The First Wah Pedal Demo Ever Made! (1967) 

Dude doing the pitch at Vox: "I guess you guys aren't ready for that, yet. But your kids are gonna love it."

Cliff Burton: “Bass solo, take one...”

The genre is 60s TV rock. Whenever they had to represent a rock band on TV they used these older session guys and this is sort of what they thought rock sounded like.

Great video! My uncle is Melvin Ragin aka Wah Wah Watson! Let’s Get It On, Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Car Wash countless other hit records!! RIP to Wah Wah Watson!

My first wah experience: my dad yelling down to the basement "play Hendrix with it or throw it away!"

N.I.B. by Black Sabbath??? That is like one of their best songs. Bass Wah.

Kirk Hammett has entered the chat. Also, notice how on the demo disk they don't ask you to smash that like button and subscribe.

That intro to "I Had Too Much To Dream..." TERRIFIED me as a 6 year-old; my older brother used it to chase me out of his groovy basement hippy den

That record sounds like every screen wipe edit from Austin Powers

JHS must bring out a cardboard disc demo of sounds for their next release

“Acid Surf Music” I’m DEAD 😂

Cream used a wah pedal on "Tales of Brave Ulysses" which was the B side of the "Strange Brew" 45, and the song also appeared on their "Disraeli Gears" LP from 1967. So they must have been among the first to use it? And The Electric Prunes rock!

“Mommy, What’s A Funkadelic?” by Funkadelic has a great wah bass breakdown.

I can't decide if I like the wah. I keep going back and forth on it.

“My first thought is, that’s fairly annoying.” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

This is a brilliant episode. Thanks a lot!

The wah/distortion portion of the demo felt like a King Gizzard song haha

Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath is known for being one of the first few big bass players to use a wah

I still have my copy of this cardboard record (and the rest of the rectangular sheet of which it was originally part). It was sent to me in about April 1967 by Jennings Musical Industries. There is no chance whatsoever that Jimi Hendrix or any other rock player could have been heard using a wah pedal before Del Casher made the record in February 1967. That is because the Vox Wah-Wah pedal was not released for sale until May 1967, at least not in the UK. I had the great fortune to meet Del Casher at Deke Dickerson's Guitar Geeks' Festival at Anaheim during NAMM week 2012. We got into conversation and I mentioned that I still have the record. Del was good enough to return the next night with a copy taken from the master tape and transferred to CD-R. No more clicks, pops, or surface noise. A real gentleman. By the way, the tune identified by Josh as (Neal Hefti's) theme from the "Batman" TV series was actually closer to "Wipeout" by The Surfaris, though just enough notes were changed that no composer royalties would have been due. The group's version had composer credits listed as "The Surfaris".

Thanks for this one. Great episode!

I think I’m most impressed by the fact that you could put a record on cardboard...

Bass wah: "From whom the bell tolls" intro! Anesthesia too, by the awesome Cliff!

Absolutely love this video. I really appreciate the deep dive into the history of the pedal and the record on cardboard is awesome. Thanks for sharing!

This is seriously my fav video of all time! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this video! You killed it

I watched this 20 minutes ago and I still have that stupid Wah Wah song in my head. Thanks a lot, buddy.

I'm not half way through this video, but f3elt the need to stop and say this is the best and most important video JHS has made. You are preserving history knowledge here and it's fascinating and funny at the same time.

Great vid, as always. Thanks Josh, for sharing your wisdom!!!

This is great. Thanks for doing these videos josh

Bass Wah= "Anesthesia"/"Pulling Teeth" Metallica🤘🔥

"what the 🤬 is wrong with my guitar" "🤬 This pickup is out of phase or something and I never noticed 🤬 I gotta take it apart again" "Did I touch my amp? Did I bump it? Is my amp broken? Are my tubes still biased?" Ohhhhh my wah is on

excellent episode. thanks!

Thank you Josh i love this episode

I’m not worried about what genre it is, I just want it on Spotify.

I like how Josh mentioned Rage Against the Machine and can't think of a bass wah song... Calm like a bomb Josh!

I had read most of the history of the wah, but you out it all in perspective to me. Thanks Josh!!😹 Great Fun!😹

Thank you for allowing us to hear this rare piece of history!!

'Joy of a Toy' is a song by a British band called The Soft Machine that uses a bass played through a wah by Kevin Ayers. Both Soft Machine and Kevin Ayers' solo stuff are amazing, by the way.

Bass wah? Bassically & NIB from back sabbath! Hello!

Particularly enjoyed this episode. Cheers!

This is the best guitar channel on RU-vid.....well this and Johan Segeborn :). Thanks for all the excellent content, loved this episode man!

One hot minute Chili peppers song is Falling into grace Rage against the machine - Mic check, Born of ghosts, war within a breath. He actually uses two wahs at the same time with a board over them to control them same time.

The Wah pedal is legendary. You love it, I love it, your grandmother loves it, your dentist loves it, everyone loves it.

Thank you for letting us hear the recording:)

I love your history lessons, not only are they interesting but I find it very useful to know the time lines of fx as they get built and manufactured.

OK.. I'm now 100% sure George Harrison heard the "wah wah" outro theme song, and reworked for his song... Wah Wah.

First JHS Records release: deluxe expanded reissue of wah wah demo record with all 13 recorded demo tracks, pressed on deluxe heavy weight cardboard.

Best episode yet guys! You are really hitting your stride, and doing all of us and pedal history a real favor! PS: Speaking of paper records, Jack White put a song on the paper label of the "Ultra LP" version of Lazaretto along with half a dozen other fun vinyl tricks including dual intros depending on where the needle drops. If you haven't done that one for Record Time, you ought to.

thanks Josh for this Episode

I believe the genre is in fact, “Cat Fight Surf Pop Rock”. Very short lived.

Bass wah on NIB by Black Sabbath. Kudos, Geezer!

Incredible, insightful. Thanks for posting!

This was super fun and interesting! Thanks!

N.I.B. Black Sabbath. The first time a bass wah solo was recorded in music history. (According to Geezer and Dunlop)

Bass Wah? Cliff Burton playing his "Pulling Teeth" bass solo from Kill Em All, Metallica's first album. Legendary!

I so remember The Electric Prunes Josh. Too much to dream last night was not only a great play on words, but was a great song. Keep up the great work Josh I really appreciate what you do. Peace, love and Bobby Sherman✌️

Outstanding historical overview of the vaunted Vox Wah. There's no shortage of guitar channels on RU-vid but few are as entertaining, educational and overall enlightening as JHS's. Josh & the gang are laying it down for the homies in the guitar community and we all should be grateful.

"(Anesthesia)-Pulling Teeth" by Metallica with the late great Cliff Burton on bass. The prime example of a bass solo with a wah wah pedal.

The cardboard records were a thing in the 60s. The Post cereal company put records by bands like the Archies and the Jackson 5 on the back of Alphabits boxes.

I have one of your Vox wahs JHS it needs a little work but I am glad to have it!

Great info & entertaining as well!

"Pre-Acid Surf" is the genre of music on the Wah-wah cardboard record.

An ad played just as you put the record on, and I was like, "wait... they had ball trimmers in the 60s?!"

Homies, this has gotta be one of the best episodes to date

This is a very valuable piece of historical information, thanks for sharing, very interesting

The end of the jingle, where the singers say "WAH WAH," reminds me of the George Harrison tune

I don't usually comment, but I love this format of the show. Pedal demos area great, to but hear Josh walk us through his thoughts as he plays an ultra rare demo for a now super popular tool is absolutely fantastic. Loved every moment of this!

Man, I really love your channel! It's like school for guitar nerds!

JHS makes the best content. Thanks guys!

“What is the genre? Let’s argue over that” Anthony Fantano has entered the chat

DUDE, Geezer butler claims to be the first person to record the bass with each on an album NIB the opening is a giant bass way solo

Very kool episode!!!

LOVED this. I actually laughed out loud in spots. Well done.

The music on that record is typical of the music used in tv shows and movies at that time. It's what Hollywood thought rock music sounded like. It really was that cheesy.

Del Casher jamming on a new pedal with his drummer friend was the first episode of The JHS Show. If you look closely at the back of that cardboard record, you can see Josh in a group photo like the end of The Shining.

love these record episodes!

I love that cardboard record thing. Super interesting. Thanks for that Josh and company!

Say 'wha’ again. Say 'wha' again, I dare you, I double dare you Mr. Scott , say wha one more time! Cause it my second favorite effect next to Distortion.

Eric Clapton’s lead in White Room is undeniably the best ever wha solo.

Thanks Josh, awesome history 👏😎

The record demo was really cool!! Del Casher is a great player .

The Electric Prunes Mass in F Minor was actually the creation of producer extradrodinare, David Axlerod (NOT the politics guy of the same name). Axlerod, initially signed on as producer but basically took over the band and the album is pretty much his creation. The rest of the band hated it and quit one by one. The name 'Electric Prunes' was owned by the label and so they re-formed the band with completely different members. This is all documented in the wikipedia for the Electric Prunes. I highly recommend that you check out some of Axlerod's other stuff from the period, such as Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, and Earth Rot. These and other albums were frequently recorded by Axlerod with whatever session musicians were available to Axlerod at Capitol Records in Hollywood. We're talking Earl Palmer on drums, Carole Kaye on bass, Howard Roberts on guitar. Often huge classical string sections back these players up. The sessions were frequently short and the finished pieces are a credit to David Axlerod's vision and production skills. As you can tell, I'm a great fan. If you are shopping for records and you see 'Produced by David Axlerod' on the back, BUY THAT ALBUM! Axlerod was all over the place on Capitol's discography during the 60's to mid 70's- Jazz, Rock, Soul, Country. The one thing tying these records together is the awesome production.

Hendrix's "Up from the Skies" was the ultimate wah demo. The bass player for Brian Auger had a Bass Wah Pedal. He used it very sparingly but it was very effective. I heard that at a concert in 2008 (2009?).

Great video. Bravo.

This video, to me, is the best thing I've ever seen on the internet.

The Electric Prunes are a great band! They were produced by David Axelrod, a very talented arranger and composer who worked with them on a few records. Make sure to check out Release of an Oath by the Prunes and Axelrod's solo records, very nice mix of psych rock and jazz.

N.i.b. Bass intro solo uses a wah and it’s awesome

Thank you for playing that historical gem. Rare experience. You should rip the audio if no one else has yet

I love every bit of this!

I really appreciate your honesty when you talk about pedals, many of them your competitor's pedals. This episode is definite one of the best episodes ever! You didn't just show us a vintage pedal like you normally do but we were able to hear that bit of history first hand. Greetings from Sweden.

Dont apologise for the story times I want to hear all of them... wish you had a channel of just story times haha

Killer episode! I remember that cardboard demo disc-I think it came bound into an early issue of Guitar Player magazine, which started in ‘67. I thought the songs were a bit hokey, but the guy obviously could play. As I recall, those first Vox Clyde McCoy wah pedals were around $40, and as a 17-year-old in ‘67, I didn’t have that kind of money-that was two weekends worth of gigs! I didn’t get a wah pedal until 1972-first effect I had that wasn’t tremolo or reverb built into an amp. Many years later, on one of my NAMM show trips in the ‘90s, I found myself in a very long line waiting to get into a restaurant to have dinner, and in front of me was none other than Del Casher. He invited me to share a table, and we had a great conversation. Really nice guy. Incidentally, the Electric Prunes got a lot of mileage out of doing albums based on religious music. In addition to Mass In F Minor, they also had one based on Kol Nidre, from the Jewish Yom Kippur service. And the Clyde McCoy connection was because Clyde was known for getting a wah sound by manipulating a mute on his trumpet. I used to wonder why Vox used a trumpet player to promote a device for guitar players.

Wah was my first guitar pedal. Thanks for the great history lesson!

The first song on The Electric Prunes Mass in F Minor (Kyrie Eleison) was used in the Mardi Gras scene in Easy Rider. The band by this time were a group of musicians put together by their manager, who owned the name, and none of the original members were in this group.

Del Casher's Wah-wah demo is like the 60 year old version of Josh's pedal demos lol

Great Wah Wah tune! I love rare promos like that. Just listened to a promo record about selling Brunswick Bowling Alleys. 1966 was an incredible music/dance year. Thanks for the Korg info earlier. Found the Spirit Cat! I dig a Toneworks tremelo,vibe, or rotary into it

Great vid! 💖

The bass solo in “My Wave” by Soundgarden uses a wah-wah

Ok, so I haven’t read to see if anyone has already commented about this but the Electric Prunes are amazing. There are essentially two different bands though because by the time you get to “Mass in F Minor” and the following “release of an oath” (I highly recommend that one) the band is basically just a name owned by the label. I’m not sure how many original members remained but those two records are pretty much David Axlerod concept albums and they so rad.great stuff.

I'm a wah addict and have quite a few including a couple still in construction . My favourite one though is a one which someone gave me with a broken inductor which I replaced with one from ebay -can't rem which type inductor I subbbed . Its a very light plastic -cased JHS WP-100 which sounds magnificent. Thanks for putting this together -it was fun.

cool, thanks for sharing. very enjoyable.