Vox King Wah

I???ve had a few of these now. No, they aren???t Clydes or boutique pedals but if you???re into well made quality American Working Man???s pedals they you won???t be disappointed. They show up in decent shape relatively often and $100.00 is a fair price. My current one is an early 70???s (Still narrowing down the exact year) with the TDK inductor. I had to replace the pot and did the true-bypass mod. I like my switch action easy so it???s set up so that you barely touch it and it engages. These older models do not have 9v jacks so if you have a conditioned power brick on your board just solder a battery clip to a female barrel jack and you will be fine. Otherwise you have to deal with removing the back plate periodically to replace the battery and of course the hassle of trying to remember to unplug the input jack when you???re not using it.

Plenty of arguments out there about which inductor Thomas Organ used sounds the best. I???ve used one of each at some point and keep coming back to the TDK 5103. I???ve read reviews about this inductor describing it as having a ???human quality??? about it???s voice and that???s the best way I can describe it. The sweep is about the same as modern Dunlop pedals.

Reliability? They are bullet proof. It???s worth replacing the pot so you don???t have to worry about 30 years of grime building up inside and making it scratchy and true-bypass is a must. You may also want to swap out the jacks with some new high replacements. Once you take care of that there???s really nothing else to go bad on the pedal.

38 year-old pedal.... don't think those people work there anymore.

Buy them up because they are getting harder to find and 10 years from now they will be 3 times as much.

Ok, here is the update. Also note, my original statement of the price was incorrect- It was actually $145

Ive had the past couple years to play around with this wah now. It is extremely vocal with a nice even and smooth sweep. I wouldn't quite say it's the perfect wah for nailing hendrix tones- It can easily approximate them, but if you are looking for a straight voodoo child tone, a fulltone clyde or such may be more in store for you. I'd say it gets closer to any other wah I have heard at nailing curtis mayfield. In fact, I'd say funk is its forte.
My main amp is still my Sunn, with my main guitars alternating between the G&L Comanche and a Hamer Artist, and a G&L legacy and Hamer daytona on the side. The wah sounds incredible with each, without getting muddy with the hamer's humbuckers as some wahs are prone to. It responds quite nicely to gain, maintaining its sweep and vocal qualities very well up to fairly good levels of distortion/fuzz (again, if you wish to have a wah for extremely heavy tones, a wah specified and tweaked to those particular tones would be a better choice). It surprisingly does not squeal with any of my fuzzes - lovepedal balance/karl/dragon or pedalworx mcfuzz - until extremely high levels of fuzz.

also, the buzzing issue was actually not related to the wah, but with the lighting in the room. It has been taken care of and is no longer an issue.

Again, it is over 30 years old and I have not yet had a single issue with it. Battery life is quite good - I have only changed it a few times since I have gotten it.

The King Wah works nicely for rock, and even better for funk. I would not hesitate to suggest it to a friend or fellow guitarist, and would surely be interested in looking for a replacement should it ever be stolen.

For a vintage wah, it is quite a steal and without a doubt one of the most underrated pieces of gear I have seen

Early 70's King vox wah, serial number 1931818. Not sure of the exact year, but I think it's somewhere between '70 and '72 (if someone knows, please email me). Thomas Organ Co., Sepulveda CA. True bypass has been installed. As with any wah, it's plug and play, but the switch is much easier to engage than most modern wahs (especially crybabies), and the wah is much easier to move up and down than most as well. TDK inductor and a fairly new Dunlop Hot Potz, possibly to be replaced with a fulltone pot soon.

G&L comanche into King Vox Wah into Sunn T50c. Saving up for a classic tonebone, lovepedal, reverend drivetrain, or possibly a captain coconut2 if i can scrape together $400. May update to inform how well the wah works with these. This wah has an excellent sweep and is very vocal, much more so than most modern wahs, excluding maybe a Teese and such. There is a slight loss of volume and bass when activated, and some sweep with distortion, but thats to be expected. With wah at the nose, it doesn't get too trebley or screetchy, and isn't too muddy at the opposite end. The only thing that really pisses me off is that when played in my room, there is often interference with the signal, causing a loud buzz. My guess is it's caused by the fish tank, as it does not have this problem out of the room. Other than this, it's almost dead quite, especially for a vintage wah. Excellent sound.

It has a battery, so there better be a spare with this, although I've been running the same batter for the last four or five months, so it allows a pretty decent battery life. Other than that, it's survived in great condition for the past thirty or so years, so yes, i would gig with a backup.

Have yet to deal with them, but I doubt they would be of much help.

Play blues, classic rock, and some jazz. Would definately buy another if lost, but they're pretty hard to find in good condition with any regularity. Great sounding pedal; definately worth looking into if you're trying to get a good vintage wah as it sounds almost as good as a V846, but commands a lower price. If anybody has any information about the year or possibly any worthwhile mods/replacement parts that allow an even better tone and sweep, feel free to email me.

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