<ul><li><p>w w w . s o u n d u n l i m i t e d . c o . u k</p><p>85%</p></li><li><p>85%</p><p>w w w . s o u n d u n l i m i t e d . c o . u k </p><p>Ernie Ball Wah Wah review</p><p>Based in San Luis Obispo in central California, the Ernie Ball company (now run by Ernies son Sterling) has long been synonymous with great guitar strings, having been the first company to offer custom gauged strings for electric guitar players back in the day. They have long had a full catalogue of products besides the neon packaged Slinkys though. Their Musicman brand guitars and basses have always been fantastic, and in addition to assorted bits and bobs, their volume pedals have al-ways a popular choice of the profes-sional musician.</p><p>Using much the same design, Ernie Ball have recently launched a wah pedal. Almost identical to its chrome coloured volume swelling brother, the Ernie Ball Wah is manufactured from an aluminium alloy casting which they claim is indestructible and I have to say that its easy to believe them. It has almost exactly the same footprint and weight as the ubiquitous Jim Dunlop Crybaby Wah, but seems sturdier somehow; probably due to the larger footplate </p><p>coated in a grippy (technical term..) material that feels somewhere be-tween sandpaper and felt roofing.</p><p>It sports all of the features that youd expect to find on a wah; in-put, output, true bypass, recessed 9V battery compartment (thank-fully no going back to the days of having to unscrew the feet on your wah to change your battery) and a connection for a 9V DC supply (as traditional, not included). One handy addition to the norm is a bright green LED on either side of the chassis to let you know when its on. Simple but clever and effective.</p><p>Obviously the unit is activated by pushing the footplate all the way forward until the switch clicks (unlike the Morley Bad Horsie and Power Wahs which engage as soon as you move the pedal - this seems like a good idea until you realise that you cant use the wah as a fil-ter by leaving it in one position a la Satriani). Although the Ernie Ball has the same kind of switch as the </p><p>Jim Dunlop it feels much more re-sponsive, largely due to the fact that the footplate on the Ernie Ball Wah is only 5mm thick so you can really feel it when it engag-es. Also the Ernie Ball Wah moves the potentiom-e t e r </p><p>build qualty</p><p>value</p><p>sound</p><p>overall</p><p>features</p><p>50%25%</p><p>w w w . s o u n d u n l i m i t e d . c o . u k</p></li><li><p>VERDICT</p><p>In conclusion, the Ernie Ball Wah is a great pedal which offers a few intelligent improvements over the stalwarts of the genre; it is stur-dily constructed, sounds and feels great and is certainly built to last, although it is a little pricier than its rivals..... but anyone want to buy a second hand Crybaby?</p><p>SIMON WESTAWAYSound Unlimited</p><p>Voltage:9vDC - battery and mains</p><p>Manuctured:Malaysia</p><p>Weight:1400g</p><p>FEATURES</p><p>w w w . s o u n d u n l i m i t e d . c o . u k</p><p>by attaching a length of very strong cable, wound several times around the potentiometer shaft to a spring, whereas the Jim Dunlop uses a plas-tic connection which can break.... I remember visiting the Ernie Ball factory a few years ago and seeing rows of little old ladies carefully wind-ing this </p><p>90%</p><p>75%</p><p>85%</p><p>90%</p><p>85%</p><p>50% 75%</p><p>twine onto the volume pedals, al-though judging by the Made in Malaysia sticker on the bottom of this unit they must out-sourced their little old ladies over there.....</p><p>My only complaint about the con-struction is that there is a large open cavity inside the pedal underneath </p><p>the footplate which means that quite a lot of lager would go </p><p>in there if someone spilt a pint on it.... not that mu-sicians spill drinks on their equipment. </p><p>First thing you realise upon plugging the unit in is that the jack and power connections are on the far edge of the unit, max-imising available space on your pedalboard. Again, simple but effec-tive...</p><p>The pedal sounds fan-tastic on both clean and dirty settings, the Ernie Ball seems to have more mid range to it than its competi-tors and the action of the </p><p>footplate is much smoother and more comfortable; sounds good on everything from clean </p><p>wakka-wakka to full metal lead mayhem. And because it seems to have a wider midrange band and responsive action you can use it as a filter for lots of different frequen-cies easily.</p></li><li><p>w w w . s o u n d u n l i m i t e d . c o . u k</p><p>w w w . m y s u . c o . u k</p></li></ul>