\n<\/p>\n
Few effects in the history of rock guitar\u00a0are as instantly recognizable \u2014\u00a0or divisive \u2014 as the wah pedal.<\/p>\n
You know it when you hear it.\u00a0From aching, explosive bends to scratchy, percussive funk licks, the wah pedal has\u00a0provided countless guitarists with the extra\u00a0spice to turn an already-great solo into a singular\u00a0work of art.<\/p>\n
The original wah, the Vox Clyde McCoy Wah-Wah Pedal, first hit the market in early 1967. The effect quickly found a home in the rigs of virtuosos such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. In the ’80s, guitarists such as Kirk Hammett, Joe Satriani and Slash would push the boundaries of what a wah pedal could achieve and\u00a0log some of the most iconic solos in rock history.<\/p>\n
The wah pedal is not without its detractors, of course. Some critics argue that\u00a0it becomes a crutch for guitarists, muddying their tone and obscuring the individual notes they play. But\u00a0an abundance of haters is just further proof of the wah’s innovative nature and unique sound.<\/p>\n
Celebrate that\u00a0unique sound\u00a0with us by reading\u00a0the following list of the 11 best wah pedal guitar solos in rock history.<\/p>\n
READ MORE:<\/strong> The 40 Best Rock Drum Intros of All Time<\/a><\/p>\n Guitarist:<\/strong> Joe Perry<\/a><\/p>\n Hobbled by addiction and intraband dysfunction, Aerosmith fractured in 1979, with guitarist Joe Perry quitting the group during the making of\u00a0Night in the Ruts<\/em>. But Perry’s contributions to the album make it clear that his exit wasn’t due to a lack of ideas or execution.\u00a0The band’s raunchy update on\u00a0Jazz Gillum’s “Reefer Head woman” sports a smoldering, wah-inflected solo full of Perry’s signature loose-limbed swagger.<\/p>\n Guitarist:<\/strong> Eddie Hazel<\/p>\n In his 2014 memoir Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You?<\/em>, Funkadelic bandleader George Clinton<\/a> recalled the prompt<\/a> he gave guitarist Eddie Hazel during the studio sessions for “Maggot Brain”: “I told him to play like his mother had died, to picture that day, what he would feel, how he would make sense of his life, how he would take a measure of everything that was inside him and let it out thought his guitar.” Hazel understood the assignment,\u00a0laying down a\u00a0volcanic performance across the sprawling 10-minute track.\u00a0As he pushes his wah and fuzz pedals to the\u00a0max, his guitar dissolves into a cacophony of anguished distortion.<\/p>\n Guitarist:<\/strong> Tony Iommi<\/a><\/p>\n Armed with a seemingly endless supply of earth-shaking, doom-laden riffs, Tony Iommi helped invent and reinvent heavy metal during Black Sabbath’s first tenure with Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>. Those riffs stayed intact when Ronnie James Dio<\/a> replaced Ozzy, but\u00a0the springier sound of\u00a0the\u00a0records they made together gave Iommi room to flex his soloing chops. He delivers one of his best performances on\u00a0Mob Rules<\/em>‘ opening track “Turn Up the Night,”\u00a0firing off speedy, wah-drenched licks with expert precision and a tone that’s to die for.<\/p>\n Guitarist:<\/strong> Steve Vai<\/a><\/p>\n Most people would cite the chunky riffs and sledgehammer grooves of Steve Vai’s 1995 song “Bad Horsie” as evidence of his wah supremacy. (Vai did name his signature pedal after the track, after all.) But they’ve clearly forgotten his one-of-a-kind wah usage on “Yankee Rose,” the lead single off David Lee Roth’s debut solo album\u00a0Eat ‘Em and Smile<\/em>. Vai’s\u00a0zany back-and-forth with Roth at the beginning of the song\u00a0marks one of the most iconic call-and-responses in rock, and it quickly helped Vai\u00a0step out of\u00a0Eddie\u00a0Van Halen<\/a>‘s massive shadow.<\/p>\n Guitarist:<\/strong> Kirk Hammett<\/a><\/p>\n Wah haters will argue that the\u00a0pedal muddies a player’s tone and makes it difficult to distinguish individual notes. To that we say … yeah,\u00a0and?<\/em>\u00a0The wah’s inherent disorder\u00a0can be wielded as a tool \u2014 just look at Kirk Hammett, one of the pedal’s most famous proponents. His solo on Metallica’s “Battery” is dizzyingly fast and mind-meltingly chaotic. You don’t need to hear the precise articulation of every note to get the point:\u00a0This guy’s\u00a0playing really f—in’ fast<\/em>.<\/p>\n Guitarist:<\/strong>\u00a0Joe Satriani (duh)<\/p>\n You’d be hard-pressed to find a more aptly named song than the\u00a0title track to Joe Satriani’s\u00a0breakthrough sophomore album. In terms of tone, melody and composition,\u00a0“Surfing With the Alien” sounds positively otherworldly. Satch’s combination of wah, overdrive and harmonizer pedals\u00a0rockets the\u00a0singsong melodies and jaw-dropping solos on “Surfing” to intergalactic heights.<\/p>\n Guitarist:\u00a0<\/strong>Jimmy Page<\/a><\/p>\n Following\u00a0its spacy, psychedelic breakdown, “Whole Lotta Love” snaps back to reality with\u00a0Jimmy Page’s short, blazing solo. The cocked wah (pressed\u00a0all the way forward) gives the solo an abrasive, nasally sound that shouldn’t work in theory, but lends to\u00a0its aggressive and commanding nature. Clocking in at a mere 15 seconds, it’s\u00a0short and blisteringly effective \u2014 that’s all Page needed\u00a0to\u00a0make his point.<\/p>\n Guitarist:<\/strong> Terry Kath<\/p>\n The secret weapon\u00a0powering Chicago’s “rock band with horns” sound was guitarist Terry Kath, who unleashes an all-time solo on the band’s mammoth hit “25 or 6 to 4.” After a flurry of runs up and down the neck in the first half, Kath kicks on the wah pedal for a series of climactic bends and descending hammer-ons and pull-offs.\u00a0Anybody wondering why Jimi Hendrix once proclaimed<\/a> Kath the “best guitarist in the universe” need look no further.<\/p>\n Guitarist:<\/strong> Slash<\/a><\/p>\n In an era dominated by Aqua Netted speed kings and Eddie Van Halen wannabes, Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist Slash\u00a0stood\u00a0out by harking back to the sleazy, monolithic blues-rock of the ’60s and ’70s. His “Sweet Child O’ Mine” solo is a masterclass in phrasing and tension building, as the slow, aching first half gives way to a speedy, wah-assisted run that tees up the incendiary second half. It’s a solo composed of mini motifs, each more memorable than the last, and it established Slash as one of the decade’s\u00a0pre-eminent guitar heroes.<\/p>\n Guitarist:<\/strong> Eric Clapton<\/a><\/p>\n Eric Clapton was shaken to his core the first time he saw Jimi Hendrix perform, reportedly<\/a> seething to Hendrix’s manager (and the Animals<\/a> bassist) Chas Chandler, “You never told me he was that fucking\u00a0good.” Yet even if Clapton was rattled, he was still a guitar god in his own right \u2014 a status he reaffirmed on Cream’s “White Room.” His wah-drenched licks and solos are razor-sharp, slashing through Jack Bruce<\/a>‘s vocals with\u00a0Clapton’s signature slow-hand precision and a seemingly newfound fervor. Perhaps he ought to have thanked Hendrix for scaring the living daylights out of him.<\/p>\n Guitarist:<\/strong> Jimi Hendrix<\/p>\n The scratchy, percussive intro to “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” is the\u00a0mother of all wah pedal exercises \u2014 walk into a Guitar Center on any given Wednesday afternoon and you’ll likely hear half a dozen aspiring bedroom shredders hacking their way through it. Hendrix dials up the intensity in the main solos, unleashing a flurry of screaming bends and explosive licks that contort as they pan across both speakers.\u00a0Nearly 60\u00a0years after its release, it’s still the gold standard for wah pedal freakouts.<\/p>\n Keep reading to see our list of guitar heroes who died way too young:<\/em><\/p>\n They are survived by their six-string prowess.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n11. Aerosmith<\/a>, “Reefer Head Woman”<\/h3>\n
10. Funkadelic<\/a>, “Maggot Brain”<\/h3>\n
9. Black Sabbath<\/a>, “Turn Up the Night”<\/h3>\n
8. David Lee Roth<\/a>, “Yankee Rose”<\/h3>\n
7. Metallica<\/a>, “Battery”<\/h3>\n
6. Joe Satriani<\/a>, “Surfing With the Alien”<\/h3>\n
5. Led Zeppelin<\/a>, “Whole Lotta Love”<\/h3>\n
4. Chicago<\/a>, “25 or 6 to 4”<\/h3>\n
3. Guns N’ Roses<\/a>, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”<\/h3>\n
2. Cream<\/a>, “White Room”<\/h3>\n
1. The Jimi Hendrix<\/a> Experience, “Voodoo\u00a0Chile (Slight Return)”<\/h3>\n
Rock Guitar Heroes Who Died Too Young<\/h2>\n