Morley PDW II Pro Series II Distortion/Wah/Volume Pedal

Very Simple To Use, all it is is a three knobs, couple of switches, and an expression pedal. If you don't understand them then you might as well just get off of the stage.

Ok, Here's where it really matters. The Volume is great, Doesn't change tone at all which is big plus. The Wah is good too, of course wah is a big opinion thing so it depends what you like in your sound. I didn't like it that much for a while but once i messed with it a bit it turned out to be pretty good. Now for the distortion ABSOLUTE FAIL!! I hate the distortion on this pedal, if it's ever turned on I'm showing it's horridness to someone.

I play every sunday, tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. All of this is either practice or on stage playing for my church's worship teams. This thing has held up nicely. I'm hoping it'll hold out for a few more years.

Haven't had to deal with them

It's a good pedal and if i didn't have it i would be in a bit of trouble. The only fail is the distortion but that's not very important if you don't rely on it. I'm happy with it.

It very EZ to use - check this the on switch is on the side - so while your in the middle of a solo never have to worry about turnin it off from steppin down too hard on top (nice)

sound quality is subjective... also depends on your individual rig... also depends on what your goin for .... the sweep can be modified and no pots to gets scratchy on ya .. i like it - i use it in front and then rocktron big crush and then maxon 808 and the ibanez delay (older one) into a Fender Vibro Champ modified runnin 2X10 weber alnicos - the dime CBH has lots of different settings but i found i was only using one setting son whats the point, i like the vox but if you want & LED and ( DC option) you needs mods might as well go W/true bypass and then you got enough invested to justify a boutique wah - honestly i never use the volumn or distortion options just the wah - but i can get some very nice blues and rock sounds w/it -

never had a problem - at all!

no personal experience, never had a problem, i hear from others there very good !

I have a older 80's MIJ strat with Texas specials and torres blues caster mod and another custom strat like single P90 pickup in the bridge ( a little fatter) if it were stolen - i would replace it BUT the next one i'll get will just have the pro wah w/ level control / led / dc outlet / because its all i use and it will most likely be cheaper - also for the money you cant afford not to have this in your arsenal somewhere if for no other reasons than just versatility - the distortion and volumn features were not usefull to me but the wah has LED - I like the switch set up - DC outlet - wide sweep -
no pots to get scratchy - i've also had the bad horsie before and i didnt personlly care for the switchless type of wah as much as this type - i think this wah is kindof underated and can be had on ebay for cheap and you dont have to get the distortion and vol features just simplicity for a great deal (IMHO)

The functions on this pedal are pretty self-explanatory. As far as the pedal itself is concerned it is easy to use, although switching is a bit awkward because of the switch positions. As for ease of use with my setup, it's not as easy as I thought it would be. I bought the pedal for rock but I also play a lot of black metal and death metal. I have an emg-85 and a seymour duncan livewire-metal in my guitar, and when my volume knob is turned to full and my gain set to high, the wah-effect is barely noticeable. I have been toying with all kinds of settings for about the last two days straight. To get a nice wide-range sweep out of it, I have to turn my volume knob to about half and my gain down quite a bit. It's a good thing I only do home recordings because this wah would be totally useless to me in a live situation while playing metal.

When amp and volume settings are tweaked, the wah sounds nice. I used to have an original crybaby and I prefer the sound out of this, not as bright, accents a lot more mids. The volume feature does what its supposed to do but it's tough to do quick and smooth switching because of this feature. The distortion is alright, but nothing fantastic, and it adds a lot of hum and noise. I'm using a v-amp pro for recording, and I wouldn't recommend this wah with that particular amp modeler. Sounds better when I play through my peavey bandit 112, but that doesn't help me much because the amp sounds like crap anyways.

I have owned it for a couple of days but it weighs like a brick and is made of steel I think. Won't fall apart any time soon.

Havn't dealt with morley.

For rock and some lower output pickups, i'm sure it'd be great. For metal, not exactly what i'm looking for because of the sound issues. If I were to lose this pedal, I'd have to look into some other ones. I like the sound of this pedal but getting my sound out of it is not as straightforward as I would have liked.

It's a souped up wah pedal, which features wah or volume (on the right side of the pedal) and an independent distortion switch (on the left side) with knobs for volume (effect output) and tone controls. Although the effect already features several options I find it negligent they did not include a wah shaping knob/option.

This is a simple setup, finding an effective setting shouldn't be too difficult even for a novice user.

Live I use the Morley into my ART SGX effects rack and then straight to my Mesa Boogie amp. They don't make my amp anymore, it's closest to a Mark IV with a few less knobs. In the studio I replace the Mesa with a ART stereo compressor and go direct into the sound card (Sound Blaster Audiology 2). They don't make the SGX anymore either (maybe I should get some new stuff?) but it has an amp simulator and a tube preamp, I haven't had any issues going direct.

There is some colouring of the tone when the pedal is hooked into my chain. This would be fairly common among most pedals and I don't hold a grudge, if I want pure tone I'll plug straight into the amp.

As with most reviewers, I find the Wah and volume features to work as I would expect. My only beef here is that the volume assumes the value where you left the Wah, that is to say, when you switch from Wah to Volume, if you don't have the foot pedal all the way down/forward, you'll get little or no volume (and conversely, every time you switch to Wah from volume, you assume max treble Wah sound). The volume should assume full volume until I change the value (like the Steve Vai model), but hey, it's olde school tech and I knew that going into the purchase.

Like most reviewers I also find the distortion to be lacking and quite noisy when joined with another distortion (my P90 Hamer Artist suffers the greatest humility here). The distortion would be better described as a volume booster with a little bit of punch. I find that setting the distortion value to near low and then match the level of dry versus wet (that is, no change in volume when engaged), it can be used very effectively somewhat like a preamp, it allows me to roll my volume down but maintain decent sustain. This is especially useful when I'm in the studio and I'm not using the Mesa (which by it's nature, would provide a similar function).

It's a Morley, it's built like a tank. It does suck up the batteries pretty quickly, I assume a lithium Duracell.

Never dealt with them.

I play mostly rock and jazz fusion, so a Wah comes in handy for the occasionally song, I find myself using the volume and distortion 'boost' most often. The Wah has a very wide sweep and has a traditional sound, the foot pedal is smooth, solid and quiet when in use. The 'boost' can be noisy when joined with a more crunching distortion leaving the effect limited if you only have single coil guitars.

I had a Dunlop Wah forever that was getting scratchy but always wanted a Morley, they were on special so I got the all encompassing one. I wasn't necessarily looking for a Wah at that time, but hey, it was a good sale. I was hoping the distortion would offer some new sounds and at first was disappointed, but now I use it as a compressor/sustainer and it's even more useful in than I anticipated.

As stated before, I would like to see a Wah 'contour' option and a little more intelligence when switching between volume and Wah. If you're reading this Morley, that's my enhancement request, you're welcome to name the new pedal after me, I'll have my lawyer contact you're lawyer :-)

Easy as 3 Knobs and 2 Swithches can possiby be. the Switches take getting used to but overall pretty easy

SG or Strat into my Behringer GMX212 Amp set to either a Clean Fender, Ampeg or Roland sound or a Distorted Marshall sound. the Wah is the first in the signal chain as i prefer wah before distortion like Hendrix did.

The main complaint with this pedal is the distortion. the distortion is not great as a primary distortion but works realy well with the wah in tandem or as an extra boost. It is very Transparent and basically adss sustain to your sound. a bit to trebly for my taste but it serves a good purpose in my rig. As with anything that is an all in one always keep a single effect around. i use a boss blues driver that i am going to replace as soon as the money is right but it gives a good sound plus the marshall sound on the amp. Anyway the Volume pedal function is good for backward guitar simulation. ( stikeing a note without volume so you here only the affect of the attack but not the attack) and silencing the whole board. this pedal gives off an almost imperceptable tone suck so it is best not to use it with to many tone sucking pedals. If the rest of your board is good then you wont have a problem. the wah is the reason to buy the pedal. It is warm and versatile. Doesn't sound like a crybaby. closer to the Hendrix thing.
Great Wah for use in almost any style. maintains your playing integrity better than the dunlop seems to. So Funk is as funky as you make it and the blues is as sad as you are. THis is a good thing in my book as I prefer effects that give you the most imput on how they sound. You will play this pedal it will not play you.

Built like a tank.I have had mine for about 3-4 years without problem and have used it at gigs without backup

Great overall pedal and something I would recomend for the player who needs to cover many bases in one 2 hour show. works great for almost everything. I can even do a few jazz things with it.

younger players (I'm 18 but have been playing since i was 9) may have problems with the distortion and the fact that this is not a dunlop nor does it try to be. If you try it out in the store before you buy it and try it thoroughly then you will not be dissapointed. the thoroughness goes for all products in the music world. I rave about it but then it fits my sound and needs perfectly. THe same could not be said of my Chorus pedal witch i am going to sell soon

This pedal is much more useful than most reviewers say and here is why:
it is easy to use IF you adjust your LEAD VOLUME with drive distortion and the wah ON (and your tube amp class A at a breaking point). You then control your rhythm volume simply by reducing guitar volume on your guitar if you stay in the wah mode or by the volume pedal itself if you get out of the wah mode. I also use this unit with Seymour Duncan's $85 Booster that gives me up to 25dB volume enhancements, but in most situations I do not need it. In summary with a tube amp the volume works great, wah is fine if you just get used to it and drive is not a distortion it's rather like TS808 boost-driver of your tube amp and as such it works fine. None of the sub-functions is THE best in its class but the combination, if you need it as I do (see below) is well worth $65-$100 that people pay these days for it.

A Baby-boom experieneced blues-jazz-classic rock guitarists will easily adapt to this pedal in situations when you need just one pedal i.e. when you have a small clud gig and do not want to schlepp your advanced pedal board and 2-3 amps etc ....

Normally I play medium size gigs with latino-jazz band and in most gigs plug my RMC-piezo (Roland 13pin out to GR-33) modified Les Paul or Strat Plus through GR-33 into the VHT Valvulator 1 tube pre-amp that modifies the signal impedance to low impednace with no loss and then it goes to Seymour Duncan's Pick-upBooster (in position 2 vintage mode / 16dB setting) to this Morley 3 function pedal (wah only very rarely used; drive extremely rarely). Morley I use to control volume in most clean moody songs ... then it's Cry Baby wah (hence I rarely need this Morley wah but I like it's different) -> Visual Sound Route 66 (with a compressor ON all the time and screamer only ocasionally) --> JFT Baby Blue tube-screamer for wild solos of the angy bluesy type and then to my Gibson GA-15RV 112 all tube class A divine sounding combo to which I serially link THD Univalve also class A (with 6V6 output tube) through an old Fane 112 cabinet. My sound is truly Divine as I play since 1960 so my fingers and ears follow my sould vibrations and these toyz that I use can handle provide sounds I want. I can also add the Danelectro BLT slap echo if I need some mild delay.

Of course when I play at home or in a small gig at the University or at a party I do NOT carry my full pedal-board or all amps. I take my second set (that I usually keep at home for fun, practice and recording): $490 Variax 500 through this Morley 3 function pedal (I own TWO of them !) into $230 light (11kgs) Laney LC15R all tube 110 combo in which I replaced speaker with a nice Weber 10''.

This set is light: Variax guitar (24 options inside :-), Morley and Laney ... even my old spine can handle that weight !

The sound is not as Divine as my full rig but MUCH BETTER than any Line6 or Vox AD or Behringer or even Roland VG-88, Yamaha DG boxes (I owned and tested them all and sold them all except Behringer V-X as it is cheapo $50). Actually I use all knobs at 2pm breaking point and get fabulous range of sounds by using Morley wah and drive ON as I explained in the features: that's THE WAY to use this pedal !

Here I would have to give 9 in all fairness as you do get better volume or drive or wah in individual units but to compensate for reviews of less experieneced players I give it 10 (harmony central rating :-)

need more time to say

no idea

If you are baby-boom guitarist who plays blues-classic rock and if you need all three options with your LIGHT combo for small gigs than this is fine purchase, especially if you use it as a volume pedal in your more complex set-up. The wah is fine and so is the tube-screamery DRIVE (not distortion) so overall the unit makes sense if you are willing to use your inteligence and your guitar volume knob too on stage :-)

Volume is not as good as Ball, wah is slighly inferior to Cry Baby and drive is not exactly TS808 BUT the difference is minor and you can use these effects to expand the range of your sound-colors.

It is sufficiently transparent as well for a non-boutique pedal, so in summary, if you can afford one to use it as a volume and 2nd spare and small gigs unit it makes sense to buy it.

Metal heads, young kids, punks and any esoteric musicians do NOT buy this pedal as you will NOT like it, period.

Baby-boomers classic bluesy guitarists (but not anal-tone-maniacs for whom only Klon Centaur or the latest $450+ boutique pedal made by Gicanno Lamborginno from Australia is good enough) you can consider this pedal.

YES, it is fantastic value if you have USE for it (home, small gigs with light combo, baby boomers, jazz guitarists, tolerant blues guitarists, teachers, church guitarists, open-minded beginners)

Very easy, either use it as a wah, volume, or distortion, or combine whichever ones you want to use together. But, getting a good sound out of it isn't too easy, unless you just use it as a volume pedal, then you won't really have much to complain about. I have had mine for 3 years, used it maybe for a few months when I first bought it and then bought a Dunlop GCB-95 and just recently upgraded my GCB-95 to a 535Q. But, unlike Dunlop, Vox, and most other companies that make good wah pedals, Morley has the on/off switch on the side of the pedal instead of under the foot pedal itself, which is terrible if you want to use the wah. It's not hard to use, but is just stupid, there really is no need for the "distortion" on this pedal, it's such a joke!

First off, the distortion on this pedal is by far the worst distortion I've ever heard in my whole life, it's a big waste of space on this pedal, it's so bad, I doubt anyone could use it or would use it. Noisy? Once your pots start to age, you get some annoying little "explosions" when you turn the wah on and off, but that's what happens when the stock on/off switches are cheap crap. Clean them up all you want, but it's too annoying to deal with, go and get a Dunlop wah. Also, if you have the distortion knob turned up when you aren't even using the distortion, you can hear, very faintly, your signal getting a small amount of distortion, Yeah, I thought I had the distortion off and it's still slightly coming through, sign to go and get something a lot better. The volume function isn't bad, but go and get an Ernie Ball volume pedal, Morley makes some good wahs, but these cheaper, less unpopular models are pretty crappy. Onto the wah itself, right when I bought it and brought it home to play with it, I knew it wasn't what I wanted, it's not your normal sounding wah, nothing at all like a Dunlop. Heel up, you can get a somewhat deep range wah sound, but it doesn't start to get nasaly until the pedal is all the way down, toe position, actually, it doesn't get nasaly at all, which sucks. With the wah in the middle, you get a strange, digital-like wah sound, very hard to explain, if you play with the wah mid ranged, half way, you can get some very strange sounds, you can all them wah sounds, but not me, I've never heard such a bad wah sound from any wahs I've ever owned. There isn't much of a wah range on this pedal, heel up, you get a sorta deep wah sound, middle, you get wierdness, and then toe down, you just get like a trebly, flat sound. I did also have a Vox V847 wah when I bought this one, but I was modifying it to get a 60's Hendrix sound, nice and warm. So, I ordered a Dunlop GCB-95 wah, and that helped me out a lot, Dunlop makes wahs like how they should be! I'm not saying Morley wahs are crap, you just gotta get one of the good ones, either one of the Steve Vai Bad Horsie's, that's if you want to buy Morley instead of a Dunlop or Vox, Dunlop is the best in my opinion. You want a real wah pedal, go out and by the 535Q wah, the best wah pedal you can get, literally, modify your wah the way YOU want it, or get the wah sound of any of your favorite guitarists. I had a Boss PW-10 V Wah, but hated it, one of the worst wahs I've ever bought, not as bad as this Morley wah though, but it's pretty bad.

I wouldn't want to be recording or be on stage with a wah pedal where the on/off switch is on the side of the pedal instead of under it, you gotta hit the switch and then move your foot over to the pedal, which is dumb, you want instant wahing and to be in control of your wah sound right when you need to use it. Or be on stage or recording with a wah pedal where when you turn the pedal on and off you get little "explosions" from the crappy on/off switch. Easy access battery compartment, but who cares, if you use batteries in your pedals you are an idiot, a Visual Sounds One Spot adapter and a daisy chain cost about $25-$30, and it can power up to twenty pedals if you get more of the daisy chain adapters. Why not get one, it might seem like a lot for an adapter, but in the long run, you're gonna waste so much money on the stupid little batteries!

Yeah, I got mine cheap, but that didn't matter the pedal sounds terrible, but I just kept it. I'm thinking of selling it or maybe modifying it, take all the insides out, replace everything in there, and make a better wah and high gain volume pedal. At the time I bought it, I just wanted to get a Morley, but I made a mistake in which Morley wah I bought, shoulda gotten the Bad Horsie, but I have my 535Q. Trust me, Dunlop makes some of the best wahs, especially their 535Q, try them out first, I guarrantee you'll want a Dunlop instead, unless you want like the Bad Horsie, they are actually good, but try it out first.

The pedal is very self-explanatory... button on the left turns on distortion. The knobs on the left control the distortion volume, tone and dirt. The button on the right activates the wah. When the wah isn't activated, the pedal swisher becomes a volume pedal. Neat, huh?

I'll tell you what... Morley always makes the best shit... but all these new wahs will never beat one of those ancient chrome Tel-ray pedals... I also own a Power wah and a power wah boost (PWO&PWB). The sound is good on the wah, I just like the vintage pedals better on my bass. My rig consists of a Tobias Growler 4, an ESP C-305, Alesis Nanocompressor, Samson Wireless, Lexicon MPX 100 Rackmount processor, Ampeg SVT 3 Pro, Morley Power Wah Boost(vintage chrome), Morley Power Wah(vintage chrome), a russian Big Muff Pi Distortion by Electroharmonix and an Ampeg SVT810E(8x10 Enclosure).

My bitch with the new morley pedals is how the pedal travel from back to front is soooo tiny, it goes from quiet to loud in volume mode right away and the wah is hard to pinpoint a sweet spot. Now, if you're one of those people who likes to go from one extreme to the other easily, this is the pedal for you!!

Don't get me wrong... I think the pedal is great and I recommend anyone who reads this to buy one, but I happen to prefer their vintage and hard to find models. But remember... don't limit yourself and experiment with different pedals and orders in the way you patch them together. I love the way a wah sounds when it is right before the amp. I run my bass system in this order

1)wireless
2)compressor
3)distortion
4)processor
5)wah pedal(s)
6)amplifier
7)speakers (duh!)

By the way, the distortion sucks on the pedal, I recommend running a distortion before the wah and maybe a chorus or something, try it all!

I can rely on it, the damned thing is built like a tank... the first thing i did with it was dropped and threw it a bit... no problems! (I beat to test things, I don't recommend anyone else try it unless they know the risk of damaging stuff!) No backup needed, it runs on LED's... by the time that component wears out, it is definitely worth your money to just buy another, they are only 100 bucks brand new!

Customer support was very professional and helpful in helping me select which wah to buy for my tastes... ask them if you can't decide which to go with... or try them all! They even sent me free bulbs for my vintage pedals! A++++ service with a smile!

If they still made the old chrome pedals, I'd only use those, but these newer ones are awesome too! I give them a 10! Much easier to use rather than a crybaby.

three button in one wah pedal is too much.
is easy to use but in fast change during the performances you must pay attentio, in fact if you stomp the wah pedal (when wah is off)the volume of your sound go down soon.
good switch (better than dunlop vry baby) sensible an strong.

my setup Gibson sg special ---> h&k tube factor ---> boss compress ---> morly wah.
the ampli is orange ad30tc.

i love this type of sound, is low than aother wah pedal, but more heavy an presence than other pedal.
the wah sound is much better than dunlop cry bay. the cry baby has only one sound with this pedal you can play a very different wah type, from hendrix to metallica, from clapton to radiohead.

distorsion: good distorsion circuit, very dry and simple, treble and bass are not good equalized, the pedal have a good voice with middle sounds

volume: simple pedal volume, to short the tim before the sound go down.

no noise, when i use cry bay as a filter, i have a tornado rumors in background, with morly no problem good!!

build like tak, buy the adaptor, it drink battery at warp speed
no back up

never talk

very good pedal, 3 effects in one optimal for every type of style you use to play

ps sorry for my english... I' m italian

I have a unique problem with this pedal. Because it's so "all-in-one", it becomes a tad difficult to use if your switching between effects quickley. If you are soloing, and then go to take the wah off, wherever you left the expression pedal is going to be the setting for the solo, and the beginning setting for the rhythm part you're going into, so if it's not all the way up, your volume will be slagging when you cut the wah. I guess this will just come with practice (Only owned it for a day). Another thing about the volume part is the volume doesn't really seem to cut in at all until the pedal is level/flat. And from there, it's not very gradual. It's pretty much off, half way, or all the way up. This may be MY pedal, because I bought it used. Maybe something needs to be cleaned, who knows. Other than that, It's pretty much easy to navigate.

I am running a 1964 Gibson medody maker into the Morley, then into a Line 6 Flextone II. The sound is relatively quiet. I think somebody said it best when they said if it's (the distortion) your thing, it's a 10, if it's not, it's a 1. Try this out before you buy it. I didn't but that's because it was cheap, and I was in a rush. Luckily, it's my thing (to an extent). I play Indie rock, big rocknroll (AC/DC sounding), and punk/hardcore. The distortion setting is great for the indie rock. It doesn't get very heavy or chunky, but it's kinda brittle in a good way. It's not very versatile, so again, you either like it or you don't. I would not use this distortion with the other stuff I do. The wah sound is a wah sound, but they all sound the same to me anyway.

Built like a tank. But I haven't had it long enough to tell honestly.

Been playing about 10 years. I own a Marshall JCM800, which is an ongoing saga of repair, and tweeking, a late seventies Aria semi hollow, Peavey and Randall cabs. And alot of bass stuff. If it was stolen, I'd probably just buy a volume pedal, but that's cause I have a low attention span. Don't get me wrong I really like this pedal. The less shit in your rig, the better. I'd personally rather sacrafice a little tone here and there for ease of use, and less crap everywhere. I wish it had some sort of adjustable volume circuit so it wasn't so "on and off", but I will just learn to use it to the best of my ability. I would recommend this product if you're like me, and want ease of use, all in one type stuff. Although I hate "multi-effects" processers, this seems a little more tangable.