EMB Audio Pedal Wah

The EMB Audio Pedal Wah is a boutique handmade wah pedal derived from the classic rack-mount "Remote Wah" originally produced by EMB Audio¹. Where most wahs on the market are treadle pedals that rock a potentiometer back and forth, this one takes a different route: a large "Big Foot" chassis with a foot-plate activation design, and no traditional wah pot, gear, or optical mechanism at all¹.

A wah in general works by sweeping a band-pass filter with a highly resonant peak across the frequency range, which is what creates the distinctive vocal "wah-wah" sound². The EMB Audio Pedal Wah does that job with a fully analog signal path that RockBoard's PedalPedia describes as having studio-quality headroom¹. Its technical data table, however, lists the circuit type as digital, so the maker's own material gives two different answers on this point; the product description says fully analog, the spec table says digital¹.

A wah built on the Remote Wah circuit

The pedal's lineage is the Remote Wah, a rack-mount unit that EMB Audio produced in the classic era of rack gear¹. The Pedal Wah brings that circuit into a floor pedal, which matters for players who want the Remote Wah's behavior without a rack and a remote controller in the chain.

The design also departs from how most wah pedals are built mechanically. A conventional wah, like a Dunlop EVH-95, uses a treadle that a player rocks with their foot to move a potentiometer through its range. The EMB Audio Pedal Wah instead uses a large "Big Foot" chassis with a foot-plate activation design rather than a typical treadle, and it avoids traditional wah-potentiometer, gear, or optical mechanisms in order to reduce mechanical wear¹. For players who have worn out wah pots or stripped gears over years of use, that is the practical point of the design: there is no pot to clean or replace, unlike the replacement pots that makers like Wilson Effects and Area 51 sell for conventional wahs.

The controls and sweep tapers

The pedal offers adjustable parameters including START, FINISH, DEPTH and WEIGHT, which shape the sweep range, sweep behavior and intensity¹. Users can also select from four different pedal sweep tapers¹.

The four-taper selection is a broader choice than most wahs give. A typical wah offers one fixed taper determined by its pot, or at most a switchable option. Compare the Wilson Effects Rippah Booster Wah, whose sweep control adjusts the depth of the wah sweep, adding throatiness when maxed out and softening the effect when dialed back³, or the 12 Position Wilson Wah Smooth Taper Version, whose Sweep Range control sets the depth of the sweep from fully clockwise, where the sweep is at its greatest, to fully counter-clockwise, where it disappears⁴. The Xotic Wah XW-1 takes a different route to flexibility, with a WAH Q control that adjusts the width of the filter peak and a two-band EQ with +/-15 dB center-detent potentiometers⁵. The EMB approach puts the shaping in the START, FINISH, DEPTH and WEIGHT parameters plus the four tapers, rather than in a Q knob or a single sweep trimmer.

Power: 9V DC, 500mA

The unit can be powered by six AA batteries or a 9V DC power supply with a center negative plug¹.

The battery option is unusual at this current draw: six AA cells give a real alternative to a wall supply for players who want a clean board with no power brick, though a 500mA draw will go through batteries much faster than a low-current wah like the EVH-95 would¹⁶.

Bypass and how it compares

The pedal offers true bypass¹, which is the standard arrangement in this class. The BMF Wah from BMF Effects features true bypass switching⁷, the Electro-Harmonix Wailer Wah is true bypass⁸, and Harley Benton's Space Wah pedals all have a true bypass design⁹. Where the EMB Audio Pedal Wah differs from these is not the bypass but the mechanism: no pot, no gear, no optical element, and a foot-plate in a Big Foot chassis instead of a rocking treadle¹.

Questions