15 Great Songs That Use the Wah-Wah Guitar Pedal & Its Funky, Fluid Feel

This week, the family of session musician and Gene Autry and Frank Sinatra collaborator Del Casher announced that he had died on Oct. 1 at the age of 88. But Casher was not just a musician who played on several records with iconic artists: he was also the inventor of the wah-wah pedal, one of the most significant technical innovations in electric guitar history.

The story goes that Cashel, who had created the pedal and its instantly-recognizable tone shifter, showed off the pedal to Frank Zappa during a jam session with the Mothers of Invention in 1966; Zappa subsequently gave one to Jimi Hendrix, who made it the centerpiece of his guitar virtuosity across his short but wildly influential career. And Hendrix was hardly alone. From the late 1960s onward, hundreds, if not thousands, of rock guitarists utilized the pedal, either to craft distinctive riffs or to enhance and distort their solos, creating some of the most iconic recordings in recorded music history along the way.

And lest anyone think the pedal’s use was limited to the classic rock set, it’s been used across a wide variety of different genres, from blues to funk to soul to heavy metal to hip-hop to hair metal to jam bands to grunge, and just about everything in between, with guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Eddie Hazel, Trey Anastasio, Jerry Cantrell, Kirk Hammett, Mike McCready and so many more all using it to twist and turn their tone around. (Famed Motown guitarist Melvin Ragin even earned the nickname “Wah Wah Watson” for — well, you can work that out.)

In honor of Cashel’s death and the impact his great invention had, here are 15 great songs that utilized the wah-wah pedal over the years.

• Jimi Hendrix, “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”

  Of all of Hendrix’s songs on which he used his wah, “Voodoo Child” is the most iconic, simply for the introduction — probably the single most high-profile use of the pedal in music history.

• Cream, “White Room”

  Shortly after Hendrix made his grand statement, Eric Clapton — still in his supergroup era before embarking on his solo career — fell in love with the pedal, using it on several classic tracks across Cream’s discography. None stands out as boldly as “White Room,” with its swaggering solo grandstanding its way towards the song’s fade-out finale.

• Led Zeppelin, “Dazed and Confused”

  The wah swept its way through all of that era’s iconic guitarists — but rather than use it to push his guitar sound to the absolute limit within his solos, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page took it to a creepy and haunting place. Page used its tone shimmering effect to create atmosphere on “Dazed and Confused” that almost sounded like a banshee wail at times. And this was separate from what he wound up getting into once he started messing around with theremins.

• Frank Zappa, “Willie the Pimp”

  Just over a minute into this snarling, driving track off 1969’s Hot Rats, Zappa starts to go off, leaning into the weird and wiggly side of what a wah can produce — and then he doesn’t really stop for the proceeding eight-plus minutes, exploring up and down his fretboard and stretching what started as a tight band turning the screws into a sprawling adventure that weaves in and out of coherence but manages to stay locked in with his rhythm section all the same. It’s an exercise in the pedal’s versatility, to some degree; to another degree, it’s a mad scientist at work with his tools, following wherever they take him.

• The Temptations, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”

  The wah sound here came from the aforementioned Wah Wah Watson, who joined the Motown house band the Funk Brothers in 1968 and brought his favored pedal into the legendary Detroit studio and onto its classic records. The Temptations track is defined by Watson’s slippery, almost juicy-wet wah chording, bringing the wah out of the realm of the solo and into the backbone of the song. 

• Marvin Gaye, “Let’s Get It On”

  Is there a more iconic opening triplet than the wah-wah’d notes that open this Marvin Gaye classic? The very thought of it turns the romance of a room right up, and even though the wah doesn’t play much of a further role in the song — Gaye’s voice, as well as the horn and rhythm sections, really take over — it’s a statement of an opening. Commonly thought to be another Wah Wah Watson lick — he did play on the track — some say it was actually played on the record by Don Peake, a Motown session man. It’s unclear who actually it is on the record itself.

• James Brown, “Funky President”

  There is so much about a wah pedal that informs various aspects of funk that it’s almost hard to keep track of it all — and you could argue that the wah here isn’t even the funkiest part of the song, or even the most essential piece of guitar work on it. (The metronomic rhythm guitar has as much to do with the feel.) But it’s another example of how it wormed its way into that particular art form given its wobbly affect — perfect for shaking the booty. Much like Curtis Mayfield’s “Freddie’s Dead,” the wah guitar is secondary here, though no less essential.

• Funkadelic, “Maggot Brain”

  Funkadelic is one of the great funk bands of all time, being, alongside its sister act Parliament, the brainchild of Dr. Funkenstein himself George Clinton. But this track, one of Funkadelic’s most enduring, isn’t much of a funk song at all. Instead, it’s a clear-out showcase for guitarist Eddie Hazel, who was told — while on acid in the studio, as the story goes — to imagine that his mother had died; the result is him using the wah pedal to almost literally make his guitar sound like it was weeping for the better part of 10 minutes, one of the most emotional uses of the pedal in history.

• Chicago, “25 or 6 to 4”

  Chicago is known for a lot of things, but this one is probably the band’s most famous song — and one of its most famous elements is the extended solo by lead guitarist Terry Kath, which starts off with a distorted rampage and then halfway through shifts into a wah-fevered whirling dervish as Kath climbs the fretboard. It stands out for its tone, and how much the pedal warps his guitar when he steps on it, showcasing clearly how its effect can border on the delirious.

• Isaac Hayes, “Theme From Shaft”

  Most might remember the shimmering keys or soaring strings being the standout from the “Shaft” theme song, but it’s the splashy wah that truly drives the song along in the undercurrent. It gave the groove that fluid feel that helped to define the track — and to propel it to No. 1 on the Hot 100, as well as to an Academy Award for best original song. That’d be the work of Charles “Skip” Pitts, who also worked with the Isley Brothers and as a Stax studio man, ultimately getting sampled left and right once hip-hop came along.

• Metallica, “Enter Sandman”

  There are several different iconic guitar tones on this Metallica classic — and this is far from the only one of their songs where Kirk Hammett uses it — but the wah, first in the background during the signature riff, then as the rocket fuel for Hammett’s solo, is the star of the show. It turns his notes into a primal shriek that is as effective as nightmare fuel as James Hetfield’s vocals or Lars Ulrich’s unforgiving drums.

• Guns N Roses, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”

  The riff that did more than anything else to turn Slash into a guitar god is a masterpiece in and of itself, and we mean to take nothing away from it. But his “Sweet Child O’ Mine” guitar solo is almost as famous, depending on who you talk to, and its sing-song lyrical quality comes not just through his flawless tone — a perfect meld of his hands and his Les Paul — but the wah on which he rocks when he kicks things into overdrove halfway through. It’s perfect Slash: always in control, yet seemingly always teetering on the edge of excess. Come to think of it, that encapsulates much of Guns N’ Roses’ first records, too. 

• Alice In Chains, “Man in the Box”

  The wah is often associated with funk, dance, wobble and overdriven solos — but Jerry Cantrell took it to another place entirely on Alice in Chains’ breakthrough hit “Man in the Box.” In his hands, it becomes a monster, distorting his guitar into a stomping, chomping machine with sinister intentions during the heavy riffing on the song’s verses, and then into cries of pain and agony on his subsequent solo. It’s a guitar sound that immediately contorts the face into a scowl, and the vocal-doubling effects he uses to echo Layne Staley’s voice gives it an extra heaviness that makes it extra evocative.

• Pearl Jam, “Go”

  It is funny to think that Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains are often grouped together, since outside of both being from Seattle the two bands ultimately had very little in common. But one thing that Alice guitarist Cantrell and PJ lead Mike McCready always shared was an enduring love for the wah pedal, and on this track, off Pearl Jam’s sophomore album Vs., is McCready at his most unhinged, using his wah pedal on a solo that goes beyond all concept of actual notes and pushes into almost pure emotion — like a runaway train, or a guttural scream in guitar form, elevating Eddie Vedder’s vocals into the stratosphere.

• Phish, “The Moma Dance” 

  Take your pick of Phish live, of course, because Trey Anastasio always brings out his wah pedal when it’s time to get into the funk no matter what actual song the band is playing — or indeed if they’re playing any recognizable song at all. But very few Phish songs are as defined by his staccato wah style as “The Moma Dance,” a fan favorite that often is used as the launchpad for a full-arena dance party, and that, of course, goes much harder in a live setting. Trey often uses his wah to enhance his solos — “Farmhouse” and “Ghost” are notable examples off the top — but “Moma” is one that is based upon this slippery groove that makes it impossible to stand still.