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Gear Tips
Mark Sullivan's Guitar Page - May 2009
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 Welcome to Mark’s guitar page for May.
WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH
In search of the perfect Wah pedal there may be no clear answer. Just by their nature the sound has a vocal quality that is emotive and personal. Uses range from clean liquid rhythm passages to raging torrents of blistering leads. Is the same Wah filter appropriate for both applications? Do you need to have more than one on your pedalboard? The industry seems to agree only that there are countless tonal variations to making a Wah pedal. Dunlop, by my last count, offers fifteen different models. Today we are going to look at one.
Bob Bradshaw at CAE “Custom Audio Electronics” has been building specialized rack, switching and pedal products for the musical elite for 3 decades. Typically one-off or limited quantity items built to extreme quality and durability standards. A few years ago he hooked up with the MXR custom shop (a Dunlop owned company) to produce the MXR MC401 Boost/Line Driver pedal, a very transparent pedal with up to 20db of level increase. Now comes the time for them to team up to offer Bob’s version of the Wah.
The MC-404 CAE Wah
Everything about this pedal screams out a step above the norm. The function swath is true hardwire bypass. The Pot the treadle is turning is custom designed by CTS for low-noise and extended life. The “Op” amps are of a high-grade low-noise tolerance. The knob that you see on the side of the pedal sets the gain for the +20db boost which essentially a MC401 line driver built-in. On the opposite side is a kick switch for boost on/off with a visible blue led when activated. Adjacent to that is a green led to indicate pedal on/off. Flanking the kick switch on the right side, that you can see in the picture, are red and yellow leds that indicate which of the 2 available inductors is selected. And that last feature is one of the big tonal options of this pedal. The Red Fasel inductor is voiced for a classic crybaby tone with high-end emphasis. And the Yellow Fasel inductor is voiced for a low to mid range tonal resonance. That should answer the question of how to get two different wahs onto your pedalboard. But to make the sound your two wahs, remove the bottom plate to reveal 2 trim pots (1 for each inductor) to adjust the “Q” sweep. This changes where the peak happens. And that changes the whole feel of the Wah. And that Christmas tree of 4 colored leds is a very welcome feature. With so much going on it’s nice to know where you’re at with a glance.
Keeley Electronics, which offers a full stable of modified pedals and also good compliment of quality original design pedals, suffered a major fire at their pedal factory towards the end of January. Thankfully they already had another plant set-up to make pickups and cases. They have moved the pedal manufacturing over and are back in full swing shipping pedals again.
New on the pedal front is ModTone Effects. This is a new line of a dozen colorful tone devices all at very reasonable prices. I am at this very moment unpackaging the first shipment. So I’ll have to plug them all in and give ‘em a go before I can tell you more. But seeing they are already in the store, come in and put take them for a test drive and tell me what you think.
MS
I can be reached at Msullivan@daddys.com
Or at the Boston Daddy’s location at (617) 247-0909
Mark Sullivan is a well known New England guitarist, composer, recording artist and gigging musician. Mark is also Sales Manager of our flagship Boston, MA location.
Mark brings to Daddy's an incredible wealth of product knowledge, especially in the guitar, guitar amplifier, and effects areas. He truly is an "expert" in these areas.
You can contact Mark at 617.247.0909 or visit him at our Boston location!
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