"Feelings of stagnancy can often lead to consumerism," a friend who knew what he was talking about once said.

So I picked up two of the DigiTech Synth Wah pedals, and that made me start thinking how much I never liked the Dunlop Crybaby wah pedal I had gotten in the late `80's. I had always wished I had gotten a Morley instead. (The Synth Wah is actually a envelope filter that "wahs" in reaction to how hard you strike the strings; a Morley wah is a traditional wah you rock back and forth with your foot.)

There in the display case of used pedals at Guitar Center was a Morley, Mark Tremonti signature series wah pedal for $50! That was a bargain considering I'm sure my parents paid $80 for that crappy Dunlop back in the `80's. Hmm...but was the Tremonti considered a good Morley model? I'd better read up before jumping in.

Once on the Internet, I found that the Bad Horsie 2, designed by Steve Vai, was the preferred wah from Morley over the Tremonti. If I ever saw a Bad Horsie 2 for a good price, that would be the one to get, but that would be unlikely.

Thursday finds me at the Guitar Center downtown dropping my Ibanez off to have the Seymour Duncan JB Trembucker pickup I just bought and Sperzel locking tuners installed. After I leave that with the tech, what do I see in the used display case but a Morley Bad Horsie 2 wah pedal for $70! I kinda wondered if $70 was a good price, though, because the Tremonti had only been $50. I took a look at what the Bad Horsie was selling for new, though, and it was $140! Can't do much better than 50% off. Asking for more than that would probably be pushing my luck. However I was already dropping some dough to get this pickup and tuners installed, so I didn't need to give Guitar Center any more of my money today. Maybe if it was still there when I came by to pick up the guitar next week.

However...there's a $140 pedal for just $70! Surely that would be snapped up in the next week. It was on my mind, so I drove all the way back down there Saturday and snagged it.

What's cool about this thing is that instead of having to stomp on a button to turn it on, it has a little optical eye that senses when your foot is in position. On the Dunlop sometimes the switch wouldn't mash down completely and instead of its shallow wah you got no sound at all. That's not a problem with the Bad Horsie 2, and it senses when your foot is off immediately and returns to your normal guitar sound. The other big bonus is that you can put it into a "power wah" mode where you can adjust how high the sweep of the wah goes, and it also has a volume in case you want your sound to go up a notch when the wah is on.

After I got it home I gave it the customary wipe-down with alcohol, and I noticed a couple of the stick-on rubber feet off the bottom are missing. Oh, well, I can get those at Home Depot.

So I'm pretty excited.

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Jennifer Daniels Finale

And the final pitiful chapter in the life of my Jennifer Daniels story is that I put it on my blog and it got zero comments.