Zvex Seek Wah Pedal
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From Zachary
Vex: I know it may be confusing, but just relax and let the
seek-wah guide your tempo. When you turn it on, it will probably be playing a
pattern already. Put the leftmost knob in about the middle, and turn a couple of
the other eight knobs to the left. There's a little notch in each knob so you
can tell it's position, and an LED by each wah control that shows which is
active and by it's brightness, the wah setting. Put the tiny switch in the
MIDDLE position. That sets it to 8 steps. Strum a chord and let it hang, and
listen to the tempo of the unit. Bob your head to the tempo, and strum again...
If you want it to be a little faster turn the leftmost knob (speed) to the LEFT,
and if you want it to be a little slower turn it to the RIGHT. I know, I know,
all the knobs are backwards... that's because when i tried to make them go
forwards they got jumpy at the rightmost position. It just sounded so much
better to have them go the other way. Complain to Alpha manufacturing. They make
'em
Basically, the seek-wah is sort of
a combination of a tremolo and a wah wah pedal. If you're familiar with
seventies synths, it's exactly like an analog sequencer controlling a mellow
bandpass filter. You have a choice between 4, 6, or 8 steps for your wah. The 6
step positions works well with 6/8 or 3/4 time songs. The seek-wah steps through
from one wah setting to another and starts over after it gets to the end of the
sequence. There's a total of 9 knobs, the leftmost being a speed control, and
the other being wah settings, which get brighter when you turn them to the left.
You can set up patterns which accentuate notes in arpeggiated chords at
particular spots... it can be really pretty if you play in time with the tempo
and play repeating patterns, with the same or changing chords. Rather
hypnotic.
Or, you can set the thing to do a
sort of tremolo echo, with the knobs set like this: 7:00, 5:00, 8:00, 5:00,
11:00, 5:00, 2:00, 5:00 (these are o'clock positions, not spinal tap 1-11). Then
set the speed control for a happy tempo. Heck, there's so many things you can
set it to do, like set a tempo that closely matches the tempo of a song you're
overdubbing a part on, sample a nice part on the seek wah, and midi trigger the
sample so that it stays in time with the song perfectly. I know you can come up
with a zillion ways to use it... How do I know? CUZ IT HAS SO MANY
KNOBS!