Well, you have two groups of people. One group swears that bypassed wahs don’t affect your tone, the other group says they absolutely can. I’m in the later camp. There are three major types of bypass for wahs (someone will come and detail another one or two that are rare, but these are the ones I’ve seen)
-“Hardwire Bypass” The Jimi wah, standard Crybaby, Vox wahs, etc. use this. This one is the most susceptible to issues. I think they are impedance sensitive and it comes down to your pickups/electronics, cable in/out and the next item you are plugging into. You can even be plugged into a true bypass effect that gets wonky when it’s turned on. I have an old Vox that sucks tone with my stuff for some reason and I never use it.
-“True Hardwire Bypass” or True Bypass. This actually bypasses the whole circuit. You will have the typical issues with True Bypass, but overall when it’s disengaged it should be like having any other true bypass pedal in the chain. Quite a few of the Dunlops and a lot of boutiques are true bypass. I use a Teese, and have no issues of tone suck.
-“Buffered” The Dimebag is buffered. A lot is going to come down to the specific buffer and pedal. The Ibanez is buffered, Morleys are buffered, many without the traditional stomp toe switch will be buffered. I assume the 95Q with instant on is as well. I also have a Morley and don’t have any issues with tone suck.
Both wahs you have chosen could have an issue with your setup, but you’ll have to try both to see. If a standard Crybaby has affected your tone in bypass, the Hendrix one might as well. The Dime is a different ballgame being buffered. I’d suspect it would be ok, but you’ll need to try. The other option is a 535Q which will give you the 6 way for deeper tone like the Dime/Cantrell/Hendrix, a Q to tweak and is True Bypass.
Good luck on your wah hunt.
