Xotic XW-1

The Xotic XW-1 is a wah pedal from Xotic, modeled on what the maker calls the Holy Grail wah: the 1967-1968 Italian-built Clyde McCoy wahs¹. Where a basic wah gives you one fixed voice, the XW-1 puts the shaping in the player's hands, with side-panel controls for bias, Q, treble and bass, an internal input gain trimmer with up to +6 dB of wah boost, and adjustable treadle tension and travel²³⁴. Xotic's own pitch for it is that "you don't get one or three sounds in one pedal, you get unlimited sounds with unique controls that shape and contour your sound the way you hear it"¹.

The Xotic XW-1 is a wah pedal modeled on the Holy Grail wah, the 1967-1968 Italian-built Clyde McCoy wahs³⁵. It is built with self-lubricating nylon bushings⁶ and uses relay bypass switching for true bypass³⁷⁸. Xotic describes it as one of the most versatile wah pedals available today, with unique controls that shape and contour your sound¹⁵.

The controls: bias, Q, treble and bass

Four knobs on the side panel are the heart of the XW-1. On That Pedal Show's demo, Daniel and Mick put it simply: "controls for bass, treble, Q and transistor bias enable you to dial in your wah tone exactly how you like it"².

The two-band EQ is there to optimize the voicing for different playing styles and gear⁵. MusicRadar's best-wah-pedals guide highlighted "the EQ knobs offering up to 15dB of boost or cut" as a standout feature¹¹, and Delicious Audio, in a roundup of fuzz-friendly wahs, listed the same four controls: treble and bass as +/-15 dB potentiometers, plus Q (the range of the filter) and bias¹².

The bias control deserves a note for players coming from a vintage-style wah. Xotic explains that a cold bias is what many vintage wah pedals run, and that the XW-1's warmer settings push the pedal toward more output and a firmer low end⁵. In practice it is a voicing tool: the same treadle sweep can sit clean and transparent or thick and vocal depending on where it is set.

Internal DIP switches and wah boost

Inside the pedal, next to the battery, is an input gain trimmer and a set of DIP switches. The trimmer controls the wah's input gain, and turning it clockwise adds up to +6 dB of wah boost⁷. One detail matters here: the trimmer is only active when DIP switch #2 is switched on, so a player who finds the boost trimmer doing nothing should check that switch first⁷.

The boost is useful in front of an overdriven or fuzz amp, where a wah can lose level through its sweep. Delicious Audio's fuzz-friendly-wah feature is the context the XW-1 often appears in, and the input gain is the control that addresses exactly that pairing¹².

Treadle travel and tension adjustments

Two mechanical adjustments set how the pedal feels underfoot:

• Adjustable pedal torsion: the rocker pedal's torsion is fully adjustable via a hex nut on the treadle, so the pedal can be set loose and fast or stiff and deliberate⁵.
• Adjustable rubber stopper: a rubber bumper on the backside bottom of the treadle can be shimmed to adjust the travel range of the pedal, changing where the sweep starts and ends⁸.

Between the torsion nut and the shimmable stopper, a player can match both the effort and the sweep range to their foot and style, something a fixed-vintage-style wah does not offer. The Vintage Guitar announcement also noted the self-lubricating nylon bushings in the treadle mechanism³.

Power and connections

The XW-1 runs on 9V DC at 5 mA through a 2.1 x 5.5 mm center-negative jack, or on one internal 9V (006P) battery¹. Guitar.com's review described it as powered by the internal 9V PP3 battery or an optional 9V DC supply⁶.

A few practical points from the manual:

• When an external power supply is plugged in, the battery is disconnected from the circuit⁵.
• Battery access is through removal of the bottom plate, held by four rubber feet⁷.
• Unplug the input plug when the pedal will sit unused for long periods, to extend battery life⁷.
• The LED at the top lights when the pedal is on, and flashes when battery power falls below 50%, signaling a battery change⁵.

Connections are a mono 1/4-inch input and output, with the on/off switching done by a treadle-operated footswitch⁶. Input impedance is 1M ohm and output impedance 10k ohm¹. The pedal carries a one-year warranty against defective parts or faulty workmanship for the original owner⁷.

Size and board placement

The XW-1 measures 8.27 inches deep by 3.94 inches wide by 2.64 inches high (210 x 100 x 67 mm) and weighs 2.16 lb (980 g)¹. Xotic's manual calls it 20% smaller in footprint than conventional wah pedals⁴⁶, and Guitar.com measured it at 210 cm2 against 257 cm2 for a Vox V847⁶. On That Pedal Show's demo, the hosts called the medium-sized chassis "a pedalboard-friendly size"².

Where it came from and what reviewers said

The XW-1 is a deliberate tribute rather than a generic wah circuit. Xotic modeled it on the 1967-1968 Italian-built Clyde McCoy wahs, the version widely sought among vintage wah collectors, and the manual describes a custom wound inductor, pot and circuit built to capture that vintage Clyde McCoy character¹⁸. Vintage Guitar's 2014 announcement framed it the same way, as inspired by the late-'60s Clyde McCoy wah built in Italy³.

Delicious Audio calls the XW-1 "a top-notch wah based on the original 1967-68 Clyde McCoy"¹²¹³, and notes that its custom wound inductor, pot and circuit capture the pure essence of the vintage Clyde McCoy¹³.

The XW-1 and the XW-2

Xotic also makes the XW-2, a second wah pedal in the range¹⁴¹⁵. Delicious Audio calls the XW-2 "one of those no-fuss wahs"¹⁴, and Xotic describes it as producing a warm, expressive, and versatile wah-wah tone¹⁴¹⁶.

For a player deciding between them, the difference is control: the XW-1 offers bias, Q, treble and bass shaping plus the internal boost, while the XW-2 trims that back toward a set-and-forget vintage voice. Pricing has moved over the years: Gearnews listed the XW-1 at $259 in September 2024¹⁰¹⁵, and MusicRadar listed it at $299 in 2026⁹.

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