Tuesday 21 June 2011

Boss V-Wah

I won the bid for 6,000 yen. If I checked a bit closer, I'd have seen that he won the Yahoo Auction for the same thing for 1,000 yen cheaper. Oh the tangled web..

First impression was this was a little rough. Definitely not as pristine as the Harmonist. For the bucks I saved I shouldn't complain too much. After a pretty thorough play it did what it's supposed to do. To my ears this has a nice selection of wah sounds. The built-in distortion is useful although the switching is probably more confusing that it should be.

I found a cheap 400 yen-ish daisy chain at a Hard Off that allows me to power all the pedals from the Music Booster battery.

I'm really pleased with it. I don't notice any problems with having these all chained together - nice and quiet and powering it all nicely.

I did an experiment to see how long the battery would last running loops solely with the Boomerang connected. I'd thought the unit would be pretty power hungry. I only expected about two hours. To my surprise, it got pretty close to eight hours!

I'm really pleased with my setup so far. In terms of effects, I have what I need to keep me happy at least for a while.

6 comments:

Adam Smith Lieberfarb said...

Hey man, I picked up a used Hellbabe for Y1980 at a nearby Ishibashi music. It's for a friend who's just starting, but of course I couldn't resist playing with it first! I just posted about it...

http://looselectron.blogspot.com/2011_10_03_archive.html#873864364975001200

Jimmy In Japan said...

The Hellbabe is the sh*tiest piece of junk. I'm no wah aficionado, but the feel and sound were incredibly disappointing. It's a toy for an absolute beginner. I don't wish this wah on my enemies. Seriously.

Adam Smith Lieberfarb said...

See, I had no expectations for it to start with so I wasn't disappointed! I noticed that one of the LEDs for the pedal sensor was bent. Once I straightened that out, it improved the response a bit. You can actually modify this happy meal wah with a screwdriver, x-acto knife and electrical tape. Then again, who has time for that!?

Jimmy In Japan said...

I like how you say "Happy meal". An unsatisfying bad taste in the mouth! :D

Looks like it was modelled after a 535Q Cry Baby. That pedal feels like quality. For the price I REALLY wanted to like it. I even tried it twice. For similar money the Weeping Demon (with auto on/off too) is much better and more musical.

Adam Smith Lieberfarb said...

True'dat on the Happy Meal, but most kids just want the toy. That would be the Hellbabe's BOOST (assuming wah-wah is a soy & shit burger...)

Those Ibanez wah's look pretty cool. Have you tried the John Frusciante wah?

Jimmy In Japan said...

I didn't even know which wah he used till now. I think it's up to personal taste.

My first wah was a sustain pedal connected to a GP-16's wah filter. Actually worked surprisingly well!