Morley Bad Horsie Wah

One of the main reasons I purchased this wah was because of the automatic shut-off as opposed to traditional wahs with the switch you have to press on to shut it off. This is a definite plus over other wahs.

Stock, it's a little too dark for my tastes. Morley adjusted it for me and it's perfect. It sounds just like a vintage Hendrix wah now.

It's almost 4 years old and it still works like new.

First of all, I'm not affiliated with Morley in any way. I emailed Morley about my wah sounding a little too dark. There was nothing wrong with the wah, I originally bought the wah in 1998 for the unique automatic shut-off even though the sound was darker than what I like. Jim Seguin responded quickly and stated that Morley would adjust the frequency on the wah to my preference for FREE of charge. I was amazed that they would "go way beyond the call of duty" for a regular guy/non-celebrity guitar player like myself. I sent the wah to Morley. They had it for 1 or 2 days and sent it right back to me. The cutomized tone was exactly what I wanted. Jim Seguin even called me after I received the wah back to make sure I was happy with the new tone. In all my years of buying guitar gear, I've never experienced customer service as good as Morley's service. It's a true rarity in this day and age. I'll be sure to buy more Morley products in the future.

Now I have the perfect wah: Vintage/Hendrix tone with modern control and features.

I've used Vox, Dunlop, and a few others and in my opinion this one is by far the easiest. It's very precise. It's my idea of the way a wah wah pedal should work.

This thing is made to Steve Vai's specifications. Unfortunately, Steve doesn't like a traditional wah sound. I, on the other hand, do. This sound is more suitable for shredders who want to accent certain points in ther solo-ing. In my opinion it should not be catagorized as a wah. I was very disapointed with this aspect of the pedal, but so impressed with the way it worked that I was determined to somehow modify it to suit my needs. Read on.

Very sturdy. I completely trust it on it's own with no back up (Just keep some fresh 9 volts around).

Here is the beautiful thing about this situation. Bill at Morley left a message for us unsatisfied bad horsie users (a few reviews down from this one) to give him a call for some kind of resolve. I'm sure glad I did. He took time out of his busy schedule to give me detailed instructions over the phone on how the pedal adjustments could be made. He even called ME back. Several times. He explained how this thing works. The design is simple and beautiful. It uses two optic sensors with LEDs underneath the foot pedal. Light hits the sensor through two holes under the pedal: one that indicates when it is on (a much larger hole), and another that determines the range of the sweep (a smaller triangle shaped hole). The circuitry reacts by how much light is allowed to get through to the sensor. A brilliant design. With Bill instructing me, I was able to adjust the range of sweep by slightly covering the little triangle shaped hole on the foot pedal with electrical tape. Instead of a triangle, Bill told me to cover it so only a tiny slit remained. This prevented too much LED light from getting to the sensor, which added more definition to the sweep. Another mod I was able to do was loosen a nut on top of a copper coil and magnet which lowered the range of the sweep for a more traditional sound. With these modfications, anyone can tailor the sound of this pedal to be more to their tastes. It's a beautiful thing.

Morley gets points for a couple reasons. One, tremendous customer service! Two, innovating and improving the design of one of the most popular pedals ever. And three, for it's ease of use, sturdy design and quality craftsmanship. However, I cannot recommend this pedal to people who want a traditional wah wah sound. I would recomend that players try the Bad Horsie 2, or one of Morley's other wah wah pedals instead. I'm a strong suppoter of Morley now, but in the case of this pedal I must stick to my guns and give it an overall rating of 5. Steve Vai's idea of wah sound gets a 0.

No Brainer

Much cleaner than the usual wah's. But it still has some noise. I don't know if it's the frequency that wah's dial in or what, but they all can be noisy- not noticed during a show.
I really like the fact that you can step on it and your immediately "wah-ing". (haha) I can add a "wah" to any chord, note or sound at anytime without trying to step on it to turn it on. It?s unique because of that. Allows you to do more creative things. Just step on it and go. It goes off in the same way so you can wah just a few notes here and there without doing a total wah solo- I always have the problem of turning off my Crybabys etc. during solo's because I get so aggressive. That?s the main reason I bought this. But I was pleasantly suprised to be doing a lot more things with it than just "Not worrying" about me shutting it off mid solo.

Bought it 2 weeks ago- we'll see how it holds up,as I am VERY aggressive on it.

Great to see the Morley guys getting involved on this site!

I'd replace it if it we're broke or stolen.

even a blind, one legged man could figure this one out. Step on, wah wah wah, step off.

I run a dual rectifier into 2 mesa 2x12 cabinets. The Bad Horsie is the first effect in my pedalboard and then goes to digitech metalmaster< boss od-1< NS2< digitech x-series reverb pedal< Boss chorus and then Boss flanger. I have an EQ pedal and a boss DD-5 delay in the fx loop of the amp. I have 6 electric guitars but mostly use my Strat, Les Paul and Ibanez Prestige 320. I love the sound of this pedal. Other reviewrs have stated that they cannot hear this wah when they are using lots of distortion...I do not have this problem. The pedal could use a little midrange ( it has virtually none) but I think others people are disappointed with this pedal since it may not fit their style. I have had a fleet of cry-baby's and I have a vox also but the Bad Horsie fits my style more so than other wahs.

So far so good.

So far so good.

I play in a local hard rock band ( check us out at www.methanelive.com) and we do Godsmack, Incubus and a lot of other current bands. I am very into the shredders of the 80's that I grew up listening to and this pedal fits my needs. I have had 3 CryBaby's in the last five years and all of them have died without any abuse whatsoever. One never even left my house and was dead in 8 months. I love the sound of a Crybaby but I'll burn in hell before I buy another one of their cheap ass pedals. I then bought a Vox off of ebay and did not like it nearly as much as much Crybabys. I also struggle with getting the Vox to shut on and off easily. I bought the Bad Horsie soley on the fact that it was switchless. I had played with one several years ago and hated it. I now cannot get enough of this pedal ! It will not get you your 70's porno wah sound but that is not my bag of tricks anyway. When running my strat through the pedal I can get some devastating blues sounds ( and I play through a dual rec). I think this pedal really shines for anyone who plays " modern" hard rock/metal/shred whatever. If you want to record porno music get yourself the crybaby...this pedal is not for you. For myself, if someone stole this from me I would beat their ass with my box full of Crybaby parts and I shove my vox pedal in their backside. I will never play anything but a Bad Horsie until Jim Dunlop gets his products road friendly.

Well, it's a wah pedal. Switchless even. Not too hard to figure out.

I was expecting alot more considering everyone raves over it. But when i got it, it was a huge disappointment. First off, the sound is really weak in comparison to my crybaby. It got mass amounts of feedback no matter what order i put it in the effects chain. And was just overall bad.

It's built pretty well.

I've had friends tell me that their customner support was great. I haven't actually talked to them. I've read the things that bill said here, and he seems nice enough. It's too bad he's endorsing such a terrible product.

I chose this pedal after hearing people talk about how great switchless wahs were. As i said, it's too bad such a good idea was wasted on such a bad sounding product. I was going to buy a bad horsie 2, but after owning the first one, i'm not too sure i would have much faith in the sound. I give it a 2 because it's built well and i hear customer support is really attentive.

its extremely simple. theres nothing to adjust. just plug in cords and power it and your set. there wasnt really a manual just a sheet of paper describing how good it is to own a morley.

im running a les paul standard and a hamer custom flametop into the morley bad horsie. from there to a boss line selector. in loop one i have a zoom 505 and in loop 2 i have the fender pedal tuner. from the line selector into a danelectro mini phaser, then to a danelectro cool cat chorus then into an equalizer pedal. from there i go to a marshall 8100 head into a peavey 5150 4 12 cabinet.

it sounds badass. the horsie is first in my board and the packaging for the pedal says not recommended for use in effects loops. its not noisy at all. it has a very full thick sound to it. the wah is very broad compared to the crybabys ive been using for years

so far so good. i havent gigged with it yet cause its only 3 days old but it seems sturdy to me. i opened it up and there is too much circuitry. i hope it doesnt break down.

havent had to call yet.

im in a funk reggea punk hiphop hardcore jazz band. its pretty versitale. i might have to add a crybaby back to my board because i still like that sound but untill then this pedla is good.

i wish it came with a hundred dollar bill. its kinda pricey. but i like it so far

Hey all! Bill Wenzloff of Morley pedals here. Just wanted to remind everyone reading these reviews that if you want to post a negative review of our product and you haven't yet contacted us at Morley - you probably should. You'll be glad you did. Not that we mind bad reviews (if you want to let us have it, feel free!), we just know that if you take the time to call us we CAN and WILL solve whatever problem you have. You can reach me directly at 800-284-5172 ext 12. Hope to hear from you soon. KEEP THE REVIEWS (good or bad) COMING!! We use your comments to continually improve our products.

Very easy to use..........

I use an Ibanez Prestige and a Jackson Solist, through a Boss MT1 and a Boss GT-3 into a Marshall JCM2000 DSL100. I am disappointed with this pedal. It is very noisy on clean patches.........not noisy I guess, but adds ALOT of distortion. And when playing it for anything heavy, you can barely hear it. I have a crybaby....can't remember the model#...the one with the Q knob......and I like it much better for clean stuff......but was so hoping the Bad Horsie would cut through the distortion better than the Crybaby. It doesn't. What little I can hear does sound better than the Crybaby.....but it just isn't "there" if you know what I mean. I should have bought the Horsie 2, but was unaware of the newer model when I bought this one (6/02)

Very dependable.......I have used it every weekend since June....(TRYING to make it sound good) and haven't had any physical or mechanical problems. I have a backup.....

Haven't dealt with them YET.........going to contact them soon about adjusting the off/delay time. (I thought there was a pot or some way to adjust this setting, but when I opened it up, there was nothing adjustable.) Have heard their support is second to none...

Overall, I rate the Bad Horsie about a 7......very dependable, built VERY ruggedly, very easy to use...the switchless feature is actually the reason I bought it, but the sound is a tradeoff for the ease of use in my book.

going back to my military mentality-Keep It Simple Stupid! they did and this rules!

i mostly use a carvin kit guitar that has an emg-81 pick-up in the bridge and an emg-sa in the neck (i dont really like middle pick-ups so i leave them out or take them out). i am using different amps all the time but mostly a fender prosonic combo or '65 twin reissue. i love steve vai and bought it because if him. i have to agree with the other reviewers that say the bottom is kind of weak but it is meant to be an expressive tool mostly used for solo's and melody stuff. i dont think it was meant to spend a lot of time in the toe-up position anyway. i bought my first one about 4 years ago and really LOVE the thing. just because vai's name is on it doesn't mean i will use it (i will own it but not necessarily use it). it is definitley the best sounding wah i have ever tried or used. i love the boost i get from it...especially on clean melody stuff because it makes the notes jump out. for solo's, it is just the kick i need for certain things. i also agree with a lot of others that said it is more "modern" sounding. it is not a wah pedal that will give you the classic 70's funk "wah-ka-chi-ka" sound. if you want that then buy a dunlop or vox, otherwise use this thing how it was intended (i think) as an expressive solo/melody tool! only a nine though because sometimes when i use it for solo's, really high up on the neck-17th thru 22nd fret-i have a hard time telling it is there (but hey...maybe it is just me)!

i definitley can depend on this! i use it every gig,3 or 4 times a week,without a back-up! my first one died about 2 months ago after four years or so of abuse so no big deal. hey, who hasn't had some drunk idiot come up to you at the end of the night and kick your pedals all over the stage. or better yet, who hasn't been so drunk after a gig that they just throw everyting in a bag and hurry out of the club not really caring at all what the hell happened to their gear! but my first one did die so i must concede the point here and give a 9 also.

haven't had to deal with them although maybe i should have when the first one quit on me! i will take everyone elses word that they are great to deal with!

i play a lot of different styles from 70's disco and funk (i dont use it for the "wah-ka-chi-ka" sound, i have an envelope filter for that), to steve vai stuff, to hard rock and heavy metal. i have WAY TOO MUCH other gear but it is all fun to use and mess around with but this is the ONLY pedal at all (fuzz boxes, delays, chorus's included) that i use every night! it suits what i do perfectly despite a couple of its short comings that i mentioned earlier but they arent an issue for me. the balance of the hinge is definitely something you have to get used to but once again is not a problem. once you do get used to it is hard to play on any other wah's. just to try something different, when my first bad horsie died i bought a dunlop jimi hendrix wah which i really like also but realized that it just doesnt sound as good to ME as the bad horsie so 2 months later i bought another one. if it were stolen, i would probably kill the guy that took it (just because i HATE thieves), but when my last one broke i bought another so that says everything i can about it!!!!! overall i give it a ten because it is PERFECT for what "I" need it for.

cant get any easier, the thing wah's itself.

I wrote a fairly critical review of the bad horsie wah, (babs), but since then a lot has happened. The whole issue with the price changing was obviously distributor related, because I emailed Bill Wenzloff of morley, and lets just say I was more than satisfied with their response, the customer service of this company is second to none. It really is unbelievable. You probably think this only matters if you buy a faulty product, but it matters just as much if you don't like the product, cause you can do something about it (if you bought it from morley, anyway). It turns out the wah I bought was most likely faulty, and I have since obtained a bad horsie 2, and the difference is unbelievable. The contour mode, with the level of full, gives a bigger volume boost than I expected, and the control really offers a huge tonal spectrum. Its elctro optical circuitry is completely silent, and the switchless feature is flawless. The wah has a modern sound, but with the contour control you cat get pretty much any sound out of it. I have no basis for comparison, but I am definitely more than satisfied, the silent circuitry used for the pot really is an incredible development, forget scraping old metallic pots filled with grime, and make way for the future. It only got nine cause after buying it, I still don't play like Vai.

only had it for a short period of time, but its exhibited no deteriation so far. it seems reliable

All that can be said for this category is, its the best I've ever encountered, and I got a good taste of it. You wouldn't believe it.

This wah really makes the most of modern technology, which morley pioneered, so its no wonder. Jim Dunlop hasn't made any breakthroughs since the company was founded, except the ones it ripped of morley. The the silent electro optical circuitry is incredible. But all this doesn't mean it won't suit hendrix or classic rock. I tend to look at it like PRS, its modern, and is above being a certain genre, its just the sound of quality.