Morley CLW Classic Wah

Hello all, Bill Wenzloff from Morley here. Just wanted to remind everyone that if you need assistance in any way please call me toll free at 1-800-284-5172 ext 12 or email me at demodude@hotmail.com

Keep the reviews (good and bad) coming. The good reviews always make us feel great and the bad reviews keep us motivated to do better.

Pretty simple to be pair. Press the switch to turn it on! This can be a bit annoying actyually because you need to stamp on the switch and then do your wah thing. It gets pretty tricky to get the desired wah effect from this thing as you have to use certain areas of the frequency sweep for different areas on the neck! For example if you were using the lower strings with more bass you would need to use the wah in the open position as it does nothing in the closed.

Very poor! With clean sounds its ok. A bit harsh in the trebbles but ok. The sweep is so dramatic from the bass frequencies that it can be used as a substitute for a volume pedal! Used like this it gives some nice Incubus esque phaser/volume swell effect which is nice. Whack on sum beef however and the whole thing goes to pot. The wah just doesnt work like this. It is indistinct and doesnt produce the wah effect. Just a sudden two-step change in tone. With lower gain settings it works marginally better but nothing special.

This thing is built to withstand anything you care to throw at it. Made of metal and painted chinky black it looks meen! Mind you I would rather use it as something to throw at someone rather than a wah pedal.

Can't really comment on this. The manual included was pretty bad.

I play a range of styles but mostly in the rock/funk style where wah is pretty important. I don't think this pedal really works for me at the moment so I plan on selling it to get a ZVEX Wah Probe or a Budda. I have been playing for 2 and a bit years now and use a fender USA standard strat and an Ibanez RG series guitars going into a Line 6 Flextone 3. I would not recomend you buy this pedal!!!! Go for a second hand cry baby of the likes but stay away from this thing.

Easy just turn it on and rock it back and forth

Ok well i just plug this pedal to my guitar and amp nothing fancy,i play alot of things from country picking to hendrix and vai,but the wah just sounds weak,i tried many morley wah's but this one is their crappy one. If you have the wah with some distortion well ok it sounds decent, i got this plugged in with my ibanez rx40 through a 100 watt engl and it can sound ok but when its clean its not as strong

This thing,like all the morley pedals are built like a rock and i definetly could depend on it.

I have called Morley and talked to bill, hes a great guy and he knows what hes talking about, he told me to send in the wah and get it fixed to sound like what i want to for no charge, but im just thinking to trade it for a crybaby 535Q or just sell it to get a bad horsie 2.

Look Morley is a great company but like i said, ive played many of their wahs and they sound awesome its just that i got the classic wah and it just wasnt their best one,if you wanna get a wah get a morley, im definetly thinking about getting a bad horsie 2 when i sell this and yes i did mention i was gonna get a crybaby but the bad horsie kicks its ass.

Crappy feel to the pedal itself.

It didn't take 30 minutes to figure this wah was not for me. I prefer the traditional wah-wah sound - a 70's love Boat sound, if you will. The Morley CLW didn't have it.

Additionally, the pedal rocker is not smooth and the pedal felt as if it jerked minutely into position. Also, the range of tone was very slight troughout the pedal's entire travel span.

I took it back the same day and exchanged it even up for Dunlp CrtyBaby, which had exactly the sound I was after.

Seemed well-built but was useless to me for it's tone and feel/playability.

I've been playing longer than my talent shows. I own a couple of Gibson archtops, Digitech GNX3 pedal, 3 or 4 Zoom MFX pedals, Polytone SS amps, Fender Super Amp (tube).

I took the thing back the day I bouhgt it and traded it for a Dunlop CryBaby pedal, whihch works well for me.

In terms of this units ability to plug in a play, it's very easy. There's a socket on one side for your input cable and one on the other for your output.

It runs of the standard 9v battery or adapter. I never had to change my 9v battery in the 6/8 months I had this wah, by sticking to the instructions in the manual to unplug the input cord when not in use.

The use of a photo resistor in place of a standard potentiometer meant that the wah will probably still sound and function just as well new as after many years of use, as is the case with many of the older Morley Wah's.

I did not like the on/off switch being on the side of the wah. It was hard to switch whilst wearing shoes(!) and this meant that I left in on all the time which I was using it.

I bought this pedal for use with an Ibanez Sr405 5 string played through some awful 30watt Watson (urrgh) but I did try it through a Gallien Krueger 700RB 2x10 combo (thanks Louis!).

The one truely annoying thing that I found about this pedal was that when it was on, but not in use, it destroyed my tone!! This coupled with the fact that it had to be left on all the time meant that I was unable to play with my desired sound!!

It also seemed to do most of its nice sounding wah within the first inch of its sweep, after that it just sounded awful and raspy.

This pedal was nice to use with a Big Muff Pi (USA) and an MXR Phase 100. When all in use at the same time you could get some interesting and fun sounds. But it sounded awfull when used on its own, unlike the Cry Baby's or other cheap Dunlop pedals. Try using this for playing "Coffee Shop" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers to really see how inferior this pedal is when played on its own.

I hoped, when I purchased the pedal, that I would be getting a wah that sounded something like that of Cliff Burton. I though that the classic Morley sound would be something similar to what he was using (Morley PWB) but it wasn't. Admittedly playing "For Whom The Bell Tolls" with one of these does sound better than when using a Cry Baby.

Very reliable due to the use of the photo resistor. I imagine this pedal will still be working in 30 years time if its looked after.

Casing is probably bullet proof and could probably survive being on the road.

AS I said earlier, I managed to get a good 6/8 months out of the battery, so it doesn't eat up too much battery. Never tried it with an adapter.

Never had to deal with them. Their web site is good and has online manuals for all their new and old models, as well as parts and spares such as leds.

Its not that bad a pedal. It is a good introduction to the morley sound, so if you didn't know what sound you were looking for in a wah wah pedal it would be recomended that you give it a go in the shop. At #60, it may be cheap, but thats not worth spending on a pedal that is not Morley's finest piece of work.

Yes it is built like a tank and will give you a lifetime of trouble free "wahing" but aren't most pedal built like tanks and most will give you a lifetime of use?

I sold mine and bought a Morley PWB from eBay. I sold it for what I feel they should be worth - #20.

Hard to get a good sound at first. The unit has an anemic sound with a nearly unusable sweep, more like a tone switch than a filter sweep. I opened the unit and foind that the sweep is accomplished by shining an LED through a shaped hole in a little card that moves back and forth with the pedal motion. The hole looked like a box with a little tail on it. This sudden change in the hole shape accounts for the switch as opposed sweep sound. I used tape to even out the shape and the unit now sweeps much more smoothly. Moving the LED closer or farther from the card changes the overall tone, closer for more trebly and further for more basy. For some reason the mod also cured the anemic sound. The wah effect is now more pronounced, almost like a crybaby.

I use a '74 Strat Hardtail through a Boss SD-1 overdrive into a Peavey Classic 20 amp using various speaker cabinets. The Morely Classic Wah dosen't sound overly noisy. The effect was weak (too weak) before I messed with it; now it's fine. It does not have the "scratchiness" of wah's that use pots, which may sometimes be a downside since that tone is so endemic to classic rock and roll.

The unit is simply and sturdily built. I don't gig but I expect no problems.

Never worked with Morely.

I play rock, blues and attempt a little jazz. Been plying 35 years. I'd probably go wth a Dunlop or more "traditional" wah were I to do it again, because the sound is known, even with the attendant problems. There are a gazzillion mods available in the internet for traditional wahs, but nothing for the optical sensor units like Morely. Still, for someone who wants a less scratchy tone and is willing to mess around a little, this unit will work fine. They're pretty cheap on ebay.

On off switch and Led.
Nice.

A wah is a wah is a wah unless there is something wrong with it.
This thing does the job with no problems.
I don't buy wha's for their sound.
I buy them because they wah.
I use it through a tube Marshall stack or a Class A stereo Kendrick 15 watter.
You want raunchy just throw a tubescreamer in front of it.
Can do funk too.

Heavy duty with no gears to wear out.

??

I play rock, blues, jazz and country.
Been playing close to 40 years.
Had lots of wah's.
They are all the same.
They wah.
Some are made better than others.
Some have effects added.
This is just a simple wah that does what it is supposed to do.
Not much to share on this.
If you want a wah that works well, holds up well and is simple.
This is a good one.

Simple.

The is the worst sounding wah on the market. It mutes the sound in the back postion and it barely changes the sound to even sound close to a real wah sound.

Stong casting. I like most of Morley's other products.

N/A

I am a jazz/funk man and have played many wahs. I just bought this one b/c of the cheap price. Doh! If you are just wanting to spend money this is a great pedal. Otherwise it isn't worthy for a 12 year old to play with.

SAVE YOUR CASH AND BUY A VOX OR A HIGH END CRYBABY. TRUST ME THIS THING REALLY REALLY BLOWS

Its very easy, and if you are the lazy type of person, you'll not gonna like the side-switch!

I have a Yamaha Pac112eg SE==>classic wah==>DOD Octoplus==>DOD Extreme dist. (very shitty)==>Boss RV-3 delay==>Danelectro fish and ships==> Peavey Bandit 112.

its a bit noisy in the upper position, the effect is weak when the DOD Dist. is on, but it comes to life when the amp is dirty(The amp is a bit noisy when dirt) you can hardly get some artist wah sounds, its better with an Overdriven amp...i've never tried with a different dist or overdrive.

i have dropped the thing about 4 times and it doesnt have a scratch, and the sound get better every fall haha

THEY ARE GREAT...they even gave me tha best dists and ODS to plug it with!

I play everything between Blues and Progressive, and it suits me very well, for now, im planning to buy a tremonti power wah...someday! ive been playing guitar since 2000, if it were stolen i'll get a job to buy something better (TPW or badhorsie II)

what i like about it is the sound and the casing......full metal!

The power button is extremely close and on the right side of the footpedal. It's easy to miss the button. However, the pedal is simple to use. Press the button to turn the wah on and off.

Compared to a Crybaby, the most used wah, this wah's sound is horrible. You can hardly hear the oscillator sweep at all, especially with distortion. It is more of a high-pass filter than anything. The only good thing I've found it useful for so far is a good phone effect (which is barely past the bottom of the sweep), and a whistling wind sound (unplugged guitar, sweeping wah and Tubescreamer on).

My wah also has an anomoly with it that further turned me off. While going very slowly to the top of the sweep with distortion on, I noticed that about 85% is the max of the oscillator, and then the oscillator goes down as I continue to press the pedal forward. I don't know if that is a glitch or how the pedal was designed, but it sounded bad. (This was easily remedied by Legos and yellow tacky stuff, however.)

I don't think it is my setup influencing this. (I have a Kramer strat copy; then to the Morley CLW, Ibanez Tubescreamer TS-5, Danelectro vibrato, DOD chorus, Digitech Delay; then to a Kustom III Lead SC, which the head is connected to a Dunlop Talkbox, then to a Crate KBA 150.) I've also tested this on a friend's setup (Ibanez GAX-70 to the CLW, then to a Danelectro Daddy-O, Digitech RP-100, then to a Peavey Mark III head to a Behringer half-stack), and the result was the same. *shrug*

It is very reliable and is built like a tank.

I've been playing rock for three years, and have been listening to it for 16 years. I wanted to get that great distortion-with-wah-sweep and the shredder's wah-with-tapping sound as well as a 70's-funk/porn sound on clean. With the CLW, none of these are possible. I highly recommend that you buy a Dunlop Crybaby or a Vox Wah. If you like Morley, you might want to check out the Mark Tremonti Power Wah, for it sounds exactly like a Crybaby.