this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
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It still cracks me up that guitar people call filters "wah"
Wah is the movement of a narrow band pass filter in a rather limited range, often done using a somewhat expressive timing.
It's not normally used as a static filter.
You never used a half-cocked wah? That's a static filter
Complete layman already confused, what's the difference between a static and pass filter?
A dynamic filter will keep changing while a static filter stays at one cutoff frequency. Passive vs active filters are a different situation. Passive filters are just straight forward low/high/band pass filters that don't need a power supply. Active filters use transistors or op amps to boost or attenuate certain frequencies and do require a separate power supply.
So the tone knob on a guitar is a passive static filter. It can be adjusted, but usually it stays in one position once you get it in the right spot. The EQ on certain pedals are active static filters. Wah pedals are usually active dynamic filters, they're constantly changing while you play and also use powered circuitry to achieve the filtering effect.
An old technique is to set the wah pedal as "half cocked", where you set it to a specific spot that you like and then leave it there.