Vox Satriani Big Bad Wah

[Hot_Grits]

I had a chance to play the new Vox Satriani wah over at Custom Audio Boutique today. Now, those who know me know that Joe Satriani isn't someone I tend to look to in terms of tone, and my experiences with the Saturator certainly didn't lend me to expect much from any of his subsequent releases. But hey, I'll try anything...

...and I was very pleasantly surprised with what I heard. Compared alongside a newish reissue Vox wah I'd characterise it as slightly warmer (sightly -not the kind of difference between a crybaby and a Hendrix crybaby), with a stronger signal throughout the wah's range. One very positive thing was there were no thin spots in the wah's travel, which is great. Very useful for those slow sweeps through long solo passages.

There's also lots of options: a wah1/wah2 toggle, which engages a variable gain boost, hi/lo switch and inductor switch. The inductor switch goes between a more taditional Vox inductor and a brighter inductor -perhaps more similar to one of Joe's fulltones. The hi-lo is a VERY subtle voicing difference in terms of brightness, and the switchable gain boost is very cool: it adds a very musical, tailorable overdrive boost, which is very useful for soloing, and a much better option than simply offering a brighter voicing like many pedals do.

And the BBW is more than just a good mountaintop-solo wah. That strong sweep means you can get some very interesting textures for clean tones, or clean with the drive engaged. I think it'd be a good choice for someone who is texture and soundscape-minded, or for someone dealing with replicating the kind of automated sweeps you hear on lots of post-protools recordings.

The coolest thing about the BBW is how useful the features are and how it can do a lot of stuff, but still very much sound like a classic wah. The drive control on the BBW will definitely help your leads along, but it's only one option with this wah. Joe hasn't gone with some modern, toppy, exaggerated wah, and as a result it can cover a lot of ground.

So yeah, very cool pedal. Roll on the delay...

[mr_sooty]

It does look cool, but it's WAY too big for my overcrowded pedal board unfortunately.

[Hot_Grits]

It does look cool, but it's WAY too big for my overcrowded pedal board unfortunately.

Yeah, big footprint.

[Clarky]

VERY helpful review, thank you.

[Some Bozo]

What's the retail on those ? Sounds cool but I'm not enough of wah freak to pay in the region of five hand shandy.

[Hot_Grits]

What's the retail on those ? Sounds cool but I'm not enough of wah freak to pay in the region of five hand shandy.

Didn't ask. PM Ryan and he'll let you know. I don't think it's in the 500 region, but it's best to check.

[AmpShop]

The retail price is $399 - PM for a forum member price.

Nice work on the review Martin! Detailed and fun to read. I'll add that the voice (hi/lo) switch is only active on the "Wah 2" setting.

Sam from The Defendants/Luger Boa had a good play on it too - he's quite the wah connoisseur, owing several vintage wah's, and he loved it.

"Footprint" is 15.0cm x 23.3cm

[snitchez]

cool review martin. i should give it a go some day!