Are you looking for the best auto-wah pedal? Then, you’re in the right place. We found and reviewed the four best auto-wah pedals available on the market at the moment.
Wah pedals are ubiquitous on the boards of many guitarists worldwide. They’ve been one of the most widely used pedals since the 60s, providing an effect that ranges from subtly sweetening a tone to full-blown manipulation.
We have trumpeters and trombonists to thank for the wah sound, who used to move their mutes to create this effective crying sound.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the list of the four best auto-wah pedals:
Top 4 Best Auto Wah Pedals:
| Image | Model | Dimensions (") | Weight (lb) | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boss AW-3 (Top Pick) | 6 x 3.7 x 2.5 | 18.4 | Check Price |
 | MP Snow White | 3 x 8 x 10 | 15.9 | Check Price |
 | Keeley KNEUT | 6 x 4 x 3 | 12.8 | Check Price |
 | Xvive Auto Wah | 3.7 x 1.81 x 1.97 | 8.5 | Check Price |
Boss AW-3 Dynamic Wah (Editor’s Choice)
Most pedal line-ups feature a Boss. They aren’t known for their unique boutique pedals, but they are known for their faithful and durable pedals, which add new features to tried and tested formats. Often, Boss pedals trade in their vintage circuit modeling for extra ‘stuff.’ This suits some genres nicely. For example, if you’re a modern funk guitarist or play for an electro band, you don’t necessarily need a vintage tone to your wah.
Features
This pedal has separate inputs for guitar and bass. It’s rugged and durable but doesn’t have the same visual delight as some boutique wahs. It also has an expression pedal input, which allows you to access a truly unique world of wah goodness. You can program this wah with tempo settings; it has a unique ‘humanizer’ to give your instrument vowel-like sounds. That’s pretty cool – the Boss always squeezes in a unique option.
Tone
People love this pedal because it has some original twists. It’s a little more digital in tone, as it forgoes quality circuits for extra features, like many Boss pedals. That doesn’t matter in some rigs, though, and this pedal makes up for it with incredible options. This pedal’s auto-wah effects come close to the boutique models on the list but lack warmth.
The humanizer sounds excellent, though. It’ll capture the imagination of some guitarists. With tempo selection settings, you can set the wah to your beat or instrumental and place complete faith that you’ll wah along in time.
Keeley KNEUT Guitar Wah Effects Pedal
This fantastic pedal allows you to explore a wealth of new and exciting effects for your guitar. It features a Neutrino Envelope Filter with straightforward controls. This pedal has a gain control, peak control, and a filter selection with three different timbre filters for many sonic possibilities. It sounds like a vintage unit, giving a good funk sound right out of the box. This pedal is perfect for replicating all your favorite funk tones, and like auto wahs, you can set it and forget about it.
Features
This pedal unit comes with just three knobs and two switches. It takes a while to dial in the perfect tone, especially if you’re not experienced with wahs or envelope filters but overall, it’s easy to use. Range control (hi to low) controls how mellow or sharp your wah is.
You can select three filter timbres, a direction switch on the side controls whether the wah goes up or down, and the top-mounted switch controls whether high or low frequencies are stressed. It’s a strongly built unit too, roadworthy and compact. The pedal is well made by a boutique manufacturer, Keeley, who hand-makes units.
Tone
These pedals provide a bespoke tone, and they won’t suit everyone. Thanks to its optocoupler design, this one has a classic funk sound rich, vintage, and warm in tone. That’s the big plus to this pedal. It resembles classic wah pedals with the auto-wah twist to boot. The harder you play, the greater this pedal will respond. Individual notes are creatively articulated for funk stabs and vowel sounds.
Some parts of the frequency spectrum stand out more than others, creating problems for some guitarists who move up and down the neck. If you’re going to play funk with this, though, then you’ll find it amazing. It’s easily one of the most lovingly crafted and best auto-wah pedals on the market. Keeley does it again!
Mad Professor Snow White Auto Wah Effects Pedal (Editor’s Choice)
Amongst auto-wah discussions, there is one model that keeps cropping up. The Mad Professor Snow White is a go-to option for many guitarists looking for auto-wah effects. It can either laden your tone with funk or provide subtle nuances to give your tone a certain quirk. It isn’t that expensive either, and it is very simple. It’s a real set-and-forget pedal that works for guitar and bass. This pedal has earned its place in many guitarists, from funk to rock.
Features
Made by hand in Finland, this great auto-wah features a classic white box design. It has four rotary knobs and a stomp switch for turning the pedal on and off on your board. The knobs include sensitivity, bias, resonance, and decay. It’s simple to tune these up, and they give you a plethora of fantastic wah options. The decay control is unique and controls how quickly the frequency falls in the envelope.
A fast decay affects quick notes, or a slow decay affects sequences of notes together. Combined with the sensitivity setting, this pedal is more flexible than the others. You can easily dial filter resonance and sensitivity in, too – it’s plenty to give you access to classic wah tones that articulate themselves automatically.
Tone
This extremely popular wah pedal allows guitarists to tap into a huge variety of tones. It’s organic, classic, warm, and vintage sounding, thanks to its 1991 BJF rack mount wah circuit modeling. In addition, this pedal gives new meaning to the auto wah’s flexibility, from funky effects that affect single notes quickly to slower classic wah effects.
You don’t need to oversaturate the signal and can use this wah quite subtly or crank its effects for full-blown funk. It’s a great pedal, handmade to great effect, and has to be one of the best auto-wah pedals out there.
Xvive Auto Wah Bass Guitar Effects Pedal Envelope Filter
If you want an auto-wah but don’t want to fork out for something expensive, then this might be the ticket. This pedal is cheap, and it opens up super-cool sonic possibilities with ease. It’s a small unit, and it’s simple to use too.
Features
It has fewer features than many auto wahs. Still, it has the key ones. With sensitivity, sustain, and depth, you can access all the classic or modern wah effects you need, and a switch enables you to select between fast or slow for slower or more staccato play.
Tone
The circuit in this is basic, and it won’t provide vintage or fat tones, but it will juice up your tone with funk was, and that’s the point. The tone you’re getting is versatile for the price, and the circuit reacts quickly to guitar attack for fast playing. In addition, it’s articulate and easily manipulated.
It is the best auto-wah envelope filter for such a low price.
How to Pick the Best Auto Wah Pedal
When we think of the wah pedal, we think of the classic foot-controlled pedal accompanying disco and funk music. These pedals are practical for many genres, though, and you can manually manipulate the foot-controlled models to cut off parts of the frequency range to create that famous wah-wah tone. Now, though, a new breed of wah pedals, named auto-wahs, have arrived on the scene, and proving to be different beasts to wah pedals, they’re growing more popular.
The critical difference is that an auto-wah shapes the tone of your guitar, depending on the input. That means your guitar’s attack and decay partly control the envelope filter and automatically generate the wah effect based on what you’re playing, according to set controls. So you don’t need to worry about the pedal when it’s set up.
This set and forget function is ideal for some scenarios where it’s impractical to attend your pedal the whole time you want to use a wah. The auto-wah equips you with a constantly effective wah effect that responds to your picking dynamics for funk players. Auto-wahs are flexible, creative, and cool. We’re used to hearing and seeing wahs, but the auto-wah isn’t the same, it’s a different beast, and that’s how you should treat it.
Conclusion: What’s the Best Auto Wah Pedal?
These auto wahs are brilliant for spicing up your pedalboard for funk and disco lovers or lovers of FX-driven sounds. They’re great pedals for modifying your tone. Auto wahs are not the same as wahs, and therefore, you can’t just turn your nose up at one if you already own a wah! Why not own both?
They’re creative and easy to use, bringing a range of new sonic possibilities to your rig. Which is the best, though? Well, three pedals here are similar prices and the other one, the Xvive auto-wah, comes in at a considerably cheaper price point. So if you want to wade into the realm of auto-wah, then that’s your ticket. It’s cheap, functional and packs some good features.
If you want a proper auto-wah pedal, then the other three all provide good options. The Keeley KNEUT provides three filters for different wah effects, and it is vintage modeled circuit gives the pedal a warmth that fattens your tone nicely. Mad Professor Snow White offers similar tone warmth and is widely touted as the best auto-wah available. It’s a boutique pedal handmade by experts to provide a specialist auto-wah effect easily dialed in.
You can’t go wrong with the Boss AW-3. It has to be one of the best auto-wah pedals in the world today. The Boss pedal here offers some extra bits and bobs at the sacrifice of quality circuitry. For many, this isn’t an issue. However, if you have more pedals, good amps, etc., you might want a flexible auto-wah pedal, and the Boss fits this bill as the best auto-wah pedal.