software

What are the advantages of putting the wah before your distortion versus wah after your modulation effects (in my case, the RV3)?

Thanks!

Try it and find out.

I run my wah before everything except a tuner and or pitch shifting FX...that is unless you are using a Fuzz and most fuzz's don't work very well after a wah.

Basically putting it before has the wah pedal modifying a clean signal if you put it after the wah pedal modifies a signal that is dirtied by other pedals and effects. I guess putting it first gives you more control of the main tone.

I use my wah 1st in the chain, but my advice would be to try both situations and let your ears decide.

I use my wah first in the chain also...I think(for me)it works and sounds best there...

I use my Wah at after the pre-amp. The only reason for this is that the Wah-Sound is not that important for me and I anyway solely use it for clean funky stuff.
The reason why I have it at the end of the signal-chain is, it's a Mr. Crybaby (Wah Volume) and I want to roll off volume w/o affecting the preamp-gain.
To lower gain I use the volume pot of my guitar.

A wah is only a variable bandpass filter. It acts the same as any EQ, before or after distortion. Before, you are shaping the tone going in to the preamp/distortion, so you still get a full-ish sound, that has some wah characteristics. Most quot;classicquot; wah you hear is this. Wah after the distortion is filtering the entire sound and you only get a little quot;slicequot; of the harmonic picture. It sounds more quot;talkbox-esquequot; and is good for doing sweeping filtering effects.

But as screamingdaisy said, try them both, you aren't going to blow anything up... Same with all effects. The quot;standardquot; is modulation before the delay. I like to use a slow swooshing flange after the delay with many repeats and distortion for a more synthlike throbing sound.

PF darkside sums it up well but I was suprised to learn that I like the wah in the classic start of the chain position as I dont use a wah as a wah- I use it as he described as a filter effect, a way to get thick rich sounds narrowed down into the frequescy band that fits the song-

Early on I thought the logical position for such an effect was at the end of the line- But for some reason I get a more smeared cut off affect when I put it first and that's where it has stayed-


Originally Posted by PFDarksideA wah is only a variable bandpass filter. It acts the same as any EQ, before or after distortion. Before, you are shaping the tone going in to the preamp/distortion, so you still get a full-ish sound, that has some wah characteristics. Most quot;classicquot; wah you hear is this. Wah after the distortion is filtering the entire sound and you only get a little quot;slicequot; of the harmonic picture. It sounds more quot;talkbox-esquequot; and is good for doing sweeping filtering effects.

But as screamingdaisy said, try them both, you aren't going to blow anything up... Same with all effects. The quot;standardquot; is modulation before the delay. I like to use a slow swooshing flange after the delay with many repeats and distortion for a more synthlike throbing sound.

Well said!

I use my wah after any boost or distortion pedal. Just sounds better to me if the wah is being pushed hard by the boost or fuzz. If I plug the wah into a boost or fuzz, the fuzz seems to decrease the vowel like quality that I'm looking for from the wah and makes the tone more quot;fizzyquot; and quot;grainyquot;...I don't like that. I use a wah to squeeze out the notes and get that vowel like tone like a trumpet player might get with a toilet plunger or hand held mute to cover the bell and then open it up... I use it for expression to close and open up the tone in a similar way.

Lew


Originally Posted by LewguitarI use my wah after any boost or distortion pedal. Just sounds better to me if the wah is being pushed hard by the boost or fuzz. If I plug the wah into a boost or fuzz, the fuzz seems to decrease the vowel like quality that I'm looking for from the wah and makes the tone more quot;fizzyquot; and quot;grainyquot;...I don't like that. I use a wah to squeeze out the notes and get that vowel like tone like a trumpet player might get with a toilet plunger or hand held mute to cover the bell and then open it up... I use it for expression to close and open up the tone in a similar way.

Lew

Yep...And it's the sole reason I refuse to use a fuzz pedal! LOL

On my board, I've got two fuzzes and they are both before the wah. If I place one after the wah, then the wah becomes more of a volume pedal to the fuzz box.

However, I do have a medium gain booster after the wah too, so I can get more quot;oomphquot; from the wah if necessary. So far this setup is working out for me well.

well I like it before distortion for leads, the volume drop just doesn't fly putting it after distortion. (volume drops when pedal is up) To keep it compressed so no volume is lost, I put it before OD.

My current board goes Guitar, tuner, Wah, TS9, DD3, Chorus.. Amp. It sounds the best this way.