Sonuus Wahoo review

Wah wah... what?

  • £250
  • $459
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The Wahoo is a unique wah pedal with two synth-inspired analogue filters and 200 onboard memories

MusicRadar Verdict

It's not cheap, but if you're looking for lots of wah, filter and related sounds in a single pedal, the Wahoo has enormous sonic potential.

Pros

  • +

    Huge range of sounds. True bypass. Desktop software editor.

Cons

  • -

    The hardware controls are a little complex.

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There have been several wah designs that have broken away from the standard 1960s Cry Baby blueprint, but none as far out as the Sonuus Wahoo.

"Probably the most complex wah pedal we've yet seen"

Probably the most complex wah pedal we've yet seen, it features a brand-new type of position sensor with no mechanical couplings, has 200 onboard memories and can be connected to a computer via USB for firmware updates and to take advantage of desktop editor software.

In Use

The Wahoo is much more than just a wah pedal, featuring two analogue filters based on vintage synths. Each can be configured as low-pass or band-pass and can operate independently in wah pedal, envelope, LFO and pitch-tracking modes. Add in an adjustable drive parameter, and it's obvious that there are loads of sound variations available, amply covered in the pedal's 100 factory presets.

There's a fine selection of wah sounds, some nicely replicating the sonic character of vintage wahs, a range of 'talking' vowel sounds, auto-wahs, squidgy and funky envelope filters, sample and hold-style sequenced effects and much more.

Having two filters doing different things opens up a world of sonic possibilities, and if you fancy creating your own sounds and saving them to the 100 user memories, you can fire up the desktop editor for easy graphical access to the Wahoo's many tweakable parameters.

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.