They can sound really effective when partnered with other effects, putting one after a muff can create some incredible buzz-saw tones that are almost bitcrush-esque.
I was gonna say the same, most of the people doing this kind of videos annoy you before they even start explaining the actual point of the video. So good job.
Agreed. Ever want to check out a pedal and click on a vid from That Pedal Show? Another one of my peeves are guys that no matter what they are demoing after about 5 minutes they've managed to dial the pedal to the same tone they get in every video. Rob Chapman, I'm looking at you. :-0
Wow, I've never heard a DS1 sound so good, also cool that he doesn't only use wampler pedals. Shows me that he is both confident in his product and a cool guy
He's probably using one that's made in Japan, a lot of the people who hate on the DS-1 dislike it because they got the Taiwan version or they've just never taken it out of their bedroom and played on a stage.
Yeah I think Brian Wampler is probably someone most of us would like to hang out with. Plus he does make outstanding dirt pedals IMHO it's not just a gimmicky label. He's def one of the 3 kings of dirt pedals.
yup i came to that understanding of why i dont like mine is because the 10 watt solid state amp im using in my room, because millions of people wear by it, and ive heard it sound amazing ... even the newer ones like the one i have@@yoboisteven1741
People have different taste. Just because he thinks one sounds better than the other doesn't mean that everyone thinks that. In this example I thought dist before wah sounded better. Am I right? Some will agree others don't.
In the analog synth world, people make the distinction between additive and subtractive synthesis. Additive creates tones by selectively adding harmonics to the note in various ways and as it progresses. Subtractive synthesis starts out with a harmonically rich tone, like a square or ramp wave, and selectively carving away that harmonic content with filters. Wah-into-distortion is the analog of additive synthesis in that some frequencies come closer to the clipping point than others as you work the wah, creating a different feel to the clipping. Distortion-into-wah is the analog to subtractive synthesis in that the distortion generates lots of harmonic content that the wah selects from and "carves away". As well, wah-into-distortion results in a more consistent volume level, since the distortion will sort of "hard-clamp" the level. BY contrast, distortion-into-wah can result in a less even volume level since the frequency content remaining at one point in the wah sweep may be greater amplitude (or at least be heard as such) than another wah position. For my money, that doesn't make one better than the other, but you need to decide in advance which advantages/disadvantages will be suitable for whatever you're playing. Myself, I can't understand why most distortion or wahs don't already come with a footswitchable loop and order-flipper switch, so you can have the one or the other without having to tear down your rig.
In the end. You don't need to know any of this horseshit. Playing guitar with wah's and distortion for 50+ years, I found I just go by what I like. And having "a footswitchable loop"... sooner or later are multiple choices of gear that just results in too many choices that distract from the non-sterile environment of making music. Everything can't be boiled down to an algorithm of distractions or you lose the point. Making music is about feeling, not complicated algorithms and slide rule mentality.
I'm just explaining WHY they sound different. If you know exactly what tone you want, AND you have it nailed, fine. If you're looking for something different, or simply how to optimize your tone, ithelps to understand how things work, that's all.
Most amps have clean and dirty channels. So I would run the wah after distortion while playing lead, and wah before distortion (or into a dirty channel) while playing rhythm.
Wut? A wah is literally a filter effect.. wah after OD is more pronounced wah because it's doing it's job. Wah before od is more distortion effect with wah sounds kinda in the audible background.
Pedal placement is all about what kind of sound YOU want. Brian expressed that at the beginning of the video. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It's all your choice. My personal preference is wah after distortion. Not because I think wah before distortion sounds bad, it's just not want I want to get out of the wah. In my opinion, wah after distortion has a more vocal quality... I've used it both ways, and it is just my preference. I love watching Brian's videos because the dude truly knows what he's talking about. By the way, I've mod'd my GCB95 for true bypass, added a Sabbadius Halo inductor and also removed the input buffer. That kind of changes things up a bit.
dude! you! are! the! master! thank you brian for all this juicy info! And on top of that you're a genuine and authentic personality too! enjoy your day
I only had my first 4 pedals for a day and i knew immediately that i liked the wah being first in the chain. It allows you to really get the sweep to stand high and mighty above every pedal and it sounds so good!
Thanks Brian! I appreciate your humility in using other companies products! I have a crazy mix of vintage and modern pedals as do most 'serious' musicians I think! Using a variety keeps it very honest and real! Thank you!
I usually like to go fuzz>wah>distortion, The extra gain's a bit superfluous, but you get this really distinct sweep that kinda sounds like a vintage vocoder, especially with the lower notes. I discovered it a couple months back by mistake, and since then I ended up liking it so much I used it on almost all of my songs in some way or another.
I appreciate you working to ensure we get a good idea of what's going on, and not just make it a commercial, but it's also nice to see what your own pedals do. I was dead set on getting myself a sweet tea when I bought my guitar, and having finally saved up, the guys at my local store said I absolutely needed to try a Tumnus, and just WOW, it's a drive pedal with subtlety and tone and much like reverb is a supertool that makes me sound GOOD when I'm just noodling around. THANK YOU for making such wonderful stuff.
Yes when playing lead wah *after* distortion sounds more impressive. Playing rhythm I run the wah into the dirty channel with distortion off. I never use distortion when playing rhythm, I play into a slightly dirty channel when playing rhythm.
Hey man! That was well done and very helpful, and yet confusing because: 00:31 - "The better placement for a wah is, I think, after a distortion." (Distortion before wah.) 03:42 - "That is my favorite position to use a wah: I prefer going into the wah, preferably without any sort of buffer before it, then into the distortion." (Wah before distortion.) I agree with your second statement and the results you got from that arrangement... wah before distortion, yo. I get you. 😉 Thank you.
I think putting a wah after distortion sounds much better if you let the amp break up as well. So the wah is both before and after the wah. John Frusciante does this and he has a great wah tone. Listen to the end of the Dani California solo on a live concert of the Chili Peppers and you'll hear this great/crazy wah tone.
Wah is before and after distortion, right? Not before and after wah. After pedal and before distorted amp. That's the way I do it. BTW don't need that hiss sound either.
I don't normally give a lot of praise on other peoples videos but sir I love your channel as well as this video... I've been wondering this question for sometime and you've made a video that has helped me out more than you'll know.. Thanks man keep up the good work!
It really depends on the wah, specifically just HOW "active" your wah is. What I mean by that is that some wah pedals will give you a sweep that just shifts the mid focus from one point to another, but there's a kind of smoothness to it, not a huge decibel difference between back and forward. Others seem to just be a passive low-pass filter that "opens up" when you step it forward, causing a HUGE volume jump. If the wah you use is the latter, then putting it before the distortion (or in front of a dirty amp) is a good way to compress some of the peaky highs that come at the "ah" end of the "w-ah" sweep. However, I had a wah that was built by my dad, and it really only touched the mids, and kind of notched one end while slightly boosting the other, but there was no noticeable difference in volume from one end to the other, and I didn't just put that after a dirt *pedal*, I actually put it in the effects loop of a dirty amp. This kept the wah from changing the amount of gain or the *character* of the distortion, and also gave me a more noticeable sweep. If I had one of the other types, like the original Vox, I might have actually put it in front of a compression pedal and THEN into a dirty amp, so it could sound smoother and more "natural" and not like the wah was pushing the amp in the forward mode and pulling back on the gain when cocked back. It all comes down to taste, obviously. Some people like a wah after their delay so they can keep shifting the tone of the repeats, or a distortion after the delay, so the repeats get progressively cleaner as they decay. Others think you *MUST* put time-based effects in the loop.... I've done both and liked both.
What I've always found running Wah->OD is that the overdrive seems to affect that taper of the wah such that there is a very fine "breaking point" of "low" vs "high" perception of the filter. That being said, the overall tones tends to be better, even if the dynamics suffer.
Thank you very much. This video really helped in my new distortion wah setup. It makes a whole lot of noise when I place my distortion after the pedal but it cleared up right after I switch the distortion to before the wah. Cheers Mr Wampler.
There are two options that we can get, the first choice of distortion with wah , or the second wah with distortion. The resulting sound is very different. And this is depending on the taste of each guitarist
I love this guy- to be neutral he uses a boss- ds1 (I really have no opinion on its quality) when he makes some outstanding pedals that he could be plugging himself. Good on ya Brian.
Glad I heard your video to hear out the diffference in swapping those two mainstay of pedalboards. , find em both different - but not necessarily one being bad or better.
@felixgraphx In fact, the efffect is more poignant and gluten-fffree when you describe the tone using words w/3 F's... don't stop believvving! ps. Oh, and V's, too...
I tried hooking my wah pedal before distortion , and then tried hooking it after distortion , and it seemed to have more dominance and control after distortion and sounded clearer ? My opinion !
After the distortion sounds like a duck. Quack quaaaaaaack! Quack quack quack quaaaaaaaaack! =D Edit: This video could also be titled "How to dial a proper tone with a Boss DS-1"
Wampler Pedals - Nice test & I agree with your conclusions. It kinda brings ya back to earth when you realise how good an inexpensive BOSS DS-1 sounds, when so much more money could be spent on boutique pedals. Not as good as my Wampler Velvet fuzz of course.
It all depends on what amp you pair it with, if you want one get 1, there is another version i think called the OD-1X that has chrome knobs, it is better and more dynamic then the original
I have it, I love it. But it's better to carry a booster with you whenever you'll play with other amps, the volume might get a little low. Actually after taking my od around to boost it, I added it so my rig definitely. It's always on ,with a low gain setting. Your gear will come alive man
I beg to differ. I experienced exactly the same thing with my multieffect, but I stil prefer to put the wah at the end of the chain for a noticeable impact. When playing live, subtle tone changes go unnoticed because of inherent live low fidelity, unless you're playing solo (I mean, realy solo, as in the other band members keeping it shut) or through a million dollars sound system into a million dollar sound-engineered hall. So the wah before my gained up amp emulator was doing basically nothing, or nearly so. Gotta use a clean amp emulator to hear anything significant. Same goes for fuzz, mind you... BUT, in the end, everything is bound to personnal preference, so I guess here as well no absolute answer is to be found.
John used his wah after the stomp boxes but his amps were cranked and provided enough compression so the wah would remain what most would consider musical. Generally speaking you'll need some sort distortion/compression after the wah even if you have fuzz/dist/drive before it.
Thank for the video. Today I tried different orders for all my pedals unfortunately into a Fender amp that I’m not fond of. Then i took a break came back and plugged my Grateful Dead Les Paul (yes I got it from the band) into my chain and a Vox AC30. Holly pig dog. It sounded like Stevie ray was in the room. So my conclusion is the whole chain matters. The high-a pickups into the effects and the AC30 made the pedals soar. Before they were robbing tone. Thanks again
The wah pedal controls tone. Specifically it removes high frequencies. The distortion adds high frequencies in the form of clipping. By putting your wah pedal after distortion, it will remove a lot of the high frequency, effectively changing the amount and sound of the distortion as you move the pedal. Wah before distortion means you'll get much more uniform distortion sound independent of the wah pedal position. It's a personal choice. I think I like adding distortion after wah, so they don't interact as much.
I have tried different ways to put the wah. I use an overdrive as distortion to boost up my Randall tube head. Many people put the wah at the very front of the rig, but the tone had been eaten somehow when I kicked in the wah. So my final setup is tube head ---> overdrive ---> wah ---> phase ---> whammy ---> chorus ---> delay. I am using Dimebag signature wah. The only it catch my eyes is the fuzz wah tone. Without overdrive at front, the fuzz doesn't sound outstanding, so I use the overdrive pedal to boost the fuzz wah and it just sounds much better for me
My Ernie Ball Wah wah wah wah sounds great when plugged into front of amp while all other effects (Digitech Genesis 3) are using the effects loop. The amp is a Marshall JTM30 and I'm utilizing the clean channel.
Even dirt cheap pedals sound pretty decent through a warm tube amp (at least way better than through a solid state or super clean tube amp) but yeah I’m not a fan of the DS1. The boss overdrive isn’t bad but it’s basically just a crappier version of a tube screamer at its best. All that aside, the pedal was more than adequate for the demo
@@charlieb8735 forget the stigma about solid state, once you move up in watts and speaker size, you can get marvelous clean tones that sound wretchedly awesome with dirt pedals. I'm running a 300watt GK head into a 15" JBL PA speaker ($250 total investment) and I've never had a more reliable and usable setup. (broken two hot rods in my time just from regular use $600 for the two amps and over $900 in repairs all to waste)
I added a boost Fet preamp to my Vox pedal and adjusted it with a trim pot. It was first on one side of my effects board . I liked to run effect chains in parallel and split to seperate amps. Fun stuff.
For many years, when I was younger, my main distortion came from an overdriven Fender pro reverb amplifier. Because I didn't use a distortion pedal my old crybaby wah always came before the distortion. As I started using distortion pedals (I'm an ET I built a few, and bought a few) I tried connecting the wah before and after the distortion. I much prefer the wah before the distortion. I prefer to put the wah before any and all other effects. A wah pedal simply manipulates the tone so manipulating the tone of a clean signal before adding other effects makes sense.
Holy hell. A video convincing me to wheel out my more-or-less hated but too-cheap-too-sell DS1 and try it now I've got proper gear and am not an 80s EMG head.
Love it when he said "I hate that"! Right on bro, didn't need to analyze that to death, or worse play ten minutes of garbage sound! Thanks, your alright!
I've always placed my wah at the beginning of my chain, and since my Morley Tremonti Power Wah and Bad Horsie II both have boost knobs, I can have that +db there for leads when I need it. Great video!
Basically it sounds like when you put the wah after the distortion, you are carving out a lot of the harmonics that the distortion added making it sound "nasally," whereas when you put the filter before the distortion, you carve out harmonics from the clean tone, and then the distortion adds it's own harmonic content making it sound a lot "fuller."
My chain is: Line6 G10, Dunlop Slash Wah, Xotic SP Compressor, Electro-Harmonix Super Switcher, Blackstar HT Metal, Elektron Analog Drive, Yellowsquash Sound Labs Iron Fist, Digitech DT Whammy, Seymour Duncan Vapor Trail with a custom Reverb in the FX Loop, Electro-Harmonix Nano POG, Eventide H9 Max, Meris Enzo, Hedra, Polymoon, Mercury7, and a Morningstar MC6 handling Midi commands from the Super Switcher running stereo on a Pedaltrain Terra 42 with two MXR Iso-Bricks powering the spaceship. Yes, it's a but much but Wah always goes first.
Monsieur Wampler, Iove your set up, my favourite Wah-pedal sound is that which was played on the lead of Stir It Up by Bob Marley and the Wailers. From what I've read and heard, none of the Wailers played the lead on the studio version of STIR IT UP. It was played by an American session musician brought to London from the USA to play on it when they were over-dubbing the original Wailers track recorded month before in Kingston, Jamaica. That's why no live recording of Stir It Up had the wah-sound, that is duplicated it on stage, check it out sometime. Great Video bro, keep it up
Wah before distortion here obviously gives the typical "Rock-Wah" sound whereas the other way round the resulting sound resembles - more or less - that of an envelope filter or that "voice-box-tube-in-the-mouth" sound. This might possibly be different, however, with another amp-setup and/or at higher volumes when there's breakup from the amp in the signal chain as well.
You get some very cool sounds when you take that distorted sound and Wah wah it. Especially if you don’t go wacky wack on the Wah wha. After all, it’s just a tone control.
On the rig you are using it definitely sounds better in front of the boss. I prefer that as well. Btw that’s a sweet tone with just the boss. Very nice and hardy.
Depends on the OD and the Wah. Some wahs add too much boost and served well by getting crushed in the OD. My preference is after the distortion and use a compressor if it boosts too much. Pre distortion wah is a mild tone control for your guitar. Post distortion wah makes it talk.
The sound of wah after the distortion was kinda cool. More like an envelope filter sound. The annoying thing about that placement was more the playing dynamics and not the sound. As I recall, my sound was pretty much muted whenever I pressed the wah backward.
so many people dismiss or underestimate the goodness of a simple boss DS-1...sounded killer
Was just thinking how good it was :)
They can sound really effective when partnered with other effects, putting one after a muff can create some incredible buzz-saw tones that are almost bitcrush-esque.
I'm using ds-01😍
I can guarantee you that if you re-housed it, gave it a new name and doubled the price everyone would be losing their mind over it.
Ugly Nola This is one of the truest statements I have seen!
"Why not put the wah pedal after the wah pedal?"
-Kirk
“Why not put a 3rd wah on the amp mic”
- Also Kirk
100
Duh, because you put the wah before the wah.
You could even put the wah before AND after, if you had two of them!
lol
I can't thank you enough for keeping your videos so short and to the point
Thanks! I myself am not a fan of long videos so I try if at all possible to keep it as short as I can
I was gonna say the same, most of the people doing this kind of videos annoy you before they even start explaining the actual point of the video. So good job.
Agreed. Ever want to check out a pedal and click on a vid from That Pedal Show? Another one of my peeves are guys that no matter what they are demoing after about 5 minutes they've managed to dial the pedal to the same tone they get in every video. Rob Chapman, I'm looking at you. :-0
No shade on JHS, no, none at all...
Wow, I've never heard a DS1 sound so good, also cool that he doesn't only use wampler pedals. Shows me that he is both confident in his product and a cool guy
He's probably using one that's made in Japan, a lot of the people who hate on the DS-1 dislike it because they got the Taiwan version or they've just never taken it out of their bedroom and played on a stage.
Yeah I think Brian Wampler is probably someone most of us would like to hang out with. Plus he does make outstanding dirt pedals IMHO it's not just a gimmicky label. He's def one of the 3 kings of dirt pedals.
yup i came to that understanding of why i dont like mine is because the 10 watt solid state amp im using in my room, because millions of people wear by it, and ive heard it sound amazing ... even the newer ones like the one i have@@yoboisteven1741
2:08 after
3:08 Before
You made the same mistake as this guy. 2;08 Wah BEFORE 3;08 Wah AFTER
Watch again.
After does not become before ,before.
If you look at how it's wired, the wah is after the distortion at 2:08. Guitar into tuner, into distortion, into wah, into amp.
At 3:08 it clearly shows the Guitar, tuner, wah, distortion, amp.
This is why I can never be a guitar expert. I'm sitting there listen to him play and think damn that sounds good, and then he's like, "I hate that."
taste is subjective...just because it sounds good to him doesn't mean it has to sound good to you
People have different taste. Just because he thinks one sounds better than the other doesn't mean that everyone thinks that. In this example I thought dist before wah sounded better. Am I right? Some will agree others don't.
This is why you should be. You are not afraid to express your opinion instead of reproducong ones you've already heard.
That’s that Jimi sound
Of course it sounds good to you and I as well as others. We like what we like.
In the analog synth world, people make the distinction between additive and subtractive synthesis. Additive creates tones by selectively adding harmonics to the note in various ways and as it progresses. Subtractive synthesis starts out with a harmonically rich tone, like a square or ramp wave, and selectively carving away that harmonic content with filters.
Wah-into-distortion is the analog of additive synthesis in that some frequencies come closer to the clipping point than others as you work the wah, creating a different feel to the clipping. Distortion-into-wah is the analog to subtractive synthesis in that the distortion generates lots of harmonic content that the wah selects from and "carves away".
As well, wah-into-distortion results in a more consistent volume level, since the distortion will sort of "hard-clamp" the level. BY contrast, distortion-into-wah can result in a less even volume level since the frequency content remaining at one point in the wah sweep may be greater amplitude (or at least be heard as such) than another wah position.
For my money, that doesn't make one better than the other, but you need to decide in advance which advantages/disadvantages will be suitable for whatever you're playing. Myself, I can't understand why most distortion or wahs don't already come with a footswitchable loop and order-flipper switch, so you can have the one or the other without having to tear down your rig.
In the end. You don't need to know any of this horseshit. Playing guitar with wah's and distortion for 50+ years, I found I just go by what I like. And having "a footswitchable loop"... sooner or later are multiple choices of gear that just results in too many choices that distract from the non-sterile environment of making music. Everything can't be boiled down to an algorithm of distractions or you lose the point. Making music is about feeling, not complicated algorithms and slide rule mentality.
I'm just explaining WHY they sound different. If you know exactly what tone you want, AND you have it nailed, fine. If you're looking for something different, or simply how to optimize your tone, ithelps to understand how things work, that's all.
Interesting viewpoint! Never thought of it, but makes perfect sense! Thanks!
This is a great comment, really helped me picture what I’m actually doing to my signal. Thank you for writing it.
Most amps have clean and dirty channels. So I would run the wah after distortion while playing lead, and wah before distortion (or into a dirty channel) while playing rhythm.
Every time I hear somebody demo a wah I'm like, that sounds better than mine, I have to get that one! Now I have eight wah pedals.
Jason McDermott tune your guitar maybe? Any beating makes a guitar sound like total garbage esp w overdrive & all the enhancement of harmonics
😂😂
Jay McDermott which do you prefer? Which do you think is the best for Jimmy Page?
*g i m m e e m a l l*
Hahahahahahaha fucking ayyyy that’s me to the T brother 😂😂 with pedals in general
Wah after distortion sounds/behaves almost a more like a filter type effect while the wah before the distortion sounds more like a "wah".
It sounds like a duck to me..
A zakk wylde mxr chorus,a rotovibe and a mxr phaser makes the best psychedelic sounds I have ever heard...Add a crybaby and go to lsd flashback town..
That makes no sense. A wah is a filter. You need to describe what it sounds like after distortion not just say a "filter".
@@harmono8766 Before distortion the Wah is a mild filter changing the sound a little bit, after distortion it softens the distortion.
Wut? A wah is literally a filter effect.. wah after OD is more pronounced wah because it's doing it's job. Wah before od is more distortion effect with wah sounds kinda in the audible background.
And now we know Brian's favorite position
:p
Direct Assault reverse cowboy
Hahaha
Pedal placement is all about what kind of sound YOU want. Brian expressed that at the beginning of the video. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It's all your choice. My personal preference is wah after distortion. Not because I think wah before distortion sounds bad, it's just not want I want to get out of the wah. In my opinion, wah after distortion has a more vocal quality... I've used it both ways, and it is just my preference. I love watching Brian's videos because the dude truly knows what he's talking about. By the way, I've mod'd my GCB95 for true bypass, added a Sabbadius Halo inductor and also removed the input buffer. That kind of changes things up a bit.
0:52 when you remember, mom is watching your videos.
dude! you! are! the! master! thank you brian for all this juicy info! And on top of that you're a genuine and authentic personality too! enjoy your day
I only had my first 4 pedals for a day and i knew immediately that i liked the wah being first in the chain. It allows you to really get the sweep to stand high and mighty above every pedal and it sounds so good!
Thanks Brian! I appreciate your humility in using other companies products! I have a crazy mix of vintage and modern pedals as do most 'serious' musicians I think! Using a variety keeps it very honest and real! Thank you!
3:42 and then 0:31
Wah > Distortion wins, but stated the opposite at the intro.
I was looking to see if anyone else had pointed this out. I’m shocked I had to scroll as long as I did to find at least one person say it.
I usually like to go fuzz>wah>distortion, The extra gain's a bit superfluous, but you get this really distinct sweep that kinda sounds like a vintage vocoder, especially with the lower notes. I discovered it a couple months back by mistake, and since then I ended up liking it so much I used it on almost all of my songs in some way or another.
Wah after distortion is good for Tom Morello-type sounds
or frusciante
April Cox Frusicante will be before distortion pedal
lol, frusciante's first effect in the chain was a boss DS-2
Sandro Correia but he had his amps cranked
Sandro Correia frusciante had an Ibanez wh10 wah which behaves differently
Hendrix put his wah before his fuzz. Enough said
He wasn't running a "clean" amp, either.
I’ve always understood that the default layout would be before, as it’s a frequency shaping tool, so should come as early as possible.
With a VERY long cable in between
Frusciante after
think for yourself
I appreciate you working to ensure we get a good idea of what's going on, and not just make it a commercial, but it's also nice to see what your own pedals do.
I was dead set on getting myself a sweet tea when I bought my guitar, and having finally saved up, the guys at my local store said I absolutely needed to try a Tumnus, and just WOW, it's a drive pedal with subtlety and tone and much like reverb is a supertool that makes me sound GOOD when I'm just noodling around. THANK YOU for making such wonderful stuff.
I've always preferred my wah after my drive/fuzz pedals. Other way round seems to really diminish the effect of the wah.
EQs are almost always better before compressors. Good video.
I prefer wah before distortion, but I can see how after would be a useful sound occasionally.
Yes when playing lead wah *after* distortion sounds more impressive. Playing rhythm I run the wah into the dirty channel with distortion off. I never use distortion when playing rhythm, I play into a slightly dirty channel when playing rhythm.
Hey man! That was well done and very helpful, and yet confusing because:
00:31 - "The better placement for a wah is, I think, after a distortion." (Distortion before wah.)
03:42 - "That is my favorite position to use a wah: I prefer going into the wah, preferably without any sort of buffer before it, then into the distortion." (Wah before distortion.)
I agree with your second statement and the results you got from that arrangement... wah before distortion, yo.
I get you. 😉 Thank you.
I think putting a wah after distortion sounds much better if you let the amp break up as well. So the wah is both before and after the wah. John Frusciante does this and he has a great wah tone. Listen to the end of the Dani California solo on a live concert of the Chili Peppers and you'll hear this great/crazy wah tone.
“The wah is both before and after the wah” - dude, like, wait, what? Whoa! WAH! Transcendental!
Ok, just a typo. But I like it.
Teun Putker this is exactly what I do and that's the tone I try to chase with my wah sound
and it all sounds like Henrix
been done
get your own sound.
Wah is before and after distortion, right? Not before and after wah. After pedal and before distorted amp. That's the way I do it. BTW don't need that hiss sound either.
This is the first UA-cam video I have seen with the same tunner I use... The best (but not popular) guitar pedal.
Like for that!!!
Very nice pedals Mr. Wampler!
Why don't you make a Wah-mpler?
Best regards,
Thomas
wah after the distortion sounded better than i thought. its really cool and funkish
Ds1's are cool, such a classic iconic pedal.
I don't normally give a lot of praise on other peoples videos but sir I love your channel as well as this video... I've been wondering this question for sometime and you've made a video that has helped me out more than you'll know.. Thanks man keep up the good work!
1:11, sounds like you're about to start singing a country song 😂
Underrated hahaha
nice one! hahahahahaha!
It really depends on the wah, specifically just HOW "active" your wah is. What I mean by that is that some wah pedals will give you a sweep that just shifts the mid focus from one point to another, but there's a kind of smoothness to it, not a huge decibel difference between back and forward. Others seem to just be a passive low-pass filter that "opens up" when you step it forward, causing a HUGE volume jump. If the wah you use is the latter, then putting it before the distortion (or in front of a dirty amp) is a good way to compress some of the peaky highs that come at the "ah" end of the "w-ah" sweep. However, I had a wah that was built by my dad, and it really only touched the mids, and kind of notched one end while slightly boosting the other, but there was no noticeable difference in volume from one end to the other, and I didn't just put that after a dirt *pedal*, I actually put it in the effects loop of a dirty amp. This kept the wah from changing the amount of gain or the *character* of the distortion, and also gave me a more noticeable sweep. If I had one of the other types, like the original Vox, I might have actually put it in front of a compression pedal and THEN into a dirty amp, so it could sound smoother and more "natural" and not like the wah was pushing the amp in the forward mode and pulling back on the gain when cocked back. It all comes down to taste, obviously. Some people like a wah after their delay so they can keep shifting the tone of the repeats, or a distortion after the delay, so the repeats get progressively cleaner as they decay. Others think you *MUST* put time-based effects in the loop.... I've done both and liked both.
What I've always found running Wah->OD is that the overdrive seems to affect that taper of the wah such that there is a very fine "breaking point" of "low" vs "high" perception of the filter. That being said, the overall tones tends to be better, even if the dynamics suffer.
Thank you very much. This video really helped in my new distortion wah setup. It makes a whole lot of noise when I place my distortion after the pedal but it cleared up right after I switch the distortion to before the wah. Cheers Mr Wampler.
There are two options that we can get, the first choice of distortion with wah , or the second wah with distortion. The resulting sound is very different. And this is depending on the taste of each guitarist
I love this guy- to be neutral he uses a boss- ds1 (I really have no opinion on its quality) when he makes some outstanding pedals that he could be plugging himself. Good on ya Brian.
Glad I heard your video to hear out the diffference in swapping those two mainstay of pedalboards. , find em both different - but not necessarily one being bad or better.
@felixgraphx In fact, the efffect is more poignant and gluten-fffree when you describe the tone using words w/3 F's... don't stop believvving!
ps. Oh, and V's, too...
I tried hooking my wah pedal before distortion , and then tried hooking it after distortion , and it seemed to have more dominance and control after distortion and sounded clearer ? My opinion !
Nah man I did the exact same thing and my mind was blown
Cool video, short and sweet and right to the point. Very informative.
2:27 "I hate that!"
Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot!
After the distortion sounds like a duck.
Quack quaaaaaaack! Quack quack quack quaaaaaaaaack! =D
Edit: This video could also be titled "How to dial a proper tone with a Boss DS-1"
I really like the wampler logo with the knobs an colors! Spot on!
3:14 Hey! It's the "every wah pedal demo ever" riff again.
Czyszy voodoo child slight return lol
anyways its voodoo child slight return so STFU
Wah should sound like the guitarist who plays it wants it to sound, not like it sounds on some other songs
Wampler Pedals - Nice test & I agree with your conclusions. It kinda brings ya back to earth when you realise how good an inexpensive BOSS DS-1 sounds, when so much more money could be spent on boutique pedals. Not as good as my Wampler Velvet fuzz of course.
Okay I need a DS1
dont... get a proper amp with a proper OD pedal if you still need it
They're not very good. Plenty of better distortion pedals.
It all depends on what amp you pair it with, if you want one get 1, there is another version i think called the OD-1X that has chrome knobs, it is better and more dynamic then the original
I have it, I love it. But it's better to carry a booster with you whenever you'll play with other amps, the volume might get a little low. Actually after taking my od around to boost it, I added it so my rig definitely. It's always on ,with a low gain setting. Your gear will come alive man
Victor Budin A volume booster?
That’s got to be the best sounding DS1 I’ve ever heard
"Sounded like sshhh-crap"😂
Very simple and understandable, thank you so much, your tele sounds so good.
its just a matter of opinion
at 3:10 it sounds terrible
Yup! i prefer placing my wah after the distortion.
Well I think that 3:10 sounds much better
no it isnt
Excellent demo, and to the point. Just like the phaser. Thanks Brian.
I beg to differ. I experienced exactly the same thing with my multieffect, but I stil prefer to put the wah at the end of the chain for a noticeable impact. When playing live, subtle tone changes go unnoticed because of inherent live low fidelity, unless you're playing solo (I mean, realy solo, as in the other band members keeping it shut) or through a million dollars sound system into a million dollar sound-engineered hall. So the wah before my gained up amp emulator was doing basically nothing, or nearly so. Gotta use a clean amp emulator to hear anything significant. Same goes for fuzz, mind you...
BUT, in the end, everything is bound to personnal preference, so I guess here as well no absolute answer is to be found.
This is the first of your videos Ive seen. I love your studio and this video was very helpful. Cheers from Liverpool!
from John Frusciante's prospective .. which one will be better ? before or after ?
wah after distortion
thanks man :-)
John used his wah after the stomp boxes but his amps were cranked and provided enough compression so the wah would remain what most would consider musical. Generally speaking you'll need some sort distortion/compression after the wah even if you have fuzz/dist/drive before it.
Thank you, before is how I’ve always done it so I feel justified!
Before: Qah
After: Wah
You mean Quah
love how a wah can have a volume pedal effect when using it after a drive or fuzz.
Ds 1 before the wah sounds like the miku pedal haha
Thank for the video. Today I tried different orders for all my pedals unfortunately into a Fender amp that I’m not fond of. Then i took a break came back and plugged my Grateful Dead Les Paul (yes I got it from the band) into my chain and a Vox AC30. Holly pig dog. It sounded like Stevie ray was in the room. So my conclusion is the whole chain matters. The high-a pickups into the effects and the AC30 made the pedals soar. Before they were robbing tone. Thanks again
After, unless you want your wah to sound like 70s porn.
Before preserves the sound of the guitar. After it gets quite compressed, and reaching to a synth sound, which is awesome as well.
wah before distortion is definitely better, wah after distortion sucks too much volume.
for DEAF people (i mean who hear absolutely nothing --- total silience)wah after --- sucks (you right) XD
wah before the boss "eats" all the mid frequencies! Personal opinion: NO MIDS = NO SOUND!
The wah pedal controls tone. Specifically it removes high frequencies. The distortion adds high frequencies in the form of clipping. By putting your wah pedal after distortion, it will remove a lot of the high frequency, effectively changing the amount and sound of the distortion as you move the pedal. Wah before distortion means you'll get much more uniform distortion sound independent of the wah pedal position. It's a personal choice. I think I like adding distortion after wah, so they don't interact as much.
Watch this at .5 speed
Grey Valencia i lolled
Holy shit that’s halarious😂😂😂
At .5x he sounds like Ace Frehley xD
I have tried different ways to put the wah. I use an overdrive as distortion to boost up my Randall tube head. Many people put the wah at the very front of the rig, but the tone had been eaten somehow when I kicked in the wah. So my final setup is tube head ---> overdrive ---> wah ---> phase ---> whammy ---> chorus ---> delay. I am using Dimebag signature wah. The only it catch my eyes is the fuzz wah tone. Without overdrive at front, the fuzz doesn't sound outstanding, so I use the overdrive pedal to boost the fuzz wah and it just sounds much better for me
Is this Sid from skins when he's older?
+Eli Cantwell no beavis.
The Boss DS-1 sounded great!
wah after sounded like guerilla radio
and the end of the RHCP dani california guitar solo cos John always favored his DS2 in front of the Wah
I have a distortion before and a fuzz after. Together they sound like something from another planet.
“Shcrap”
My Ernie Ball Wah wah wah wah sounds great when plugged into front of amp while all other effects (Digitech Genesis 3) are using the effects loop. The amp is a Marshall JTM30 and I'm utilizing the clean channel.
I got a 1 question for you
What are those?!
Ryle Dazzle Vlogs that’s not funny in any way, it’s just stupid, it was never funny
Stop!!! That's dead
Welcome back to 2015
bikin malu orang indo lu :(
646a656e74 true
Thanks for the video. To be honest, I prefer the wah after distortion.
I think the real problem here is that you’re using a boss distortion pedal in this.
Can we hear this with an OCD and a fuzz pedal? (DBA Apocalypse?)
Even dirt cheap pedals sound pretty decent through a warm tube amp (at least way better than through a solid state or super clean tube amp) but yeah I’m not a fan of the DS1. The boss overdrive isn’t bad but it’s basically just a crappier version of a tube screamer at its best.
All that aside, the pedal was more than adequate for the demo
@@charlieb8735 forget the stigma about solid state, once you move up in watts and speaker size, you can get marvelous clean tones that sound wretchedly awesome with dirt pedals. I'm running a 300watt GK head into a 15" JBL PA speaker ($250 total investment) and I've never had a more reliable and usable setup. (broken two hot rods in my time just from regular use $600 for the two amps and over $900 in repairs all to waste)
I added a boost Fet preamp to my Vox pedal and adjusted it with a trim pot. It was first on one side of my effects board . I liked to run effect chains in parallel and split to seperate amps. Fun stuff.
For many years, when I was younger, my main distortion came from an overdriven Fender pro reverb amplifier. Because I didn't use a distortion pedal my old crybaby wah always came before the distortion. As I started using distortion pedals (I'm an ET I built a few, and bought a few) I tried connecting the wah before and after the distortion. I much prefer the wah before the distortion. I prefer to put the wah before any and all other effects. A wah pedal simply manipulates the tone so manipulating the tone of a clean signal before adding other effects makes sense.
Love your videos Brian. Helped me better my playing and my knowledge for pedals!
Holy hell. A video convincing me to wheel out my more-or-less hated but too-cheap-too-sell DS1 and try it now I've got proper gear and am not an 80s EMG head.
Same two pedals I have. At least now I can see which sounds clearer and cleaner.. thanks.
Love it when he said "I hate that"! Right on bro, didn't need to analyze that to death, or worse play ten minutes of garbage sound! Thanks, your alright!
I've always placed my wah at the beginning of my chain, and since my Morley Tremonti Power Wah and Bad Horsie II both have boost knobs, I can have that +db there for leads when I need it. Great video!
Thanks for the demonstration bro!
Basically it sounds like when you put the wah after the distortion, you are carving out a lot of the harmonics that the distortion added making it sound "nasally," whereas when you put the filter before the distortion, you carve out harmonics from the clean tone, and then the distortion adds it's own harmonic content making it sound a lot "fuller."
I respect your gear choice and your reasons for it. That's a very admirable way to approach this
My chain is: Line6 G10, Dunlop Slash Wah, Xotic SP Compressor, Electro-Harmonix Super Switcher, Blackstar HT Metal, Elektron Analog Drive, Yellowsquash Sound Labs Iron Fist, Digitech DT Whammy, Seymour Duncan Vapor Trail with a custom Reverb in the FX Loop, Electro-Harmonix Nano POG, Eventide H9 Max, Meris Enzo, Hedra, Polymoon, Mercury7, and a Morningstar MC6 handling Midi commands from the Super Switcher running stereo on a Pedaltrain Terra 42 with two MXR Iso-Bricks powering the spaceship. Yes, it's a but much but Wah always goes first.
I like my wah after my distortion and fuzz. The filtering is more pronounced and it sounds more synthy. I enjoy that.
Wampler is the fucking man, I will hear no other argument
Great illustration. Although it pretty much just served to remind me why I don't keep a wah on my board at all :)
Depends on amp, preamp, speaker, instrument, and what type of sound you are trying to achieve.
Nice demo, simple & effective.
Monsieur Wampler, Iove your set up, my favourite Wah-pedal sound is that which was played on the lead of Stir It Up by Bob Marley and the Wailers. From what I've read and heard, none of the Wailers played the lead on the studio version of STIR IT UP. It was played by an American session musician brought to London from the USA to play on it when they were over-dubbing the original Wailers track recorded month before in Kingston, Jamaica. That's why no live recording of Stir It Up had the wah-sound, that is duplicated it on stage, check it out sometime. Great Video bro, keep it up
I agree totally, you confirmed it thanks
Wah before distortion here obviously gives the typical "Rock-Wah" sound whereas the other way round the resulting sound resembles - more or less - that of an envelope filter or that "voice-box-tube-in-the-mouth" sound. This might possibly be different, however, with another amp-setup and/or at higher volumes when there's breakup from the amp in the signal chain as well.
You get some very cool sounds when you take that distorted sound and Wah wah it. Especially if you don’t go wacky wack on the Wah wha. After all, it’s just a tone control.
On the rig you are using it definitely sounds better in front of the boss. I prefer that as well. Btw that’s a sweet tone with just the boss. Very nice and hardy.
Can i buy a wah by itself or do i need a distortion pedal?
Depends on the OD and the Wah. Some wahs add too much boost and served well by getting crushed in the OD. My preference is after the distortion and use a compressor if it boosts too much. Pre distortion wah is a mild tone control for your guitar. Post distortion wah makes it talk.
Dang, I am jealous of your commute in the morning.
Instantly subscribed in about 15 seconds of your video, after 3 hours of disliking shitty pedal test videos. Nice work
As a bassist I love it before because I'm a huge Cliff Burton fan and he uses a lot of wah and me having the distortion before dulls it out for me
The sound of wah after the distortion was kinda cool. More like an envelope filter sound. The annoying thing about that placement was more the playing dynamics and not the sound. As I recall, my sound was pretty much muted whenever I pressed the wah backward.