Historical Background First introduced in the June 25, 1967 Vox US price list, the original V846 was the second version of the Vox wah pedal. It was preceded by the "Clyde McCoy" wah in early 1967. Both were designed and distributed by the Vox Division of the Thomas Organ Company. Before we look at the 2024 reissue of the V846 "Vintage" Wah, let's go back to late 1966 and review the history leading up to the original V846.
Vox Ampliphonic and the Clyde McCoy Wah Pedal
Not content to limit themselves to the guitars and amps, Thomas Organ developed a line of Vox "Ampliphonic" products in 1967 aimed at the band and orchestra market. Under the leadership of Thomas Organ president Joe Benaron, Vox designed several models of powered speakers and instrument pickups for brass and reed instruments. The unique shapes of these powered speakers allowed them to double as a music stand, even including a lamp to illuminate the music.
Concurrent to the development of the Ampliphonic product line, Thomas Organ was looking to refine the MRB, or "mid range resonance boost" circuitry included in a number of US Vox amplifiers. The MRB circuit was designed to boost mid range response in these amps at one of three frequencies: 450, 600 or 750 hz. A three-position, panel mounted rotary switch selected the desired boost frequency. Thomas Organ wanted to replace the three-position selector switch in these amps with a continuously variable mid-frequency control. After this sweepable MRB circuit was developed, it was installed in a Vox organ pedal for internal demonstration and evaluation purposes.
When Thomas Organ president, Joe Benaron, first heard a demonstration of the prototype variable MRB pedal, the sound it created reminded him of the "wah" effect created with a trumpet and a cup mute. The "wah" effect made by cupping the mute on the bell of a trumpet was popularized by 1930's era big band leader Clyde McCoy. Benaron immediately saw the potential of offering this pedal in conjunction with the powered Ampliphonic music stands under development at Vox. A trumpeter could use the "wah" pedal to simulate the effect of a cup mute by simply articulating the pedal. Benaron saw such potential for the wah pedal in the Ampliphonic line that he secured the rights to use the McCoy name on the pedal directly from Clyde McCoy.
Soon after, production of the "Clyde McCoy Wah-Wah" pedal commenced as an accessory for the Vox Ampliphonic line. At this point, little to no thought was given by Thomas Organ or Benaron to the "wah" pedal as a guitar effect. Thomas Organ/Vox demonstrator Del Casher was about to change the trajectory of the wah pedal forever.
Promotional Record For the Vox Wah-Wah Some at Thomas Organ, including Del Casher, disagreed with Joe Benaron's decision to limit the promotion of the Wah-Wah to the Vox Ampliphonic line. To that end, Casher collaborated on a promotional recording that demonstrated the capabilities of the Vox Wah for guitar. Dated February 1967, this "punch out" paper record was later distributed to Vox dealers throughout North America to promote sales of the wah pedal. You can hear this recording in the audio player shown at right.
It didn't take long for Thomas Organ to realize that the true sales potential for the Wah-Wah was as a guitar effect. Thomas Organ arranged a press conference in late March 1967 to introduce and promote the Vox wah pedal. This press conference was covered in an article published in the April 8, 1967 issue of Billboard magazine entitled "Big Future Predicted for Vox Invention." Joe Benaron opened the press conference by explaining the Vox Wah Wah pedal could be used "with a guitar or with any amplified instrument or microphone." Benaron also stated that "We are proud to be the company to develop the Wah-Wah, a revolutionary sound."
It is worth noting while Benaron claimed that the Vox wah pedal could be used to "imitate the sound of an on-and-off trumpet," no mention is made of the original namesake of the Vox wah wah, Clyde McCoy, in this press conference.
Now that the Vox wah was being broadly marketed as a guitar effect, the affiliation with an aging big-band leader had become somewhat irrelevant. Most guitarists would have no idea who Clyde McCoy was. Thomas Organ soon dropped the Clyde McCoy name from the pedal, simply renaming it the Vox V846 Wah-Wah in the June 1967 product catalog and price list. As a result, not that many pedals were produced bearing the Clyde McCoy name, making them quite collectible today.
Vox Wah-Wah Promotional Record - 1967
The V846 Vintage Wah (2024 - ) Introduced in 2024, the Vox V846 Vintage Wah recreated the wide tonal sweep of the original Vox V846 Wah-Wah by reproducing the original circuit design all the way down to the component level. Vox accomplished this feat by acquiring a mint condition 1967 era V846 wah, allowing exhaustive A/B testing to compare the vintage pedal against more conventional units. The knowledge gained through this work led to the development of newly designed inductors and 100kΩ potentiometers made specifically for this project. Vox also studied the effect of using the ideal transistors on tone and output.
Inductors - The five styles of 500mH ferrite core inductors pictured at right were used in the various versions of Vox wah pedals produced in the 1960s and 1970s by Thomas Organ. Although all of these inductors were rated at 500mh, differences in the design of their ferrite cores led to significant differences in tone caused by a electronic phenomena called "core saturation."
Halo Inductor
"Trash Can"
Inductor
"Stack of Dimes"
03 Inductor
Fasel Inductor
TDK 5103
Inductor
A ferrite core inductor is comprised of a coil of wire wrapped around an iron or "ferrite" core. In simplest terms, core saturation happens when the current in the coil exceeds the ability of the ferrite core to accept any more magnetic flux. This core saturation will create harmonics in the audio output not found in the original signal. These harmonic artifacts affect the tone of the pedal.
While it is possible to find any of the five styles of inductors in a Vox wah pedal, the original Clyde Mc Coy plus many early Vox V846 Wah pedals utilized the highly revered "Halo" inductor, as shown at left in the photos above. It gets its name from the silver ring-shaped clip that holds the assembly together. Vox wah expert Geoff Teese of RMC Custom Pedals has reported that two versions of the "Halo" inductor were produced for Thomas Organ, each with a different ferrite core and consequentially, somewhat different audio response. When Vox was doing the research in 2023 that led to the creation of the VRM-1 "Real McCoy" and V846 Vintage wahs, their testing confirmed Teese's assertion that there was indeed two versions of the "halo" inductor. One of these inductors has a more nasal response and was commonly installed in the "Clyde" pedal. The other inductor offers a wider frequency sweep, generating the signature response of the original 1967 era Vox V846 wah. Vox recreated both inductors for their 2024 Real McCoy and V846 wah reissues.
100kΩ Control Potentiometers A 100kΩ potentiometer controlled the sweep of mid frequencies boosted by Vox wah pedals.
Potentiometers may be designed with either a linear or an audio (logarithmic) taper. Taper is the relationship between the position of the rotating control shaft and the measured resistance of the pot. A linear taper pot will show a proportional increase in electrical resistance as the control shaft is rotated, measuring one half of their total resistance when the control shaft is at mid point. An audio taper pot will exhibit much less than half of rated resistance at the mid point of the control. The electrical resistance of an audio taper pot will increase slowly to the mid point of rotation and then rise rapidly until it reaches the fully clockwise position (see chart at right).
Vox sourced 100KΩ audio taper potentiometers for original Wah-Wah pedals from numerous US suppliers, but the ICAR potentiometer installed in Italian made Vox wah pedals is considered by many to offer superior performance. The ICAR pot had a hybrid design that blended a linear and audio taper. I suspect that the potentiometer Vox developed for the V846 Vintage and VRM-1 Clyde wahs was based on this ICAR design.
Transistors The circuit design for the original Clyde McCoy and V846 wah pedals incorporated two silicon NPN transistors. As Thomas Organ published a service schematic and parts list for their wah wah pedals in 1967, it should have been easy for modern day Vox to determine the correct and original transistor to use in a reissue wah pedal. However, this was not the case. In real practice, Vox used at least six different types of NPN transistors in Clyde McCoy or V846 pedals. This use of different transistors might have been influenced by availability, cost, or even experimentation to achieve a specific tonal quality.
Thomas Organ used a color coded system to identify their transistors. Thomas Organ offered the "green/yellow" dot transistor (2N3900A) as the recommended replacement in the factory service manual. I have also seen Clyde or V864 pedals with "red" or "orange" dot transistors (2N2923) or "yellow" dot transistors (2N2924). Some Clyde or V846 wahs came equipped with BC109 "metal can" transistors. Vox also installed IW 9801 or IW 9802 transistors from SCS, an Italian semiconductor manufacturer, in a number of Clyde McCoy and V846 pedals.
All of these transistors have a different hfe, or "small signal current gain" value. The greater the hfe value, the greater the maximum gain potential. The 2N2923 has a maximum hfe value of 180. The 2N2924 has a maximum hfe value of 300. The 2N3900A has a maximum hfe of 500 while the BC109 has a maximum hfe of 900. I was unable to determine the maximum hfe level for the SGS IW 9801 or IW 9802 transistors.
Due to its higher gain, many collectors prefer the performance of a vintage V846 wah powered by a pair of BC109 "metal can" transistors. This was the transistor chosen by Vox for the 2024 V864 Vintage Wah reissue.
Pricing The Vox V846 Vintage Wah retailed at $391.99 but was normally offered at a discount price of $279.99.
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