Auto-Wah County
After becoming very temporarily bored of phasers and flangers and seeking a more unpredictable effect I’ve gone and got another auto-wah. You may also see them called Touch Wahs, Envelope Filters, Dynamic Filters or other highly enthralling sounding names. For the best possible explanation of how one works click here. The unit in question is by one of my current FX loves, Guyatone. It’s a WR2 Wah Rocker from their Micro Effects series and comes in a funky grape coloured livery.
Funk isn’t, nor ever will be, my Mastermind subject but I know enough to know that the auto-wah effect is beloved and much employed by players such as Stevie Wonder, Bootsy Collins and Flea. It gives that smooth and rapid sweep that is sometimes physically impossible with a traditional wah like a Dunlop Crybaby. I picked this thing up after seeing it (and its sucessor the WR3) beginning to go for silly money online because of two virtuoso players, Guthrie Govan and Stevie Salas. I’d had an original Electro Harmonix Doctor Q and one of their Mutron inspired Mini Q-Trons but found both of them to be very bass heavy and volume sapping, things which the WR2 doesn’t know the meaning of.
I mentioned funk there, but with this you’ll not hear me breaking into crazy Parliament meets RHCP licks, namely because I just don’t have the funk in me, but also because I find this thing far more useful for bridging that gap between straight guitar and the bubbling gurgle of some kind of 70’s Moog synth. This is another one of those effects that simply plays itself, I can set the ‘Threshold’ high, the ‘Decay’ low and strum a chord which if loud enough will hold out and swirl around the rest of the band. Failing that I can set the Decay high and get the exact sound Edwyn Collins, another WR2 fan, uses right here. The next time you happen upon an Auto-Wah, forget about the 70’s and give it a fair trial instead of relegating it to paperweight duty.
