweep forward but can't get the high end bite for modern stuff they wanted. Some of the VOX models (V847 maybe?) also don't accept power adapters, so you have to rely on batteries, which can be annoying. The V848 takes everything up a notch, adds a little sweep, is true bypass, and accepts power adapters. Unfortunately, it also jacks up the price ($150-ish vs. $90 or so for the others). Much like the Slash Wah, it's pretty good, but for the money...I'd look elsewhere.

Morley Wahs:

I've never used the Power Wah, but I've had the Bad Horsie I and II, as well as the Tremonti Wah. The Bad Horsie isn't bad, but for not much more (used), you can score a Bad Horsie II, so I'll focus there. This was actually my primary wah for a couple of years. It actually surprised me, and it has a pretty good sound to it when you start tweaking it. LED indicator to let you know when it's on, and switchless technology that some favor. Let me add a disclaimer that could be a blessing OR a curse depending on the user. I used to think "Oh, it's so much more convenient live because it's switchless," but looking back I would say I was a dumbass for thinking that... It's one switch...is it really THAT hard to turn on a wah? Ultimately, I found that was part of the reason why I started looking for other options too. I got into the Michael Schenker vibe of finding a sweet spot on the wah and leaving it there as a tone filter, then accentuating bends/vibratos with a sweep on occasion...but the switchless technology made it impossible to do that without standing there with my foot on it the whole time. The Tremonti Wah wasn't bad. I figured it would just be a Bad Horsie in a different case, but it had it's own voice. In the end, it would have given me the same issues as the BH though.

Fulltone Wahs:

Hands down my favorite wah in stock form. The Clyde Deluxe is the expanded edition, and I loved that wah. To this day, it's still my favorite wah I've ever tried. Three different modes, LED indicator, true bypass, volume knob, and an internal trim pot that works like a charm. This wah is everything the VOX wah wishes that it was. On the "Jimi" setting and the trim pot tweaked to your liking, you'll basically get the midrange growl of the VOX with the upper end bite of the Crybaby. Best of all is the sweep range, which is huge. In the hell down position, it still sounds great and usable, very round with no signal loss. The trim pot lets you take this thign anywhere from an old 60's VOX sound to a thicker Crybaby. Only problem? Price. That's why I'm not discussing other higher end style wahs here (like the Teese stuff). I just chose to bring up Fulltone because it's my favorite overall.

With all of that said, I've just switched over to the Dunlop DCR-1SR Rack Wah. I like the Fulltone the best, but I'm going to a rack setup, so I went with it for convenience. So far it's been better than any other Dunlop I've tried for sure and some of the options are nice. However, if Fulltone ever made a rackmount version, I'd be on in a heartbeat.

[Vic Rattlehead]

The Bad Horsie 2 is the only wah I would consider getting. My guitar teacher has one and it just sounds awesome, and the auto switching is just too convenient to ever want anything else. I'm going to be getting one for myself in the near future.

[thedownside]

i have the slash wah, and if it broke i'd pay the money for one again. amazing sound, but yeah, you freakin pay for it, lol.

[Zer0]

Bad Horsie 2 gets my vote, I used that one for a couple of years, until I foolishly sold it and just haven't gotten around to buying another.

[malufet]

Crybaby from hell. It's nothing special, more like a tribute to my guitar hero. I like the Bad horsie 2 also but i dont have any space left in my pedalboard.

[Chris]

BH2.

[heffergm]

Ibanez Weeping Demon. I thought the BH2 was crap, but that's just me...

[Nightcrawler]

I got the Hendrix Wah, will be getting something else eventually. It is quite rad for over the top noise though and thats what I use it for. Prepare to listen to AM radio if you use it though.. Dont have much experience with the other ones.

[ibznorange]

I want the auto on/off, thats why i want a bad horsie. I love the adjustability of the 535q though. mines for sale, but i play with keeping it at times just because of how it sounds.
I want to try a tremonti wah as well, as ive only heard good things about them

The ibanez WD7 is decent too. stock, it sounds like ass shit, but if you adjust the trimpots on the bottom you can get some pretty good tones out of. plus its switchable between springloaded auto on/off and normal crybaby functionality

[edit]
the slash wah is INCREDIBLE as well, but has a ~18dB boost on it that cant be disabled from the user end (excluding mods). GREAT for soloing, but not good with cleans and stuff really. If that were adjustable, id be all over it

[heffergm]

Originally Posted by ibznorange

The ibanez WD7 is decent too. stock, it sounds like ass shit, but if you adjust the trimpots on the bottom you can get some pretty good tones out of. plus its switchable between springloaded auto on/off and normal crybaby functionality

Ass shit? Isn't that a little redundant? Unless you've got shit coming out of other orifices of course...