Akai W1 VariWah

Not easy to use at all. The included instruction say nothing about
how to use the auto wah,or the swell wah. Much harder to mess with than other pedals.

This wah's tones aren't that bad if it wasn't for the hiss. And
I mean HISS. I know snakes that don't make this much noise. With
a battery or an adapter--same issue!

NA

NA

Too bad Akai blew it the first time out. Some reviewers don't seem to be having noise problems, which mean either they can't hear, or
the consistantcy of this product is shit. That sucks, cause it seems
like this could have been a decent Wah minus the noise.

First up: the manual wah is really poor! You don't get any change in sound until the pedal has been rocked forward about half way. Even then the change from bass to treble is far too fast.

The auto wah effects are good in taht they do actually give more sweep than the manual pedal wah.

I've used this pedal with various guitars (Pacifica 112, Tele, DeArmond 7-string and more recently a Maverick) going through 4 effects pedals (Marshall Jackhammer --> Boss MZ-3 --> Danelectro Phaser --> Boss DD-3) into a marshall combo. The only thing I can say about the variwah is that when engaged it produces a very loud white noise hiss kinda like an amplified single coil hiss.

Sound wise as I mentioned above the pedal wah really does suck due to its lack of expression in the lower frequencies.

Basically too noisy for my liking when engaged. Possibly the best feature about the pedal is its by-pass as it is really quiet then (thank god!!)

This isn't the sort of pedal you can kick round a stage. It looks well constructed from the outside but taking a peek into the depths of the pedal you notice that the jack plugs are soldered straight onto one of the circuit boards with no support at all.

Tried using it at a couple of gigs but again it was far too noisy - even over a band behind you.

Never dealt with akai. Don't ever intend to.

I've played lots of styles of music from indie to funk to megadeth-style metal all of which could use a little wah here and there but I soon stopped thinking about wah after buying this pedal. Its unreliable and noisy and if it got stolen I'd hope that the guy who nicked it wouldn't use it!

I've now bought an original Dunlop Crybaby which has alot less knobs to fanny around with and produces very good wah - used it for a couple of gigs and it hasn't played up once! Buy a dunlop or a vox instead.

I still have the Variwah so if anybody desperately wants one let me know!

Not the most intuitive product on the market considering it is a Wah pedal. I saw prior reviews about difficulties mastering this puppy off the bat and they're correct.

It's by no means impossible, but compared to a dunlop pedal it's far more complex. Thankfully, there's an upside.

Noisy? No! Very quiet. Bypass is excellent.
The wah has plenty of power behind it, and it can be dialed back.

I'm using it for bass guitar and guitar. Works well for both. It's very sterile for a wah, which is especially excelent for bass since the low end doesn't get robbed like it does with a Dunlop Bass Wah

Seems well built. I've had it for about 3 weeks now with no problems, but that's not a sufficient test.

Haven't delt with AKAI.

An excellent wah for bass players or guitarists that don't want to drop low end. The included autowah modes are useful.

This is not a vintage wah. If you're looking for that, go elsewhere.

Fairly easy to use as there is only knobs to manipulate, but learning what those knobs do is the real trick. Some of the features eluded me for quite some while and now that I do understand them, I have found they are virtually useless. Instructions are inadequate.

I play through a Crate GX-2200h, and a nice custom set of celstion vintage 30's. The Vari-wah gave me good noise-free operation, but failed to give me any other kind of noise worth the money. The effect is weak and I had no need for it.

It is a well built piece of equipment. It appears to stick together fairly well. I'm sure it would stand up to giging. Usure about electrical reliability, but I had no problems.

I play hard music, and this things sucks. Get a Crybaby 535q or the new boss TW-10. Both are virtually priceless to me and anyone with a ear for good noise. It was in and out of my effects line and back on ebay in about a week and a half. My honest opinion: Don't Bother!

No real problems - you can just fiddle around until you find the sound you want. The instruction sheet, however, is barely adequate; for example, it fails to define terms like "Attack Time" and "Offset", leaving inexperienced users with no clear guidance as to why and how a particular parameter might best be used. Overall, no real problems in use, but better instructions would be a bonus.

I'm using mine with a Fender Strat through a Fender Princeton Stero Deluxe amp. I use a fairly bright, clean tone, so there is some evidence of digital noise when the W1 is switched in, but it doesn't present any real problem. In short, sound quality is good - certainly a lot better than the wah effect on the Zoom 4040 unit I previously owned.

No problems to date. Construction seems solid, although the plastic bits probably wouldn't stand a lot of kicking around. Pedal has a good "quality" feel.

Not had cause to call on them.

Play in a church band doing contemporary gospel stuff. I bought this primarily for the auto wah features, since I don't like having to "pedal" continuously to get a wah sound. Very happy with its ability to do what I want in this respect - once you get the parameters right, it's just hit the "on" switch and adjust the speed with the pedal. I would recommend it to anyone wanting a quality wah with plenty of adjustable parameters.

This is one very cool pedal! Extremely easy to use. 6 six knobs that control everything you'd ever need to control. Manual is there but you just don't need it.

OK, this has got to be one of the coolest wahs ever made. I tried about a zillion different wah pedals and envelope filters before finally purchasing this one. I play chill out, trip hop, and lounge-core music and I was looking for something to give those old school 70's porno wah effects as wells mutron type of sounds. This baby does it all! I play an older model PRS through a 76 SF Twin Reverb, BTW. The auto wah is great. You can assign what you want the pedal to control (ie:depth, speed, etc.). This makes for some very interesting sounds. It has a setting in auto wah mode that allows the wah to continue and sustain as long as you are holding the note. This makes it just too easy to get that loungey, smooth, continual wah sound. The manual wah is very nice sounding as well. It takes a bit of messing around before you can get a good frequency range assigned to the pedal but then it is very responsive and expressive. I haven't really figured out how to get the swell wah working yet but I've only had it two days. Overall the sound is excellent. Very analog without any digital high end or hiss. Also, It has true bypass which is excellent. I give it a 9 instead of a ten only because there seems to be a very minimal drop in output when the pedal is on but it is hardly noticeable.

Well unfortunately it is not as heavy and sturdy as it looks in pictures. It is rather light and what looks like metal in pictures is actually plastic. It is put together well though and should last a long time if taken care of properly.

haven't needed it... yet.

Excellent multi wah pedal. Highly reccomended if you are looking for those classic mutron sounds as well as some new sounds. Very good manual wah sounds as well after some knob tweaking. I love it. I bought this after bringing back a Zoom GF8 multi FX pedal which was completely digital sounding and the wah was just dreadful.

way easy to use, you plug it in and go, there is several knobs that took me a bit to figure out how to get the sound i wanted but i did so in a matter of minutes

I play bass, and all the bass wah pedals i played sounded like crap till i played this one, for once a bass wah that doesnt drop bass out of the sound. but it has its own kinda cool sound to it and you can get this kinda variable tremelo sound too with some of the different types of wah

i honestly dont know, i just got it and, i know that akai samplers are supposed to be good and reliable so i am hoping this will be too but they are new at making effects as far as i know

never had to deal with them

over all i give it an 8 cause although it isnt everything i want in a wah pedal, it was the best i could find though, for some reason all the wah makers that i tried seem tho think that bassists dont want bass in the signal, ie the dunlop