Ibanez WH-10 Wah Effects Pedal

Coupled with a decent fuzz pedal, the Ibanez WH-10 Wah effects pedal is one of the more highly regarded wah pedals to come out of Japan. Can be mellow or grindy, great for overtones. Clean it’s lovely, with distortion it’s nasty!

Manufactured by Maxon. On the down side it has a plastic body and the construction is poorly thought out (so it is difficult to get inside to work on). This pedal also suffers from needing something like Boss’ Line Selector (LS-2) to deal with white noise being somewhat of a problem on higher gain settings.

There is one up for sale on Yahoo auction. You can check it out here. It is a black version so it isn’t cheap - it is going for almost 60,000 yen!

This is what the Ibanez people have to say about the Ibanez WH-10 Wah effect pedal in their manual:

Features

The wah-wah pedal has a long and distinguished history. This is a truly classic effect that controls the timbre of instrument sounds, making it one of the most important tools of many guitarists. The reason for this continued popularity is to be found in the wah-wah’s unique capability of letting the player express himself directly in the quality of the effect sound he controls. What makes the WH10 Wah Pedal evenmore unique is its ability to switch between frequency ranges in order to accomodate not only guitar, but bass as well. In addition, a Depth knob lets you freely control the intensity of the wah-wah effect for a whole host of characteristic sounds from mild wah-wah to a dramatic distortion wah.

Principle

The wah-wah effect uses a filter with variable frequency range controlled by a pedal to achieve different sounds - muffled when the treadle is up, brighter and sharper when it is depressed, due to boosted treble. By continuously and smoothly moving the pedal, you can obtain the characteristic sound that gave the wah-wah its name. The two ranges available are 350Hz to 2.2kHz for guitar (GTR) and 175Hz to 1.1kHz for BASS, allowing you to adapt the effect to your individual needs.

Use

The wah-wah pedal lets the player give expression to his musical sensibility through the character of his sound, providing a virtually limitless spectrum of timbres. On the other hand, this also means you have to have a clear idea of the sound you want if you are to create it with the wah-wah effect. Here, we will shortly introduce a comparatively simple application for the WH10 as an equalizer.

First, move the pedal up and down to find a frequency you like and leave the pedal in that position, then determine the amount of boost with the DEPTH control. For example if you prefer a warm, mild tone that sounds somewhat muffled, keep the treadle up. If you are looking for a more brilliant timbre with a sharp attack and emphasized treble, push the treadle down. Since the DEPTH control gives you a setting range from +6 to +20dB, you can effectively adjust the level of harmonics. In any case, the real fascination of the wah-wah pedal lies in the ability it gives the player to control the timbre of his sound in exactly the way he wants. It therefore usually takes a bit of practice before you can make full use of the WH10’s great musical potential.