RMC Wheels of Fire

[Mars Hall]

I've longed for the tone of a Colorsound wah, I really like the throaty growl and the long through of the pedal, but the ones I've played and had in my hands seem fairly fragile and prone to breakdowns.

Does the RMC Wheels of Fire do the Colorsound tone convincingly? From looking at the website the enclosures seem to be robust.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

The RMC WoF is based on a setting in the RMC3 wah thatis supposed to cop the Colorsound wahs.

I think it's pretty close.

That said I'd buy a Wilson wah over an RMC and Wilson also makes a Colorsound clone.

 

[JeffB]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

Heh. There was some discussion about this a few days ago- look for my "reissue" thread here in the amp room.

 

[erksin]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

I've had the Wilson Colorsound clone and it sounded pretty much dead on from clips of the real thing that I've heard.

Thing is - with a Colorsound you have to be playing through a cranked amp with at least medium levels of gain for it to sound good, at least it did in my case. When you back it off, there is quite a bit of dropout in the freqs and I found myself fighting against it much of the time. Being a guy who likes to park it at certain spots for EQing during solos and stuff, I found it frustrating to use.

So I swapped it for one of Kevin's vintage-spec 12-pos Rippah Q wahs and I'm really happy - I get all the grunt, squawk, and puke of the Colorsound without the dropouts.

 

[Mars Hall]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

Heh. There was some discussion about this a few days ago- look for my "reissue" thread here in the amp room.

Thanks, I did find the thread and have been looking more into the Wilson.

 

[Mars Hall]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

Thing is - with a Colorsound you have to be playing through a cranked amp with at least medium levels of gain for it to sound good, at least it did in my case.

So I swapped it for one of Kevin's vintage-spec 12-pos Rippah Q wahs and I'm really happy - I get all the grunt, squawk, and puke of the Colorsound without the dropouts.

I do run my amps right at tube breakup. Are you saying the 12-pos Rippah Q wah has the colorsound tone and others to boot? I'm reading the Wilson website, all the options seem overwhelming.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

I do run my amps right at tube breakup. Are you saying the 12-pos Rippah Q wah has the colorsound tone and others to boot? I'm reading the Wilson website, all the options seem overwhelming.

Yes, the 12position Rippah Q wah will get the Colorsound...umm, sound and MUCH more!!!

Kevin is a wah wizard and a great guy to boot!

 

[erksin]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

I do run my amps right at tube breakup. Are you saying the 12-pos Rippah Q wah has the colorsound tone and others to boot? I'm reading the Wilson website, all the options seem overwhelming.

It has (to me anyway) all of the critical CS midrange stuff happening but doesn't dropout in the bass freqs like the CS does. Purists will say that isn't a true CS sound, but I don't care - I wanted all of that croaking mid stuff AND the grunting bass stuff too. The Rippah can do that and more.

The options are overwhelming, absolutely. If I had my druthers, I'd send mine back to Kevin and have him hardwire my fave setting and get rid of all the knobs.

Kevin is a wah wizard and a great guy to boot!

He helped me a bunch while I was picking out the right wah for me - even took back the Colourful Clone at his own expense when I said it wasn't right for me and sent me the Rippah Q before he'd got the CC back.

Great guy indeed. :beerchug:

 

[Mars Hall]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

Yes, the 12position Rippah Q wah will get the Colorsound...umm, sound and MUCH more!!!

Do you ever find it to be a little "over the top" with all of the adjustments? I own one wah that has any adjustment at all, the BBE wah, which has a Q knob. With it, I set it were I like it and leave it alone. Every once in awhile I play with it to see if my taste have changed and then I quickly dial it back. When is too much... too much?

 

[erksin]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

The Wilsons can definitely be option overload - I even had him make mine with the bass pot as a trimmer inside so that I could set it and forget it. I should have had him do the same with the other two pots.

 

[Mars Hall]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

The options are overwhelming, absolutely. If I had my druthers, I'd send mine back to Kevin and have him hardwire my fave setting and get rid of all the knobs.

I hear ya, all the tone shaping does put me off a bit. I do like that the Wilson offers a "factory setting". I would start there, tweak slightly and probably leave it alone.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

I had Kev build my wah with no external adjustments...I don't want to tweak, I want to wah but most folks like the extra stuff so thats the standard for him...

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

I am very happy with my colorful clone, vintage spec (just for the hell of it... I dunno if it does any good, anyways...). Like it much more than my RMC Wheels of Fire.

Moreover, when I was corresponding with Kevin, he specifically led me to the colorful clone. He is a very cool guy, straight to the point with all its good sides and bad sides... I was going for a 6 Rippah Q, yet (I can dig up my emails) he was saying that while 6 Rippah Q was very versatile and all, if I wanna go the colorsound route, I should get the colorful clone. The was saying that the difference is in the lows, which were sorta essential for this ooo sound that I was going after. And that is exactly why, I am questioning you guys' statement that "12 Rippah Q could do what the colorful clone does, and more..." See?

Frankly speaking, I dunno much about wahs and all. Have been using a regular crybaby for years, and all the "nice" wahs I have tried (vox reissues, fulltone, budda) did not do it for me. They are like eee you know. I was always battling with the tone knobs and all while using the wah. Not anymore... WoF is still a bit like that, but still much better than what I had before. Yet, Kevin's Colorful Clone was sorta tailored glove for my hand.

So I guess, you couldn't go wrong either way...

Best,

B

 

[Mars Hall]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

I am very happy with my colorful clone, vintage spec (just for the hell of it... I dunno if it does any good, anyways...). Like it much more than my RMC Wheels of Fire.

Moreover, when I was corresponding with Kevin, he specifically led me to the colorful clone. He is a very cool guy, straight to the point with all its good sides and bad sides... I was going for a 6 Rippah Q, yet (I can dig up my emails) he was saying that while 6 Rippah Q was very versatile and all, if I wanna go the colorsound route, I should get the colorful clone. The was saying that the difference is in the lows, which were sorta essential for this ooo sound that I was going after. And that is exactly why, I am questioning you guys' statement that "12 Rippah Q could do what the colorful clone does, and more..." See?

Frankly speaking, I dunno much about wahs and all. Have been using a regular crybaby for years, and all the "nice" wahs I have tried (vox reissues, fulltone, budda) did not do it for me. They are like eee you know. I was always battling with the tone knobs and all while using the wah. Not anymore... WoF is still a bit like that, but still much better than what I had before. Yet, Kevin's Colorful Clone was sorta tailored glove for my hand.

So I guess, you couldn't go wrong either way...

Best,

B

Thanks for your input! Your description from the previous thread, on this subject, is why I looked into the Wilson. So far, it's the clear leader, based from everything I've read.

I take it you've played an original CS wah at some point? How do you compare, specifically the long pedal throw, of the CS vs the CC?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

How do you compare, specifically the long pedal throw, of the CS vs the CC?

The Wilson is built in a Crybaby/Vox style case so it doesn't feel like a CS but the same rule applies to the RMC as well...and just about every other Wah being made today!

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

Here is the story... I used one for 3 years in early 90s in gigs. Very heavily I should add. Like 2 3 night a week ... Got it from a friend, was quite beat up still working though. In those days, there was no internet, and we did not know **** you know! And guess what, the pot got scratchy. Got it replaced by some guy here in Istanbul, and it went bad... I ended up having on off type of response. To matters worse, I do not know the prior history of that particular CS. Maybe the pot was changed before I got it, who knows... You have to understand that the knowledge required for this type delicate stuff was no way at a high level back in those days here in Istanbul. There were some very knowledgeable people, but I did not know many of them...

But that beat up CS wah kinda shaped what I want from a wah. Cry Babies, Vox reissues ... were too eee. Was not right for me.

So I should not comment regarding a comparison between a real deal CS and CC. Still, CC has been the only wah (I can say that confidently) that I was completely satisfied with. WoF was not. A very good one, yet still it was a bit eee...

Don't think of me as someone knowing this stuff and all. Christian is much better than I am both in knowledge and in practice, indeed, he was the one who pointed me towards Wilson wahs in the first place.



B

 

[xxxplorer]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

I had a wheels of fire, now own a wilson vintage spec signature wah. Kevin is the man. I told him I wanted a simple wah good with gain and clean and no tweaking. I got it. He also was very curtious as when it was my time for the wah, my wife's mother passed away and I was very busy. He was very kind and let me wait a week to be with family and double check our check book. And the drop in kit was a snap to put in and is wicked good sounding. I am getting a freaker wah next!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

HA!

Come on Doc...we all know better than that!

You da man!

 

[Bludave]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

That video did not do it for me. I did not like the tone of that wah at all. Different strokes for different folks. Maybe it was the playing but it sounded pretty bland to me.


I like all of the RMC wahs but I also do not like to tweak. I recently was considering upgrading my vintage crybaby(Thomas Organ Co.) due to some problems I was having but I wound up getting it fixed and it works great. I recently bought another which I intend to use as a backup. It could become my main wah I will make that decision when I get it & I can play the two of them side by side. My old Crybaby does it for me. It does have some issues but minor.... overall it is my favorite. I also have two others but the vintage crybaby does what I want.

 

[JeffB]

Re: RMC Wheels of Fire

Yeah, that demo is awful.

Colorsounds sound fantastic-I think that guy should re-think that demo

Here's a better one- you can skip ahead to 2:15-ish if you like