Wah block

Wah in the owner's manuals

• Axe-Fx II: 3.2 The PEDAL Jack
• Axe-Fx II: 5.33 Wahwah
• Axe-Fx II: 16.13 Setting up a Wah Pedal using the onboard PEDAL jack
• Axe-Fx II: 16.13.2 Setting up a Wah pedal using an Expression Pedal on a MFC-101
• AX8: ...
• FX8: 10 Modifiers

Supported by which Fractal Audio products?

• Axe-Fx II: yes.
• AX8: yes.
• FX8: yes.

Wah types

• Currently available models:
  • FAS Standard – equivalent to the “Bandpass” setting in earlier firmware.
  • Clyde – based on an original Vox Clyde McCoy wah.
  • Cry Babe – based on a Dunlop Cry Baby.
  • VX846 – based on a Vox V846-HW handwired wah.
  • Color-Tone – based on a Colorsound wah.
  • Funk – modeled after the “Shaft” sound.
  • Mortal – based on a Morley wah/wolume pedal.
  • VX485 - based on a Vox V845.

Wah position on the grid

• A wah usually goes before the amp. Unless you want to be Tom Morello, then it should be placed after the amp.

Preventing "thump" when engaging the Wah

• Cliff (answering a question about hearing a thump when auto-engaging a wah): "The thump isn't the wah, it's the Input Impedance changing. If your preset is set to Auto for the Input Z, when you engage the wah the impedance switches. This causes a slight thump if you are playing since the load on your guitar changes. If you want to avoid this, turn Input Z to 1M OHM (Input Z is in the INPUT/GTE page of the Layout menu)." source
• Cliff: "Set the Input-Z on the preset to 1M rather than Auto. The reason the Wah engages abruptly is because it switches the input impedance. Setting Input-Z to 1M overrides the impedance switch (and, frankly, sounds better IMO)." source

Wah's Tracking parameter

• Cliff: "Tracking controls how much the Q changes with the Control knob. The Q in a wah is not constant. The amount of Q change varies from brand-to-brand and model-to-model. It even varies between identical models due to component tolerances." source
• Cry Baby model: decrease Tracking to make the wah type sound more "vowel". source

Auto-engaging the Wah

• Just like an optical wah pedal, you can engage the Wah automatically when moving the pedal. This is especially handy when using a spring-loaded pedal. To accomplish this, set Auto-Engage in the modifier menu to ON.
• If you want the Wah to be bypassed automatically at toe-down position (simulating a a virtual toe switch), set the Off Val in the modifier menu to 95%.

Seek Wah effect

• The "random wah" effect is also known as "Seek Wah", a Z.VEX pedal. For a more pronounced "seek wah" effect, add a Formant filter, attched to the same controller.

Auto Wah effect

• See Envelope filter effect.

Various Wah tips

• Decrease the Max Freq parameter to make a high gain wah tone cut through the mix.
• FX8 and Axe-Fx II effects threads: Filters (FLT WAH FRM)