Review: Ernie Ball Wah

Just before my birthday this year I decided to treat myself, I also decided that I couldn’t possibly call my serious guitar player unless I owned a wah pedal. Now as you may have read before choosing pedals isn’t an easy business for me because I am, in short, a complete snob. This means that I have to wade through heaps and heaps of boutique models before I finally settle on the pedal I think I want, right?

Well not this time, choosing the Ernie Ball was easy because it’s far and away the best wah pedal I have ever heard. The other models I looked at were things such as the EVH wah, the Buddy Guy Crybaby, the Crybaby 535Q and the Fulltone Clyde Wah but these all had funny controls and extra knobs that meant I had more chance of ruining my sound through over tweaking. The Ernie Ball Wah is simple, it works using the same mechanism as their great volume pedals which of course means that it also has the same great sweep and glide action as the volume pedals. It also has two great big green LED’s on the side so you know when it’s on, this is handy for the player who like me enjoys to knock back a beer or three before hitting the stage and sometimes turns the wrong pedal on altogether.

Sonically the EBW (as it shall henceforth be known) instantly hits the sweet spot that you could send years searching for tweaking your deluxe Clyde wah only to loose when you sneeze whilst turning a knob. Through a clean amp it adds character and definition to your sound whilst retaining the intrinsic qualities that made your tone sound great to begin with. Give it a little overdrive and it sings without ever becoming too harsh on the top end or muddy in the mid to low range.

There’s little more I can say about this pedal other than get out there and try one, even better compare it to a standard crybaby (come in my shop I’ll happily set it up for you to try!) and hear the massive difference in the quality of sound. Yes they might be pricy but you only need one wah and it needs to be this one.