Area 51 Vintage Italian Wah Kit

I got the board w/components and wired it into an old pedal case myself. Very easy to solder up and it comes with great instructions.

Fanatastic!!!

I'm a self described wah nut! I've bought/tried/borrowed SO many wahs over the last few years looking for THAT tone. I tried vintage/boutique/tweakers/new ones and more and never found anything that really did it for me. Some were good, but just not what I was looking for.

The Area 51 is THE one!

I'd gotten so jaded on ever finding a great wah tone that when I got the kit I just put it aside since I didn't have a wah case free at the time. After a few months I finally decided to give it a try and soldered up the board in a pedal. I was expecting the same old tone from another "lauded" wah that wouldn't deliver. I was WRONG!!

Beautiful highs and lows. NOT the Shrill/Ear Pick Highs or Muddy/Indistinct Lows I'd gotten used to. NOT the frequency drop-outs so common to many wahs that are SO frustrating when using them with overdrive/distortion. This babe is full and rich sounding with such a musical "Q" quack. Not so sharp as to be quirky and not so wide as to be mushy sounding. Right smack in the middle where it becomes very vocal!!

The board is very well put together and uses quality components!

Do not know since everything worked so flawlessly! I guess that's the best kind.........the kind you don't need!

If you don't like your wah tone.......Just buy it. Why live with bad tone?

Circuit boad is already soldered.
So You need to solder wire.

And Need to adjust wah pot to right spot.
That's easy.

That got very nice dry smooth sound.
A lots of expensive($150~230)wah are like, If we play loud sometimes turn too (Hi)loud or too (Low)deep.
And almost over volume. Like if you play at store.That's nice.
But when You bring to the gigs. Little too much.
(Lots of people halucinate which is good sound and that is not)

But this wah is just like what I wanted!
I feel so natural to control this wah. (I changed thier Icar pot,too)
and such a smooth Blues Funk tone!!

If you need more power.
They have add-on buffer circuit,too.
You can customize to add Q control,Growl Control, Range Switch,too.

I have standard one.That's great wah.
Also They sell wah parts,too.

Dan take care you about wiring repair.
His soldering technique is awsome!

Blues, Funk. Great match with clean tone to natural distortion sound.

I used to play standard crybaby. That was not good except case.
Then I got Budda wah that was alright.Inductor was good, but I don't like buffer sound and inductor was so easy break.
My friends got full-tone.But I made my mind to buy this kit to put my crybaby wah case.

And I like this one better than any wah.

Pretty simple. This kit drops into your old crybaby case or vox case (takes about 15 minutes & simple tools). After that it plays like any other wah. Toe click on, Toe click off. The kit comes with simple instructions to make the conversion. Getting great sounds is automatic, just wiggle your foot & soak it in.

This is where it all happens. During my search, I tried many, many wahs, including the stock digital emulations on my Boss GT-8. I've tried the Fulltone Clyde, a few Dunlop models, Vox Wah, etc. This one kills them all. The sweep is wide and the tone is RICH! The wah interacts beautifully with my setup. I have a PRS, Strat, and Tele running into a Mesa Boogie Solo Rectoverb50. I get all my favorite Hendrixy, Weezer, SRV sounds (and then some!) Very inspirational. The wide frequency range goes from mellow deep sounds to hyper high freq sounds. Great quack quack when I want it. I had to back off on my foot gyrations since this pedal is much more sensitive than my previous wahs (crybaby & Boss GT-8 wahs). THIS IS THE LAST WAH I WILL BUY!!

I've owned it for a month or so, so I can't speak to long term reliability. However, the crybaby case that it's sitting in is pretty tough and offers great protection. The wah kit components are all neat and securely soldered together. The circuit board floats on rubber grommets where it connect to the wah housing so it should be able to stand bumps and drops. No backup necessary in my mind. The thing is solid.

This is where it gets better. Before my purchase, I was a bit confused on the best way to order the wah kit so I sent an e-mail to Area 51. I got a response the same day from Dan (the main man) who guided me through it. Very nice. I ordered the wah kit with the optional 9v dc jack kit. The 9v kit went in pretty easy. You'll need to be comfortable with a soldering iron though. Anyway, I sent an e-mail to Dan asking if I could add an L.E.D light to the wah that tells me when it is on or off. Well, he put together some parts and drew up a schematic and sent it off to me for a VERY reasonable price! Shipping and parts cost only?? Well when I got the parts, I installed them but had the LED in the wrong way and it blew. oops! I sent off an e-mail to Dan 'cause I couldn't figure it out. He diagnosed the problem and sent me a new LED free of charge!! By the way his response to my e-mails were FAST. Same day, or next morning!

Best service from any music merchant that I have ever encountered!

I play rock, alternative, blues, noise, etc. I've been playing for..ahem.. about 20 years and have gone through various bouts of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) during that time. I get a bit obsessed when gear hunting. Well at least as far as my wah search goes, this is the one. No more hunting! I love the lush tones and crazy sounds I get from this wah. If you have an old wah lying around, BUY THIS KIT and drop it in! (or go buy a cheap, broken used one wah & for the case) You won't regret it!!

If you have an old Crybaby or Vox lying around & are tired of the sound, get this kit. It drops in to the old housing & is ready to go in about 15 minutes. I also got the 9 vold DC kit which took a little soldering. The instructions were clear and it went smooth. Otherwise, the wah runs on 9v battery power. The wah is pretty simple step on the toe button to turn it on, step again to turn it off.

My current rig is a Mesa Rectoverb Solo50. This amp goes from clean to mean. My guitars include a PRS CE22 and a Vintage Stratocaster. Both guitars sound SWEET with this pedal. I was using an old Crybaby super wah (that stopped working) and a Boss GT-8 effects board. I also sampled the Fulltone Clyde wah, Vox, new Crybabies, etc. This one is the best. It has great "quaking sounds" and a wide frequency sweep. The sound is very "smooth" and expressive to my ears. I love it.

I have not had if for very long (about a month). It is very well built and sturdy. The circuit board floats on some rubber gromets so it should handle bumps well. The frequency pot and toe switch are very sturdy and seem better built than the old ones in my Crybaby. I would say no backup necessary on this one.

Dan at Area51 has been awesome. Best customer experience yet. I handled the whole thing through e-mail and he was very responsive. He answered my questions the same, or next day. After I had the wah for a few weeks, I asked about adding an L.E.D. light so I could tell when it was on or off. He put together some parts and a schematic and sent it right out for a very low cost! He must have spent a lot more time than for what I paid him. After I got the LED kit, I put the LED in backwards and fried it. oops. He sent me out another one for free!!! 'nuff said.

I play rock, blues, alternative (no hip hop). Been playing for..ahem..over 20 years. I would definately pick one up again if stolen. This is a high quality product with great attention to detail and it really shows. nice.

I bought the "drop in" version, everything was soldered together very well. It probably took 10-15 minutes to install in an old, depressed crybaby. Most of that time was get the pot and switch adjusted correctly. All parts were included and well laid out. Instructions were very, very good, better than most mass-produced products. Because I installed the kit, I now feel comfortable adjusting the moving parts if I ever need to, much more than if I bought a $250 boutique wah. It only required a couple common tools to assemble.

I don't like the sound of stock crybabies at all, so I stopped playing mine all together. Now, it sounds just like the wah I always wanted. I am not experienced enough with vintage or boutique wahs to give a very critical review of the sound, but I'm pretty sure it's right up there with the best. I'll leave all the adjectives to the other reviewers, as I agree with what has already been said about it. There is no loud pop when the pedal is turned on or off, which is something I thought it might have since it's true bypass.

The stock Crybaby housing seems pretty tough. The drop in kit, is soldered together very well. The wires are also a bigger gauge than stock, so even as a wiring harness it seemed pretty sturdy. Once it's all screwed in to the housing it's a very solid setup. I doubt I could break it unless I tried really hard or set it on fire.

Dan answered the questions that I had and sounds like he really knows his stuff and enjoys what he does. I agree with the previous comments. The kit shipped out quickly, and I had it a few days later. Everything was packed very well. Like I said before, I don't think the instructions could be done any better.

Almost every guitar player has an old crybaby laying around, why not take it out of retirement and turn it in to one of the best sounding wahs there is? I am going to buy another one soon, I think I'm going to have Dan build it and get the 5 way switch and q control.

It's a WAH..... there are no external Q adjustments or different adjustments, this one is hard wire bypass with no internal buffer, a buffer circuit is available from Area 51.if you are inclined to install a buffer. Installation of the kit was straight forward and the instructions were very well written, however I installed the optional 9 volt filtered power supply option, this was very time consuming and required soldering,changing wires and enlarging the hole that the new power supply jack gets installed in.
The instructons were very well written for this option but was not easy to install.

I am using this WAH with a 68 Plexi, with such a high rating of this product I had very high expectations from this kit, I have to say that this Board kit is a vast improvement over a stock Crybaby, at the toe of the wah the stock Crybaby was harsh, and at the heel muddy,
the Area 51 Board Kit is very nice sounding and is neither harsh or muddy in any position and has a very nice sweetspot. Judging Sound Quality is subjective so I will not rate this catagory but I will say that my WAH is not one of those over the top WAH pedals, I find the overall effect it produces has just the right amount of vocal quality, overall I am pleased with the sound of this board kit.

Area 51 Calls this Board kit " Vintage" I liked the fact that the kit was wired with all solid wire I purchased the completely wired kit with the hardwire bypass switch and Icar 100K taper pot. the components and circuit board seemed to be well made, the kit includes Carbon Composition resistors keeping with the vintage vibe. I bought a Crybaby on ebay for cheap and installed the Area 51 board kit in the case of my Crybaby Everything fit perfectly. I would say It will be around for years to come

I don't know, I havent had any issues, My kit worked perfectly.....

Overall, I will say that I am pleased with the Area 51 kit and am enjoying the big improvement over my stock Crybaby. The price seems a little steep, but you do get quality components in the kit. if you can afford 160.00 for the drop in kit ot 200.00 complete for a custom WAH you will probably like it too.....

just had to drop it in

where to begin? this wah is FANTASTIC. i did a shootout between this and a couple other boutique wahs...let me tell you, this one blew them all away!

fulltone clyde standard: 9.5

HBE medicine bawl wah: 5.5

area 51: 9.9

their inductor is just fantastic! i just happened to have a vintage fasel sitting in a special bag, and i dropped that one in just to see if it will get that pure vintage vibe...let me tell you..it went from a 9.9 to a 15. the fulltone is GREAT, but didnt have any thing close that the area51 had. this not only has the tone everyone is after, its got vintage vibe up the ass and out the mouth! i LOVE area51, these guys ROCK AND ROLL!!!!! i URGE you all to buy one! ive owned over 30 wahs in the past few months searching for THIS tone! thank you area51, keep up the good work!!!!

with a dunlop case, youll be lucky to nuke it.

outstanding. responds to emails ASAP, usually within minutes. fantastic!

im going to buy a few more. I LOVE this wah! thank you very much for helping me find the perfect wah tone! PLEASE KEEP THESE GOING FOR GOOD!

Bought the drop in kit. Very easy to install. Took about 20 minutes because I was careful. Very easy to follow instructions.

WOW, finally the wah I was always looking for and for a damn good price. I love Hendrix and SRV, and this wah nails both of their tones. I use a Fender strat to Area 51 wah to Fulltone 69 to Deluxe Reverb. The Wah has true bypass so there is no tone suck out of my guitar. It also works with the fulltone 69 pedal so I have the fuzz working with the wah.....Voodo Child all the way. Dude, I sound like Hendrix. Also, its got a vintage tone with the vocal sound. Think Hendrix at Isle of Whight when he does Spanish Castle Magic or Machine Gun.

Just got it. Don't think I will have many problems with it. I may get another one just because if they go out of buisness I want to have a back up. Thats how awesome this wah is.

I asked a couple of questions about the pedal and he answered all of them like a champ. Great guy and easy to deal with. Very knowledgeable about what he does.

I have play many wahs in my day. Originals and unfortunately reissues. This vintage Italian what drop in kit beats all of them bar none. It really does sound sweet.

I recently purchased the board only kit and installed it. I have many years of professional background in electronics. The kit is very simple to install even for anyone who can do basic soldering and can follow a very simple wiring diagram. The biggest thing will be adjusting the pot position and the switch height. I went with the Fulltone pot and I recommend it for it's taper over the Dunlop. I recommend to anyone who doesn't have the available colored wires to get them from Dan. This will make the assembly easier to follow. I used a Dunlop chassis and it went right in with no problems.

The Area 51 Wah is perhaps the greatest sleeper on the market today. It certainly will outperform any "Off The Shelf" pedal out there and is VERY REASONABLY PRICED for boutique. Dan has a custom made inductor now and the boards are very nicely assembled. The pedal has little to no "HUMP" in the Wah sound but a beautiful clear and smooth Trumpet Mute sound. It has to be used and heard to be appreciated. These are dead on for that "Missing Link" Wah tone, notice I didn't say Vintage. That's because not many of us can really say what a vintage wah is, we have to rely on recordings and then we're not certain of the pedal used for the recording. Dan's Wah will deliver a sound that inspires you to play and that's what counts. Lastly, his pedal can handle extreme volume levels and not squell or break up like Mass Market pedals will.

I haven't had it long enough to be fair here but the product is built better than the board I pulled out of the chassis. The solder joints are heavy and the board traces are wide. All things being equal the unit should last for years, mind the pot will last only so long but we all know to expect that. I'll give it a 10 to manufacturing quality and expected reliability.

Dan is very easy to get hold of, mind you that could change as these pedals continue to grow but he's extrememly knowledgable and willing to share this. He has answered every question I've ever posed to him with a professional mindset. Get to know him know before he's the next untouchable!

Just buy one and be done with the search, don't chase the rabbit. I can't really say more.

Please note that my price included all the parts and the purchase of a like new chassis from eBay. For $145 you can't but the top of the line Dunlop and the Area 51 will out perform it.

I think that the drop in kit was very easy to install and worth the extra 40.00. Took less than 20 minutes to install and required few tools. The directions where very easy to follow. Adding the optional DC circuit could have been tricky for the solder novice. I opted to spend the money for the better control pot $4.95) and use a battery. As any wah goes it is very easy to operate.

This is the first time that I have what I would call a real professional Wah Wah sound. I have tried so many over the years and have never been happy with any. The mid 70's Cry Baby's are as bad as todays clones. My Cry Baby finally cries thanks to Area 51! It is great with clean tones and dirty tones. Finally, I can hear the funk wah sounds of the 60's and 70's as well as the screams from a distorted set-up. Would give it a 9.5 if I could.

Would think so based on emails and other reviewers.

This group answered every question that I had. Great group to work with. I sent them multiple emails. Most answered the same day. Item was well shipped and arrived quickly.

This is what you are looking for if you have searched for as long as I have for a real wah pedal. I am now using this pedal all the time. Have been playing guitar for over 30 years. Would get sick if this baby where stolen.