Electro-Harmonix Wiggler

I use small pedal train board and needed to get this monster on there - really inconvenient because of the large wallwart which I had to velcro on the board and attached to along coiled up extension cord duct-taped underneath ( leepin' lemurs! ) It took a few hours of noodling to find 'that tone'.

telecaster - two older MIJ bixonic expandoras - Jacques analog delay - wiggler - 10 year old gibson 7.5 watt EL84 amp turned up almost all the way. I agree with alot of the negatives I have read in these reviews BUT for me it doesn't matter - I leave this on one setting and never touch it, basically. It's the a Hamond setting set very slow with the intensity set fairly low ( noon ) I engage this for a wonderful subtle motion - puts movement and shimmer on my sounds - not over the top. - Neck PU + this is more Hendrixy than Hendrix ( RIP ) I don't over use it - maybe 10 songs in a four hour night. AND NOW FOR THE BIG KICKER ( DRUM ROLL PLEASE ): this baby has MUCHO HEADROOM !! Unlike all thirty of the other vibes, phasers and flangers I bought and sold over 25 years. It doesn't give that little squashed compressed swirl like the voodoo microvibe, deja vibe, roger mayer vibe , elctrofex ( sp ? ) , dunlop EVH flanger, MXR phase 90, EVH phaser, maxon, etc, etc, etc... This gives a huge sweet motion with a little hendrixy 'clang' that is actually useful and I'm thrilled with it. So all the set up hassle noted above is well worth it.

I worry about its long term reliability. But then, even my WORST wife was good for 5 years...

I don't know.

I have played 40 years and have owned way too much stuff. I have settled down with an old tele , 4 pedals and a low output amp and play in a cover band playing non-serious, non-original dance stuff - R+B, funk, pop-rock. I know nothing ( and care nothing ) about ho-hum buckers, plugging into computers, recording, midi , etc. I know a lot about single coil guitars into low watt EL84 amps turned up and un-miked in little bars, dives and clubs. flangers and phasers are sort of campy - I always thought these would give that rich subtle shimmer and swirl - but they don't. this does. I have no use for the LOOZ and other settings. I guess I am fortunate - mine has no hum and no 'popping' sound when kicked in. I don't care how big it is or inconvenient the wall wart is. Like everybody knows when a pedal gives you ONE awesome sound it's a winner.

The Electro Harmonix tube based Wiggler is a vibrato unit which consists of 5 adjustment controls. The output controls the volume of the effect. The intensity controls the vibrato pulse which when turned to the three fourths mark begins to create a noticable thump and distracting unusable effect. The rate control also produces an undisirable noise when above the three fourth mark. In fact, the audio and video at the EHX site, does not match the sound of this production unit. Two seperate settings for either vibrato or tremelo can be switched with the knob. There is also a Mode control with 4 settings for Loose, Hamm, Acey and Wurl. I do not understand why they have these 4 settings, because they all sound similar. The Wurl on my unit sounds nothing like a Leslie! I'm almost at the point where I would like to see the schematic, because the MODE control seems to do nothing to change the texture of the sound. Another feature of this tube vibrato, is that the tone is modified and becomes saturated with lows and mids, the highs are filtered out. Another tone-changing feature begans when a fuzz or distortion box is added. The fuzz must go into the box, since the thumps, hums and noises will become prominent, when placed on the output side for some reason. A high gain amp would also capture the noises of the unit and amplify the weird noises and make the vibrato almost useless. A soft clean tube amp seems to work in conjuntion with the effect, and there is minimal unwanted noise when the intensity and rate controls are set to the one fourth position. The video shows the device with intensity controls at full postion, but my unit sounds nothing like the audio-video demonstration? The reviews that mention the "tone sucking" frequency charictoristics are correct in some asspects. My hypothosis, would suggest that the power consumption of the tubes and the effect circuitry are imbalanced and simply produce excess voltages throughout the analog board. I don't think just tightening a screw under the medial metal tube protection grate would solve all the problems. It's hard to imagine that these are being tested by EHX before being trucked out of New York City?
I'm going to keep it, because it does add extra WARMTH and low end to my tube amp. and I've got an old phase shifter from 79, and I love the Memory Man. And I've heard lots about the English Muff'n,but I'm still trying to figure this device out. Something is missing from the MODE controls and the max rate and intensity settings sound impaired. The real problem, is that this is a high voltage device, utilizing tubes. Therefore, the modification and repair would be time consuming. Enough said, in a nut shell, the device has lots of controls that do little. It does alter tone, and the unit makes noise with high gain amps.

The maximum settings on the RATE and Intensity of the VIBRATO are useless pulsing noise. The 4 MODE switch between LOOSE, HAMM, ACEY and WURL have minimal changes. The tremelo position is thrown in which is another useless function. Set the rate and intensity to 1/4 levels and there is a warm vibrato with minimal unwanted thumping and noise with a soft tube amp. Place all fuzz box's on the input side of the unit or some noises will be pulled along the signal paths.

I'll see how long it lasts, but I'm sure if the RATE and INTENSITY settings were to the max, it sounds like it would have a severe negative outcome. But these are all tested before leaving the factory, RIGHT. Do not accidently leave this plugged in all night, since it is tube driven, the device contains high voltages.
The LED Light is also another useless pulsing circuit pulling on the signal.

The device MODE settings offer minimal changes to the effect, and there is no WURL in the leslie mode, and the audio video demonstration at the EHX does not sound like this production unit.
It seems like there is already a quality control or design flaw built into the device upon manufacture. The remaining units are just being sold as is without concern toward the apparant circuit flaw.
I'm sure an electrical engineer would pick it up, upon review of the schematics.

This is a Tube driven vibrato, with a 12 Volt two prong output adaptor, made in China? I wish the max settings were clean and usable, I wish the 4 Modes had audible differences. It does change the sonic texture and If it was stolen, I would try something else.
But I'm going to keep it, because I like the wormy picture on the front, and the tube protector reminds me of the barrel shroud on an AK 47.

This pedal is very, very easy to use. You have knobs to control volume, rate of the effect, and intensity of effect. The center knob on the bottom row is a toggle between Vibrato and Tremolo. If you have Vibrato selected, you use the knod to the left to select one of four Vibrato Setting: Looz (Lesley Speaker simulator), Hamm (Hammond Organ Vibrato), Acey (Vox AC30 Vibrato), and Wurl (Wurlitzer Piano Vibrato). The Speed setting can go from nothing to extremely fast, and there is a red light that flashes to show you how fast the effect will be. The Intensity knob controls how pronounced the wave is going to be in the sound. Both the Speed and Intensity knobs become unusable shorty after 12 o'clock on the knobs, and I find myself staying between 9 and 11 o'clock. The "manual" is a single sheet of paper, and is pretty much worthless. Watch the video demo of it you can find online.

For this review, I have chosen to go through a Gibson Les Paul Custom, through the Wiggler, and into a Mesa Boogie Lonestar 2x12. The Wiggler is pretty quite on the lower Intensity settings, but as you turn the Intensity up, you can hear the pulse coming through your amp when you are not playing. This is especially true as you approach 12 o'clock on the Intensity knob. The Wiggler is powered by 2 12ax7 tubes, and they help produce very warm Tremolo and Vibrato sounds. Each of the four Vibrato sounds are unique. For me the standouts are the Looz and Acey settings. Looz does a really nice retoting speaker, and Acey ads a bit of overdrive that is touch sensitive. I gave this sound quality a 9 because the Speed and Intensity knobs are useless to me past 12 o'clock.

So far so good with this pedal. There haven't been any problems.

I emailed them because my Wiggler was a floor model, and I did not get a box or manual. They emailed me back quickly to say the manual was online.

My main influences are Alex Lifeson, Steve Howe, Eric Johnson, and SRV. I prefer to play progressive rock music, which is not really known for this type of effect. But when I watched the demo video of rthis pedal, I had to have it, and it has changed the way I play, and it has opened doors to my playing that make me a broader player than I was before. I could sit and strum open dominant 7th chords for hours with this thing, and never get bored with it because the sound is that good.

This pedal is very easy to use. The knobs are placed so that the important parameters (output volume, intensity, and rate) can be easily manipulated with a foot while playing. The only setback in this arena is that EH doesn't really have high standards for quality control and the pots (particularly the rate knob) can sometimes have a sharp curve where all of the change takes place in a very small fragment of the knob's total sweep. If you make the guy at guitar center or wherever get several out for you, you can likely get one with a good pot.

Unbelievable. This pedal was the most important part of my chain for a couple of years. This pedal can make a lot of different sounds. In all honesty, I never used the vibrato setting. I always used the tremolo function on the "looz" (one of 4 options) setting. Even using that narrow scope of the pedal, I got widely varying tones. I also used this pedal as a clean [boost] gain stage when needed by turning the intensity knob all the way off and driving the 2 12AX7s. This is really great with good sounding low output guitars (I used a Epiphone 56 Goldtop copy with Fralin P90s) and also good with high output guitars (I use a Tele Plus with a Barden on the neck and a RKS Ash guitar). The only reason I cannot give a "10" is because these pedals are generally noisy and have ground problems.

DO NOT COUNT ON THIS PEDAL TO WORK. I bought a spare one because I wanted to have one in my chain while the other was being serviced, which is a frequent requirement, and still I was SOL reasonably often. I now have 2 broken ones and want to get rid of them. I have been told by a very respected and reliable tech in Austin that there is a design flaw involving too much current going through on/off switch LED, and that this will make the pedal eventually fail every time. Both units had a ground issue that often could often be solved with a "love tap" to the side of the pedal, but I don't want gear that needs this sort of treatment.

Go on the EH website and try to find some help. Ha Ha Ha Ha. I have done several repairs myself, and I have taken it to a trusted pedal repair person.

On one hand this pedal sounds so good that I am having a dificult time finding a suitable replacement for it. Furthermore, since it functioned so good as a boost pedal, I am planning to need to replace it with 2 different pedals. I really loved the tone of this piece. I hated that the power supply connected to the side (took ever more precious space on the pedal board). The reliability was so low that I can't afford to deal with it. I was able to overlook the noisyness because most of my other gear is clean (RKS guitar, Mark IV amp, etc) and kind of give it that "Cry Baby" exception (noisy and volatile as hell, but I still love it). At the end of the day, however, I am a pro (play with name acts, guitar endorsements, paid to fly with gear, etc) and find it an extreme liability to be shrugging my shoulders, jacking with my gear, not getting a signal at any time on a gig or session. Because of this, I am done with this pedal and am planning to sell my other EH gear as well.

As everyone has said, there are a lot of good sounds here. The pedal does make a thumping noise when it's on, but you only notice it between songs. It's a little bit loud and will buzz a bit too if your amp is turned up loud. The speed is very non-linear and takes some getting used to. People who wish for a speed change footswitch are wrong. All these leslie pedals, and even real leslies should have a variable pedal so you can adjust the speed with your foot, not just two speeds. I'm giving this a 7 just because of the speed control and the noise and the fact that the level controls are useless past 1/4.

Has anyone else nailed Robin Trower with this thing? I've got an 80's Deluxe Reverb II that was modded by Torres in Texas. I love the new sound of my "clean" channel now. With Looz turned on I'm smack dab in the middle of Trowerville with only one pedal. Fabulous. That said, the tremelo effects seem pretty pedestrian. The other vibratos are OK for cleaner vibrato sounds, especially Wurl. But when you try Loos with some reverb and good gain, you may not want to bother with those other settings...just amazing. This is my second E-H pedal. I took the first one back because it was so noisy and muffled the signal even when off. I think it was a reverb but don't remember now. This wiggler is noisy but the sounds are worth it and it seems to have tru-bypass so the signal is clean when it's turned off. I use good cords on my rigs.

I don't feel like this thing is going to blow up. If it blows it will probably just be one of the tubes, which can be replaced. This isn't a pedal I couldn't live without on stage. If it broke, I'd just shut it off and fix it later. There's no on-off switch and you can't run it on batteries. You plug it in with this strange little plug and it lights up and blinks, which is flippin wonderful to behold. I fear something might happen to this plug or adapter, however. Both poles of the plug are exposed metal that would be EZ to short out. This makes it far from idiot proof. I'm trying to be careful.

I play a lot of blues jams. I have to jump in and play whatever song someone comes up with. With this kind of format, you learn to put good leads together on the spot. I have got the house up on its feet with this pedal and that doesn't happen much at these things. Rhythm playing involves just turning down the guitar a bit and doing full-chord swells in the background...very trippy. I've held my own with a Jimi worshiper who's got all the Mayer pedal$$$ on a pricey and big pedal board. This pedal has it's quirks, but the sounds it makes are so worth it. It's probably not good for close recording work because of the noise, but it's a bitchin piece.

The Electro Harmonix Wiggler has two primary settings, those being tremelo and vibrato, and four modes: Looz, Hamm, Acey, and Wurl.

There are five knobs to control settings: 1) volume, 2) intensity, 3) mode, 4) vibrato/tremelo, 5) rate. The pedal has two tubes (12AX7s), one each input and output, and a footswitch that is true-bypass. Finally, the pedal has a 12 volt 1000mAH power supply with a proprietary plug-end; the pedal will not operate with anything else (that is, no batteries for this puppy).

To be very clear: This is a feature-filled vibrato effects pedal that also happens to have a very nice sounding, yet wholly limited, tremelo mode. Any concept of a "two for one" deal is really not accurate, as the number of options for the vibrato far outweigh those that are available to the tremelo; the Wiggler would serve as a tremelo solution only for those with modest needs.

To put it another way, the tremelo is something that has been tacked on for good measure, but it is most certainly a secondary effect. The Wiggler is a vibrato pedal.


Refer to other postings for interpretations on the sounds which this pedal is capable of producing. I will only add that both vibrato and tremelo effects sound great. The Wiggler is in fact a very unique pedal, and will create many lush effects.

However, I would like to comment on the "thumping" noise which others have mentioned. In my unit, I have found two "thump" spots. For the first, a slightly pulsing thump can be noticed when quieting the instrument and putting one's ear where usually a microphone would go. Obviously, this could pose some obstacles when recording with the effect. Secondly, cranking the "Intensity" knob much past 3 o'clock produces this same thumping noise, only it is much louder and more obtrusive. It's worth noting that the speed of the thump always consistent with the current setting for the "Rate" knob.

And speaking of the "Rate" knob, anything past the 1 o'clock setting is much too fast and mostly unusable--except, I suppose, for very unique applications.

The four modes (Looz, Hamm, Acey, and Wurl) will always affect the sound, regardless of the pedal's setting (vibrato/tremelo). While they are at their most functional and dramatic in the vibrato setting, for tremelo each one alters the warmth and character of the instrument's tone. The same applies when the "Intensity" and "Rate" knobs are turned all the way down and the pedal can is used to add its tubes and circuitry to enhance or alter the instrument's tone.

Seems sturdy enough, but it does have tubes. While they are protected by a sturdy metal grill--and the pedal itself is cased in strong metal--a firm five foot drop onto concrete would probably spell some trouble.

Also, it's worth mentioning that the pedal is about three and a half times the footprint of a Boss stompbox and roughly the same height.

Haven't yet dealt with the company.

In a nutshell, this is a great pedal with some very desirable sounds, but it has quirks. Some might attribute these as being part of the pedal's character. But at close to $200, a person might be quick to feel otherwise.

Test driving this pedal is recommended.

Easy to get great Whirling lushness. Almost idiot proof, but EHX lets their pedals go to extremes so if you try you can make this pedal sound terrible.

Best Vibrato There is. Tremolo is Crazy good too. EHX Does it Right.

Never had a Problem. Enclosure is much more solid than American Muff PI. And My Muff has been kicking for Over Twenty Years. Perhaps I will have to change the tubes someday. Duh

never dealt with them. But I do own ten of their pedals and never had an issue. I have heard good things about their customer service.

Easy to use

HERE'S THE PROBLEM:

I don't write many reviews, but feel I had to warn people about this unit. It produces some of the best tremolo out there, but my unit HUMS when engaged. I tried everything: isolating it from my pedalboard, plugging into a different outlet, using the ground lift switch on my amp, this unit HUMS. I tried guitar>wiggler>amp. HUM. Nothing I do helps. I contaced EHX about it & they said they has a $15 repair fee. I sent it in with the $15. I get it back- SAME HUM. I don't know if hum is inherent to this circuit or not, but it's too much for me. Damn shame- this is a fantastic sounding tremolo. I probably won't buy EHX stuff again because of this bad experience. I have exchanged emails with the original designer of this unit (who EHX has licensed the desgin from), and he says there should be no hum.

Well, they replied quickly when I inquired about repair service, but then I got the item pack SEEMINGLY UN-repaired!

Great great sounding trem, hum makes it unusable. I have heard many MANY storied online about EHX stuff being noisy- the Holy Grail is a perfect example. People either love it or hate it, largely based on if they got a noisy unit. This Wiggler is too noisy to use. Damn shame. It sound sweet. What's up with EHX? Their reliability issues have been well-known for YEARS.

Easy to use and get a great sound out of. Two modes: Vibrato & Tremolo. The Vibrato mode has 4 settings itself: Looz (Leslie), Hamm (Hammond), Acey (Vox), & Wurl (wurlitzer). Intensity adjusts how much of the effect as in how subtle to how full. Rate adjusts the speed. Both of these knobs are very highly adjustable, and I find the rate can even go higher than necessary. And then there's a volume knob. This baby is run by 2 12ax7 tubes and therefor requires its own power source.

I've used it with a solid body (PRS CE22) and a hollow body (Ibanez AF105). If you crank the intensity knob to full, it can get just a bit of noise, but thats just the throbbing of the vibrato effect going. I think of it like how a leslie speaker makes some noise and throb when it's spinning. But the Wiggler is definitly quieter than a leslie, and noise is really not an issue with this thing. I've tried it in the effects loop and in front of the amp. I would have thought the effects loop would be better, but honestly I didn't notice a difference in how it sounded in either position. So I'll probably end up using it in front since that's easier for me. I've used it with a tube combo (Carvin Nomad) and a solid state combo (Roland Cube 60). Sounds great with both.

I don't really use the tremolo setting. But I LOVE the vibrato setting. The reason I got this thing was the 3 vibrato settings (looz, hamm & wurl). With these 3 settings, I can get a solid rotating speaker sound. The hamm and looz are similar, while the wurl has just a tiny tad of gain/dirt that really does give it a wurlitzer-type feel. These 3 settings sound superb. The tubes give the Wiggler a warm, full tone. The only negative thing I can say about it is you can't switch between rate (speed) with a footswitch like other leslie emulator pedals can...you have to adjust the rate knob.

Oh, if you turn the rate all the way down, you can use the pedal to kind of just warm your sound up some as the throbbing can be totally stopped.

No problems with it so far. Tubes require attention every once in a while, but they should last a while and you can swap them to your liking. Right now I just have some Groove Tubes 12ax7's in it. I'm not a Groove Tube fan (they're just labeled chinese tubes) but they sound good in the Wiggler. I have EHX tubes in my Carvin Nomad actually and have been happy with them. EHX or JJ tubes might sound even better, which I'll get to trying eventually. I also have a Mini Q-Tron which hasn't had any problems.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I love this pedal. It's got that warm, thick throbbing effect that you don't want to turn off.

I was in the market for a leslie emulator pedal. In my search I realized that it's impossible to fully emulate the doppler effect of a real rotating speaker. I tried the Line 6 leslie emulation and already have the Dunlop Rotovibe. The Rotovibe is cool in that you can adjust the speed with its expression pedal, but it doesn't do the leslie thing as well as the Wiggler. I wasn't going to pay the price for a H&K Rotosphere, just too expensive for one effect in my opinion. The great thing about the Wiggler is that it has the same type of tube warmth that the Rotosphere does. The digital leslie emulators (Boss, Line 6, Korg G4, DLS, etc) don't have that tube warmth obviously. And the Wiggler is affordable.

The only thing I wish it had was a footswitch that allows you to switch between two rate/speed settings. When you have a tube effect, its always going to need its own power source, so that to me is not a negative.

VERY easy to use, the rate control is a little out of wack the only usable stuff ias in the first 1/2 turn

Great and bad at the same time. The quality of the sounds are amazing
BUT there can be a steady thumping pulse that is incredibling annoying and if your a studio cat unusable. I think it is coming from the Led since the thumps change at the same rate as the led and not the effect. I use a Peavey Classic 50 and on low volumes it is hard to hear but turn up a tad and thump thump thump. A 10 for effect sounds a 2 for this pain of a thump thing.

there was a part off inside a nut off someting when I got it and the Thump thing which could be a design thing from the Led.

There is not even a support section to their web site
shows they don't care at all about buyer satisfaction!!!!

I play all styles and do only studio work so this thing is a pain because of this thumpin noise. I may remove the led and see if it goes away because I really love the sound of it but EH sucks since I can't find out why it does this from them.If it weren't for the thumpin noise it sounds great. If you just want a great trem pedal there are way better choices out there like the Dunlop ts-1 for less $ If I can get rid of the thump it will be a great pedal.