Fret-King Classic Wah review

Fret-King's take on the Vox box

  • £89
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If a retro-sounding wah pedal is what you need, you'll get it here

MusicRadar Verdict

Old-school wah with a musical tonal range.

Pros

  • +

    Warm, smooth wah tones. LED. Battery access.

Cons

  • -

    Not much.

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We've seen many attempts at 'improving' the humble wah pedal over the years but those original 60s designs are still the tonal benchmark. Fret-King's Trevor Wilkinson owns one of the first Vox wah pedals ever produced and has based this new pedal on that oldie.

"This is a pedal that retains the warmth of your tone while offering a smooth sweep"

He believes that a wah should be tuneful and not an exercise in seeing how much sweep you can get from one extreme of the treadle to the other - from muffled bass to piercing treble frequencies.

He's also of the mind that much of the tone is down to a halo inductor in the circuitry and has therefore incorporated one here, resulting in a pedal that retains the warmth of your tone while offering a smooth sweep across the frequencies.

If a retro-sounding wah pedal is what you need, you'll get it here but you don't have to put up with a retro feature set because this wah has a red LED to show that it is active and a flip-top battery compartment - meaning no more unscrewing those rubber feet...

Trevor Curwen

Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.