David K. Israel
On Music: the wah-wah pedal
by David K. Israel - September 15, 2008 - 5:52 AM

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All this month I’ll be looking at some of the more popular audio signal processing effects out there, which I’m sure you’ll recognize from some of the most successful songs ever recorded. Impress your friends next time one of these babies comes on the radio by saying, “Wait, check out this part and listen to the ____!”

If you missed last week’s post on flangers and phasers that can be found here. Today, let’s fill in that blank with the wah-wah effect, which you could think of as a device that tries to imitate a human voice saying the word wah. The first, original wah-wah, and still the most popular version, comes in a foot pedal that allows the musician, generally a guitarist or sometimes keyboardist, to vary the peak response frequency of a small filter with his or her foot. By rocking back and forth on the pedal, as you’ll see in the video below, you can create all kinds of different wah effects.

Beyond the more famous examples, like Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” I’ve always loved the wah-wah effect as it was used in 70s-era disco tunes as a punchy “chicken-scratch” on the rhythmic guitar tracks. Listen to the waca-waca guitars in these two classics:

“Night Fever” by the Bee Gees

“Charlie’s Angels (TV Theme)” by Henry Mancini


What are some of your favorite songs that show off the wah-wah pedal?

Check out past On Music posts here >>

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Comments (11)

  1. Higher Ground – Stevie Wonder.

    It’s an “envelope follower” technically… which is kind of an auto-wah, which opens and closes dependent on how hard or soft he plays.

    posted by Dai on 9-15-2008 at 7:13 am

  2. Wah-Wah…..George Harrison

    posted by Paul on 9-15-2008 at 8:04 am

  3. “Tales of Brave Ulysses” by Cream
    “Sweet Child of Mine” by GnR

    posted by Will Deuel on 9-15-2008 at 8:36 am

  4. Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine

    posted by Justin on 9-15-2008 at 10:02 am

  5. Vox Or Crybaby? Im a vox man myself

    posted by Morley on 9-15-2008 at 12:52 pm

  6. Give it up for Shaft, the finest wah wah part ever played!

    posted by Edo8 on 9-15-2008 at 1:43 pm

  7. Give it up for Shaft, the finest wah wah part ever recorded

    posted by Edo8 on 9-15-2008 at 1:45 pm

  8. Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix
    equally as impressive when SRV did it.

    posted by Alex on 9-15-2008 at 2:16 pm

  9. Split, Part 2 – The Groundhogs
    Machine Gun – Jimi Hendrix
    Burning of the Midnight Lamp – Jimi Hendrix
    Willy The Pimp – Frank Zappa

    posted by Fred on 9-15-2008 at 5:12 pm

  10. White Room, by Cream. Is that a wah-wah, someone told me it’s just bending but I never thought so until he said that.

    posted by Richard on 9-16-2008 at 1:19 am

  11. Love’s Theme

    posted by dora on 9-16-2008 at 2:32 am

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