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Vox V847 Wah Pedal Review – Is it the better option than the Cry Baby?
Introduction
Wah! It’s an effect that everyone complains about but, secretly-deep down-everyone loves it! Most players tend to look at the Dunlop Cry Baby when thinking about Wah pedals, but there are a lot of different Wah pedals out there. We thought we’d take a look at another popular one: the Vox V847 Wah pedal! This is a mid-range Wah pedal made by Vox and delivers that classic ‘60s Wah tone! However, don’t think it can’t keep up with its bigger, more modern brothers.
So, we’ll go through the pedal, its features, then move on to some sounds-finally discussing our thoughts on the Vox V847 Wah pedal, and also some reasons why we think it may be better (or worse) than the Dunlop Cry Baby Wah. So, put your favourite Metallica solo on and let’s dive into what this pedal does-and what features it has (or maybe doesn’t have!).
Vox V847 Wah Pedal
The Vox V847 is Vox’s take on the classic ‘60s Vox wah. This is the more affordable wah in their lineup and is a good middle ground between an entry-level wah and a quality wah! Its solid black design against the chrome border makes it look really nice without being too loud or standing out too much on the floor.
This wah pedal is a traditional geared and switch-based wah, meaning that you have to press the pedal down and “hit the switch” to turn the wah on, and do the same to turn it off. It isn’t like the optical wahs from Morley. It also has a gear and pot to control the wah effect. This is a fairly old-school approach and does require some maintenance-making sure you keep the gear greased and free of dirt and grime!
More on the Vox V847 Wah
The Vox V847 Wah does contain a buffered input. So if you have long cable runs or want to maintain the trebles, then using this pedal will help with that. However, this does mean that running it before your fuzz or overdrive pedals might cause some tonal changes.
This pedal comes in a gapped quality cardboard box containing the pedal and the instruction manual. One nice touch that I noticed is that the Vox Wah pedal comes with a nice vinyl pouch to store and carry your wah pedal in! The pouch is a nice design and has a convenient handle to make carrying easy. You can purchase this wah pedal from most retailers for a price of £95. As always, make sure to check for deals and discounts before you buy-you might be able to find it on offer!
As you may have noticed, there isn’t a lot to go through with this pedal. Most wah pedals are fairly simple with not a lot to cover. So why don’t we dive straight into the sounds and see what this pedal can do?
The Sounds
Sound-wise, it is fairly simple to demo this Vox Wah pedal-you just run through the sweep on both a clean and crunch setting! Not a lot of controls to go through. So what we thought we’d do is plug the full pedalboard in and run through various sounds-from cleans and crunches all the way to high gain-and add in some delay and reverb! Use this pedal in the demo just like you would at a gig.
Of course, there will be mix demos where I play over some amazing jam tracks by my friend over at Elevated Jam Tracks (links at the bottom of the page), using the wah to achieve different sounds. But honestly, mainly just using it for the twiddly bits! It’s always going to be fun-and that’s the whole reason you buy a wah pedal like the Vox V847!
What are my thoughts?
The Design
I love the way that the Vox V847 looks! That chrome pedal with chrome lettering really makes it look high-end and premium. Such a nice-looking pedal! The pedal also has a good amount of weight to it. This doesn’t mean it sounds better, or is even better built, but the reason I like the weight is that it stays in place on the floor nicely. The rubber feet and the pedal’s weight mean it doesn’t move around! I’m very heavy-footed as well, and it holds up great!
I thought I wouldn’t like the switch-having to press the pedal down to activate it. I’ve been looking at wah pedals for a while and have considered optical and switchless models. But after playing this pedal for a bit, I really don’t mind the switch! Once you get used to it, it’s fine. It has good feedback, and the resistance on the pedal itself gives it a nice feel. You never feel like you have to stomp on it to switch it on.
We mentioned above that this is an “old-school” gear/pot wah. That means under the pedal there’s a little mechanism for controlling the wah effect. This does mean you’ll have to grease it up and keep it oiled so it doesn’t rub or wear out. You won’t have to do this often (depending on how much you use it), but it’s something to think about.
The reason people don’t like or get on with wahs usually isn’t the pedal-it’s that they don’t know how to use one!"
The Sounds
We’ll be honest-we’re rather fussy with wah! We find a lot of them distort the sound too much when you’re trying to use them with a clean tone. We reviewed the Harley Benton Wah a while ago (full review here), and when I plugged it in to compare with this wah, I found it distorted my clean signal too much. So doing those clean funk chops didn’t sound quite right. Whereas the Vox V847 sounds super clean (or as clean as a wah can sound)! It gives me that proper clean, funky sound. Crank the gain and you still get that classic wah tone we all know and love. You can easily get full Kirk Hammett sounds from this pedal!
It’s a wah! If you want a simple wah pedal that gives you that signature sweep, then this is the pedal for you. However, if you’re after something with extra features-like adjusting the Q, or a built-in boost-then this won’t be the wah for you. The Vox V847 Wah pedal doesn’t have any adjustments or extra switches or knobs. It’s a very simple, “on or off” wah pedal.
The Drawbacks
It’s worth noting that the Vox V847 doesn’t have any LED or indicator to let you know if the pedal is on or off. This is a feature I can’t believe they missed! The one thing people often complain about with the Cry Baby is the LED being hard to see-so for Vox to just not include one at all is wild! However, the small positive is that one can be added fairly easily. I might have to speak to Simon over at JSA Pedals to see if he can add one for me!
Furthermore, this is a full-size wah pedal. It’s not a mini wah like the Sonicake Wah/Volume we reviewed (full review here). I purposely went for a full-size wah, as it feels better under the foot than a mini version. It’s way easier to use, and you definitely have more control over the sweep. But if you want a smaller wah to save pedalboard space, then this might not be the wah pedal for you.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, playing this pedal has made me not want a mini wah anymore. Having that full-size footplate makes switching it on and off so much easier-not to mention using it and rocking it. You feel like you have so much control! If you’ve ever felt like you can’t control a mini wah or feel awkward using one, I think you should give a full-size wah pedal another shot.
For the price-when you compare it to other classic wahs-I don’t think you can beat it! At £95 for the pedal, plus a cool carry case (which, let’s be honest, you’ll never use), I think it’s great value for money. Especially considering it comes with a 2-year warranty! I’d argue that if you’re looking at the Dunlop Cry Baby, you should definitely check out the Vox V847. It’s cheaper and, in my opinion, sounds better-for how I personally use a wah pedal.
If we’re 100% honest, this is a fantastic wah pedal. However, I think most wah pedals are! The reason people don’t like or get on with wahs usually isn’t the pedal-it’s that they don’t know how to use one! While putting together this article, we discovered this. It’s a skill you need to learn and use properly-kind of like slide guitar. You can quickly overuse it. You need to know how to use it, and when to use it. Learn that, and almost any wah pedal-including the Vox V847-will work great for you!
Conclusion
What do you think of the Vox V847 Wah? As we’ve said above, for what we need a wah for, it’s better than a Cry Baby! Don’t get me wrong-there are still plenty of wah pedals out there that we intend to try and review. So brace yourself for more content! We really enjoyed having a wah pedal back on the pedalboard again. It adds another layer to your playing and lets you be creative in a totally different way.
Are you a frequent wah user? What wah pedal are you using for your sound? Let us know over on our Instagram or send us an email through our Contact page! We’d love to hear what wah pedals you’re checking out. There seem to be more and more builders making wah pedals these days!
Sadly, we don’t see many boutique brands building wah pedals-and we’d love to see that change! I’d especially love to see JSA Pedals mod or even build a wah pedal of their own. Now that would be exciting!
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Vox V847 Links:
- Vox V847 Website
- Vox V847 Wah (Andertons Affiliate)
- Vox V847 Wah (Thomann Affiliate)
- Andertons Affiliate Link
- Thomann Affiliate Link
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