Guyatone WR-3 Wah Rocker Pedal (Micro Series) The Guyatone WR-3 Wah Rocker is a pedal you may not have heard of , but you've definitely heard it. A secret weapon of countless pros, this diminutive auto wah has been smuggled back from Japan for years by savvy touring musicians looking for the ultimate funk tone.
Subsequently, the Wah Rocker has appeared on recordings by Lenny Kravitz, Stevie Salas, TM Stevens, Sass Jordan, David Torn, Bill Laswell, and Powerman 5000 to name just a few. Now Guyatone has improved on the original duck box to make it even funkier and more versatile than before - the result is the Guyatone WR-3 Wah Rocker!
While the unit's basic control setup remains the same (Threshold determines degree of the effect and Decay determines speed of the effect) the WR-3 features several updates to the original Wah Rocker circuit that greatly improve its functionality and performance.
The WR-2 circuit's filter sensitivity was set high to optimize it for use with hot pickups. However, lower output pickups had trouble triggering the filter effectively. To remedy this problem the WR-3's filter sensitivity has been improved, allowing for better note tracking and dynamic response.
Now the Wah Rocker can track even subtle picking nuances, allowing for much more creative and expressive use of the filter. This upgrade also offers improved performance for instruments with passive and/or lower output pickups, which means it will work equally well with a single coil Strat as it does with an active EMG-loaded Les Paul.
The biggest improvement to the WR3 has been the addition of a switchable Dry Blend function that mixes in clean signal against the effected signal. Since the Wah Rocker sweeps the entire frequency band when filtering, there can be some dramatic variations in volume as the signal thins out at the peak (hi frequencies only) and then swamps at the tail end of the sweep (low frequencies only). The addition of the blended Dry signal works to significantly improve the evenness of the unit's output level by eliminating volume peaks and dips caused by the filter motion.
This new feature dramatically improves the WR-3's low-end response, allowing the unit to be used equally well with Bass or Guitar. Just imagine a funky, filtered Bass playing in unison with a clean, unaffected one and you have an idea of just how useful this feature can be!
Of course, all the original Wah Rocker sounds are still attainable by keeping the Dry Blend switch in the off position; allowing you to get all the synth-like filter sweeps and throaty wah tones that made you fall in love with this pedal in the first place! A new twist on an old favorite, the WR3 takes a classic effect and brings it into the 21st century - Pound for pound, the Wah Rocker is still the funkiest filter that money can buy!
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