MORLEY VS. DUNLOP

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jjf777

jjf777

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CAN ANY ONE TELL ME THE ACTUAL PRACTICAL DIFFERENCES, PROS AND CONS? IVE GOT A DUNLOP BUT TO BE HONEST I JUST LIKE THE LOOK OF THE MORLEY BETTER. CHEESY I KNOW, BUT IVE JUST NEVER REALLY CARED FOR THE DUNLOPS. THANK YOU.
 
Are you asking Wah vs Wah? Vintage vs. new? Morley made a shitload of pedals. The early "oil can" stuff was neat, and some of the power wah / fuzz and and boost pedals has/had a following. But wah wise, vintage Pre Dunlop is best IMO.
 
I've been gigging with a Morley Tremonti Power Wah for a while now, and here's my take:

Morley pros:

-The spring loaded switchless design is just awesome! I don't want to worry about clicking on and off my wah for leads and certain riffs when I need to focus on playing. I can't multitask! :lol: :LOL: (FWIW, Dunlop will mod any of their wahs with this design)

-The wah sweep/range on the Morleys is dialed in to really scream and have your playing be heard! It has a very wide and midrange focused sweet spot, while many of the Dunlop wahs seem to go from closed to open with no middle sweet spot. The Morleys are very vocal and expressive.

Cons:

-Build quality. I've said in the past that my Morley has held up well, but after a bit more time with it, I'm finding that they definitely cut corners on quality. The rubber tread/foot grip stuff actually melted off one hot day at an outdoor gig, leaving a gross sticky residue all over my pedal. :confused: :no: Had to super glue it back on. The rubber feet on the bottom did the same thing.
Also, this past weekend at a gig, the pedal started cutting in and out during soundcheck. Turned out the 9-volt battery connectors had started separating and were not touching the battery contacts.

-Morley sounds like shit on clean sounds. Because of the sweep range and because it is voiced to get a lot of high-end scream on leads, it sounds very cardboardy and flat/harsh on cleans. The Dunlop sounds MUCH more natural and balanced.



Keep in mind that I baby my gear and haven't had these problems with hardly any other pedals. My next wah will not be a Morley.
 
I have yet to personally use a nicer wah than a Dunlop 535Q. There's just something about that style chassis that feel better as well. And you wanna talk about reliability? Anything that survives 7 years of me fucking it up gets an A+ in my book.


BTW, Caps Lock, turn it off.
 
i like the morley vai1. only thing is, the metal ribbon springs they use are shite. i modded mine years ago to have 2 heavy springs under the tip of the pedal...a tad noisier but i can live with the fact that it wont be lying there in the limp position, open mind you, during a gig.
 
I've used the Dunlop ZW wah and the Morley Bad Horsie I both for about a year each. To my ear and liking the sound and the sweep is better in the Dunlop. The reason I'm not using it anymore is that I simply LOVE the switchless design of the Morley. I'm going to go for the Dunlop 95Q if/when I get rid of the Morley first.

Both of the pedals felt and feel durable enough for my use (30-40 gigs/year+rehearsals approx. once a week).

EDIT: I need the wah for dirty sounds only, I've no need for clean woweewah :D .
 
thank you everyone. i think i found out what i needed to know.
 
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