Zoals jullie kunnen zien is mijn site geheel vernieuwd. Weg is het zwart en voila het wit.
Dank aan Felix Faassen van flixz.org voor al zijn inzet en moeite.
Ik ben nog bezig wat dingen te veranderen maar kijk gerust eens rond!
Luca Giordano
Decades of speculation on the magic of those early vintage models have set a new trend in guitar manufacturing. Custom shop building!
Like Gibson, Fender has a custom shop department where they recreate the look, feel and tone of those vintage instruments every axe wielder dreams of.
It is not hard to explain why these old vintage guitars got to such a mythical status. Apart from all the drugs taking and big rock&roll stories, Imagine a guitar company that still has to be build up from scratch, where people build one guitar at the time, where the best materials are selected in order to build a great sounding guitar… because you still have a market to conquer. This is the company that will make you a magical guitar. When the demand becomes as big as it did, you can’t keep working that way, you have to standardise and you run the chance to lose some of that magic.
The custom shop philosophy has finally got to terms with this fact. The old instruments were better, because more attention was paid to the materials and the building process.
Fender custom shop is like good oll’ Leo’s 1957 workshop tucked neatly into this million dollar company called Fender.
Boy! they sure are expensive. Dr. Giordano, Is it really worth the money?
Compared to a middle of the road axe, yes, they are expensive. But you have to realise that these are exceptionally well build guitars. If you have a batch of wood of 50 pieces, you just might find one or two pieces that really are the bee’s knees in terms of tonewood. Every piece of wood is selected to be the best of the best. The instruments are 100% handcrafted and all the other materials are of top quality. With that comes a feel and look, that is crafted with attention, love and passion for the art of guitar building. These really are the dream instruments you always feared you could never own. The guitar where it truly all comes together.
So yes, I think it is worth the money. This is the guitar equivalent that well crafted Maserati, the hand tailored bespoke Saville Row suit, that exclusive Wilier racing bike, the handmade pair of Borgioli shoes. And a certain price comes with that.
So, Dr. Giordano? Should I get one?
Well, I wouldn’t want you to get into financial trouble over my rantings. So first…. do the numbers before you indulge yourself in full fledged Gear Acquisition Syndrome.
A great guitar is many things. Apart from it being a beautiful thing to look at or the icon with which you identify your rock heroes, it is first and foremost an instrument that needs to be played. It’s exquisite tone preferably needs to be enjoyed and heard (be it by one, some or by many).
Also a high quality instrument like this will be appreciated more by it’s player and ultimately the listener as well, when the player realises and recognises of what high quality this instrument actually is. If your first guitar is a custom shop Fender Tele with a fat round neck… you might be disappointed by it’s (or perceived lack of) magic.
Your reasons for wanting a guitar like this are entirely your own. And can be very valid on many levels, but make sure you know what you’re buying. Make sure you appreciate the differences. because these are really good instruments and they deserve to be acknowledged as such.
Luca Giordano
Who are you? and what is a Wah pedal?
The Wah pedal. one the most illusive pedals in the plethora of effects. everybody talks about it, everyone has an opinion, The international forums are flooded with informed and misinformed banter.
Is this little story different? No! I write about my own experiences from my own perspective. I’m a gigging guitarist who has had a Wah pedal under his right foot (started out with the left one….with little success) since my birth as a guitarist. My first pedal to season the amazing sound of my budget Strat through a small Roland cube (the ones with the push buttons for high quality digital effects) was a Boss Ds1…but the second one was a Boss PW-1. It was massive in size and weight had a few knobs that didn’t do much and, as I found out later, a fairly small sweep. but ! It brought me the tones of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile…so that was enough for me. I had to have it and the Wah pedal didn’t leave that right foot ever since.
The earliest version of the Wah pedal, was heard in 1945 on a pedal steel guitar created by Leo Fender. It was invented by a young engineer named Brad Plunkett, who worked for the Thomas Organ Company, the Vox/JMI’s U.S. counterpart. The Wah circuit basically sprang from the 3-position midrange voicing function used on the Vox Super Beatle amplifiers.
In 1967, the Clyde Mc Coy Wah Wah was introduced by the Vox company ltd.
Mr. Clyde McCoy was a trumpet player who was known for the signature “Wah” sound he created with a mute in the bell of his horn. On early models his signature or even his picture is printed on the pedal and to this day it eludes me why the guys at Vox thought that linking this guitar effect, that by 1967 had already established itself as a guitarist must, to a trumpet players name, would be an effective marketing hook.
However the new pedal that now had a handy little rocker that you could operate with your foot fitted so terribly well with the trends in music and fashion that were awakening in the late sixties, that it became an overnight hit.
Jimi Hendrix linked the device up with a fuzz pedal and an overdriven Marshall stack and blew everybody’s minds out, Soul music enjoyed the bundles of pre-pimpin’ cash that came in through the wah’s porn funk feel it gave to classics like Isaac Hayes’ “Theme from Shaft”. And the underground hip crowd enjoyed it spaced-out sounds thoroughly. with or without the help of chemical stimulants or Frank Zappa’s cartoons.
Since those days the Wah pedal found it’s way under many classic guitarist’ foot on many classic track. We hear Kirk Hammet rocking one, we hear it on cheesy disco tracks. pop music, soul music, even jazz is no stranger to the Wah’s recognisable quack. Nice!
So what are we talking about today. There are many articles talking about how superior a particular Wah device is to everything else there is on the market or what a terrible piece of shit the other is.
Today I will talk about the differences between three Wah pedals that more or less have the same character. I will compare everyone’s friend the Dunlop Cry baby to it’s more expensive “boutique” counterparts; The RMC Picture Wah and the Fulltone Clyde. All three are based on the original Vox circuitry from 1967.
If you want to read about NOS conductors, hand building process lines, extensive tests, true bypass miracles and how every single pedal was polished with an actual piece of Jimi’s undies, I’d suggest you hook up to the fulltone, Dunlop and RMC websites. They will provide you with many informative details.
I will judge the pedals by what I hear and what my experience is over the years as guitar player and listener.
The individual pedals:
Fulltone Clyde: A very sturdily build pedal. quite a looker in it’s white coating! high on it’s feet (you’ll need to take that in account if you have a pedal board with a bit of height already).
The first impression was a bit tame but as soon as you get to work on the unit, you’ll see that it has some nice features.
This pretty boy gives you a fairly moderate sweep. Rather like the original Voxes do. The highs aren’t too piercing, the lows don’t dive under the mix. A very musical and clean sounding Wah pedal. it doesn’t carry an excessive amount of what I’d like to call “quack-factor” on account of it’s moderate sweep. To get tremolo sounds you really have to work the rocker quite hard to really get all the low and high frequency’s out of the unit. The pedal is excellent for fixed Wah tones. the high and lows are all very usable and the rocker hangs in mid air just perfectly. Fulltone managed to give the pedal that clunky square-ish Fulltone look without deviating to much from the original design. Good quality unit.
Dunlop Cry-baby: What can you say! It’s a bloomin’ classic! Probably everyone born after 1963 started out on one of these puppies and my first impression was indeed a feast of recognition. It still remains quite the standard for most of us.
The Cry-baby is a nasty little pedal. it’s highs are piercing it’s lows are guttural. sometimes a bit too much. the highs can be painful at times and the lows can be a bit thin-ish and it is not, what they call, ‘true-bypass’ (meaning it does affect your sound even when it’s switched off). You have to know how to work a cry-baby. Put you heel all the way down sparingly and be conscious of when you want to put your toe down all the way. It can be the effect that you look for but it can also be unmusical at times. the rest is just simply good! good “quack-factor”, good easy tremolo’s, a plethora of fixed Wah settings (even if some make dogs howl or require you to see an ear doctor afterwards) sturdily build. You could definitely take this one to a bar fight and do some serious damage. Not that I would advocate that as being the best use of this pedal.
RMC Picture Wah: It looks like a grey cry-baby. RMC took a bit more time in making the insides look pretty. The potentiometer is shielded with a plastic cover which should help out in the number one defect in Wah pedals…. dusty, dirty, beer soaked, crickly-crackly potentiometers. Good thinking! The Picture Wah has a slight boost when you engage it. This is something you have to want. personally I like it. The Wah changes you frequencies constantly a some will pierce through a mix better than others. the slight boost ensures that every note is heard and not just the ones that pay for the eardoctor’s Jag instalments.
The overall sound is very warm and very guttural. The lows can be used perfectly, the highs as well. The high frequencies keep their warmth which is quite unique for a Wah pedal. Easy tremolo’s and a very good “quack-factor” (very duck-like) It is also ‘true bypass’.
The rocker did fall to the toe position when your foot left the pedal, making it hard to have fixed Wah tones other that the toe down position unless you keep your foot on the rocker. I’m not sure if my test unit was simply a bit overly lubricated. Something you want to be attentive to. The Picture Wah also has a bit of a growl to it’s character. Good stuff
But Sir! Which should I get ???
That is a hard question. If you’re looking for an opinionated answer, check the fora or reviews on Harmony Central. Every pedal has at some point been smothered with love or overloaded with intense hate.
In this case we have an inexpensive pedal and two expensive pedals that all do the job. Whether the expensive one is always better is not only dependent on the quality of the pedal but also on the needs and abilities of the player.
If you are the leader of a Jimi Hendrix tribute band you might want to splurge on and expensive super sounding Wah pedal. If you have the Wah pedal on your board because you’d look silly without one and halfway through the second set you guys play Kiss by Prince (don’t tell him, I used his name in this article…he’ll have me pay the rights) and there is this little Wah solo in the middle…. you might want to keep your dearly earned cash in your pocket for something else and get the cheaper one.
Also bare in mind that appreciating good effects is like appreciating a fine wine…. you can’t recognise the sublime taste of a Latour Haute Brion wine from 1966 until you have experienced the intense heartburn of the supermarket quality Lumbrusco bubbly-aluminium-screw-top-wine range. You might ask yourself if you can fully experience the beauty of a 200 + Euro Wah pedal if you don’t know what a good Wah pedal sounds like.
Personally, I liked the RMC best. I loved the growl and the volume boost it gives. The Fulltone was a bit to clean for my personal taste but if you are into that sound it is a perfectly build pedal. Very musical and very controllable. The Cry-baby clearly lacked the warmth of the Picture Wah but I have to say that they resembled each other the most in this experiment. I like the nastiness of the Cry-baby but then again that might be it’s downside for some of us.
Yes, when you play the Fulltone or the RMC, there is clearly a difference in quality. The more expensive pedals reacts more smoothly, there isn’t a bad sound to be found in them, you don’t have to look for sweet spots. They are build better and sound better than the cheaper Cry-baby. It’s the perfect Wah package but there is price to be paid….
As a customer I thought the prices are too far apart. I’ll leave the “no way there is 200+ worth of stuff inside this pedal discussions” to the fora. But there is an explanation. I think that, be it through hype or actual quality differences companies like RMC found themselves selling a lot of pedals and thus “legitimising” their higher boutique prices. Companies like Dunlop saw there sales plummet hence the getting cheaper of your regular Cry-baby and thus further widening the gap between the two price ranges (it’s called capitalism)
Still this might be explained as a good thing…. before you buy…ask yourself; “am I a Wah-person enough to splurge on the superior article….or is Wah my “middle of the set gimmick” and will the simpler article do just fine”
Luca Giordano