'Affordable' wah pedals?

[Guitarteach]

Went cheap with a replacement for my 40 yr old cry baby…

Some plastic rubbish that squeaked and was too small to be stable.

Just pay once for a Crybaby.

Now I have paid for a Crybaby and the plastic wannabe I gave away.

$150 nz is about 15% less than I paid for my crybaby in UK£

 

[Guitarteach]

This was the plastic tat.. it is also a volume control for more fooling about and def. meets the ‘does not need to be robust’ criteria.

 

[Wildeman]

A multi effect thingy like a Boss ME25 might be a good investment, I'm in US and A so I don't know if these are all over the place where you are too, but my buddy just bought one for around $100.00 and it is ridiculous what it does.

I told him, I have single function pedals that cost me three times as much

 

[Sax-son]

I have one of those USA reissue VOX 847s from the mid 1990s, I like it, but it is battery operated only so I want to get something that I can connect to a pedal board power supply. It was pretty expensive for the times. I will probably end up getting the normal CRY BABY wah instead of the VOX again.

 

[VintageSG]

I've got a Vox 845 and a Behringer I can't believe I'm typing this 'Hellbabe" ( shudders at the name )

The Vox looks better, is better built, and stays put if you set it mid sweep.
The Vox' midsweep is everything you need from a wah.
The Vox uses a pot. Pots attract carpet dust. pots crackle.
The Vox is switch activated.

The Behringer looks and feels cheap. It doesn't stay put, despite claims by the manufacturer to the contrary. It has a variable control for the sweep, which is quite nice, and very effective. It allows you to alter 'Q' to suit lows, mids or highs.
The Behringer is use activated.
The Behringer uses a photo cell and a slit in a card disc rather than a pot. No crackles, but requires messing with to set it up. The sweep isn't as intuitive as the Vox.
The Behringer has a boost built in. Meh. It's neither here nor there really. It's a generic clippy boost. Not bad, not great, needs to be switched in, so thankfully easy to not do so.

Give consideration to an optical wah.

 

[drmordo]

I have to say that I have owned and modded a lot of wahs over the last 30+ years, and the only wah I would buy today is an RMC. Teese is like a mad scientist with wahs, and no other wahs that I have heard come close. I got the RMC-6, which is the circuit from the (now extinct) wahs that Clapton and Hendrix used in the 60s. It nails the Hendrix "Still Raining, Still Dreaming" type talking wah stuff.

They are not cheap, but they are not much more expensive than a Crybaby or Vox.

 

[aging_rocker]

...Behringer I can't believe I'm typing this 'Hellbabe" ( shudders at the name )

Hmmmm...I might put a cheeky bid on this one then...these are $145NZ new at the moment.

 

[VintageSG]

Hmmmm...I might put a cheeky bid on this one then...these are $145NZ new at the moment.
View attachment 1118398

Aside from the fact the treadle won't stay put without divine intervention, and you'll need to align the disc properly, they're rather decent sounding. The variable 'Q' makes matching humbucker or single coil responses easy.

Drop a cheeky bid. They're worth keeping around.

 

[Ringo]

I hate to say it but you probably could have gotten your 40 year old Crybaby fixed and still be using it.
Several of my buddies have Crybaby Wahs from the 60s and 70s that still work. They needed new pots and sometimes new switches, but the circuit itself is pretty simple, not a lot to go bad really.

 

[aging_rocker]

Drop a cheeky bid. They're worth keeping around.

My cheeky bid was insufficient, so I didn't get it. Never mind.

 

[SbS]

Electro-Harmonix Wailer wah worked fine for me at home. It's light though, construction is some kind of plastic, but not too bad. Affordable, sounds good to me.

 

[Bender]

If you can find a beat up, used Crybaby you might consider an Area 51 drop in kit. Mine sounds great! It was shipped in a small box so overseas shipping may be relatively inexpensive:

Area 51 Drop In Wah Kit - Easy Wah Pedal Mod

 

[Grateful Ape]

How about this? JOYO WAH-I WAH-II Mini CLASSIC WAH Pedal Guitar Accessories High Quality Portable Volume Effect pedal

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqCHoqC

Or look for used oddities like Boss PW1, BBE, Tech21, etc