Best Wah Pedal for Metal Styles (my top pick)

The Morley Bad Horsie wah series has always had an aggressive cut and sweep that played really well with metal tones. But the main reason I like it for metal is that you can quickly engage it simply by stepping on it and pushing forward or back. This is called a "switchless" wah design, and it's incredibly helpful when you're playing in quicker-paced styles like modern rock and metal. For what it's worth, this is Steve Vai's signature wah pedal series that has been in production for a very long time.

Compare the Morley Bad Horsie to Similar Wah Pedals

You can compare the Morley Bad Horsie Contour wah here to a few other similar wah pedals.

Pricing Tools

We've put together some live pricing tables for the Morley Bad Horsie wah pedal. Note that the alert and history section follows the lowest price from all the vendors listed.

Pricing from Major Vendors

Price Alert

Price History

Other Versions of the Bad Horsie

There are several other versions of the Bad Horsie, and I'm okay with all of them for metal, and generally for hard rock styles, as long as they're switchless. You'll see plenty of used listings for the original Bad Horsie and Bad Horsie 2, but the Contour and 20/20 wah are the two current models.

Features We Like

With a wah pedal, it's all about the harshness of the cut. Some of them sound smoother, while others are a little more harsh. For metal, I like the harsher, more aggressive sound, but with the contour controls on the Bad Horsie you can tweak it pretty much however you'd like.

We've already talked about the switchless feature (a lot) so I'll shut up about that.

Another awesome feature is how the pedal kicks back on its own, which means if you let your foot off, it'll go back to the off position. This lets you hold positions really easily, like that sweet spot where it's perfectly in the middle of the swell. I used that a ton with my original Bad Horsie.

It just makes the back and forth movement and operation of the pedal a lot smoother.

You can hear me using the Bad Horsie wah in this cover of "Greed" by Godsmack, particularly during the solo:

Is there a drop in tone quality with a switchless wah pedal?

I've used the Morley wah pedals and the Dunlop Cry Baby wah (I think the 535Q) and I've always thought the Morley wahs sounded better. At no point did I feel like I was getting an inferior tone with the Bad Horsie. In fact, it sounded better to my ears, but it's also true that this is a pretty subjective matter. Most $200 wah pedals will (and should) sound really nice, whether they're switchless or not.

What are some other brands to consider?

Aside from Morley, I would checkout the Dunlop Cry Baby wahs, especially the signature series. The VOX Classic wah is another one you could look at. But generally, Morley and Dunlop have a heavy grip on the wah pedal market.

Conclusion

As always, these recommendations are based on my experience, which means you've got to take the information and decide what will work best for you.

And while I've found the Morley Bad Horsie works really well for metal styles, most wah pedals can fit into a wide range of genres, because the technology is fairly simple. All you're doing is quickly manipulating the tone, and there are only so many different ways you can do that.

So don't overthink it, but also feel free to ask questions via the comments section below. We'll see you there.

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