The title says it all, which do you think is the ultimate pedal, the first, the Hendrixed, the original wah wah pedal: The Vox Wah Pedal or the most used pedal of all-time, predecessor in the pedal world: The Dunlop Crybaby Wah Wah Pedal?

I went with the Crybaby becuase it's what I use, but I've played and like them both.

Contrary to popular the Cry Baby wasn't the first wah wah pedal,Vox had that distinction.The first wah was made by Vox for renowned trumpet player Clyde McCoy to use in place of a mute that usually went over the bell of the trumpet.The effect was then picked up by steel guitarists because its weeping tone added immensely to the steel guitar's tone then it was picked up by guitarists in general.I have an original Vox Clyde McCoy peday and an original late 60's Jen Cry Baby and to my ears the Vox has it over the Cry Baby for overall tone it's way more effective in producing the "vomit" sound when activated and can be far more expressive than the Cry Baby.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Vox V847 all the way

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

Actually it was the Warwick Electronics/Thomas Organ that was first in pedal format GS. There were plenty of circuits before then going right back into the 40's. Warwick/Thomas were the first to put it into the rocker pedal though. Chet Atkins's 1961 recording of Boo Boo Stick Beat, had a wah effect on it.

Personaly I think both the new Vox's and the Dumbflop copies are equally as deplorable harsh, horrible things. They've as much musicality as my morning bathroom visit, paaaarp.

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No no and no

They are both awful, but the Crybaby can be modded to sound amazing. The VOX uses SMDs, so it is a lot harder to mod. Get the Crybaby, and then check this out

http://stinkfoot.se/archives/549

I agree with Nikininja, I have a Vox 847 and it sits in the box in my closet. I'm not fond of the crybaby either. I had a crybaby back in about 1981, and it was used then, It did have a better sound. I don't find a use for the wah anymore.

Thanks for the info Nik,I was always under the impression that the Vox Clyde McCoy was the first commercially produced wah.They also had a tie with the Thomas Organ Company as Thomas Organ bought out Vox (JMI)in a more or less hostile takeover circa '65-'66.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I prefer Dunlop. My Dad bought me a Dunlop Classic Wah by mistake for my birthday several years ago (I had asked for the more inexpensive one). But it turned out great because I really, really like it.

Here's a shootout between the Vox wah and the Dunlop Classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBGb4Oz-fPE

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same pedal?

wiki
After the initial invention of the wah-wah pedal, the prototype pedal was then modified by Del Casher and Brad Plunkett to better accommodate the harmonic qualities of the electric guitar. However, since Vox had no intention of marketing the wah-wah pedal for electric guitar players, the prototype wah-wah pedal was given to Del Casher for performances at Vox press conferences and film scores for Universal Pictures. The un-modified version of the Vox wah-wah pedal was released to the public in February 1967 with an image of Clyde McCoy on the bottom of the pedal.

Warwick Electronics Inc. assigned Lester L. Kushner, an engineer with the Thomas Organ Company, and Bradley J. Plunkett to create and submit the documentation for the Wah-Wah pedal patent. The patent was submitted on February 24, 1967 which included technical diagrams of the pedal being connected to a four-stringed "guitar" (as noted from the "Description of the Preferred Embodiment"). Warwick Electronics Inc. was granted US patent 3530224 (foot-controlled continuously variable preference circuit for musical instruments) on September 22, 1970.

Early versions of the Clyde McCoy featured an image of McCoy on the bottom panel, which soon gave way to only his signature. Thomas Organ then wanted the effect branded as their own for the American market, changing it to Cry Baby which was sold in parallel to the Italian Vox V846. Thomas Organ's failure to trademark the Cry Baby name soon led to the market being flooded with Cry Baby imitations from various parts of the world, including Italy, where all of the original Vox and Cry Babys were made.[1] Jen, who had been responsible for the manufacture of Thomas Organ and Vox wah pedals also made rebranded pedals for companies such as Fender, Gretsch and under their own Jen brand. When Thomas Organ moved production completely to Sepulveda, California and Chicago, Illinois these Italian models continued to be made and are among the more collectible wah pedals today.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

the new wah pedals are a bit crap sounding , no , make that a lot crap sounding when played sided by side next to an old jen cry baby , i've tried out a few of the now ones , slash , hendrix ect and they don't even come close to the sound from a jen which i bought back in the mid 80's , gotta love them old jens

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Thanks for the great information and history on the Wah.

I like my Crybaby modded with halo inductor and a gain, and Q pots so that way I can tweek it to fit the amp and guitar. The new stuff has to much high end and not enough low end.

One thing I did do to a crybaby was to change the input capacitor to 100uf and the sweep capacitor from .001uf to .022uf. That produced a much better sound, lots of body, no thin raspy nonsense and a bit of a volume boost too.

A easy mod worth looking at doing, if your not entirely happy with it.

The sweep capacitor is labeled on this very nice picture from DIYGuitarist. The input cap is directly below the power socket.



Found here
http://www.diyguitarist.com/DIYStompboxes/WahMod.htm

I gave that wah to the bassist in my old band. I don't regret it, cos I like the guy. I do however wish I could find a old junk dumbflop to mod again. Those two tiny mods took 15 minutes (and the hardest thing about it was getting the polarity of the input cap right) and made a bad pedal sound very good. Why can't dumbflop just make em right? Why have they had to mess around with the circuit? Their offering 70's style fasel wah's now. I strongly doubt they sound any different to the GCB-95.

People go on and on about fasels and their importance in the circuit. In all honesty I can't buy into a lot of that mythology. Theres much much more to a wah than it's fasel. I've both trashcan and halo fasel'd wahs. If theres any difference the trashcan is slightly fuller sounding.

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No no and no

I use Dunlop ("Dumbflop" hey Niki ) very sparingly with the amp because it sucks a.. that is why I have it on a separate signal chain. I have to try the mod for it.

I did notice that however it sounded great with the setup like this.
Guitar -> Dunlop wah - > OD (TS-9) -> DI to mix board -> PA.

I guess it sounds fine in a more digital oriented environment, I dunno.

Totally agree!!