Distortion & Wah: What order?

[Artie]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

Listen to “Pets” by Porno for Pyros to hear a great example of wah after distortion.

I'll check it out.

Indeed. Funny thing about him is that you don't have anyone copying him, as people literally have no idea how he gets the sounds he does.

Is there a good YT vid of the particular sound you're referring to?

I'm not a big fan of Wah.

I have a 535Q so can adjust the wah quite a bit. For ages my opinion was pretty much the same as yours . . . I'd set the wah for a wide sweep, fairly narrow resonant peak and get some awesome whakka-whakka clean sounds, but it didn't work with gain. In the last couple years I've been experimenting with a much narrower sweep and wider resonant peak. This sounds pretty meh when clean, but plays really well with distortion.

I was in this same camp for a long time. The wahs I played with were the older CryBaby's et al. They just always struck me as clunky and "sticky". (As in the pot action.) But since I've acquired my AMT Wah, (thanks TreyHaslip), I love this thing. It uses a gradient optical strip, rather than a pot, which makes it silky smooth. It also has a 3-position switch on the side to tailor the curve to the guitar. That alone, makes a huge difference.

What's funny is, I forgot that I just got my Tri-Par mixer pedal. I believe I can flip the order at the touch of a switch. I'll report back.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

I put my wah first. That sounds like a wah into a distorted amp.

If you put the wah after the distortion you will get a very exaggerated filter sound.


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[LLL]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

Foe me it goes Distortion into the rest of the chain and the Wah gets connected to the trash can.

I kid I kid.

I'm not a big fan of Wah,. I feel like players too often substitute expressive playing styles for more Wah.

Just don't let take over your playing IMO..... in the past I've preferred Wah before distortion,.

If one doesn't use it a la the likes of Kirk Hammet, it can be real frickin' schweet.

Gary Richrath and many others have used the wah spectacularly.

Schenker (Michael) and the Scorps (Rudolf, Matthias) do the cocked wah thing spectacularly.

Another interesting wah factoid: you can get infinite sustain with a note if the wah is high quality and the wah is set at the right spot.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

Is there a good YT vid of the particular sound you're referring to?
.

Well, Adrian has had a long career. While it is really strange to hear his weirdo sounds outside the context of his music, you can watch this, and hear them in isolation, which is pretty neat.

 

[ICTGoober]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

Well, Adrian has had a long career. While it is really strange to hear his weirdo sounds outside the context of his music, you can watch this, and hear them in isolation, which is pretty neat.

Those sounds are pale in comparison to the real thing. Look.... find any vids from his initial King Crimson stuff (Discipline, Beat, Three of a Perfect Pair) and then his solo stuff (Lone Rhino, Twang Bar King, Desire Caught by the Tail). He played with tons of people - Bowie, Zappa, The Bears, Tom Tom Club, and Talking Heads. He's a GENIUS, okay? Find his stuff, enjoy, learn, and play.

 

[Artie]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

Thanks guys. Gives me some stuff to check out.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

As a huge Adrian Belew fan, he doesn't use a wah at all, and never has.

BTW, I think before the distortion sounds and 'feels' better to me.

Hell just froze over, Mincer. Haha.

 

[Ascension]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

Use at times a Wah, Compressor and OD always in that order into the front of an amp.

 

[toneking77]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

I've always liked the Wah to hit the clean signal first and the crunch it after. I've played around with different configs, but that's what I always end up going back to.

 

[Artie]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

Use at times a Wah, Compressor and OD always in that order into the front of an amp.

That's interesting that you put the wah in front of the compressor. Is that because the wah interacts better with the pickups?

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

I actually have my wah in front of my compressor too.....not for any particular reason though. I just always put my wah at the beginning of the chain and I didn’t give it a second thought when I built my current board.

 

[Securb]

Re: Distortion & Wah: What order?

I have the wah at the end of the chain. Mainly because I have always used a wah/vol combo and didn't want the vol pedal buffering the signal chain. I have just gotten accustomed to having my signal path that way over the past years.