I recently received this fantastic Wah Pedal as a gift from Soap Creative for 2 years service as a web developer, pretty nice gift eh? So you may be thinking who are Custom Audio Electronics? Or why didn’t you get a Jim Dunlop Crybaby? Well hold your horses, this Wah was designed by the legendary Bob Bradshaw who built effect and amp switching solutions for some of the biggest names in rock (just check out his client list) and he designed it in conjunction with the Dunlop Crybaby team, although it is confusingly also branded MXR also owned by Dunlop.

Here is a little bit of background on Custom Audio Electronics:
CAE, Inc. was formed in 1980. I developed a system utilizing a rack mounted audio switcher with discrete loops for 100% bypassing of each effect as well as functions for channel switching amps and additional effects control. This was coupled to a rugged foot controller with a direct access switch and LED for each loop and/or function in the system. Preset capabilities and MIDI were added later.

Custom Audio Electronics now make Amps, Effects, programmable pedal boards, preamps… well just about everything. When I saw that Bob Bradshaw had designed a Wah I was immediately interested so I did a little more research and found that it was actually 2 Wahs in 1. The Wah has 2 easily switchable Fasel Inductor circuits and a built-in MXR MC-401 Boost/Line Driver which controlled by a knob on the side can boost your guitar signal by up to 20db. You can see on the photo below the kick switches at the back on each side which activate the boost and switch between the 2 distinct voices, high-end emphasis (Yellow) or low to mid resonance (Red).
Custom Audio Electronics MC-404 Wah
When you switch the Wah on a green LED lights up, it is amazing how many Wahs don’t have this feature and it is in my opinion essential, such a simple thing. Next to the green LED is a blue LED which lights up when you activate the boost, which by the way is very easy to do, as you will see in the video I can flick it on and off no problem without wearing shoes. On the other side of the Wah at the rear near the kickswitch is another LED which either lights up red or yellow depending on which Fasel Inductor is selected. The Wah also has 2 pairs of trim pots inside which I haven’t touched yet, they alter the gain and Q for each circuit. I am happy with the Yellow but I would like to tweak the Red as I think it needs a bit more oomph and midrange, it is a little too dark and subtle for me, shame an extra pot wasn’t included for the Q but maybe that is complicating the pedal too much? I was actually able to alter the boost volume with my toe another pot would hinder that.

I found that the best sounds were achieved when you don’t crank the boost too much, anywhere up to half way added a bit of zing to the signal and really brought the Wah alive, especially with a bit of overdrive. I will probably have this engaged all the time, not sure it really needed an on/off as you can always roll back the gain. I’ve kept the demo relatively short but I think you will get a good idea of the sounds that this pedal creates and I think you will agree it is a very versatile Wah which is capable of everything from Funk to Hendrix to Slash and beyond. With a little internal tweaking I’m sure you can easily tailor the CAE Wah for your perfect setup.