Today I would like to talk about a particular wah, some people define it as a wah for “fine palates”, the Morley Bad Horsie wah, first series.
Is that so?
Probably yes, it is a quite particular wah, built on the specifications of Maestro Steve Vai.
As a former guitar teacher of mine said: “This is worth having, it’s an artist’s signature effect, not something everyone has”.
Yes, I agree, but it is always commercial, so anyone just needs to buy it ????
Regardless of more or less esoteric considerations, it is an interesting, very particular gadget .
Surely it does not have the classic wah sound we are all used to, namely that of the wah par excellence, the Dunlop Cry Baby and the Vox 847.
But let’s go in order …
Features
Once we open the box with the Morley Bad Horsie wah we are faced with a large, generously sized pedal (certainly not something that can easily fit into a modern small-size pedalboard) and heavy!
Yes, it is very heavy.
Constructively it looks like a tank, large, massive and imposing.
It is not a pedal that certainly reflects today’s fashion of increasingly miniature and portable pedalboards, full of effects of microscopic external dimensions.
But after all it is a project of the 90 ‘, and we all remember (perhaps) what generous dimensions the various effects had at the time …
Unlike the Cry Baby or the Vox, this one does not have a potentiometer to regulate its operation, but has an optical sensor.
Furthermore, it does not even have an ignition button,
in fact it is activated by pressing.
The Morley Bad Horsie wah is normally completely raised / released, so when you start to “wahwahare” it starts from the lower frequencies, unlike for example the Cry Baby Baby which, once engaged with its button, starts operating from the lower frequencies. acute (pedal fully depressed).
When activated, a red led lights up.
It has an important feature, which is perhaps Steve Vai’s true signature (or at least that’s what people say): inside it has a small trimmer that adjusts the delay between when you press the pedal and when it starts to work, a kind of latency .
It can be powered either by a 9V power supply with classic central negative, or by a 9V battery that can be easily housed in the appropriate slot.
Unlike the Cry Baby or the Vox, this one does not have a potentiometer to adjust its operation, but has an optical sensor.
Furthermore, it does not even have an ignition button,
in fact it is activated by pressing.
The Morley Bad Horsie wah is normally completely raised / released, so when you start to “wahwahare” it starts from the lower frequencies, unlike for example the Cry Baby Baby which, once engaged with its button, starts operating from the lower frequencies. acute (pedal fully depressed).
When activated, a red led lights up.
It has an important feature, which is perhaps Steve Vai’s true signature (or at least that’s what people say): inside it has a small trimmer that adjusts the delay between when you press the pedal and when it starts to work, a kind of latency .
It can be powered either by a 9V power supply with classic central negative, or by a 9V battery that can be easily housed in the appropriate slot.
Personal impressions
Once positioned on the pedal board, there is less space than I thought.
It is great, it is useless to deny it (and heavy).
I put it in a Behringeer PB1000, a nice big pedalboard, but it takes up a lot of space anyway.
I also have a PB600, but it does not fit in height, it would be necessary to remove the screws and the cable holder positioned above. True, even for any other common wah like the Cry Baby or the Vox, but at least these are tighter.
It is also high, as well as long and wide, so when you close the pedalboard the Morley Bad Horsie wah is slightly crushed (at least with the PB1000), so the spring is slightly compressed.
At first I was a little worried, thinking that maybe it would deform the spring itself a little.
But no !!!
Guys, it’s really well built, evidently the Morley engineers have thought about this eventuality, or maybe not, equipping it with suitable materials.
In fact I have had it for many years and I swear to you that it has not been damaged minimally!
One thing I didn’t like is the lack of a true-by-pass button, or anything that could cut the circuit out of the rest of the effects.
Indeed, this leads to two flaws.
The first is that in a long enough signal chain, the deterioration of the signal is quite noticeable. Unfortunately, at least in my case, the wah is not an effect that is used 90% of the time, indeed, I would say quite the opposite, so the deterioration of the signal is not worth the candle, in my opinion.
The second is that if you want to power it with battery, once the input jack is inserted, the pedal begins to absorb energy! So whether you use it or not, a battery lasts very short … really.
I had mine modified (by the great Paolo Mazza) by inserting a true-by-pass button and a green activation LED once this button is activated.
Also, I stopped powering the battery pedals for quite a while…
Problems solved!
I play… and confrontation with Her Majesty Cry Baby by Dunlop
WOW!
Okay, I was thrilled, but maybe I’m biased.
The reality is, like all things, you have to like it.
Let’s say that if we want to make a comparison with one of the wah par excellence, the Cry Baby, the Bad Horsie has MUCH lower ends.
I certainly wouldn’t see it for hardcore Jimi Hendrix fans…
I like it a lot because I use it to darken the sound, especially in minor arpeggios and / or chords, and the Bad Horsie is perfect for the purpose.
The Bad Horsie manages to make a very bad sound without making it too shrill on the one hand, nor too crowded on the other.
In the solo parts it is perfect, the wha range is wide and the variation from low to high registers is in my opinion more gradual than, for example, in Cry Baby.
And it sounds less shrill than Cry Baby …
In distorted sounds it goes great. It does not knead and thicken what it should, I repeat without becoming too shrill.
In clean sounds perhaps the Cry Baby could be better, and vice versa, as the Bad Horsie is not as crystal clear as its rival.
As for the latency trimmer, I honestly have never used it heavily.
Indeed, if we want to say it all for me it is counterproductive: when I activate the pedal it is because I want the wah to activate, having a latency time is really annoying. So I’ve always kept this setting to a minimum.
Practical use
In practical use I find myself much better with Morley than with Cry Baby (don’t think I write like this because I hate Cry Baby, for me it is one of the best wahs ever, a must, I have it and it is very practical, another wagon armed, practically indestructible), because once the pedal is turned on its activation is much more immediate, I don’t have to go down to the end of the stroke to activate the button, and then find myself with the pedal on with all the high frequencies.
This activates it by pressure, starts by warming the sound from the pedal all released which is wonderful, immediate and practical.
Finally, not a small thing, it warns me when it is active, with its standard red LED that tells me when it is “wahwahando”.
When everything is finished, I release the pedal and it returns to its position and deactivates itself.
Formidable.
With the Cry Baby, on the other hand, I never know if I have actually activated or deactivated the pedal, pressing enough with my foot to the bottom (in live situations this turns out to be “quite unpleasant”!).
All roses and flowers then comparing him with his arch rival?
Well no, with the Cry Baby you can afford to leave the pedal pressed and it stays in position filtering the sound (because the wah is a band-pass filter with the band that translates according to the angle of the pedal is, nothing more), putting highlight those beautiful mids that are sought precisely with the wah.
With the Bad Horsie, forget it, you have to stay there with the pedal pressed.
Conclusions: Would you buy it or not?
It depends. I did it.
If you use it mainly for thickening the sound and in distortions, and you don’t have a mental disorder of bulk and weight, the answer is absolutely yes!
Used I think it is cheap, it is built like a tank and requires ZERO maintenance as regards the wah mechanism, since it is optical and not a potentiometer. The new Morley Bad Horsie wah can be found here: Amazon and Thomann.
If, on the other hand, size can be a problem, you like to use it more with guitars with more strateggiano (clear) derivation single coils and you want a pure Hendrix sound, or in any case more treble oriented, I recommend the Cry Baby.
Or you can buy them both ????
But if you try to do like me, that is to keep them both at the same time on the pedal board (I wanted to operate them at the same time, there is a show), there is little room left for everything else …
Published on musicanza.it on: 16/03/2020.
