Morley Classic Wah

The Morley Classic Wah is a wah pedal from Morley, released earlier in 2019 with a $99 street price¹. It produces what Morley calls "classic Wah-Wah tone with our MQ2 Inductor"², and it belongs to the family of switchless wahs that Morley pioneered: the company describes its own design as "the first Switchless activation Wah"³.

The switchless part is the practical difference from a conventional wah. There is no footswitch to click: you step on the treadle and the effect engages, and a spring underneath returns the pedal to bypass when you step off⁴. Morley also positions the current 20/20 Classic Switchless Wah as a compact option, "engineered to save space on your board"².

What it does

A wah pedal shapes a frequency peak that you sweep with your foot, and the Classic Wah does this with Morley's MQ2 inductor, the component the company credits for its classic wah-wah tone². In a Sweetwater demo of the 20/20 Mini Classic Wah, the pedal was described as one that "delivers classic wah-wah tone with a wide, smooth sweep that sounds good in a broad range of applications"⁴.

The switchless operation works mechanically rather than electronically. A spring sits underneath the treadle, and when you lift your foot the pedal returns itself to bypass⁴. That means no timing a switch click mid-phrase, and no half-engaged state between wah and clean.

Morley's own words on the tone, from the product page:

The versions

Morley has issued the Classic Wah in a few forms, and the naming has shifted as the line evolved.

The Mini Classic was announced by Morley's Bill Wenzloff as "Based off the Morley Classic Wah," with "the same great classic Wah tone, but now has a smaller footprint"⁵⁷. It keeps a cold rolled steel housing despite the smaller size⁷. Premier Guitar reported the same announcement, noting the smaller footprint alongside the unchanged tone⁵.

Where it came from

The Classic Wah arrived earlier in 2019, ahead of the updated 20/20 pedal line that Morley debuted that August; Premier Guitar noted the Classic Wah as the pedal the three new 20/20 releases joined⁸. The switchless concept itself goes back further: Morley describes it as the first switchless-activation wah³, and it is the feature that runs through the company's wah range, from the Bad Horsie Wah to the 20/20 Wah Lock.

What reviewers and demos said

Published coverage of the Classic Wah family has been brief but consistent. Premier Guitar's news items reported the Mini Classic announcement and the 20/20 line update straight from Morley's releases⁵⁸. The fullest published demonstration is Sweetwater's video on the 20/20 Mini Classic Wah, in which the presenter walks through the pedal's tone and its spring-return bypass⁴.

In that demo, the Mini Classic was described as armed with Morley's MQ2 inductor and delivering a wide, smooth sweep suited to a broad range of applications⁴.

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