Morley Mini Wah

The Morley Mini Wah is a compact wah pedal from Morley, announced in May 2010 alongside the Mini Volume as the first entries in the company's mini line of pedals¹. It is designed for classic and vintage wah tones, and it is built around Morley's electro-optical circuitry: instead of a mechanical potentiometer that can wear out and get scratchy, the treadle position is read optically, so there is no pot to wear out as on typical wah and volume pedals²³.

The Mini Wah was made in the USA, housed in cold-rolled steel, with LED indication lights and a 2 year warranty². At announcement it carried a street price of $79.99³.

An electro-optical wah in a small steel housing

Morley's electro-optical approach is the feature that sets the Mini Wah apart from most compact wahs. On a conventional wah, the treadle turns a potentiometer, and that pot wears with use until the pedal becomes noisy. On the Mini Wah, the treadle works against a light-based circuit, so the part that normally fails simply is not there. As Guitar World's reviewer put it when covering the Mini Wah and Mini Volume³¹:

The Morley Mini Wah is built into a durable cold-rolled steel housing and uses Morley's Electro-Optical circuitry, so there are no pots to wear out as on typical wah and volume pedals³. It was designed for classic and vintage wah tones, with LED indicators and an easy-access battery door, and it features an On/Off switch and a wah level control³.

The rest of the build follows Morley's full-size practice in miniature. The housing is durable cold-rolled steel rather than plastic, the pedal carries LED indicators, and the battery sits behind an easy-access battery door, so a swap does not mean opening the chassis¹³.

The size is the point of the "mini" name. The Mini Wah measures 6.75 inches in length, 4.5 inches wide and 2.75 inches in height³², which Guitar World described as "6 3/4 inches long, 4 1/2 inches wide and only 2 3/4 inches high"³. For comparison, Morley's full-size classic wahs of the period, such as the Classic Bad Horsie Wah, measure 9.13 by 5.88 by 2.75 inches, so the mini format trims well over two inches of length and more than an inch of width while keeping the same height⁵. The companion Mini Wah Volume, a dual wah and volume pedal from the same family, was described by MusicRadar as around 25 percent smaller than the full-size Power Wah Volume it was based on⁶.

The controls: on/off switch and wah level

The Mini Wah keeps its control set simple, with two user-facing elements:

That is the whole front panel. There is no contour shaping, no mode selection and no separate volume function; the pedal does one job, and the Wah Level control is how far it does it. Players who want a mini pedal with more range from Morley have other options in the line, such as the Mini Maverick Switchless Wah, which added switchless operation, or the Mini Wah Volume, which combined wah and volume functions with a toggle switch between them and a Level knob for on-the-fly adjustment⁷⁸.

Where it came from

Morley announced the Mini Wah and the Mini Volume together in May 2010, and both were available at announcement¹. No Treble's coverage of the launch noted the two pedals' shared specs: made in the USA, cold-rolled steel housing, LED indication lights and a 2 year warranty². The mini line grew quickly after that, with the Mini Wah Volume and the Maverick Mini Switchless Wah following in November 2010⁹, and further mini models such as the Mini Power Wah Volume and Mini Volume Plus arriving in 2018⁹.

The Mini Wah itself was one of Morley's small-format wahs, and the company's later small-format wahs took a different design direction, described below.

The Mini Wah and the Mini Classic Switchless Wah

The model most often confused with the Mini Wah is the Mini Classic Switchless Wah, released in January 2019. The two share the mini format and Morley's electro-optical circuitry, but they differ in how you engage the effect and in the circuit underneath¹⁰¹⁴:

Morley's Bill Wenzloff described the 2019 pedal as "Based off the Morley Classic Wah" with "the same great classic Wah tone, but now has a smaller footprint"¹²⁴. Gearnews likewise noted that it "packs in pretty much all the features of the classic Morley wah, but in a smaller package"¹⁰. In a Sweetwater demo video, the Mini Classic Switchless Wah was described as "Armed with Morley's acclaimed MQ2 inductor" and delivering "classic wah-wah tone"¹¹.

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The practical difference for a player is the switch. The Mini Wah has a dedicated on/off switch, so the wah only engages when you stomp it on. The Mini Classic Switchless Wah instead offers smooth and easy Switchless activation. Players who like to pre-set a wah position before engaging it will prefer the switched design; players who want the effect to appear the instant they touch the pedal will prefer the switchless one¹²¹³.

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