How to handle wah. Use expression pedal or separate wah pedal?

SJonesofva

SJonesofva

Inspired
Hi all. My FM9 is ordered. Waiting for it to ship. In anticipation....

How do most of you handle having a wah effect? Do you rely on the wah provided in the FM9 and use an expression pedal? If so, how do you turn the wah on or off? Or do you use an external wah wah pedal?

I've been using a Line 6 Pod XT Live for decades and what I am used to is a pedal that is normally a volume pedal, but when I push toe down it switches to a wah wah.

What is the best way to handle this with the FM9?

Thanks,

Steve
 
iaresee said:
Expression pedal all the way connected to the WAH block. I use auto-on/off to turn it on off. As long as the pedal is toe-up the WAH block is bypassed. Move the pedal, unbypassd. Magic.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Does that mean you can't use the same pedal as a volume pedal then if connected to the WAH block?
 
There are ways to do double-duty for wah and volume, or other params.

There is a great collection of wah models in the FM9, I can't imagine wanting a separate pedal.

You can set the pedal to activate in a variety of ways - with a switch, tracking speed, tracking position, etc. I set mine so that toe-down is bypassed. Some people set heel-down or static for bypass. Works like a conventional wah, but with no switch. You can get an expression that also has a built-in switch and set that to engage the wah. Lots of options.
 
elvis said:
There are ways to do double-duty for wah and volume, or other params.

There is a great collection of wah models in the FM9, I can't imagine wanting a separate pedal.

You can set the pedal to activate in a variety of ways - with a switch, tracking speed, tracking position, etc. I set mine so that toe-down is bypassed. Some people set heel-down or static for bypass. Works like a conventional wah, but with no switch. You can get an expression that also has a built-in switch and set that to engage the wah. Lots of options.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Is there a pedal besides the EV-1 that you recommend? One that has a built-in switch?

Thanks,

Steve
 
Instead of built on switch I like the spring loaded Mission pedals, step on it and the wah engages, take your foot off, it goes back to having the wah bypassed, no issues with switch not catching etc

You can have up to 3 pedals connected at once too
 
SJonesofva said:
Thanks. Is there a pedal besides the EV-1 that you recommend? One that has a built-in switch?

Thanks,

Steve
Click to expand...
I don't have one with a switch, I have read about others having such beasts. I use position-based bypass, no switch required. You can set it so that >95% = Bypass or <5% = bypass, these are popular choices.
 
not all expression pedals are the same. some have a "long throw" which are great for volume and fine control of parameter values like delay feedback etc. other ones are "short throw" and that's the sort you want for a wah pedal. actual wah pedals are short throw. i have one of each.
 
+1 for a spring loaded pedal for wah duties and that the wahs in the FM9 trump any standalone wah. You can take the settings from your favourites and tweak them to create your own custom wah. Utterly brilliant

I recently switched from an EV1 to a Mission expression pedal for my volume and other effects and the shorter throw of the Mission gives far less finesse so will be swapping back. I know Mission do a pedal with a longer throw, but the EV1/2 give huge control
 
I second what @iaresee said above.

I use two expression pedals. A dedicated wah pedal makes little sense to me because it takes up space on the floor or a board that can't be used for anything else. Expression pedals can be used for any parameter that allows a modifier, and the assignments can change on a scene or channel basis. That's incredibly flexible and useful.
 
Dedicated expression pedal using auto on/off - because: I can shape the sweep to exactly what I want, Axfx wahs are extremely tweakable and sound great, I don't like to have external pedals before Axe / not in a loop (tone suck risk - yes, I could put it in a loop but I've used up my loops for other purposes not in the right position for wah). Had a Bad Horsie spring loaded - though I liked the spring thing, I did not like that I could not "park it" the odd time when I wanted a quick megshift Boston tone - not a fan of tone switches (many wah pedals come and gone - wish I had all those wasted $).
 
We all know Leon Todd is a genius, and I have been using the sequenced auto wah that he suggested in this video. Head to around 2:20. Just another option. There's a certain amount of refreshing freedom about not having to be tied to pumping the wah or expression pedal. This is for the FM3 but works with the FM9 too.
 
simeon said:
not all expression pedals are the same. some have a "long throw" which are great for volume and fine control of parameter values like delay feedback etc. other ones are "short throw" and that's the sort you want for a wah pedal. actual wah pedals are short throw. i have one of each.
Click to expand...

You can also adjust the taper and start and end points in the software to make a long travel pedal have a real quick/sharp change in value over a small area of its pedal, which can give you the wacka wacka wah sound even on a long travel pedal without crazy amounts of pedal travel.

And you can set this up per effect or preset so you can have it fast sweep for one sound, long linear sweep for another thing like delay mix, audio taper for using as a volume pedal etc

Almost blows the mind how flexible the FAS units can be lol
 
I use a mission with toe switch, run it as a volume pedal then the switch engages the wah while disengaging the volume block. There are a few videos sound on YouTube and what not demonstrating the procedure.
 
Anthony76 said:
I use a mission with toe switch, run it as a volume pedal then the switch engages the wah while disengaging the volume block. There are a few videos sound on YouTube and what not demonstrating the procedure.
Click to expand...

I tried Mission - both the standard and extended travel versions with toe switches. Neither worked well for me.

The pedal would bump into the switch at approx. 97% of its travel. I could never get it to read 100% without pushing "through" the switch and engaging/disengaging whatever parameters it was assigned to.

For a wah patch, and most other effects, this was not a big deal. But it didn't play well with "Whammy" patches.

But I couldn't use it with a "whammy" patch. Even after much experimenting with the calibration range, I couldn't get a full octave sweep from the whammy with any switchable expression pedal. And the FM9 was too smart, it always seemed to know that I was playing games with the calibration - and would never hit 100% consistently.

Sorry, I'm rambling a bit. It's hard to explain without seeing it in the unit itself. If someone else has figured out how to make that work with the whammy models, I am all ears.

Until then, I still carry a wah pedal (for gigs that involve a lot of wah - funk/fusion), and I tap dance between the FM9 and a non-switchable expression pedal for situations that don't need much wah.
 
GMGM said:
I could never get it to read 100% without pushing "through" the switch and engaging/disengaging whatever parameters it was assigned to.
Click to expand...
You can calibrate it on a shorter range of its sweep to overcome this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom