HELP ! I just bought a wah wah and I Don't know what to do

[KeithH]

Hi guys, I am a beginner on guitar, I know a few metallica riffs and some very slow blues licks and thats about it.

Ive just bought a crybaby wahwah and I plugged it in, made a wahwahwah noise (like a crying baby I suppose!) and now I am looking at it thinking "what do I do now ?"

Any licks/practice runs etc you can point me to ?

Its only for jamming in my house, I am not good enough to gig or anything like that ! I have a RG2550EXGK and a washburn bad dog amplifier.

I know this is the best place to ask because youre all such helpful nice shredders.

Thanks in advance.
Keith

[Balex the Shizzle]

just try out your own things, play some chords wiht it, try some bends and solo wiht it around the pentatonic if u want, do whatever.

you could have a look at some guns n roses
or try learning voodoo chile by jimi hendrix

i dont actualy have a wah so i cant be much more help that that, but just relax, loosen up and play whatever comes naturally using the pedal, you'll soon find what sounds good

alex

[laficojr]

Well,try to learn some licks with wha wha,start very slow......and try to create some own ideas to use it

[FINGERS76]

Try playing a scale or run, and use the foot on the pedal to push up and down as the beat. Do what every guitarist that has ever bought a wah does and strum muted strings and make it go wicki wicki like bad 70's songs.

[Big Bad Bill]

Yeah I'm buying a Bad Horsie 2 next week, but I also don't really know what to do with it! I don't like Hammet's overly used wah-just going monotonously up and down- but I do like the way Vai uses it to give a 'vocal-like' expression to his melodies. The problem is that when I'm playing I too busy thinking about the playing and forget to wah!

Any further tips would be appreciated!

[kpxmikey89]

u have an RG? and ur a beginner? -_-.....

[bobojem]

Wah is a great device to give your sound more expression. When you get a wah pedal, first get to know it. What I mean by that is evey wah is a little different, even the same models can have different characters. It's important to know what it sounds like at different positions of the pedal and on the fret board (as your notes get higher, the 'sweet spot' tend to need more travel). Once you get to know your wah, play a riff w/o wah. Once you have that in your head, try to imagine what kind of wah you would like to apply in your head and then try to do it with the pedal. You might not be able to get the exact sound in your head at first, but its all part of the learning process. This, i think, is the reason why satch and vai's faces are soo animated when they play, especially when they use a wah. I sometimes find myself doing the same thing, like trying to emulate the guitar sound with my mouth. That's because the brain is processing the notes and commanding the feet to move accordingly. One mistake many beginners make with the wah pedal is they just rock it from heel to toe. That usually won't sound good, especially with a crybaby. Wah pedals have sweet spots, that's the place where you pass and the sound goes from "woooo" to 'waaaahhh". Making the pedal travel pass the sweet spot too fast will lessen the effect. In contrary, you want the passage through the sweet spot slow, so to accenturate the "wah wah". So inconclusion, find the sweet spot and ROCK IT!!!

-Bo

p.s. since you have an RG im assuming you're running through the humbuckers most of the time. well from my experience, wahs always responded more dramatically to single coils so for learning to use the wah, maybe you can play some with the single coil settings on the RG, if it has any. (position 2-3-4 on a HSH, position 2 on a HH and 3 way selector, i think)

[brainpolice]

Experiment, but don't get stuck just "riding" the wah by just going WA WA WA over and over. There are endless options with a wah pedal. You could play a fast run with the wah down and slowly bring it up, creating a cool morphing effect (my favorite past-time while tapping). Or vice versa. You could use the wah just for tone, leaving it in a certain open or closed position, in some kind of sweet spot to your ears (I've seen many cases with Zappa where you didnt even know a wah was present until he hikes it up, and it was down the whole time). You could accent certain lines by playing them with the wah up, or down. You could hold a note and make interesting rythms with it by treating the wah like a bass drum.

[kpxmikey89]

sometimes i use my wah when im tapping so my tapping wont die off, givign my tone an extra little gain

[KeithH]

Great ! These are great replies ! I have a whole new world with my wah, keep them coming !


Another thing, sorry to ask such dumb questions, but where in your set up do you put your wah ?

Currently I have it

guitar---wah---effects unit(currently set to just a little gentle chorus)------ overdriven amplifier

do I put the effected sound through the wah ? or the clean sound before effects ?

I have also noticed that my wah just goes waah but others I hear on record go WWWAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH to a far higher note when up. Is it because they have a "better", or stronger pedal, or is it something in my setup that I can change ? my pedal is a jim dunlop cry baby.

Thanks very much for your help with this.

[phoenix2874]

the longer wah sound you are asking about is most likely the result of bending the note while wah-ing. Be patient, use the wah to accent different notes and beats. What`s great about a wah pedal is that if you pay attention it can help you learn to play in time more accurately because your foot will keep tempo as you play and you`ll actually be able to hear yourself playing in time...

[Alex Smith]

Hi guys, I am a beginner on guitar, I know a few metallica riffs and some very slow blues licks and thats about it.

Ive just bought a crybaby wahwah and I plugged it in, made a wahwahwah noise (like a crying baby I suppose!) and now I am looking at it thinking "what do I do now ?"

Any licks/practice runs etc you can point me to ?

Its only for jamming in my house, I am not good enough to gig or anything like that ! I have a RG2550EXGK and a washburn bad dog amplifier.

I know this is the best place to ask because youre all such helpful nice shredders.

Thanks in advance.
Keith

First of all, why did you buy a Crybaby if you didn't know what to do with it? And from your tone of post I can tell you don't feel confident on the guitar, so I can't see your reason to shell out some cash on an RG, a reasonable amp and now a wah.

Secondly, we're not all shredders. For me, shredder has always conjured up images of a mindless man with a guitar widdling out 20 notes per second, because it sounds good. No emotion. No heart. Just widdle, widdle widdle. And I guess that association occurs because of the people the term "shredder" is most likely associated with.

Third. Wah is basically a tone control. Hit a note whilst stepping forward on the wah. Oooh, that sounds nice. It accentuates it, even adds a touch of EMOTION. Basically, you play notes, you step on the wah, it gives a bit of variation. If you can get it correctly you start making the type of noise that makes people like me automatically stiffen their neck, vibrate their head and open their mouths slowly, mimicking the wah sound, because it sounds so bloody good, and goes right through you, regardless of whether you look like a prick.

[Alex Smith]

I have also noticed that my wah just goes waah but others I hear on record go WWWAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH to a far higher note when up. Is it because they have a "better", or stronger pedal, or is it something in my setup that I can change ? my pedal is a jim dunlop cry baby.

You're describing a whammy pedal. You bought a wah.

[Knyq]

listen to surfing with the alien by satch (the song specifically, not the album, although you should be listening to the whole cd...)

theres a lot of wah use in there, and it should teach you a few things

[miker]

WWWAAAHHH!!! ...I wanna widdle!!!

Dunno what to do with the pedal?! Stomp on it man!!! Stomp on it for all your worth!!! Rock that foot back and forth and pick some notes and strum some chords like your life depends on it!!!

Well? Don't just sit there!!! Just do it!!!