Electro-Harmonix Cock Fight Plus Fuzz Wah

The Electro-Harmonix Cock Fight Plus is a fuzz and wah pedal released in 2017 by Electro-Harmonix. It packs two filters into one box: a traditional crying wah and a talking formant filter that produces vowel sounds, plus a fuzz circuit with drive, tone and bias controls¹. It is the latest version of the company's Cock Fight fixed wah circuit, which EHX launched in 2015 as a way to get a cocked wah sound without rocking a treadle²³.

The pedal is discontinued: EHX lists the Cock Fight Plus as discontinued in 2026⁴.

Crying wah, talking wah and fuzz in one pedal

The original Cock Fight grew out of a simple idea: a wah pedal parked in one position, the "cocked wah" sound heard all over classic rock rhythm playing. EHX's product page describes it as "like getting three pedals in one: crying wah + talking wah (with adjustable frequency) plus a classic fuzz"². When the company announced it in 2015, the pitch was a stuck wah, a stuck talking pedal, and expression-pedal controlled wah and talking pedals, plus variable fuzz, in a single device³.

The Cock Fight Plus, announced in August 2017, carries that concept forward. MusicRadar described it at launch as packing "two expressive filters, a traditional wah and a format filter for vowel sounds, plus a 'live'" fuzz section¹. The talking mode is the one that turns heads: EHX describes it as a "stuck voice-box sound"², the vowel-like sweep associated with talk-box playing, achieved without a tube in the mouth.

The enclosure is worth noting too. Gearnews reported that the Cock Fight Plus uses Electro-Harmonix's composite material for the chassis, the same hard, lightweight casing as their recent expression pedal releases⁵.

The controls: fuzz toggle and bias

The control layout splits between the filter side and the fuzz side. On the filter side, a CRY/TALK toggle selects between the two wah modes, and a FREQ knob adjusts the frequency of whichever filter is selected². On the fuzz side, three knobs shape the fuzz itself¹.

The BIAS knob is the control that sets the pedal apart from a standard fuzz box. EHX says it controls the amount of bias voltage supplied to one of the two transistors in the fuzz circuit⁴. Gearnews explained what that means in practice: it takes the fuzz from "normal" to a classic "dying battery" sound⁵, the sagging, gated character players used to chase by letting a battery fade in an old fuzz. The reviewer at Gearnews called the bias control "a great addition and makes me interested in getting one of these myself"⁵.

Fuzz before or after the filter

The three-position fuzz toggle is where the Cock Fight Plus earns its keep as a tone-shaping tool rather than a one-trick box. The positions do three different things to the signal chain⁴²⁶:

• PRE: the fuzz feeds into the filter, which Gearnews described as giving a vintage vibe⁵
• X (off): the fuzz is removed entirely from the circuit, so you can run either wah mode clean⁴
• POST: the fuzz comes after the filter, which Gearnews described as a more modern sound⁵

Pedal of the Day summed up the same toggle on the original Cock Fight in plainer terms: "Pre places the fuzz BEFORE the filter, Post puts it AFTER and Fuzz Off, well, turns the fuzz off"⁶. Because the filter is fixed rather than treadle-controlled, the order choice changes how the fuzz reacts to the parked peak: fuzz into a resonant filter emphasizes the sweep differently than a filter shaping an already-fuzzed signal.

What reviewers said

The Cock Fight line picked up strong press coverage across both versions. Guitar World gave the original Cock Fight its Gold Award in 2016⁷, and in a 2026 buying guide, Chris Gill wrote that "the Cock Fight pedal provides a cocked wah effect that delivers the desired midrange tone every time," adding that it is much more versatile, offering standard wah and talking formant filters, a fuzz section and more precise tone shaping⁸⁹.

On the Plus specifically, Guitar World's Paul Riario reviewed it in August 2018:

MusicRadar's review of the Cock Fight wah noted that you can use it as a regular wah by plugging in an expression pedal (not supplied), and concluded that "you're getting some great wah sounds, and a fantastic fuzz, for less than a hundred sheets here"⁸.

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