That (Jerry) wah-ish sound in early 70s Playin instrumentals

[Emoto]

Hi,

Tried to search for a thread on this and didn't find one, but that might be my poor search foo.

You know those early instrumentals in Playing in the Band, like on Weir's Ace album, where Jerry gets a wah wah sound but also plays lots of fast notes that are kind of partially wah'ed? Know what I mean? How is he doing that? Is it a wah wah pedal that he is just leaving in some specific position, or... ?

[Tennessee Jedi]

Colorsound is a wah he used some.You can see it in the Sunshine Daydream Movie.Not sure what he used on Ace ( dont forget G S E T too ).
Sounds like he liked to park it in one position and when he did rock it it was with a slow motion as compared to "Sunshine of Your Love " fast motion.
I love when he goes wah wah on Sugar Mag too.

[jonarobb]

I have the Colorsound Wah and a pack of Camels fits perfectly under the rocker, and lo' and behold', instant notched Jerry tone like Playin' in the band...

[Tennessee Jedi]

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... =111372996
linky link ....

Never used one ......

[jonarobb]

Yeah, I actually bought a new one from Macari last year and it's fantastic. Built to spec just like the old ones. I don't use it alot but I love having it.

[old man down]

I used to pull it off by simply switching to the treble pickup on a Gibson SG. Pulled it off, ahem, OK. You can get the sound on the B string at the 15th to 17th frets with fast repetitious picking, alternating in a pre-bend 16th fret that sounds like the 17th fret note, and you bend it in and out to work the segment. Then you can also accent things with a sliding down, glissading technique after hitting the higher note of the couplets.

You can clearly hear on Ace exactly when Jerry turns on and off whatever it is he used.

[Emoto]

Thanks for all of the responses!

Colorsound, eh? Hmmm. A quick web search doesn't exactly have them jumping out at me...

So, Macari ships to the US? Kind of expensive, though. Anyone fool around trying to get the sound out of a Morley or other wah pedal?

[playingdead]

I got pretty close with both an old Crybaby and a new Vox Clyde wah ... in the context of the band, both sounded fine for that sort of effect (the fast picking and sliding down the neck while opening or closing the pedal). I'm currently using a MIDI wah out of a Roland GP-100 that also gets that sound to avoid the problems with the wah pedals not really liking the signal with the guitar buffer (and to avoid an extra cable run in my setup). BTW, some boutique manufacturer makes a device to get around that problem as well for people using the GCX-type buffers. I don't know how Jerry had his wah wired.

Pretty much any wah you can fix where you want to get that nasal tone out of it, too.

One of my front-row experiences in the early 80s was a Playing in the Band and I was interested to see that Jerry was just constantly rocking the pedal back and forth in beat while he was noodling away, kind of "washing" the notes in and out. That could be done easily with a Boss Auto-Wah but it's a different sort of sound.

A friend of mine has a Mutron wah pedal, that had a really nice sound to it. There are various modeling wahs out there, I'm sure you could tweak those to get close.

[waldo041]

I don't know how Jerry had his wah wired.

some factor's in play with jerry's wah use.
first, jerry's wah did not have an input buffer. they are standard in the vox and crybaby wahs of today. second, jerry's wah was in the effects loop later on(tiger), lastly, pre-fx-loop(alligator/wolf 1.0) it was inline, with a stratoblaster preamp vs. the opamp buffered preamp that was in tiger.

peace,
waldo

[tigerstrat]

first, jerry's wah did not have an input buffer. they are standard in the vox and crybaby wahs of today.

peace,
waldo

Mike, how the heck do you know that? You get to eyeball one? which wah? all of them?

For JG wah history I have:

71-mid 74 (at least to 5/25/74): ColorSound
7/21/74: Morley
Oct. 74: possibly a Thomas Organ
75-95: no idea.

[jonarobb]

Thanks for all of the responses!

Colorsound, eh? Hmmm. A quick web search doesn't exactly have them jumping out at me...

So, Macari ships to the US? Kind of expensive, though. Anyone fool around trying to get the sound out of a Morley or other wah pedal?

Colorsounds are still handmade so it seemed worth it to pay a little more. They don't make that many a year so typically you get on a waiting list and they let you know when yours is ready. You can buy it direct from Macari.

[waldo041]

Mike, how the heck do you know that? You get to eyeball one? which wah? all of them?

tried looking up the vintage schem for the morley, but truthfully don't know which one he used. the colorsound and thomas organ/vox/mccoy wah's didn't have an input buffer stage in the circuit. those came in the 90's iirc. in my experiments with both a modern dunlop crybaby and a modded version/input buffer eliminated. the optimal spot in the chain is in the effects loop when using an opamp preamp. a photo of jerry with tiger and the older rack and setup, over at ruk's photo page, shows what appears to be a thomas organ wah wired into a loop, bottom shelf, in his JC effects switcher. there are other photo's showing the same thing. it's also printed in a book as being on the floor unit for the switcher. before the effects loop, was also before the opamp buffer. so the preamp is a blaster and the guitar to amp was a simple, standard chain.

For JG wah history I have:

71-mid 74 (at least to 5/25/74): ColorSound
7/21/74: Morley
Oct. 74: possibly a Thomas Organ
75-95: no idea.

all the wahs are verified you stated. and i will defer to you on the dates. parish states that he did in fact use a vox at one time also. didn't the wah fade out when the 90's rack came along, or possibly a little before?

peace,
waldo

[tigerstrat]

I did some listening to see if I could spot some earliest examples of Jerry's wah usage.

Earliest "wah" Sugar Magnolia: 8/18/70 Fillmore West! Actually the Mag from 6/7/70 F.W. sounds like fixed wah, with bits of treadling here and there, but it's such a furtive attempt overall that it's hard to say (and kinda hard to listen to).

[tigerstrat]

Earliest "Wah" Other One: 6/24/70 Capitol.

[JonnyBoy]

I am looking into the Fulltone Clyde Deluxe where it has 3 voices, one of which is a voicing like a colorsound wha of the 1960's. Anyone have any luck with these wha's? I have heard they are pretty nice all the way around. They also do not have a buffer stage from what I understand and are true bypass. I may be wrong about a buffer stage while engaged, but they are true bypass. Anyone using one with a buffer?