Dunlop ZW-45 Zakk Wylde Signature Wah

ive used cry babys for years, and this model switches into action straight and easy unlike some of the standard wahs that jim dunlop do!

the range and warm tone on this thing is amazing soon as you plug in you will notice a massive difference but in is very sensitive so could get a lil used too but if needs you can tighten the pedal!

only had it a short while but it looks like it can take a good beating,
but judging on my other wahs with j dunlop ill rate it,

n/a

takes a time 2 get used 2 but now i cant stop using it and when you use loads of gain this mother ***** shines like no other

I love the comment the last guy made "If you need instructions on how to set up and stomp on a Wah pedal then perhaps you should play the Triangle or something less Taxing"

Brilliant stuff dude.

Im only giving it a 9 though cause this pedal has a massively drastic sweep on the bandwidth and can be tough to control at first.

As Zakk says, "Its like a Hendrix Wah on Steroids" and I do agree. I have and still own a Hendrix Wah and a Hendrix wah goes "wwwwwwwWWWWWaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH" where as the Zakk wah goes "wwWWaaAAHH!!!!!! MotherF'er"
If you want a nice smooth wah then this is probably not for you but with a bit of practice and some smart adjustment of gain and amp settings it can be quite subtle and perform the wah tasks of all styles from funk to flavoursome Blues to shred metal and even a bit of skeezy porn music :-)

There is no risk of this effect sounding weak although when swept right back into bass range it gets a little too deep and volume suffers. I remedied this bu supergluing a 1.14mm Tortex guitar pick underneath the heel of the rocker so it wouldnt go all the way back.

I run either my Fender Strat or my Epi Zakk Wylde Les Paul into it and add either the ZW Overdrive of Boss MT-2 for gain and it copes fine with both of these. If you have seen the Zakk interviews relating to his use of the wah he uses it more as a trebble booster and not for going wacka wacka waaah wacka wacka waah waah nor do I but its great for a bit of that at lower gain levels and clean tone.

Kerry King of Slayer also uses one of these so they must be good.

Once again its built tough IMO.

The battery housing is of no consequence to me as I have mine attatched to a pedal board and run off of AC power.

I have no reason to fear it breaking down.
Look after your gear and it will look after you. Switches fail and post collapse when not kept clean or maintained so its your own fault

no dealings

Great for Metal and a smattering of other things but High gain is where this pedal is at home.
I use it to add a bit of funk and flavour to the odd Fu-Manchu/RATM styled riff and it does the job nicely.

Just like my ZW Overdrive I bought it out of devotion to ZAKK and I have not been disappointed.

Would be great if it had the heel return automatic switch thing like the bass wahs do.

Love the look and the styling, its made of zinc and is heavier than most wahs but what the hell kind of complaint is that. its a guitar effects pedal not a damn necklace pendant.

I reckon It would have looked cool in Camo as thats a fave colour of Zakk (ie Camo Les Pauls) but the CFH Dime wah was already done that way. If anything other than this wah Id probably try a few and lean toward a Dime or Slash wah

Very easy to use right out of the box...an "in" and an "out" jack...pretty self explanatory really. Nice packaging and printed materials will ensure this product's collectability in years to come. Instruction manual a bit of a waste of paper though...if you need instructions on how to set-up and stomp on a wah...perhaps you should be playing the "triangle" or something less taxing.

I am using an Ibanez RG-560 (amazing guitar!) plugged into a Marshall MG15-MSII Microstack practise amp, the wah is somewhere in the middle of this technologically advanced set-up. Here's where all that glitters sadly is not gold! The wah is very sturdy, BUT a real pain to activate/deactivate, you really have to "jump" on it to switch on or off! There is nothing worse than expressing the subtleties of a solo with your relaxed upper body, when your lower body i.e; legs and feet are having to act like a jack-hammer on concrete to switch an effect on or off, one kind of contradicts the other and you end up looking like you need to take a trip to the can while you are trying to "wow" your unfortunate audience! The only thing on it that works well is the true bypass, it really cuts it out completely...eventually once you have succeeded in switching it off. The low end range (heel down) is totally unusable and sounds like listening to early Black Sabbath records thru a vacuum hose with the vacuum switched on! The high-end (toe down) is just way too sharp and biting....and here's the clincher....there's nothing in between! I mean it! Nothing....zilch!.....Zippo!....Nada! So don't buy it expecting to be able to use it for tonal variations in various positions..it's simply useless in this area, BUT remembering it is not designed for anything but searing, abrasive, over the top wah. If used by rapidly sweeping it back and forth whilst playing tasteful solo's it succeeds. It does Kirk Hammet's wah solo's to a tea, and I imagine it would pull off some of Zakk's stuff through a Plexi or a "wall of sound". Remember most of Zakks earlier and arguably better wah work was achieved with a Morley unit as he was an endorsee during his early years with Ozzy & co. Personally speaking I need to get used to this wah, it needs breaking in, or is it me that needs to be broken in to the wah? Time will tell, although I kind of wish this wah was spring loaded for an auto return, I really like what Vai does with his.

Right now I simply wouldnt use it "live" as it's a lot of additional work, and with the tones available through it, I haven't found any use for them....yet! However, once I am comfortable with it, and can put it to good use in the mix, I would definately trust that it will go the distance! Presently I am playing a lot of shred styles including Dragonforce stuff....."Not Totman's easy riff's/fills" but Herman Li's soloing styles, so there is not much need for it, but I plan to use and integrate it when developing my own personal style.

Never had to deal with Dunlop, I also own an MXR EVH Phase 90 that is built bullet tough and I have never had any issues with it.

As I said above I play a lot of shred, a'la Herman Li, Petrucci, Hammett, and La' Rocque. The wah is perfect for all those Metallica Hammett solo's. I have been playing for a while...long enough to know that years of dedicated practice does work, and there are NO shortcuts despite all the B.S. you may read in books/magazines (you can't open up a book and find a new set of trained hands that you simply snap on!) The Wah does have some great defining qualities though, it is VERY solidly built, the battery cover may be a problem ONLY if you are aggressive with it and are not careful. the components are of the very finest quality (hey it has the Fasel inductor right!? that's what the box says, and Zakk says it ROCKS!) Mr Wylde also slightly overrated the MG15 Microstack as well, but hey that's another story and....ahem...another endorsement deal. I do wish this wah had a return spring option, so you can "pogo" or "bounce" with it like Steve Vai does. The Wah does have a tendency to "eat"your cables, just like any other wah though, you keep them away from crossing under the pedal....'nuff said!

Overall if you have a BIG rig, by that I mean at least a 100 watt head and a 4x12 cabinet sporting celestion speakers, tons of grunt, deaf or tolerant neighbours and a kick-ass axe with a good Duncan humbucker w/ coiltaps then this wah should rise above the rest and scream like a labouring banshee with quadruplets! anything less in your room/shed...then go home or get a standard traditional wah with a better range for smaller setups. The ZW45 is designed for live work on a big scale, it simply can't get there while plugged into low gain combo's or saturated solid state distortion units. this thing bleeds for loud VALVE custom setups!

It's a no brainer.

This pedal sounds great. I did not buy this pedal to sound like Zakk Wylde, in fact I never like the idea of having gear with some elses name splashed all over it. I tried this pedal in a shop with 10 other wahs including the bad horsie and numerous other Crybabys and this sounded the best to me. I can't see why people think it is a gimmic pedal, I like the range and tone of it. I play a Gibson Historics reissue 57 LP Custom through a Fender Blues Deluxe and this wah sounds choice with them. I'm playing blues and rock these days and used to play METAL.

no probs

NA

Bloody Great

No bells and whistles here. Just straight forward on/off.

I use a custom shop Gibson Les Paul Custom, with EMG 81's and an natural ouled finish into a block logo Peavey 5150.
Ive had a few wah's in my time. Ive never had one as good as this though. Unlike most wah's, it doesnt colour your sound or have any kind of effect on your tone when its off. When you kick it in, my god, it sounds massive. Its the meatiest, fattest wah tone i've ever heard. When you kick in most wahs, you loose a lot of low end, not this one. It retains that thickness in your guitar sound and still cuts like a knife through the mix. I will never use another wah. Ever.

1 year and no problems at all.

Not needed

If you like a big metal guitar sound, get this. If I lost it, it broke or was stolen I'd buy another in a heartbeat. Hell, I'd buy two. There that good.

plug it in and play...sounds simple? wait a minute...it ain't. if you wanna go wah-wah-wah, get another pedal. this one is best as a tone generator, using subtle variations in the sweep. if you listen to what you're doing, you can play it like an instrument. take your time with this baby. it also has an adjustable clutch, so you can increase or decrease the torque required to move the pedal. i use mine tightened a fair bit. more control that way. i also don't keep it on my pedalboard. not enough control with your foot out front. keep it under your centre of gravity.

i try to make my own sounds. the band i play in does 95% original material, a luxury, i can assure you. i don't use this pedal alot cause let's face it, it sure isn't subtle. use it right and it'll kick you in the guts. i play a '02 melody maker into dunlop gb80 volume pedal - zw45 - boss tu2 - digitech hothead - tech21 double drive - ibanez ts9 re-issue - boss dd2 - boss ce2 - bbe sonic stomp - then into a soldano astroverb16 1x12 combo w/ eminence legend also running a mesa recto 1x12 that i cut half the back off, loaded with a vintage 30. i don't get much noise from anything, off or on. and tone sucking, not so you'd notice. the harmonics this thing can produce are a real trip. heel down and your 'g' on 3rd fret of 6th string, or 'd' on 5th fret of 5th string really scream. then if you try going up a scale, slightly more toe-down for each note enables you to follow the scale with more harmonics. with a little practice, you can do that anywhere in the pedal sweep, anywhere on the fingerboard.

i've had a it couple months. no problems. i play every gig with nuthin' backed up. been lucky so far. but hey, who knows?

never had to seek it.

three of us write in the band - everything from rural roots through to pretty tough rock and blues and you'd be surprised where i use this pedal. i'm 53, been playing since i was 8 - you do the math. my back up guitar, which i only bring out if i intend to use it is a prs se soapbar. my backup amp is a 2amp fuse. i own a shelf full of pedals, one of them being the crybaby classic. i use that for recording, if necessary, but not live because i don't enjoy going wah-wah-wah. it's so old. i'd get another zw45 if anything happened to this one. love the sound. nothing to dislike here. i chose this pedal sound unheard. on a whim, you might say. makes me ponder buying zakk's OD - bet they go good together.

Can't get more simple, just plug in... like the allen key feature to adjust the tension on the sweep.

Sounds like Zakk, definitely. I don't know what the people below were talking about it sucking the tone, this is the ONLY wah I've used that keeps my tone in tact, sounds fat and cutty, and when it's switched off, has almost NO effect on my sound at all, unlike most wahs that kill your signal. Probably due to the true by-pass. I run this with a Krank Distortus Maximus before it, or the regular gain on my Crate V30 Class A tube head, sounds killer. Only problem I see with this is sometimes the sweep is TOO much, and you kind have to stay in between the high and the low to get a good note accent on the sweeps, definitely built for metal and fast solo players and shredders, not slow-hand blues style.

Seems to be built like a tank, cept for the shitty battery cover. I am glad for the fact that you don't have to unscrew the whole bottom to change the battery, but for God sakes why can't pedal making companies get these damn things right? Seems to be made of cheap plastic and I can see it breaking like the other guys. I'm using a external power supplied SKB pedalboard, so haven't changed the battery at all. I would recommend that. Been rehearsing/gigging with it for about 2-3 months now, no problems so far.

Dealt with them when I had a problem with my ZW-44 overdrive, sent it to them cause it was making a loud popping noise, they were great, had it back working in about a week and a half.

I play a lot of classic and modern rock, and old school metal, anything from Zep to Alice in Chains to Ozzy to Metallica, and much more. Play in a cover band that does a wide variety of music. Overall I think it's got a great sound for all categories. Wish you could adjust the sweep to tighten it a little more. Been playing about 12 years now, this is the best wah I've played through so far. I would def buy it again if it were lost or stolen. Bought this on a whim since I like Zakk and heard it was true-bypass, it worked out pretty darn good.

I really had high hopes for this pedal, but honestly, it doesn't live up to those aspirations.
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The switch to turn it on and off was very difficult to use. You almost had to stand (I'm 175lbs 6'1") on it with all your force to switch it on and off. I spent more mental energy worrying about turning it on or off, that I would stumble on some solos HOPING I pressed hard enough. After turning it on or off, it was impossible to tell if it actually turned on or off! Sometimes I would be playing for a few seconds AFTER stepping on it, and realized I hadn't stepped on it hard enough!
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I sort of solved this problem by accident, read the reliability section below. I liked the fact you could adjust the stiffness of the pedal throw with the included allen wrench. This was one of the few things I liked about this pedal.

Running a Mesa Triple Rectifier, 4x12 Rectifier Cabinet, Jackson Soloist SL2H with EMG 81 and EMG 85 pickups, Rocktron Pro Q EQ with HUSH, Lexicon Reverb, Delay, Chorus, Alesis Compressor, and a Ibanez Tubescreamer for hair when needed. I play hard rock, classic rock, extreme metal, 80s metal, and "nu metal". Bands range from Rage to Slayer to Godsmack to Van Halen.
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It does sound like Zakk, but short of that the sound quality is garbage. It's way too extreme, and it sounds unnatural. The low end sound (heel down), is so muted its almost useless. The high end sound (toe down) is almost transparent. There is only a small range where this actually sounds good, and its difficult to find this during a solo.
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You almost sound like a "poser" with this wah due to the gimmicky sound it produces. The sound is almost like those wah simulators (Zoom, Line6, etc). It really hides almost any interaction your fingers make with the strings, and produces just a crazy sounding, out of control, warble. Its almost like you were choking a wild turkey that makes a gobble gobble sound from hell! When used in front of a compressor, or a distortion stomp box, the sound is so compressed and flat, sounding HORRIBLE! You need to use this straight into your head with no other effects (disortion or compression), or your sound will blow. Using it straight into the head limits you on your lead tone, because I like to run my gain about 1/2 way, then use the stomp box for more hair. Using this wah, I can't do that, the way I like it to sound. YMMV.
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You can wail on a 3 note pentatonic lick like Zakk, throttle the pedal back and forth, and really amaze people who don't know anything about guitar. This is because its so extremely unnatural sounding it makes you sound like you are doing something incredible, when you really are not.

Man, I can't believe people who have reviewed this pedal haven't run into problems. Are you people really using it??? I play everyday, and have band practice 2x a week. I put my gear through a lot of use, but I don't abuse it. I HAVE HAD 2 MAJOR PROBLEMS with this pedal.
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The first is that my cord has a nasty habit of getting caught under the actual pedal (the part you move with your foot, NOT the entire UNIT), but above the switch. What happened within the first 3 weeks was that one time, the cord got suck under there, and in the process of pulling it out, one of the rubber feet popped off. These rubber feet (2 of them) are used to help you from accidently switching the unit off/on. Ironically, this made the pedal A LOT eaiser to switch on and off, so I thought "Hey this is actually BETTER now". Well sure enough, a few weeks later the cord got stuck under there again and popped the other foot off. Now the pedal was useless without at least one of those rubber feet. It appears they were rubber cemented on, or glued on. Everytime you rocked it forward, you would switch the freaking thing off. The proper way to do this, would have been to run a screw through the rubber foot into the bottom of the pedal. I fixed this by applying about 8 squares of 1/2" x 1/2" foam tape. I said F&*# those feet, its a poor design, and just go with the tape idea. So far it is working. I built it up a layer at a time to get the right combination of "not switching it off by accident" with "being able to switch it on when needed, without stomping on it". Now I have no problems with switching it off or on!
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Battery cover. Man what a piece of crap. After the third time of replacing the battery, the little tab that holds/snaps the cover into the bottom frame of the pedal broke off. This happened right before a gig. Luckily I had some electrical tape and just taped the cover to the bottom of the pedal. It held. With a new cover, I see a problem with the design. The cover is just too tighly held in place, and I know the tab is going to break off again. This *might* be due to the fact I am using rechargeable 9V batteries, but I don't think this is a factor.
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For a pedal that "CLAIMS" to be built to the toughest standards of metal's "baddest ass", it surely fails here. I don't even beat up my stuff, or tour with it, yet I had two major failures. They need to use better quality materials and manufacturing practices.
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It appears to be built well electronically. I haven't had any problems with it being noisy, and the input/output jacks are sturdily built. It is quite heavy for it's size, and that gives it a feeling of robustness.

Wow, the folks here at Jim Dunlop are the epitome of customer service!! I emailed them about my battery cover problem, and WITHOUT hesitation, questions, or "did you register it, blah blah" MAILED OUT a first class USPS envelope the next day with a replacement FREE OF CHARGE! Three days later, I was SHOCKED to find they actually sent 2, when I only asked for one. First class people, all companies need to be like that. I really hate to rip them on the pedal, because they really went out of their way to make me happy.

I just had better hopes for this pedal, and couldn't wait to get it. Now I have had it for 6 months, and the only thing I am thinking is "Glad I only paid $88 for it".
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There is no way I'd pay the $129 retail price for this thing. It's barely worth half of that. I hope Zakk bought a lot of beer with the endorsement money he got from this, but should be ashamed that this has his name plastered all over it.
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I liked the box, the allen wrench, the sticker, and pick that came with it, but they should have included a better wah pedal. I made the mistake of buying something without playing it, and buying it because of an endorsement. I like the Jim Dunlop Company, and LOVE their Phase 90 pedal, but they need to fire every engineer who worked on this pedal. The box is worth more than the pedal.
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If you want to defend this pedal, I'd love for you to email me. I would like to hear your reasoning, because I am a very reasonable person, but cannot find a valid postive about this pedal. Maybe I am missing something here, and you can enlighten me about it. Otherwise, I think I'm throwing this on Ebay.
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I rarely write reviews, but this pedal sucked so bad, I felt like warning future buyers to stay clear from this, or ACTUALLY TRY ONE OUT before mail ordering one. Try to find a setting you like, and read the more negative reviews posted here, as I feel they are more accurate than the positive ones, who seem to be showboating.

It's a Wah Pedal Plug in and Step on the juice.

I pluged this thing in without trying it at the store. I had purchased the Wylde overdrive and was super impressed with it so I figured you can't go wrong.

Right out of the box this thing will blow the backplate and jacks off any wah I've ever used.

The Tone is ungodly. The sweep is incredable. It talks. I has a huge freq sweep to it and when you get to the high end it doesn't bite your ears off. I really got a Jerry Cantrell Alice in Chains vibe from it. Think the entire "Dirt" album. That's what I've always wanted.

You could kick some "White Room" on this bad boy no problem.

Dunlop/MXR build like a tank. The brushed crome finish is sooo cool looking.

Never had to deal with them. See the built like a tank quote...hey it's Dunlop automatic 10

I would go out and buy one immediatle if it were lost or stolen. If I ever found out who took it...I would put a Black Label Society Ass Whoopin' on them for sure!

Easy to use. It's a wah wah. Plug in and play.

This pedal sucks too much tone from the natural amp and needs an overdrive or boost after it i found.

Not very noisey unless you're not playing and you left the wah on. The sweep on this pedal isn't very usable for anything except Zakk Wylde style stuff. It's not even that good for metal i found. I prefer normal Crybaby wahs to it.

I don't much like this wah. Sucks tone and isn't very useable.

Haven't had it long but it seems a bit flimsey - the bottom came off a few times or came loose.

Not dealt with them.

Not my fravorite wah. Probably my least fravorite. Sucks tone and isn't very good for anything except Zakk Wylde songs i found.

If this was lost or stolen, i doubt i would buy it again.

I think the sweep on this is quite bad. Goes from VERY bassy to VERY thin-trebly that doesn't sound that good through a hi-gain Marshall.