Grateful Dead Music Forum

Now that I have my Strat built, I'm very eager to have the complete early 71-74 tone and versatility. I have every little experience with wah pedals. What would be the modern day equivalent to the one Jerry had back then? I believe he used a colorsound, but those are no longer made.

Colorsound all the way

Brad posted a youtube link to the colorsound wah fuzz swell a while back - that thing is amazing

I am tempted by the Morley, but only because it is optical and therefore will never suffer from a noisy pot. I have no idea how the sound would compare.

I know dunlop gets a bad rap, and lots of players are big into boutique, BUT the 535Q is an AWESOME wha pedal. It is basically true bypass (exception of a pop resistor which I prefer on a loud rig), and totally adjustable tonally. You can get a wide variety of adjustable sweeps, tones, boost, and Q. It is well worth the money if you are on a budget IMO. I love mine and considered a colorsound and a fulltone, both I tried out and still for the money couldn't diss the 535Q. I don't know about other dunlop models, they probably do suck. after an hour with the pedal I found my wha tone I like.

I recently bought a RMC 'Picture Wah.' I use it in my regular guitar set up, but plugged it into the Garcia rig just to test it out. Here's what I came up with:

http://vimeo.com/35055025

I was looking for the vintage Vox wah tone, it's a really interesting history I suggest everybody look into if you get the chance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wah-wah_pedal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_McCoy

The Picture Wah was it for me, (I was/am going for more of a British Blues kind of thing) and trust me I spent LOTS of time researching and playing different wah's. 70's Jerry is in there though. That said there are lots and lots of other really cool pedals out there (as we all know) at the moment #golden age of fx boxes.

Fulltone all the way! It has three settings one is for the colorsound tone plus it has true bypass and boost. Solves all the tone sucking problems usually involve with wah's. Big fan!

To me, the Colorsound Wah-Wah (example: 8/27/72 (Greatest Story, Playin', Dark Star) http://www.archive.org/details/gd72-08- ... sbeok.shnf)
is a split-hair smoother and more musical sounding than the Morley Fuzz-Wah (example: 7/19/74 (Playin', Let It Grow) http://www.archive.org/details/gd1974-0 ... sbeok.shnf ...

tigerstrat wrote:To me, the Colorsound Wah-Wah (example: 8/27/72 (Greatest Story, Playin', Dark Star) http://www.archive.org/details/gd72-08- ... sbeok.shnf)
is a split-hair smoother and more musical sounding than the Morley Fuzz-Wah (example: 7/19/74 (Playin', Let It Grow) http://www.archive.org/details/gd1974-0 ... sbeok.shnf ...

Are you saying Jerry was using a Morley on that '74 link?

Emoto wrote:

tigerstrat wrote:To me, the Colorsound Wah-Wah (example: 8/27/72 (Greatest Story, Playin', Dark Star) http://www.archive.org/details/gd72-08- ... sbeok.shnf)
is a split-hair smoother and more musical sounding than the Morley Fuzz-Wah (example: 7/19/74 (Playin', Let It Grow) http://www.archive.org/details/gd1974-0 ... sbeok.shnf ...

Are you saying Jerry was using a Morley on that '74 link?

Highly probable. He's photographed with it 2 nights later at Hollywood Bowl. You can hear him kick in the fuzz feature during the freak out space in Let It Grow.

Interesting. thanks.

You can mod a crybaby to sound pretty darn good. There's some component changes that i really dont understand in there. and you can add a Q type knob (more subtle than the 535, but great for adjusting to taste with different guitars and amps) I ended up putting a new pot and a new inductor in it, along with a switchable input cap and the q knob. made for an excellent wah. so good, my buddy borrowed it and really wanted to return $100 instead of the pedal. Really, the most expensive part, the inductor, made the least difference in tone too

claytushaywood wrote:You can mod a crybaby to sound pretty darn good. There's some component changes that i really dont understand in there. and you can add a Q type knob (more subtle than the 535, but great for adjusting to taste with different guitars and amps) I ended up putting a new pot and a new inductor in it, along with a switchable input cap and the q knob. made for an excellent wah. so good, my buddy borrowed it and really wanted to return $100 instead of the pedal. Really, the most expensive part, the inductor, made the least difference in tone too

You can also transplant the entire "guts" of a Crybaby or similar wah circuit into a different type of rocker-style pedal. For example, I stuffed my Chicago Iron Parachute wah into a Bespeco VM-12 just like this one (below), and even added a DPDT switch under the toe end. The great thing about this move is that, much like a Colorsound, the Bespeco is a cam-driven pedal (rather than gear-driven), with a longer throw, and a more precise feel. It's plastic-shelled- probably none too durable but wow, it works nice!

I was all set to mod my 90's Crybaby to Vox specs, and that plastic, cam driven pedal idea stopped me in my tracks.
Now I think I'll start from scratch in one of those enclosures. I always hated the Crybaby anyway.
However I seem to be having trouble finding these Bespeco pedals in the US. Any suggestions?

AFAICT here is the earliest pic that circulates of a Jerry using a wah pedal. It doesn't allow linking to the pic, but when you go to this page allows you to zoom: http://www.gdao.org/items/show/833921

I cannot tell what guitar he is playing, almost looks like the Turner Peanut... Nov. 1970! about 4 months earlier than the Feb '71 pics.

Can't zoom using IE? I'll try Firefox.

Jerry in the middle? What's he trying to pull, a JK at Redrocks??? Heresy!