Boss PW-10 V-Wah

Using presets is easy. Plug it in and go.

But you will soon want to at least balance the distorted with the clean sound, and there is no LEVEL knob! The only way to do it is to save the level in a memory, and that is ridiculously complicated, and that renders the distortion pretty much useless during a gig... :(

Doing any of your own settings involves, amongst other things, pulling out and replugging the input cable whilst pressing buttons!

Standard preset wah effects are good. The simulation of the cry baby matches mine closely, but the action of the pedal is too small, so I find it difficult to position it accurately.

There is no way to route the distortion before or after the wah, so the Hendrix "pre-scoop" is not possible without an external distortion pedal.

The lower end of the pedal range has digital zipper noise. Very evident if you move the pedal slowly.

The vocal effects are amusing but if they were going to go this way, a Peter Frampton voice box type sound would have been more useful for a guitarist.

So far, so good. Solidly built without being so heavy so as to damage other gear in your bag.

never used support.

Used in my studio, it is a good addition. But I would hate to use it live. You can customize the distortion knob to be a "boost" (i.e. volume control only), and this is what I have done. I use an external distortion pedal instead.

The multitude of wah effects available are a novelty. After trying a few, you will probably never again use the weaker ones.

Now, I argue that, if the DISTORTION knob can be customized, the waa effect positions should also ALL be customizable (not just the CUSTOM position).

This would have freed up the space wasted by the MEMORY button, where an additional LEVEL control would have made this pedal usable live.

A great concept, poorly executed.

The factory settings is what I actually like to play.

It can be a pain to setup, but they write instructions right on the wah pedal - so you shouldnt have to hunt down the manual all the time,

But with all the settings you can do with this thign - its set right.

I play through the a peavy XXL head and cab with a Dimebag tribute ML. The onboard distortion is perfect.

The distortion fits perfectly with my DBD ML. You can easily reproduce the Zakk Wylde wah on this thing to, set it to Crybaby wah and put the wah depth a little above the center -

You can get Zakk's sound with the onboard univibe and distortion turned on. Bend that G String with that univibe and distortion kicking and you can hear it.

So much sound - so little time

It's pretty solid - not VOX wah solid, but solid in its own little way.

Never had to deal with them.

I try to assimilate my tone to Hendrix, Stevie, Zakk Wylde (SDMF!!), and Dimebag.

This thing can do alot - I put my processor aside and have been running this thing straight into my cab - it's awesome, great match.

I've been playing for about 8 years - I'm a blues and metal guy with a lineup of mostly Fenders, couple Ibanezes, and my new brand Dean.

What I love is this is so much bang for your buck, you get:
Univibe
Great distortion
like 7 different wahs

While it doesn't emulate the other ones as well, you can modify it enough to make it your own sound. Like I said, you can reproduce the Zakk Wah easily with this thing.

You can turn the distortion off, mix effects, all sortas stuff just by clicking it down or forward.

Its been great in making some solid metal - again, I'm a big fan of the distortion on this thing - your pinch harmonics come out damn clear on this thing.

I'm very picky about getting stuff thats worth my tone, time and money. I've been using the same effects processor for 8 years now, just because I haven't found anything else I like - this wah is now my newly incorporated sound toy.

If you think I'm bullshitting you - e-mail me at houdini84@verizon.net and I'll send you a sound clip. Better yet, IM me and I'll hook you up!

Get a good sound with this is not very difficult, but to customize the PW-10 is a little difficult, the manual is very good to somebody that have a good english.

My setup: Epiphone Les Paul -> PW-10 -> Marshall Valvestate 60 -> BOS CS-3 Compression Sustainer (on loop).

The Noise supressor is good on more things but cuts some harmonics

Working with the Marshall Valvestate i can get easily a great sound, that sounds very good with pre-amp distortion of my amp, If i need a heavy sound I get some distortion of this pedal and some distortion of amp. In all situations this sounds good.

Steve Vai uses a this pedal, an example is the music "Kill the guy with the ball". with impressionant "Voice" mode.

The uni-vibe is very good, The distortions are good too, but to get more options in a distortion you need to buy a equalizer.

So, for this price, a wide range of variety and a good quality of songs make 10.

It's boos, it's pratically indestructible.

I do not use a backup, never for this.

Never used

I'm currently playing rock, this pedal complements very good the musics and get a new dimension for my playing mode.

I think that pedal is fantastic, the variety and the "Double Ressonance" gets incredible effects to guitar. I think to buy a Cry Baby before know the PW-10. Now I have all that I want and some more.

Well, I worked out how to get some nice sounds in the shop, so I kinda knew what I was getting. Since then, I've worked out what I can get, and there are some good combinations. The manual is crap. It really is. Hard to understand, there are some really useless stuff in there like "make sure you have the lead in the input" and such useless crap. I'm kind of having trouble getting the OD tones, but I'll try again today.I have had it for a while, but I've been a bit lazy checking the whole thing out cos I hate the manual.

A good pedal.
I only use a Washburn something or other, it doesn't have a special name or something, it was fairly cheap, but I get some alright sounds for the tiny Randall amp I use. For what I do - play a few rehearsals with my hard-rock and funk-rock band - it's great. I'm only fourteen, but i feel that this should be good enough for me for a long time. The range isn't the best, it doesn't have a really wide sweep, but i checked out a few CryBabies, and this is the best wah pedal i found in Melbourne and Geelong - Australia.
If you turn the Distortion up really high it has a fair bit of white noise after each note or chord, but that's up full. I'd rather use the distortion from my amp, then i won't get as much noise, but I have heard the OD and DS settings you can get are very very impressive.
The Voice setting is a bit weak. The Vox' range is also a bit odd, and Advanced setting isn't really my style, but the morley and the crybaby are good wah sounds. Uni-Vibe is a add on. Overall, it produces some good sounds.

One of my memory settings is exceptionally quiet - rendering it useless. These seem like major fallbacks, but the truth is, I really like this pedal. Nothing else has gone wrong, except lacking wah, which i fixed after i read through the manual. Easy to fix.
Other than that, nothing has gone wrong.

Never dealth with them. Never needed to.

I play funk and blues/hard rock, and it fits in with any combination. It works with all that I play. I've played for a year and a bit, and I only have a cheap Washburn electric, a nice Takamine accoustic and a small Randall practise amp. If it were stolen, I couldn't afford to buy another one, I'm only a kid, but I could, then yes. From all that i checked, this is the best pedal i found.
I like the Uni-Vibe and the Morley sounds the most, and i like the different distortion mixes i can get with my amp gain turned down, then up.
I like this pedal so much, sometimes i just want to use the wah in everything i play, but I know that probably isn't best for variation.

Boss should have added a 2 or 3 more knobs to operate the distotion side of this pedal. I spent at least 6 hours reading the horrid manual and toying with the distortions. This is the main reason I returned the pedal to the store and grabbed an Ibanez Weeping Demon instead (a truly wonderful pedal and is costs 33% less!).
Controlling the volume level is a total nightmare!

Had Boss added 2 more knobs to control the distortion settings, a few more memory patches and placed the AC cord plug a little higher so as not to be smashed into the carpet when switching the wha on and off....this pedal would be pretty frikkin cool!

The sweep lacks a bit too, if your a Jimi Hendrix fan. Just like my old original Boss PW-1 wha from the 80's, the sweep range is too narrow, even with the range knob turned all the way up. Damn you Boss for not reading my review on the PW-1 and not addressing this issue on your new model!

Well, the wha effect is dead quiet. A very cool thing for wha pedals.
The range lacks if you like to play Voodoo Chile from Hendrix and all the adjusting in the world won't take you there. Doesn't Boss know who Jimi Hendrix is and how important it is for a wha pedal to capture his tone?

On the plus side for sure is the great overdrive and distortion effects available. I was really super impressed by the modeling of the vintage DOD 250 preamp/overdrive sound! It's not tweekable except the gain and volume [like all the other overdrive models! boo!] but the tone was excellent! I would suggest to everyone to go through the hassle of at least hearing the DOD overdrive coupled to the Jimi model wha! It really did sound so much like Hendrix minus the range.

So why does the Jimi hendrix wha model lack the range Hendrix got with his Vox wha???

Truth is, the Morley wha sounded more like Hendrix than the Hendrix model. Even so, all the wha models sound just about all the same. There is hardly any difference.

Now the human voice wha model....what a joke! Certainly not the vowel sounds of an old Thomas Organ Wha with the "stack of dimes" inductor that is soo famous for the vowelly sounds. No the Boss vowel wha tones are fake, processed sounding and certainly a bit funny {ha ha} sounding. Certainly not for a rock or metal guitar use. Maybe for some weird electronic band!

I firmly believe the Ibanez has a better wha sound than the Boss but that DOD 250 overdrive tone is awesome!

I have to give a low score on the sound for the lack of sweep or range. Just doesn't peak high enough or go deep enough either.

That AC plug is gonna get hurt if you use the pedal on a carpet floor. Everytime I stepped on the pedal you can see the plug getting pushed into the carpet.

I have a bunch of old Boss pedal from the 70's and 80's and they are very well built products.

There is no support as I know of.

I've been playing guitar since 1969. I play it all from blues to heavy metal. I'm a big Jimi Hendrix fan.

I have 5 Marshall half stacks from the 70's. Right now I'm using a 1978 Marshall MKII 50 watter on a Marshall 4x12 with 50 and 65 watt speaker inside and I can't believe how frikkin great it sounds! No distortion box in the world can do what a Marshall can do. I get clean picking to nasty overdrive just by my picking pressure! That folks is dynamics!

I returned the Boss wha and got an Ibanez Weeping Demon wha and at 33% less money the Ibanez wha is better looking, just as quiet, has more sweep and range, has a better feel, is easy to use, has a line boost, has automatic on and off, has a better AC plug location, has more knobs, looks more solid, why...it excells against the Boss in every area except it doesn't have any distortion.

Easy to get great wah sounds. But very hard to set the distortions.
You absolutely need the manual because it is a case of holding this
whilst pressing that and holding this whilst turning that.
And of course 90 percent of the manual is redundant such as....
be sure to put the batteries in right.....and.....plug your guitar into the input...and.......don't use it in the bathtub... and tucked neatly inside all the BS are obtuse, anal, butten pressing regimens that you would not find after 10 years of trying to do without the manual... I mean setting the distortions is harder that Nick Cage finding the NATIONAL TREASURE!!!! But do this..... get what you like in manual mode and then save it to 1 - RED then redo the manual mode and save to 2 - GREEN then reset the manual mode and save to 3- YELLOW then again
reset the manual mode to what you would most like to use.

It is wonderful, super. But I suggest you sit down and TRANSLATE the manual into COMMOM SENSE which is what I had to do and then all was well with the world and this wa.

Seems very HEAVY DUTY.

I just don't care.

Take the time to read and reread the manual.
First I crossed out all the redundant Bull Crap, such as...
plug your guitar into the input jack... DUH Then I copied down all the vital programming steps. Then I rewroted those steps in my own words. Then finally I was able to rock with this thing.

oh, it's easy, plug it in and go, too bad it sucks!

1?!? more like -100!
I've never heard anything worse in my 15 years as a pro rock guitarist, this thing sucks. I'm shocked that it's on the market. Barely any play, I listened close and there are only 3 degrees of tonal switch! I can get a better wah sound out of jumping up and down on my eq pedal.

Well, I threw it out of the bus window once, my bass player got mad and said "hey, I could have used that!", I said "pal, if you wanna go look for it, it's yours." So we turned around and went back for it... it still worked!!! He hated it, i think he's using it to prop up his small amp at home.

They didn't take well to my cursing on the phone, meh.

Man oh man, I wish I could say something nice here other than I failed when trying to destroy it. It's gotta be the worst thing Boss ever released, barre none.

The most difficult to use pedal I've ever encountered, and I've owned about 40 here and there.

I can't believe the ratings people are giving this pedal! I got it recently, and I'm going to use it for noise purposes here and there, but come on people! This thing sounds pathetic! The wahs all suck, they all sound exactly the same, the pedal has no sweep, no range, nasal-sounding. The noise supprossor barely suppresses anything, the Uni-Vibe is barely audible, the talk think sucks. There is nothing good about the sound of this pedal. Sorry. Wish I hadn't bought it. Last wah I owned was a Hiwatt custom wah. Blew this thing away, and I didn't even like it that much.

Seems ok

I play rock guitar, I've played for about 16 years. Over that time I've used Dunlops, Crybabys, Vox, Morley, Hiwatt and now this wah. This one is by far, by miles, the worst of them. I can't believe Boss let this thing out into the market. Maybe there's something wrong with mine, I dont' know. All of the functions seem to work, but they all suck too. Oh well, the search continues.

This is an extremely easy peice of equipment to setup. I'm 16 and a first time Wah Wah pedal user and i didn't even have to look at the manual, though after setting it up i referred to the manual just for a gander and it was very well explained. Only problem here would be the difficulty to make your own sound.

My rig is from a Dean Baby ML --> Zoom 707II Multi-effects bank --> BOSS PW-10 V-Wah --> Marshall AVT150 --> Computer.

Im not getting any unwanted noise...it has actually got rid of that inscesant buzz that was there before hand. Nice!

These effects really do do the job! You can get Hendrix, DimeBag, Satriani, Vai all the greats! Only downfall would be the distortion! But any respectable guitarist should have another distortion and i pity the fool who doesn't!

Footswitching is difficult sitting down, but very easy when standing.

Only got it today, but no problems so far, unlike the Dime Cry Baby i bought and had to take back cos it was bust! I would most definetly use in a gig without a backup, unless the back up was another PW-10!

Phone number is supplied in the booklet and i haven't had to call!

I play all sorts and this matches every genre! I've been playing for 3 years and the gear i own is:

Dean Baby ML
Gretsch Electromatic (Custom)
Tanglewood BS800 Electro-resonator
Westfield SR838 Electro Acoustic
Fenix Strat (Fender Copy)
Peavey Milestone III Bass Guitar
Zoom 707 II
Marshall AVT-150
Seinheisser Evolution Microphone
And much more...!

The build quality and look of this thing is awesome, matches my guitar! And this pedal inspires me to make more rock music than i ever have before this BOSS truely has earned its name!

Is not as some people say it's complicated to use. Setting it up might be a little bit tricky but once you set this guy up, then you are on your own with a very easy to use unit. The manual is clear and easy to understand.

I use a roland cube 30 amp and a godin exit 22 guitar. Is not noisy at all. The built in effects are amazingly good, specially the distortions. I can easily get the sound of Dream Theater guitars as far as distortion and I can also get the wah wah from the cure. Check my bands website for a music sample so that you can hear how tis unit works.

I would use this unit on a GIG no problem without a backup.

I haven't dealt with them

I play heavy rock music and this unit fits perfectly in it. If it was stolen no questions I would buy another one. Something I love about is that is Boss. With this monster you won't ever need another wah pedal ever.