As much as we all love our Crybaby and other traditionally built and styled wahs, there’s no getting away from it that these pedals are often tonesuckers when the effect is off. Also, unlike optical switching wahs, such as various models produced by Morley and others, they are mechanical devices and therefore need to be switched on and off via the button under the treadle. Personally, being the only guitarist in my band, I want instant on/off, and too often I don’t press hard enough on the treadle and either get no wah when I want wah, or vice versa. The tone suck is, of course, a big negative too.
Luckily, there is now a fantastic solution to these two issues: the G-Lab True Bypass Wah Pad. I have just bought and installed one on a Pedaltrain Junior and must say that it is a solidly built, elegant solution to problems of tone suck and instant on/off capability.
The GLab TBWP (True Bypass Wah-Pad) is exactly that, a pressure pad which, when you step on a wah pedal placed on top of the pressure pad, immediately switches the wah into your signal chain. Lift your foot off the wah and the pedal is immediately bypassed. Ingenious and frankly, marvellous.
The True Bypass Wah pad is supplied with dual lock and velcro for fixing the pad to a pedalboard and the wah to the pad. Helpfully, the unit has two 3mm tapped holes in its base which means that it is possible to screw mount the unit to, for example, a Pedaltrain. As you can see in the accompanying photos, this is exactly what I have done with my True Bypass Wah Pad. The Wah Pad comes with high quality jacks and wiring to connect the wah pedal.
If I have a criticism of the G-Lab unit, it is this: Crybaby pedals are a pain to mount to pedalboards and it would have been wonderful if G-Lab had also supplied a more elegant way of mounting the wah to the pressure pad. As it is, I’m now looking at Stompin’ Ground Wah pads, or equivalent, just for this purpose. Update: found the perfect solution – the EWS Wah Mounting Board.
Anyway, this one tiny niggle aside, I think this is a great piece of kit and I thoroughly recommend it. It’s also pretty reasonably priced here in Europe – which gets another thumbs up from me!
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EWS Wah Board – cool piece of kit to help you mount a Crybaby, or similar, wah pedal to a pedal board.
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