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It seems like the next big pedal effect was the “wah–wah” pedal. Pinpointing a song that popularized this effect is rather hard to do. Amongst the ones that come to mind are Pictures of Matchstick Men/Status Quo, White Room and Tales of Brave Ulysses/Cream, Up From the Skies/Jimi Hendrix Experience and Season of the Witch/Kooper-Stills from the Super Session album. I am sure there were others before some of these were released. The wah pedal had a hinged portion on top that could be rocked up and down by foot. In doing so a tone circuit was swept from a treble tone to a more bassy tone. It was a more dramatic change than what a home stereo could do, but if you have a radio with a single bass/treble control you can get a faint approximation of the effect by sweeping this control quickly back and forth between its extremes.
   The first wah–wah pedal for guitarists was the Vox Wah-Wah. There are at least two differing accounts as to how Vox came up with the pedal. The first presented here is referenced from a book by David Petersen with input from Dick Denney, the fellow that came up with many of Vox’s early amps.
   Stan Cutler, head of electronic engineering at Warwick Industries of which Vox was a part, came up with the wah–wah. While working on a range of products for amplifying brass and woodwind instruments Cutler invented a device that could mimick the sound of a muted trumpet played in a style made popular by Clyde McCoy. Someone tried a guitar through this device and the wah–wah was born. The pedal showed up in the US in August of 1967. In Vox ads at the time the wah–wah was claimed to “make wild new sounds” and allowed the guitarist to “play groovier guitar. Gutsier lead. Meaner rhythm. Tougher blues. Even create the popular sound of the East, the sitar.” The last claim was a bit over the edge, but Vox was justifiably proud of this new innovation. Later on Thomas Organ, Vox’s partner in the US, renamed the pedal calling it the Crybaby.
   This second account is referenced from Tom Hughes’ excellent book entitled Analog Man’s Guide to Vintage Effects. A gentleman by the name of Del Casher, a session guitarist, was contacted by Joe Benaron, then head of Thomas Organ, to be in a “house band” to promote Vox gear. After talking with him Casher began work with Brad Plunkett on what became the Vox Wah-Wah pedal. A tone circuit from an amp, possibly the MRB (mid-range boost) circuit, was placed into an organ volume pedal case. After spending time tweaking the sound the duo aroused curiosity from those hearing their work. While Del was playing his guitar through the pedal during testing, Benaron came in and was pleased with what Casher and Plunkett had come up with. Benaron’s thought was to use it with band instruments like trumpets, trombones, clarinets and such. Casher claims he made the comment that if Benaron wanted to use it on band instruments–an idea Casher was opposed to by the way–he should call up Clyde McCoy about it since McCoy played trumpet with a mute that gave a similar sound. According to Casher that’s what Benaron did, offering McCoy money to use his name in conjunction with the pedal. Casher played guitar on the demo record Vox put out to promote the new effect pedal. So there you have it. Tom Hughes puts the pedals introduction a bit earlier than August ‘67, perhaps in June of that year. As to which account is accurate, it's your guess.
   Along with the wah effect most manufacturers added a volume control setting also. By depressing the pedal all the way forward the player could activate a switch that changed the pedal function from wah to volume. This too was quite useful. It is quite possible that a pedal steel guitar volume pedal was modified to make a wah–wah so the inclusion of volume control is not surprising.
   The players that made an impression with the wah-wah, on me anyway, were Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Steve Stills amongst others. It seems they knew what it took to create an expressive sound. Some songs that used this effect had the guitarist just rocking the pedal back and forth without much concern for being expressive with the sound it created. For a good example of how expressive this effect could be, take a listen to Still Raining, Still Dreaming and Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) from the Electric Ladyland album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
   Eventually variations to the wah pedal started to show up. This was partially due to other studio effects showing up on popular songs and partially due to manufacturers wanting to capture market share. One of the first pedals I was aware of had the Apollo brand name on it. Other manufacturers brought out combination pedals toward the end of 1969 and into the early ’70s. Morley and Foxx were two of the more prominent pedal makers who came along. Besides wah, a player could also have a combination of wah and fuzz; clean sustain, fuzz and wah; sustain and wah; volume and fuzz etc.
My first wah–wah was from Lafayette Radio Electronics. It was made by Univox and was a combination wah and volume pedal. For volume control it used a photoresistor and a potentiometer was used for the wah effect. It worked relatively well, but I was never able to get the same sound that others were getting out of their pedal. The only way I can describe it is that the wah was not as deep–not as robust–as what I was hearing on records. Some careful observation was called for.
   The conclusion I reached was that perhaps my guitar was the reason for the effect not being up to snuff. The professional players, along with some locals that also had a wah–wah, all used a solid body guitar. My guitar was a acoustic/electric with pretty cheap pickups. In fact a fellow band member had a Crybaby pedal he used with a Stratocaster and it sounded great. The same pedal with my Kent was real weenie sounding.
After the wah–wah pedal it seems that all kinds of effects made their way into the marketplace. One effect was flanging or phase shifting. These two are often confused because their sound is somewhat similar. They are created by two different means. Regardless, one of the first popular songs to employ flanging was Itchycoo Park by the Small Faces. You can hear this effect during the bridge of the song and on the drum breaks after the chorus. A couple of other songs that also had this effect that come to mind were In–A–Gadda–Da–Vida/Iron Butterfly and You Don’t Love Me/Kooper–Stills from the Super Session album. In fact the Super Session cut had the entire song flanged. In–A–Gadda–Da–Vida may have been simple phase shifting on the drum solo. Usually flanging is more “whooshy” in nature while phase shifting sounds like the sound goes from full to hollow and back again repeatedly. Units by such manufacturers like MXR, Maestro, Electro–Harmonix, and ADA, amongst others, were popular. Other effects that eventually came on the scene were compression sustainers, chorus pedals, analog delay pedals and envelope followers.
   Compression sustainers were compressor/limiters set up to provide sustain without distortion. The unit, depending on how it was set up, would clamp down on the signals volume a bit and then as the signal died away it would slowly increase the gain allowing the sound to last longer.
   Analog delays were an answer to a way to do an echo effect without having to use tape. Before the analog delay there were tape based units with a fixed record head and movable playback head. These units literally recorded the instruments signal and then played it back later depending on where the playback head was positioned. The Echoplex was one of the more popular tape based echo devices. Steve Miller used an Echoplex quite often–a good example is on Jackson–Kent Blues from the Number 5 album. As the endless loop tape became worn out the noise in the signal would get worse and then the owner would have to replace the tape cartridge. Analog delays eliminated this problem by delaying the signal through electronic means. It also did not allow for some of the interesting sounds (like the ones Steve Miller got) one could achieve by moving the tape head while a sound was echoing on playback
   Envelope followers were borrowed from synthesizers and put into pedal form. These were like an automatic wah–wah. Basically a filter that opened and closed according to the rise and fall of the waveform envelope it followed. An envelope follower on a guitar can be heard on Stevie Wonder’s song Higher Ground.
   With the advent of analog delays the chorus effect came along. This time–based effect adds a shimmery sound to an instrument. The effect lies in the medium delay time range of 20 to 50 milliseconds. Use several delay times in this range along with some regeneration of the sound and a chorus effect is the outcome. For example, this effect makes a 6 string guitar sound somewhat like a 12 string guitar.
Thinking of these other pedals, the next pedal I tried after the wah–wah was an Apollo pedal. This one had a wah–wah and volume, but added three other effects–wind, surf and siren. The base of the pedal was half again as wide as the pedal itself and controls for the wind, surf and siren were alongside the pedal on the right. There was a selector for which effect you wanted, a control for each sounds depth and quality; and a small push on/push off switch toward the heel of the base below the control for the sirens loudness to switch the siren on and off. The reason I bought the pedal was due to my fascination with the flanging sound I had heard on records. This pedal held the promise of recreating this whooshy effect. Unfortunately the Apollo pedal fell far short of it’s promise.
   The wind and surf effects were more sounds than literal effects. Based on a noise generator with surf being like pink noise and wind being like white noise, the pedal mixed these sounds in with the instruments signal instead of changing the signal like a real flanger or phase shifter would. It was like the sound was laying on top of my guitars sound instead of being a part of my guitars sound. The siren was more novelty than useful. A push of the switch would cause the siren to rise in pitch; another push and the sirens pitch would fall. Not very musical unless you were trying to imitate a cop car or ambulance when you played your guitar. This left me still wanting to do the flanging/phase shifting effect I liked so much.
   The first device I was aware of that recreated this studio effect was the Maestro Phase Shifter (PS-1) which I purchased through Musician’s Supply for $145. It was a short rectangular box with three soft rocker switches for selecting the three preset speeds–slow, medium and fast. The soft rocker switches could be foot activated, but it was not very convenient–sort of like switching a light switch with your foot. It could be set on the floor, on top of an amp or mounted on a mic stand. The box had a place on the bottom which was threaded to accept mounting on a mic stand. Gibson made a foot switch for the unit that was optional. It plugged into the back of the box and had three footswitches with lighted indicators for each switch. I purchased this footswitch through Eschbach’s in Ames. for $40. The fast setting sounded similar to a Leslie cabinet, the medium setting sounded kind of wacky and out of tune and the slow setting was just that–a slow sweep through the sound.
   Hoping to get a good wah–wah sound which had proved elusive for me I also bought a envelope follower in the form of a Mutron III from Musician’s Supply for $79. The Mutron was made by Musitronics and was reputed to be the device used by Stevie Wonder for his tune Higher Ground. I also got the recommended battery eliminator–for $15–as the unit took two 9 volt batteries and would drain them relatively fast. The pedal worked quite well–providing a very good wah effect with my ES 335.
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