I know what wha-wha is, but I don't know how it would be used as a filter ef!
Question: Rhoads uses it the first lick in "I don't know." Serious responses only please. That is if you've done it, and made it sound like he does. No guessing or so-so results. Thanks
Answers: Rhoads uses it the first lick in "I don't know." Serious responses only please. That is if you've done it, and made it sound like he does. No guessing or so-so results. Thanks
A wah pedal is a variable bandpass filter. That's about it. The differences between them are sweep range, Q ("width" of the bandpass), and depth - how sharp the filter is. If you rock it back and forth you get a wah sound - and if you took a parametric EQ control and rocked it back and forth in the "mids" frequencies you'd get a very close approximation of the same sound. Some engineers prefer to do this rather than futz with a pedal, actually.
Anyways, the idea is that if you just set the wah at a certain place it acts as a filter - as you've said. It boosts certain frequencies, and attenuates anything outside of that area. Tom Morello, as well as many other guitarists, have used this effect to get specific tones.
Usually the wah is set somewhere between 50% and 75% depending entirely on the wah, the gear, and the sound desired. Closer to 50% is more for a midrangey boost while closer to 75% (or higher) is for a sharper trebly cutting response.
And yes - I've done this. Not with this song, I think it's probably been years since I've even heard the song. But if he's using a wah as a filter, that's how he did it. I can't give you specifics and it wouldn't matter anyways because a lot of it depends on your gear - your guitar, pickups, amp, speakers, and any other pedals you might be using.
I like the Dunlop Crybaby 535Q... the range, Q, and volume can all be adjusted, and it has an optional 20db volume boost switch if you want to kick that in as well. It's pretty sweet. I've used it to add a very retro vibe to my guitar tone when we've played "Spiders" by System of a Down. I'll use it as a midrange boost, so it rolls a bit of top end off. It's a very nice effect.
Saul
Generally when someone talks about using a whawha as a filter, they click it on then set the foot pedal about halfway down then remove their foot. This gives sort of a phased/flange effect. Joe Satriani does this a lot.
First of all, a wah ( wah ) pedal is a glorified tone control. If it "filters" anything at all, it's because it band passes whatever audio frequency according to whatever position the pedal is during that time. The fact that they are more advanced now such as with active, solid state controls, such as Steve Vai' s Horsey Wah could account for some noise filtering and tone enhancement. That also depends on what arena they might be perfoming at, ambience, etc. Tone is EVERYTHING. I agree with what Eddie Van Halen said. "I've been chasing tone all my life" as per his recent ad.