Pedal Pawn's first wah, the Say Wah, chases a Hendrix and SRV quack
Pedal Pawn's first wah pairs a hand-wound inductor with a McCon-O-Pot II inside rebuilt donor shells, each unit set up by owner Chris King Robinson.
Pedal Pawn has finally made a wah, and calls it its most requested product ever. The Say Wah goes after what the company describes as the fat, throaty midrange quack of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, the kind that makes a guitar sound as if it is talking. It follows years of development and, by the maker's count, hundreds of vintage wahs, where even the best examples often left it wanting more.
At the heart of the circuit is a hand-wound inductor that Pedal Pawn says it developed and makes from scratch, paired with its own PCB. The company also says it voiced the pedal to work with fuzz and overdrive, an area where it reckons many wahs fall short.
For the sweep, Pedal Pawn teamed up with Mike, the builder behind the McCon-O-Wah. His CTS 100K custom-taper McCon-O-Pot II sits under the treadle, rated for two million cycles and, in the maker's words, designed to minimise the scratchiness associated with ageing vintage wah pots.
The enclosure has a past life. Each Say Wah starts as a donor wah shell, which is stripped back to bare metal, professionally refinished and rebuilt with Pedal Pawn's own circuitry and hardware. Owner Chris King Robinson personally tests and sets up every unit.
The rest of the spec list is short: true bypass, 9V DC or battery power, and hand assembly in the UK. Pedal Pawn says its last few units are available to ship within a week. Once those are gone, new orders move to the next production batch with a longer lead time.
The company's launch short is below.
Video: Pedal Pawn, "We FINALLY made a Wah Wah Pedal! #shorts"
The maker's full notes are on the Say Wah page at Pedal Pawn, and the specs are collected on our Say Wah page.
