COMMENTARY »
To Budda Or Not To Budda, That Is the Question Cary Nov 9th
Well, I’m once again on the quest for the ultimate wah-wah pedal (actually, come to think of it I’m always on the quest for the ultimate wah-wah pedal,) and after many lackluster years spent with Morleys (yawn,) and Crybabys (same ol’, same ol’) I’m thinking seriously about trying out Budda’s BudWah wah pedal.
What I’m attracted to in the BudWah is that it aims to eliminate that painful, squealing high-end that is so apparent when you pump the pedal forward full-throttle on a Crybaby, and at the same time remove the dramatic loss of volume that accompanies a step back on the pedal.
These have always been my two pet peeves about wah-wah pedals, and if Budda has truly found a way around them––in this case by carefully rolling off the high-end by limiting sweep––I’m certainly willing to plunk down my hard-earned cash to pick one up.
Oh yeah, and it sports a hard-wired, 100% signal bypass as well––something that the classic vintage wah-wahs could only dream about.
So my question to you is: anybody out there had experience with the Budda BudWah pedal? I’m going to try to get one in for review, but in the mean time I’d be interested to hear your thoughts…
UPDATE: Title changed lest I incur the wrath of the masses 
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Howdy! Care to Comment?
November 9th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
What are you talking about? The best wah pedal is the crybaby 95Q. It has an adjustable volume knob. (This allows you to remove the “dramatic loss of volume that accompanies a step back on the pedal”). It also has a Q control. (Q control: controls the amount of wah in your wah). The two knobs together allow you to have as much or as little squeal as you want.
Now the 95Q does have very long sweep. So there is long distance between fully up and fully down. Not everybody likes that. I like a long sweep, because I don’t want to always fully depress my pedal. Lots of times I just use it partially depressed for a whole phrase or passage. Plus since the pedal does have a bypass I want room to have the pedal up, but not bypassing and dramatically changing my tone.
P.S. Also on the 95Q there is a switch that lets the pedal also be a volume pedal at the same time, but I never use it. It is just too overpowering.
November 9th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Hehe, I just knew I’d get a response with that title
I’ve owned a number of Crybabys but never a 95Q. I’d be interested to know, does boosting the volume knob in order to adjust the bottom-end make for an overly loud top-end? That’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid.
Every Wah I’ve ever owned has been overly dramatic in one setting or another, and what I’d like to find is something that manages a good wah tone without the insane wah touchiness…
Thanks for the input, Ed. I’ll have to check it out, but the question remains: have you ever tried the BudWah?
November 10th, 2006 at 4:23 am
Never tried the BudWah. You’ll probably scoff at me for this but I use the Boss V-Wah for a couple of reasons: (1) It has an infrared motion, so I never have to worry about dirty pots. (2) It has tons of setting to tweak for the various wah “models” (I hate that word.) so you can roll off or boost whatever frequencies you like/dislike. (3) It has one of the best vibro sounds I have ever heard - it almost borders on a Leslie sound (though not quite).
On top of that it has it’s typical BOSS chunkiness for footpedals. It is VERY sturdy.
It’s not hand wired, it’s not true bypass, and has some useless features (like distortion(???) which I’ve never used) but it sounds awesome and almost never needs maintenance. For live gigging this was a godsend for me.
I imagine for recording I’d want a BudWah or something.
November 10th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Hey, I’m no equipment snob! I’d never scoff at a man for using what works : )
Actually, the V-Wah looks like a pretty sweet pedal. While I tend to shy away from digital effects, I particularly like the idea of having memory presets where you can store your wah settings. I’ll definitely have to check it out. Thanks for the heads-up!
January 11th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
hi, i’m from Argentina (spanish language), so i don’t speak too much english. I never tried a budda bud-wah, but i wan’t it in a… long distant future, is simply the best. My problem is the shipping: in Argentina, there is no variety, you don’t find much mora than the Dunlop Crybaby… which i liked in the start of my studies about being a guitarist, but now is too boring too comun. Well, another bad point for me is the cash, i can’t bring things from other countrys, too much money buying imported stuff, you got to know, the dollar cost X3 in argentina. Mmm, a pedal i founded with a accesible price, is an Onner Fat Boy, i hope that pedal will be helpful, more soon when the money comes, will be replaced by the glorious Budda Bud Wah (in a looong too far distant future, jajaj)
January 11th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Wow… I never really thought about how much musical equipment must cost in other countries, particularly pieces built in the USA. The Bud Wah seems expensive even to me, so based on US dollars I can imagine it would seem outrageous to someone in Argentina… I bet shipping’s a killer as well
There must be some good Argentine gear makers out there, though. Maybe you can find something local to Argentina?
March 12th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
My Teese Wizard Wah is the best wah I’ve ever laid foot on. It’s got a volume boost when you step on it, so you don’t get lost in the mix. And it’s sweet spots from heel to toe. I’ve never played anything like it. Handmade by Geoffrey Teese, this botique wah comes in an awesome fire-engine red and there are holograms.:) He has has the Wheels of Fire Wah, which I really like, because it’s like the Wizard only with a few controllable parameters, like boost/tone.
Teese builds the best wahs you can buy, and no I don’t work for him. I’m just a gear lover.
December 28th, 2007 at 4:14 am
Wow………not one person here has tried a budda?
March 8th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Great thread with lots of information. I use the VOX Clyde Mccoy and I love the pedal played in line with my amp. It is very organic sounding and does not get that huge treble boost high end shrill at the top of the sweep. OK, here is the kicker, when i play it through my effects loop it is every thing I hate in a wah. Go figure.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
OK. I have tried 5 different Budda Bud-Wah pedals and have owned all 5 of them. They all tended to sound slightly different from one another but all had a signature Bud-Wah tone.
Bud-Wahs have a tone that approximates a Vox V847 but with more treble frequencies throughout the sweep. What I mean is that there are more high-end overtones at all positions as if a high-quality guitar cord is being used. Bud-Wahs also are somewhat shrill in the full toe-down position. The sweep from bass to treble is also somewhat smoother than the Vox.
The heel-down position is indeed the same volume as the treble position. IMO, this actually reduces some of the vocalness of the sweep and reduces the wah effect when playing up high on the neck.
The Bud-Wah has a very slight boost to the signal when on.
Something that rarely gets mentioned regarding wahs is the frequency response of the sweep versus the bypassed tone. In a non-true bypass wah, the bypassed tone will have a lot of treble missing from the original guitar signal due to tone suck. Users may compensate by turning up the treble on the amp, but this also turns up the treble of the wah effect creating a more cutting tone. This is the effect that vintage, non-true bypass Vox-style wah recordings have. In many ways, the Budda’s enhanced treble response compared to it’s brighter true-bypassed tone is similar to a vintage wah’s darker overall response tone when compared to its tone-sucking bypassed tone. When the amp’s tone controls are set to get a similar tone when either style of bypass is used (the non-true bypass wah would need it’s treble control turned up quite a bit to match the true bypassed tone), the resulting wah tone has similar treble.
Does that make sense?