Xotic XW-1 Wah

I wanted to upgrade from a Carl Martin 2-Wah that I had been using originally. I googled top Wah pedals and the Xotic came up. This is a serious pedal! First of all, it's smaller than other wah pedals, making it a great fit on my Palmer Pedalbay board. Being able to adjust the parameters of the wah on the outside with the four controls is handy, but you can also open up the pedal to add more character to your sound with the tic-switches (not the technical term).

I use this on a cello, using a DPA 4099 as well as the Schertler Stat-C pickup, both going into a Schertler Yellow Blender. The sound is phenomenal coming out of this machine. You can get a skanky sound out of it right out of the box.

I don't think that I've had a pedal that I have liked so much before. For me, the only drawback with this pedal is that it's white!

I've been using this for over a year in a classic/modern rock setup.. It doesn't suffer from needing to 'see the guitar' etc. The adjustable Bias and EQ allows you to set to your taste, and depending on your needs it can produce earlier 70s rock nasal wah sounds or more modern with more mid/low tone. I have found that even changing between two same make/model guitars with different output pickups, that having the EQ/Bias options helps a lot. There's a gain adjust inside, and 3-4 dip switches, though I have not had reason to them. I use it mainly after an RC clean boost and before an OD, into a crunch amp (low output humbucker pickups). And the switch is nice and quiet. The only suggestion I would have would be to reposition the power LED. Having a shorter footprint means there's a tendency to block it's view with your foot - and sometimes you need to recheck if it's on or off, but then again that's a sign of how good this pedal is...with other Wahs you wouldn't need to see the LED ot know that they're on... you could hear them by the hiss!