The Daredevil Cocked & Fearless is a pedal that combines a fixed wah filter with a two-channel distortion, each with its own footswitch. Daredevil bills it as "2 great circuits. 1 great pedal"1. The fixed wah side gives your guitar that nasal, filtered tone without the funky quacking of a rocked wah pedal, while the Fearless distortion side covers everything from bluesy breakup to saturated high gain12.
What it does
The pedal puts two effects in one box. The fixed wah tone has its own footswitch to engage it, so you can run the filter on its own, the drive on its own, or both together2. If you have never used a fixed wah, it is the sound of a wah pedal switched on and left at one position instead of rocked. Delicious Audio describes it as "an effect dear to Frank Zappa and consisting in turning the wah on and leaving it at a certain position"3. On the Cocked & Fearless, gearnews.com's Jef described it as kicking in to give your guitar's sound that nasal cocked twang2.
The Fearless distortion
The Fearless side is a Daredevil original design op amp distortion, and it carries two gain channels, Hi and Low1. According to Daredevil's product page:
- The Low channel gets dirty, bluesy, and vintage, covering all your old school Marshall / Blackface Fender territory1.
- The Hi gain setting builds up to a huge saturated tone with big bottom and very full midrange, with a powerful attack but warm and dynamic as well1.
The pedal's lineage is worth knowing: Daredevil describes it as the Atomic Cock fixed wah coupled with the Drive-Bi distortion1. The drive side is a two-channel op amp based circuit, and Daredevil calls the Fearless distortion a Daredevil original design, so the drive side of the Cocked & Fearless has its own character within the company's range1.
Price and release
Daredevil Pedals released the Cocked & Fearless in July 2017, with gearnews.com reporting an RRP of USD 199 plus shipping and taxes2. The pedal is currently listed on Daredevil's own site at $189.00 USD1.
What reviewers said
Coverage of the pedal was mixed on the drive side. gearnews.com's Jef, having listened to the official demo video, wrote: "I wasn't immediately enamoured by the drive tone. This is where it falls down"2. The same review was warmer on the filter side, describing the pedal as a cocky new boutique overdrive and wah circuit combined2.
If you are comparing drive pedals in this territory, it sits somewhere between the overdrive and distortion camps, with the fixed wah filter setting it apart from either.
Videos
ProGuitarShopDemos
Premier Guitar
Daredevil Pedals
Questions
Can you use the fixed wah without the drive on the Cocked & Fearless?
Yes. The fixed wah tone has its own footswitch to engage it, separate from the drive side, so the two effects can be switched independently. That means you can run the wah filter on its own, the distortion on its own, or both together, depending on how you set the pedal up on your board.
How much does the Daredevil Cocked & Fearless cost?
Daredevil Pedals lists the Cocked & Fearless at $189.00 USD on its own product page. When the pedal was released in July 2017, gearnews.com reported an RRP of USD 199 plus shipping and taxes, so the current list price sits slightly below that original figure.
What is a fixed wah?
A fixed wah is the sound of a wah pedal switched on and left at one rocker position instead of rocked back and forth. Delicious Audio describes it as an effect dear to Frank Zappa. It produces a nasal, filtered tone without the funky quacking of a moving wah, which is the effect the Cocked & Fearless puts under a footswitch.
Sources (3)
- COCKED & FEARLESS, Daredevil Pedals
- Daredevil's Cocked & Fearless wah filter and drive pedal released, gearnews.com, 2017-07-30
- Celestial Effects' Cancer Wah The Fuzz, Delicious Audio, 2013-07-30
