Guyatone BG-03

The effect has three knobs: Threshold, Decay and Mix. The threshold acts a cut-off frequency, the decay sets how fast you want the wah to react and the mix gives a mix of the effected sound and the direct signal. (It has two outputs.)There isn't a wide variety of sounds so it's pretty idiot-proof. Even though the effect is easy to use I don't like the fact it doesn't have a sensitivty knob. Also the direct sound is always much louder than the wah sound even when the knob is cranked 90% of the way towards the wah sound. If you turn the mix to 100% wah, it sounds good but you lose bottom. I may have gotten a dud, however. I'll explain in the reliability section.

The effect is specifically made for bass. The Guyatone Wah Rocker and Stevie Salas Wah Rocker are better for guitar. The BG-03 sounds like a Mutron when the filter is on high and the range is up. The difference is, it sounds much drier than the Mutron. The Mutron is very sensitive to subtle nuances but the BG-03 only seems to vary only when you change your picking style. The sound can be best described as a "dry sunction cup" sound that goes "pow!" For those concerned with noise, this pedal seems to have a bit of a flange. The noise sounds like a steady current of air. It's like really smooth white noise. It's not quiet but not really annoying either. (At least not as annoying as 60 cycle hum...I hate that!) I used it on different basses and it seems to sound best on a Jazz Bass. I'm going to give this a 6 because even with the noise, the wah sounds clean. The only artist that has one, that I know of, is T.M.Stevens but I think his main wi custom Morley.

I had a strange problem with it. For awhile the Wah sound became really low and loud. It was as if the sound went from band pass filter to low pass. I opened it several times but couldn't figure it out. The sound wasn't bad, however. It just sounded different during that time. It eventually fixed itself and the problem never occurred again. I have had it for about two years. I have a BG-01 and my brother has about five other Guyatone effects and there wasn't any problems with those. I think mine just might be a lemon. Guyatone came out with another Bass Wah called Bottom Wah Rocker. I haven't tried it yet because I recently bought the MutronIII+.

It fixed it's self. (Read above) I never bothered to contact the company.

I compared the Guyatone BG-03 Wah beside my DOD FX-25 Envelope Filter and my MutronIII+. The Mutron is my favorite one and the DOD is next. The Guyatone is best described as dry and clean. The Mutrons has a wetter, deeper and sweeter sound. The DOD is greasy and sticky. Before buying, I would try to test it out. It does sound cool sometimes and I did record with it several sounds. If you'd rather buy two or three cheaper envelope filters instead of one MutronIII, Q-tron or Meatball, then I would definately get it. Most cheaper envelope filters don't have this autowah sound. If you're in Japan and want to get a pedal that not many people have in the states, I would also get it.