Hey fellow guitar fanatics! As a content creator here at guitarplayers.net, I’ve gotta confess, my pedal collection is a bit… eccentric. We’re talking about things that are more conversation starters than gig-savers. An MXR pedal that’s better suited as a paperweight, a guitar pick the size of Texas toast (yes, I actually used it on the JHS Show!), and enough original pedal boxes to wallpaper a small apartment. You get the picture.
But this week, I snagged something truly special, something I’m genuinely stoked to share, even if it was a pain to track down. Forget rare pedals; this is a slice of music history itself. I’m talking about the OG artifact: the 1967 Vox Wah Wah demonstrational record. And get this – it’s not even vinyl! It’s cardboard. Seriously. You can see the little perforated edges, like it was ripped straight out of a cereal box. Makes you wonder, right?
If you’ve hung around the JHS Show for a while, you might remember the episode where we geeked out over the world’s first pedal demo – the Maestro Fuzztone FZ-1. Well, this is the Wah Wah Guitar pedal’s equivalent. But before we drop the needle (or… cardboard disc?) on this demo, let’s rewind and dive into the fascinating, slightly bizarre, history of how the wah pedal came to be.
The Accidental Invention of the Wah Pedal: From Vox Amps to Guitar Grooves
If you caught “Pedals: The Musical,” you got a glimpse into the wah pedal’s origin story with Del Casher and Brad Plunkett. But the real genesis of the wah wah guitar sound goes back a bit further, to the British Invasion and a company called Jennings, which you might know better as Vox.
Based in London’s Denmark Street music hub, Jennings had a secret weapon: Dick Denney. This guy is a low-key legend in guitar history. Seriously, Denney invented the iconic AC15 and AC30 amps. He also cooked up the 816 Booster, which some say was the blueprint for the Fuzz Face. And then there was the Vox Super Beatle amp. Think back to 1964: seventy million people glued to the Ed Sullivan Show, watching The Beatles. And right there on stage? Vox amps. Boom. Overnight, Vox went supernova, morphing from a small shop into a global empire, even setting up a factory in California to keep up with demand.
The Super Beatle amp was Denney’s brainchild to capitalize on the Beatles-Vox connection. (Fun fact: the Beatles didn’t actually use Super Beatles on Ed Sullivan, but that’s a rabbit hole for another day). Crucially for our wah wah guitar story, the Super Beatle had a mid-range control knob.
Now, enter Brad Plunkett, a Vox engineer, and Del Casher, a guitarist who’d played with everyone from Lawrence Welk to Green Acres and was working as a demo guy for Vox.
Picture this: 1966. Brad Plunkett is tweaking the mid control knob on a Super Beatle prototype. In the next room, Del Casher hears this wild “wah, wah, wah” sound. Lightbulb moment! Casher had been chasing that very sound in his head, but never knew how to get it. The solution? They grabbed a volume control pedal from a Vox Continental Organ, ripped out the mid control circuit from the Super Beatle, and crammed it into the pedal housing. As Del recalls:
“I definitely remember going to Stanley Cutler, head of engineering and [saying], ‘Stan, I know that this can be lifted out of the amplifier. So, can you get me the guy who did that?’ He said, ‘Well, it was Brad Plunkett.’ So I said, ‘Tell Brad that I want the breadboard put into a pedal.’ So they had the breadboard put into a pedal at my request.”
And just like that, in 1966, the first wah pedal was born. Vox put it into production in 1967. Del Casher had his dream guitar effect, but the Vox bigwigs? They were clueless. They thought it was for trumpet players. Seriously. Their logic? Orchestras have tons of trumpets and saxophones, way more than guitars at the time. “Nine pedals sold right off the bat!” they reasoned.
Del, understandably, was like, “Dude, it’s for guitar!” Still not getting it. So, in a stroke of sarcastic genius, he joked:
“I remember my brother had a recording of a guy named Clyde McCoy who played the trumpet in the [song] “Sugar Blues.” I said, ‘Why don’t you call it [the] McCoy?’ jokingly. I figured Clyde McCoy was dead. He wasn’t. He was still alive.”
The punchline? Vox actually went for it. They tracked down Clyde McCoy, a trumpet player famous for his “wah-wah” mute technique, offered him a measly $500 (about $3,500 today), and slapped his face on the back of the pedal. The “Clyde McCoy Wah Wah” was born.
Talk about the first artist endorsement being a total accident! The more you know, right?
Cardboard Dreams: The 1967 Vox Wah Wah Demo Record
The Vox Wah Wah started gaining traction, but in 1967, it still wasn’t a must-have for guitar players. Del Casher took matters into his own hands. “I’m going to my garage studio in Hollywood Hills,” he declared, “and cut a demo record to show how this thing works on a guitar!” Vox, still skeptical, gave him a budget for a… cardboard record. Yeah, cardboard. Not exactly high fidelity. It’s a shame, because fast forward a few years, and guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and later, guys like Tom Morello and Kirk Hammett, would prove the wah wah guitar pedal is one of the most expressive and versatile effects ever created.
Listening to this cardboard demo, a few things jump out. First, they clearly had no idea the sonic mayhem this thing was capable of. “Bulls on Parade”? “Voodoo Child”? The Shaft theme? Nowhere to be heard. But cut them some slack. This was brand new. The wah pedal was invented like, three months prior. They were still figuring it out! That’s why they totally missed some of the iconic wah techniques we know and love today, like running the wah before or after distortion, or using it as a fixed “cocked wah” tone.
Del’s mission was to sell this pedal, so his demo targeted 12-string guitar players, like The Byrds, who were huge at the time. Here’s Del’s recollection of the recording session:
“I went to my garage studio in Hollywood Hills. I brought in Jimmy Troxell, who was one of the session players, a very great drummer…And I said, ‘Jimmy, we’re just going to lay 13 tracks down one after another after another. And each track is going to be, you know, a minute and a half.’ So out of the 13 songs, I picked out about five songs to demonstrate the wah pedal and how the guitar can change the sounds and make it groovy, make it growl, make it funky, make a sound like a sitar. We put that all together, and I thought [Vox] was going to put my [name on it], saying ‘Del Casher, young guitarist from Hollywood featuring the wah pedal.’ But they didn’t.”
Interestingly, in a 2019 interview I did with Del in his living room, he seemed almost surprised that his creation became a staple for guitar gods like Hendrix and Clapton. Even in this 1967 demo, though, you can hear hints of the expressive, vocal-like style that Hendrix would later make famous with the wah wah guitar. It’s also funny to note that James Brown, the Godfather of Soul himself, apparently told Del the wah pedal was pointless and wouldn’t catch on. Even legends get it wrong sometimes!
The Vox Clyde McCoy Wah Wah is technically the first signature guitar pedal ever made. Mind-blowing, considering Clyde McCoy never touched a Vox pedal, or any pedal for that matter! He was a trumpet guy. But hey, 500 bucks is 500 bucks.
As a pedal builder myself, here’s my two cents: when you see an artist signature pedal, make sure they actually play it! Seems obvious, but it’s a game-changer for informed consumers. Do your homework, be smart about your gear, and most importantly, play what makes you happy. If a Jimi Hendrix signature pedal inspires you, rock on! Just maybe know that Jimi himself never actually played any of his signature pedals.
Cool? Cool.
